Blood-limit.
Chapter 1 (& 2) "A Stranger at the Gate"
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Step up to the challenge, let the sun shine through
the only thing I'm searching for, the answer is you.
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'Man this is boring.' Kotetsu said with a sigh.
Izumo shrugged, 'Yeah, well, guarding the gate beats guarding the prison. All things considered, boring's fine with me.'
'It's an attitude like that that's kept away any chance you've ever had at going Jounin.' Kotetsu muttered.
'Don't I know it.' Izumo said with a grin. 'What's your excuse, wonder boy?'
Kotetsu sent him an annoyed glair.
'Come on, with all the overtime and extra work that's always popping up, can't you just relax and enjoy a moment of peace when it's offered to you? Look at it as paid vacation – badly paid vacation, but still…' Izumo said jokingly.
'Oh, har, har, har…' Kotetsu muttered. 'Look, I just want some action in my life, I can't stand boredom.'
'I'll ask Hokage-sama to send you on a solo mission to sound.' Izumo said with a mock-straight face.
'I said "action", not "mortal peril"! I hate the dead period of the day, if only the midday-buzz would – ' Kotetsu never finished his sentence.
The sound of something working its way out of the forest that surrounded Konohagakure – and by the sound of it, was heading for the gate or at lest the road out side of it – snapped the two Chuunins to attention.
'The hell?!' Kotetsu hissed, all his senses working overtime trying to track down the source of the disturbance. 'What the fuck is it?'
No animal would make so much noise unless there was something seriously wrong with it. Civilians and friendly shinobi alike had enough common sense, not to mention courtesy, to arrive through the main gate, using the main road. For someone to un-announced pop-up outside a shinobi village was idiotic and bordering on suicidal, if not a direct declaration of war.
'I don't know.' Izumo gritted out, trying to focus his chakra and scanning the aria.
'What? How can you not know?'
'Don't lash out on me just because you're scared!' Izumo snapped back. 'There's nothing bigger than squirrels for miles around! That thing – whatever it is – does not possess any chakra!'
'How can that be?' Kotetsu asked. 'It's hardly a stone rolling down a hill! All living things contain chakra!'
'Yeah? Well you can tell it that when it gets here.' Izumo bit out.
There was a tense silence between them. The noise was closer now. The Chuunins estimated that 'it' would come in to view any minute now.
'You know… Those stories…' Kotetsu said. 'That our mothers used to tell us… about the forest being haunted by the ghost of children who got lost in it…'
'Yeah?'
'Those were just stories, right?'
'I think,' Izumo answered. 'We might be about to find out for ourselves.'
'I knew you'd say that…'
And out of the forest, pressing it's way through the thick bushes, and stumbling out on to the road in front of the gate… was a little girl. Of course she wasn't really that little, if they'd had to guess, Izumo and Kotetsu would probably say she looked between 17 to 20 years old. But at the moment they were so surprised that their jaws were practically dangling just above the ground. Kotetsu was the first one to pull himself together.
'This has to be the most anti-climatic moment of my life.'
'It doesn't appear hostile – you think we should investigate or contact the Hokage at once?'
'Huh?' Kotetsu said. 'The Hokage? Are you mad?! She'd skin us alive if we disturbed her over something this trivial!'
Izumo frowned. 'Maybe if it's trivial – but what if it's not?'
'Oh man,' Kotetsu sighed running his fingers through his hair in an exacerbated manner. 'You think that's –' he waved a hand in the direction of the young woman who was sitting on the road with a bit of a dazed expression on her face, looking at the sun in the sky like she didn't know what it was '- something dangerous?'
'The concept of "underneath the underneath" is completely lost on you, isn't it?'
'What underneath? She's just some woman who doesn't even possess Chakra! I mean look at her!'
In truth she was a pity full sight to behold. She was dirty, her hair was a mess with twigs tangled into it to make matters worse. Numerous small cuts could be seen on her from thorns and other sharp objects. She sat shivering in the soft breeze, looking frozen, her lips almost blue in colour. The only thing she seemed to wear was a light robe-dress looking material that appeared to be several seizes too big. And it looked like it was in an even sorrier state than its current owner. From the way her eyes seemed to drift around, yet never appeared to focus, she was half-blind too.
'…' Izumo couldn't really understand why the girl seemed to unsettle him so much. '… It can be a Genjutsu.'
'Without Chakra?' Kotetsu almost mock-asked.
'If it is Genjutsu, you moron, it is making you believe there's a girl with no Chakra. If so we really should contact the Hokage.'
'All right, riddle me this, genius, if we're trapped in a Genjutsu – how are we supposed to contact Godaime? But we both know that's a stupid question because we both know how to settle this.'
At the same time they both formed the proper seal and muttered 'Kai'.
Nothing happened. Kotetsu raised an eyebrow and gave Izumo a Look.
'…'
'Oh, all right.' Izumo sighed. 'You win. You're right, I'm wrong, yada, yada, yada – all that crap – What? You want my first born too?'
'Naw,' Kotetsu said with a grin. 'It's fine,'
Izumo gave a tired sigh. 'Sometimes I wonder why I put up with you.'
'My charming good looks?' Kotetsu said with a grin.
Izumo snorted and then gave a short laugh. 'Hardly. Although it'd be nice if you could voice your thoughts on what you think or next plan of action should be.'
'"Plan of action"? About what?'
'The girl you retard. Even if she is harmless and not part of some trap, don't you think we should investigate or at least report her or something?'
'Asshole.' Kotetsu muttered and then said; 'She's just some civilian, why do you make such a fuss over her? You know that Hokage-sama's going to send us back to the academy or something if we bother her with something like that!'
'…' Izumo gave his friend a look like he thought he was unusually dens today, witch happened too be true. 'And the fact that there are living beings – people! – out there who doesn't have any Chakra isn't the kind of information you want to bring fourth?'
Kotetsu looked slightly troubled.
'Not to mention the security risk! We couldn't sense her – witch makes me wonder how she'd look in the Byakuga – she's more or less un-detectable! Imagine that in the hands of an enemy!'
Kotetsu frowned. 'Look, I'm not stupid. I know you got some really good points there, but I still don't know why you're so bent out of shape over some girl. She seams nothing but harmless too me. And if it wasn't for the fact that we're on the brink of war and the entire village is barely managing it as it is, I probably wouldn't argue with you. But as things are now, the last thing we need is more work! But I'll offer you an compromise; since or duty is to guard the gate - if she comes here we'll investigate her further and if she go her own merry way we'll just put her in or report.'
'And let chance decide, huh?' Izumo said with a sigh. 'All right, sounds fair to me. Besides, I know you're not stupid, as for that girl… I don't really know why she unsettles me so much, or rather, it's not really her, but it's as if she's surrounded in a foul smell or something…' Izumo scratched his neck. 'It's hard to explain, but it makes the hairs on my neck stand on edge, and I don't like it.'
'…' Kotetsu refrained from saying anything.
Kotetsu and Izumo had known each other for what felt like forever. They grew up together, they graduated together and they worked together. Some people said that they did everything together, though most of the time it was said as a joke... And even if Kotetsu and Izumo sometimes acted like an old married couple the fact remained that while they by themselves ranked only as Chuunin, together they rose to a rank way beyond Jounin easily. That was why they often got to do Jounin-class work or, as they preferred to call it, "work that need Jounin-like skills but they can't waste an actual Jounin on it".
'Oi, I think she's spotted us.' Izumo said as the woman for the first time looked at their direction.
'The gate more likely.' Kotetsu said looking at the woman's dazed expression.
Izumo snorted. 'Now who's a smart ass?'
The young woman slowly got up on her legs again. Although "got up" was a rather graceful way to describe it, it looked more like a newborn foal trying to get up on its legs for the first time. At one point she almost stumbled of the road and into the forest on the other side.
Once she finely managed to wobble her way up to the great entrance she stopped and squinted at the large letters written on it, as if attempting to read what it said. When Izumo got a better look at the stranger he immediately noticed that her cheeks looked slightly rosy while the rest of her skin looked either blue or almost greyish in colour. And there was no mistaking the slightly glassy look in her eyes.
'Fuck,' Kotetsu swore. 'She's sick.'
The woman twitched and for the first time seamed to notice that she wasn't alone. Izumo and Kotetsu both turned slightly pink. Gate duty wasn't just guarding the gate, it also contained the job of greeting the fellow shinobi that came back from missions and being the first impression for the visitors that came to the city every day. They didn't want to insult some unknown guest – the last thing they needed was some pissed-off Lord who demanded retribution because his daughter or wife had gotten a rude greeting entering the village. Besides they always tried to be extra nice to women – if it was the influence of their mothers or because they grew up in what was sometimes referred as "the Anko-generation", no-one really knew.
'Ah, good morn- day!' Kotetsu said in an almost overly-friendly way, trying to make up for their lack of manners earlier. 'Welcome to Konohagakure! Forgive or rudeness, will this be your first visit to Konoha? May I ask what business brings you here? Perhaps we could help you – to make up for or lack of manners…'
Although their behaviour wasn't that unusual from a shinobi point of view, in "normal life" it was most unwelcome and generally referred as "shinobi-syndrome". It usually happened when a person had worked too much, usually on Jounin level or higher, and couldn't start functioning normally again. They saw and regarded normal life as a mission, the brain was in other words working as if the shinobi was threatened, only seeing where you could easiest take down people you met, all and any environment was only viewed as a battleground and all things that could work in favour or against you was calmly registered in your mind. Life around you had turned in to little more than a game – where you, and all those around you, were little more than game-pieces that was to move strategically and get taken out if it were a threat. Life and emotions more or less disappeared and lost its meaning. It was something all, or at least most, shinobi were well aware of - although civilians tended to be slightly less understanding about it. Kotetsu prayed to whatever Gods that were listening that the girl hadn't heard the way they had been talking about her earlier. The woman blinked and swayed dangerously.
'Ko-no…ha?'
Kotetsu stopped dead in his tracks, he'd just gone around the greeting table and was about to approach the woman since she looked like she was about to faint. He gave the woman a surprised look, she spoken the word like she barely heard of it before and not only that, she had a funny way of pronouncing the words. She must be a foreigner, Kotetsu thought, throwing a look over his shoulder at Izumo who were right behind him. Izumo just raised an eyebrow that seamed to say; Hey, don't look at me, I don't know anymore than you do.
'Hai, you're in Konoha, er… Do you understand what I'm saying?' Kotetsu said slowly. It almost sounded like he was speaking to someone retarded, but it couldn't be helped, and he'd almost subconsciously raised his guard again.
'Konoha,' the girl murmured, she gave Kotetsu a weary look and shook her head slowly. 'Gomen, jag förstår inte vad du säger…(I don't understand what you're saying)'
Kotetsu blinked. 'Well I, uh, guess that answer my question?'
Izumo was just about to say something when the woman started to speak again.
'G-gomen, om– omae?' she sounded unsure and she pointed at Kotetsu, Kotetsu only blinked in surprise. 'O-omae?' she pointed to herself, looking confused and unsure about what she was doing. She didn't seem to have the basest knowledge of the language. 'Gomen, omae –' once again she pointed towards Kotetsu '- Cookieshi?'
Kotetsu looked like he'd just been hit by lightning. His mind promptly short-circuited and stopped all activity beyond the basic shouting of What. The. Fuck?!
'Iie?' the woman asked, looking every bit like a kicked puppy. 'G-gomen… Omae nani Cookieshi?'
'Ko-ki-chi?' Kotetsu tried to repeat the weird word; he had no idea what she meant.
'Cookieshi?' She grabbed her head, in pain or distress – or maybe both. 'Argh! I don't know! Cookieshi! Cookieshi-san!'
She sounded desperate, but that wasn't what caught Kotetsu's attention. 'San? Wait – that's a person? She's looking for someone?'
'Seems like it.' Izumo murmured, not taking his eye of the strange woman.
In the meantime the woman had dejectedly sunk down on the ground. Apparently, finding whoever it was that she was asking for had been the only thing that drove her forward. Izumo and Kotetsu stood there a moment, looking at each other in a now-what?-manner.
'Ohayo, Izumo-kun, Kotetsu-kun! Or should it be good day?'
Both Chuunin immediately snapped to attention and faced the newcomer. They were greeted by the smiling, slightly embarrassed face of a fellow Chuunin they knew well.
'I'm sorry, did I startle you?' Iruka scratched his scar like he always did when he felt slightly awkward. 'Although… I must say, it's a fine job you are doing of guarding the gate – what if I was a fiend of the village? I could just have waltzed in and you'd never been the wiser.'
Izumo grinned towards the academy teacher. Kotetsu snorted and put a friendly arm on Izumos' shoulder so that he could lean slightly on to his friend. 'Iruka, 15 years ago you were a fiend of the village.'
Iruka laughed and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. 'Yes, well, don't let my students know that, ok? I'd never be allowed to live that down – and neither would you.' He added with a mischievous grin.
'Hey, don't hurt us!' Kotetsu said, both he and Izumo raised their hands in a fake surrender. 'We're not stupid – all these people who thinks that you've changed… We still know that underneath that smiling, friendly, slightly awkward face hides the same little devil we grew up with.'
'Yeah, hell Iruka,' Izumo said with a bit of a nostalgic grin. 'During your havoc years you could even shake ANBU of your tail.'
'Man, I bet you can still give them a run for their money. I even heard rumors that you managed to pull something on the 3rd once.' Kotetsu said mischievously.
Iruka was blushing and laughed awkwardly. 'Ah-ha-ha, birds of a feather, I'm afraid.'
'Bullshit,' Izumo said with a crocked smile. 'We all know we could go Jounin if we only wanted, but when the work has been done, and the whining stops, we just realize that we're pretty darn happy right were we are.'
Iruka laughed. 'That's true, I suppose.'
'What do you mean; "suppose"?' Kotetsu asked raising an eyebrow.
Iruka's smile grew softer, wider and warmer. 'God, I miss you sometimes. You're always away somewhere – guarding, hunting, or whatever it is you get to do all day long. I hardly ever see you in the mission room… and it's not like either of you have kids at the academy – and don't you dare reproduce.' Iruka mock-growled and playfully shock his fist in the two laughing shinobi's faces.
'Ah, I have yet to find someone I want to settle down with.' A grinning Kotetsu said as soon as he'd calmed down enough to speak.
'Don't you mean it the other way around?' Izumo said with a smirk.
Kotetsu shot him a sour look. 'Way to go and hurt another guys' feelings.'
Izumo didn't say anything; he just flashed a disarming grin towards his friend.
'By the way, Iruka, any luck getting a girl?'
Iruka turned slightly pink. 'Ah – well I'm afraid I'm inexcusably married to my job.'
'Oh?' Kotetsu mock-asked. 'Which one?'
'Yeah, man,' Izumo laughed. 'What's up whit all the extra work? Damn, Godaime's cold, it's not enough you work all day at the academy and all evening at the mission room – she's sending you out on actual missions now too?'
'Hey!' Iruka objected. 'It's not like I never go on missions! I'm a ninja of this village too - besides, I asked to do this mission myself.'
'Figures,' Izumo said with a fond smile. 'You always were a work-a-holic busy-bee.'
'Am not!' Iruka objected, turning bright red.
'Yes you are!' Kotetsu said gleefully. 'And you're making all the rest of us look bad, too!'
Iruka fumed silently, although he couldn't keep the smile completely of his face, and glared at his two friends. 'It was simply a mission of going to the next town! Hardly worth a D-rank - a civilian could have done it! The only skills needed for it was to be able to walk and talk with people! I hardly consider it work, the slight change of scenery was only nice.'
'Yeah, you're good with people.' Kotetsu said slowly, suddenly looking at the teacher like he'd never seen him before. 'Mind helping us out a bit?'
Iruka blinked in surprise over the sudden change in his friend. 'If I can, sure, what is it?'
Kotetsu didn't reply just shot a look over his shoulder. Iruka stretched a bit, trying to spot whatever it was that they wanted help with.
'Oh!' Iruka was taken by surprise the sight of a person lying crumpled on the ground behind his friends. 'God's, I didn't see her! She's been there the whole time?!'
'Yeah,' Kotetsu said. 'But I bet you can't sense her either.'
Iruka gave his friend a confused look. 'What the hell are you on about? She might need urgent medical attention right now!'
'What we're trying to say is that this girl - she got no chakra, at all.'
Iruka who had hunched down to check on the girl froze with one hand on her trembling shoulder. Izumo and Kotetsu didn't see what Iruka's face looked like but they could guess. The silence stretched on.
'That's not possible.' Iruka finely said in a small voice. 'Who - how…?'
'That's what we'd like to know.' Izumo said.
'Yeah,' Kotetsu continued. 'The thing is, she's a foreigner.'
Iruka shot them a questioning glance.
'She doesn't seem to know even the basics of speech.' Izumo explained. 'All we know is that she came through the woods and that she appears to be looking for someone, and…' Izumo hesitated a bit. 'Look - this may just be stupid, but when she first appeared, she made me very uneasy. I even thought she was some sort of Genjutsu, but Kotetsu was completely unruffled by her – she really don't appear anything other than a non-threatening civilian. But I still can't completely shake this unease away, I mean, you'd think she was an S-class criminal and not some run-down girl! Like I said before – this could be stupid – but whether she's a threat or not, something about her just seems… off.'
Kotetsu glanced at Izumo looking introspective but he kept silent and let his teammate talk.
'It's not like we can just leave her somewhere if she happened to actually be a threat, and I'm pretty sure or heads would roll if we left an innocent person to be interrogated. Not to mention the little fact that she don't appear to know the language, in which case she can't be interrogated. And all the political difficulties this could cause... Like Kotetsu said, you're good with people, if she's with you she's safe and if she would turn out to be an enemy she's held away from any useful information she could take – I mean, what she gonna do, steal your lesson plans?' Iruka snorted – clearly not amused. 'Besides, your people skills are really good, both at making people feel at ease and reading them, and you can take care of yourself if something was to happen.'
'Of course...' Iruka said. 'How long do you want me to look after her?'
'That's another thing – we don't really know yet.' Kotetsu sighed. 'Any time after two o'clock come sunset… But we'll try and get to talk to Godaime as soon as possible, hopefully you'll hear from us before it gets dark and we'll work it from there.'
'That's okay,' Iruka said with a friendly smile that quickly turned in to concern once he turned his full attention back to the girl on the ground. 'Although… if she is here on ill intent I doubt she'll be able to cause us any harm in this state, right now, anyway. Still, I'll take care of her as much as I can - maybe she won't have to go to the hospital, God knows they're overcrowded as it is.'
'Thanks, we owe you one.' Kotetsu said whit a relieved smile.
'Yeah, yeah,' Iruka said dismissing the matter. 'Just by me a drink when all this is over or something.'
'We'll by you a bar.' Izumo put in with a grin. 'You're a life saver.'
Iruka laughed softly and crouched down on the ground so he could get a better look at the girl. She appeared to be almost… asleep. Dazed. He carefully got her up in to something similar to a sitting position – and kept her that way with the help of his left hand that was carefully grasping her right shoulder. Her eyes were half-closed and looked cloudy; he didn't see any sign of presence in them.
'I'm sorry, miss? Can you hear me?' Iruka studied her face closely, looking for signs that she was in any way aware of the out side world. Iruka had just resigned himself to be forced to take her to the hospital anyway when something happen; something in her eyes changed. Iruka had a split-second feeling of floating mid-space and there were a quick sensation of déjà vu and then it went away. Iruka shrugged it of, but he couldn't quite shake the feeling that he'd somehow ended up taking on more than he'd bargained for.
Iruka fond himself looking into a pair of vide, startled eyes. There wasn't anything remarkable about her eyes, they weren't even in a pretty color or anything – they had a somewhat plain blue/gray color that made you associate with the aftermath of a storm. Still, there were something about them; Iruka just couldn't say what yet. Iruka leaned forward so that their faces came almost close enough to touch. His movement seamed to snap whatever spell she was under, because her eyes became wider still and she flinched slightly. Blushing deeply she quickly averted her eyes and mumbled something that sounded like "gomen-nasai" towards her right foot.
Iruka blinked a bit in surprise. If his eyes weren't mistaken, the woman's eyes had some yellow in them – although it was really hard to see unless you were really close. It intrigued him, most unusual eye-colors walked hand-in-hand with blodlimits – but with this girl that couldn't be the case… Maybe it could be some sort of clue of where she was from…? Trying his best to analyze the information he had on her, which would be next to non-existing, Iruka tried to work out how to best deal with the girl.
It wasn't rare to have little info in the missions of a capable shinobi, still, Iruka preferred when he felt like he knew what he was dealing with. And at the moment he didn't know where she was from, why she was here or what she wanted – although Kotetsu and Izumo had said something about her looking for someone… Could she be dangerous? Iruka didn't really pick up on any ill-intensions, but then again, that didn't necessarily mean anything.
While Iruka sat estimating the stranger, the girl appeared to pull herself together. Fidgeting slightly the girl hesitantly asked Iruka; 'Gomen – O-omae Cookie-shi?'
Iruka blinked, taken aback by the girls odd speech. He sent a quick glance towards his old friends – they'd returned to their post by the gate – but the only answer he got was a raised eyebrow. Sighing slightly in defeat, Iruka started to have an inkling about what a pain this was going to be. Izumo and Kotetsu were sending him hesitant looks every now and then and Izumo even mouthed "You OK?" which Iruka waved his hand dismissingly at.
"Hai, hai," Iruka said in a slightly resigned tone of voice. "We're leaving. I better take her to my apartment and se if I can get her back together."
And with that he helped the girl up on her feet.
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This chapter is soooo long, I'm making it 2 chapters in one… I just COULD NOT post a chapter without even introducing Iruka. And try being nice to Kotetsu and Izumo, I like them, I really do, the reason they are behaving like idiots are because they're over-worked. They've spent all night working the nightshift at the prison and when their shift ended, instead of being allowed to go home and sleep, they got to go and guard the gate. Surprise! 15 hours workday:D (and it's not over yet…) It will become clearer in a couple of chapters from here, just thought I'd let you know in advance.
Lol, I've probably read – and re-read – this chapter a 100 times ( - not funny). So I hope it's good now… -.-'
Some Jap/Eng explanations;
Hai – yes
Gomen – sorry
Omae – you (male)
Iie – no
Nani? – what?
-san -- Mr. / Miss / Mrs.
Ohayo (or "ohayou") – good morning
Gomennasai – sorry
My Japanese reference is from browsing around on the net, mostly from this page though - http // Japanese . about . com /
