Woot! Woot! Chapter 2!
Thanks all who've reviewed and especially whoever followed (I feel so special now pushing up cheeks, making them go all chubby)! Please feel free to review and comment! Also if anybody was wondering, the Japanese at the start of the previous chapter is what I think Mizune's name is when written in Japanese. Don't hold me to that!
Chapter 2 – A friendship formed in blood and oaths
As Gaara stood at the place where his uncle had tried to murder him, Mizune sat on the edge and started swinging her legs.
"It's nice up here." She commented. "I bet up here you could see some pretty amazing stars on a clear night." Gaara came and sat next to her. She didn't flinch away.
"Mizune." He said quietly. He liked the way his voice pronounced her name. She looked at him.
"Yes, Gaara?"
"Do you know . . . what a Tailed Beast is?" Mizune's face darkened and she turned up to face the sky.
"Yeah, I read about them. According to folklore and history books, there are nine-tailed beats, massive behemoths of power. Nearly all the hidden villages have one or two in their possession, and they guard their power jealously." Gaara looked at his feet.
"I'm not so sure about that."
"Why not?" He didn't reply. After a while she looked away.
"It just makes me so angry." She spat out for no reason. Gaara looked at her.
"What does?"
"What the village's do with their precious beasts. They seal them inside people, giving those people a hell to live with their entire life. And then, if that person isn't a star citizen, he or she gets rejected." She spat on the ground in disgust. "So much hate being placed in the world. It makes me sick."
Gaara face saddened. "Yeah, I've definitely been rejected." Mizune eyes snapped open and she whipped around to stare at Gaara.
"Wait, you mean . . . you're a . . .?"
"Yeah," Gaara murmured. "I really am a monster."
He wouldn't meet her face, so he jumped when her hand appeared on his shoulder. He looked up at her. She was holding a knife. It was the one the ninja had thrown into her stomach. The look in her eyes was the softest he had ever seen on a person's face.
"Gaara, do you know what a blood oath is?"
"I don't bleed."
"But I do." His eyes widened as she sliced open her left palm. Letting the knife drop, she held out her hand to Gaara.
"Friends?" He grasped her hand. It was warm and slick with blood. Her blood.
"Friends."
And the oath was forged in blood.
~()~
As Temari and Kankuro got home with their father, they noticed he was acting weird. After a quick silent argument (Temari won because she was better at giving evil looks), Kankuro tentatively approached him.
"Um, father?" He began. The Kazekage looked at his eldest son and middle child.
"Why did we just evacuate the village?"
"There was a . . . problem."
"An other problem . . . or a Gaara problem?"
Before the Kazekage could reply, there was a knock on the door. The family looked up in confusion. Who could be knocking at this hour? All the villagers had re-entered the village after dark had fallen. The whole place had been intact (luckily). The Kazekage jutted to the door with his chin and Temari hurried over to open it. She was rewarded with stormy grey eyes, wild blonde hair and some very broad shoulders. Mizune flicked a strand of hair out of her eyes.
"Finally. Do you know how long the two of us have been door knocking trying to find somebody? If you evacuated the village, you could at least have left someone to tell you when you could return. We've been waiting ages!" Temari stared at her in astonishment.
Her father appeared at her left shoulder. "Child, do you know which home you have just come to?"
"Of course I do! And you really shouldn't leave your kids alone otherwise they miss the evacuation, mister."
"I didn't leave any of my children."
"If you didn't then what does your son count as? A pet?"
The Kazekage was starting to get confused. "Kankuro is right here."
"Yuh-huh, I can see that. I'm talking about your other son."
And then Temari took a rapid step back because walking out of the shadows was none other then Gaara. He didn't talk, only stared at his family with pure loathing. Temari blinked in amazement, feeling all the feeling in her legs vanish and gulped as Mizune draped her arms over Gaara's neck, expecting him to lash out. He didn't flinch away.
"I was just taking a little stroll when I found him all on his lonesome. And then, the funniest thing happened. This man all dressed up came and attacked us. Then we kicked butt. And isn't it such a coincidence that it happened on the same day and at the same time as this evacuation?"
The Kazekage wet his mouth. It had gone dry. "Yeah . . .coincidence."
Mizune grinned impishly at him. "Anyway, Gaara said you can see the stars clearly on the roof so I came to his house with him." They turned to go up the stairs when Mizune turned and held up a kunai. Its blade was coated in blood.
"You don't mind me having this, do you? I found it on the guy who tried to kill Gaara. I took my fancy so I brought it with me." The Kazekage felt his stomach go cold. There was no mistaking the design. It belonged to the assassin he had sent to kill his child. But before he could speak up, Gaara yanked her upstairs and the two disappeared. The Kazekage chewed his lip.
"How interesting." He mused, quietly.
"Who is she, father?" Kankuro whispered, astounded that someone could act so casually and fearlessly around the monster.
"I believe she might be Gaara's new friend."
~()~
"Unbelievable!" a jonin huffed. "To think that the failed project has made a friend! I thought that all the adults knew to warn away the kids."
The Kazekage stood up and slid a group of reports into the centre of the table.
"Mizune Inuwaki, orphan, both parents dying in a mission."
Baki leaned in. "Inuwaki, you say? Weren't they the covert specialists of Suna?"
The Kazekage nodded. "Their particle manipulation techniques allowed them to be the perfect spies. They died on a classified mission saving the rest of their squad."
"How old was the girl when it happened?"
"Five." Another Jonin consulted the notes. "A total memory wipe was it?"
~()~
"Total memory loss?" Gaara asked sceptically. "That seems sort of unlikely."
"Yeah, it does, but I don't see any other reason why I can't remember any details of my parents. The only thing I can recall is that they loved me, and as I get older, even that memory will fade until the only proof I have are my words." Her shoulders drooped sadly. Gaara's expression mirrored her.
"I wish I could forget my family." He said sadly. She flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder.
"Don't say that. Having no memories, it's difficult to deal with."
Gaara stared at his house. "My family hate me. That's difficult to deal with."
Mizune picked dirt out from under her fingers using the knife. She was growing fond of it. "I suppose. But at least you know. I can't remember anything. Maybe I look like them, maybe I act like them, but I just don't know." She shrugged helplessly. Then a lightning bolt flashed in her eyes and they cleared.
"Enough of that. You seem to be really strong when you versed the assassin guy, but before you seemed to be struggling."
"I was. When he attacked, I rely on my anger and Shukaku's power fuelling me. Without that, it feels like trying to lift a million tonnes." Mizune grinned at him.
"So you do have a sense of drama. But it's not really heavy, you're just inexperienced. Like how I could only travel a metre but now I can do three or four and control the level I appear at. But apparently the max you can reach is 8km. I think I got the ability from my parents."
"Like a Bloodline Limit?"
"Nah. I can't find any records for it being seen before. I'm reasoning that they must have developed the techniques themselves and then taught them to me when I was small. Only, I can't remember them spending time teaching me but I remember how to do the techniques." She shook her head to clear it "But we were talking about your abilities, not mine." She stretched out her hand. "You going to try it?"
Gaara thought. "I'll try it." And they shook on it.