Disclaimer: I don't own the Naruto series or its characters. I do, however, have a few original characters of my own in this one.
A/N: So.. Here is the second chapter!..
I hope I'm not the only one out there who thinks a wing kekkei genkai would be a good idea, otherwise I'm gonna get a looot of hate for this. But just in case I'm not... Enjoy! :3
Edit note: So I've left the old author's notes unedited for the posterity of it, but… It's cringeworthy. I am ashamed of my younger self. You rarely see people in fanfiction who feel the need to apologise for their own decisions like this. In any case, on with the chapter.
When Kushina awoke again, she didn't recognize her surroundings. The flora, the trees... She had never seen any of it before and had no idea where she had ended up. The flowers were a radiant purple, and the silver trees with red leaves made the forest look like it was on fire. The air was cold, compared to Fire country. Yep, this was definitely not Fire country. Blinking a few times, she realized that this was not her eyes. The realization briefly stunned her, as she remembered that this was not her old body. In fact, it was an entirely new one.
She looked around and found herself in a clearing of the red-leaved trees, with a pond of sorts to her right. The earth immediately around her was scorched with the last flickers of living flame, that had been arranged into intricate seal lines at some point but were now indecipherable. She looked down at her unnaturally pale arms, and tried to get up on her legs, but the unfamiliar size and proportions of her entire body, in addition to muscles that had never been used before, made it difficult to stand up, so she ended up simply crawling to the pond. She looked down at the still water, which made for a slightly ineffective mirror, in shock.
The person staring back at her was a complete stranger. She had black hair, slightly longer than shoulder-length, and radiant green eyes. She was a lot younger than Kushina had been - probably somewhere around 10, as she obviously hadn't reached puberty yet... Kushina wondered who decided to put her in a body like this, but decided that it could've been a lot worse. She was slim and probably underweight, and wore primitive leather clothing bound around her like a tunic of sorts, as well as trousers made of the same material. It wasn't exactly the average civilian's clothing, but it didn't feel like shinobi gear either. It was made with preventing movement restriction in mind, but it didn't have any sort of protection, in the form of mesh or metal or anything tough, to prevent damage from attacks.
Something that completely flabbergasted her, was the weight of something foreign on her back. Glancing behind her, she found two large black-feathered wings attached to her back. She blinked twice at the uncommon sight. They weren't entirely like bird's wings, though - the feathers seemed sharp, like knives. She tried to move her right wing slightly but found it very difficult, since the muscles in her wings (like everywhere else) hadn't been used yet and were something akin to atrophied.
After the shock of the discovery had passed, she found herself cursing her weakness. How could she help anyone in her current state? She needed to train and relearn everything she had ever known - and preferably quickly. 'It's not like anyone else are going to walk up to one of the Sannin and punch him in the face...' she thought with a mental pout. But relearning how to coordinate an entire body, of a size different than her old one, with the finesse a ninja needed to have, would be anything but an easy task. It was a mild comfort that she could still take advantage of her knowledge of seals, jutsu and chakra.
A sound in the edge of the clearing startled the reborn Kushina, and she tensed visibly, looking at the strangers with slight panic. She was not prepared to handle any kind of attack in her current state. The two "intruders" turned out to be two men wearing the same kind of leather clothing as her, one of them in his thirties, and the other having a vague resemblance to the first - probably his son. They both had (relatively) longish brown hair, and one of them had his slightly-longer-than-average hair set up in a pony-tail. They both looked at her in confusion, probably wondering why there was a small girl there in the middle of nowhere.
"Uhm..." the younger one approached with uncertain steps. "Who are you?"
Kushina was just about to reply "U.." when she felt like she was choking on her own words. A minor coughing fit later, and the two men startled frozen in place by the sudden outburst, she remembered the words of Mito. ''You will be unable to tell anyone who you were'... I need to come up with an alias… Surely, I can still use my first name? Many people are named Kushina,' she thought, and desperately tried to come up with something. When the two grew visibly impatient and were just about to say something, Kushina exclaimed "Kaiya! Kaiya Kushina."
The name "Kaiya" in itself had been mostly automatic in its appearance. But as soon as the word had left her mouth, Kushina realised with a start that it was the name of a valley of flowers in the land of waterfalls, her and Minato had once visited together. The memory caused a sudden, unwanted pool of emotions to well up inside her, and she had to fight to hold back the wetness that threatened to leave her eyes.
"Very well, uhh... Kaiya-san." the older one said. "Now, I don't remember seeing you around before, but you should probably get back to the village. The elders didn't make a curfew for nothing. These woods can be dangerous at night." he continued with a worried tone. 'Village?' Kushina thought. It also briefly crossed her mind that they didn't mention the fact that she had two very large wings on her back.
Just as she tried push herself up, she fell down on her knees again. She breathed heavily, even though she had barely moved a few meters since she woke up, but clearly she would have to take this slowly. She glanced up at the older one with a pleading look in her eyes, and he sighed resignedly, walking over to pick her up.
'I guess this is allowed since I'm "technically" somewhere around the age of 10,' Kushina smirked to herself, before climbing onto the back of the stranger with the brown hair. Her wings hung limply down her sides since she couldn't muster the strength to keep them folded in place. With the constant rhythm of footsteps on the soft forest ground, she was quickly lulled to sleep. It had been a long and strange day.
When Kushina opened her eyes again, she was surprised to feel a kind of primitive mattress underneath her, and a blanket on top of her. She vaguely remembered falling asleep and wondered if she was now in the village the man had mentioned. Above her were the planks of a wooden roof, and the living light of flames, originating from somewhere in the room, was dancing on the ceiling. Several large skins and skulls lined the walls, serving as shields against the cold, and racks for clothes and the likes.
"She's awake!" Kushina heard someone whisper in the background. She tried to turn her head but found herself limp and weak. It was really annoying, not being able to do anything. She tried saying something, but any attempt to do so only came out as an intelligible croak. She moved her eyes to her right, barely getting a glance of the shape of a person nearing her.
The person cleared her throat before speaking up. "How are you feeling?" she asked in a gentle tone. Kushina guessed that this was probably her current caretaker, though her current location didn't seem like a hospital at all. Kushina finally managed to force understandable words out of her throat. "W-weak.." she croaked.
"Well, to be honest.." the woman (because the gentle voiced was definitely that of a female) replied. "It's impressive you have been able to survive at all. I looked through the village records, and even though you are definitely one of the Tsubasajin bloodline, you are not listed there, which is very... Curious to say the least. We didn't think there were anyone with our kekkei genkai outside the village." she explained to the, now, black-haired kunoichi. "Not only that, your muscles are atrophied beyond use, and you're barely able to move…" she continued murmuring, but Kushina had stopped paying attention.
'So that's what the wings are? A bloodline? How come we've never heard of this one in Konoha, dattebane?!'
Even though Kushina didn't reply, the woman continued. "Now... Would you mind telling us a bit about yourself? We're very curious." she said in a somewhat intimidating voice. Clearly 'no' wasn't an answer. "I.." Kushina started, before hesitating. What was she going to say? She couldn't physically say anything about her previous life, and she couldn't explain how she had ended in the middle of the strange forest. 'I guess I'll just use the 'easy' solution.'
"I don't remember." Kushina replied, using everything she had learned in her previous life to create a mask of innocence. If she had not had memories of a previous life, it would have been entirely true. The woman - with light grey hair and blue eyes, Kushina noted - was looking suspiciously at her, but decided to take the answer even if she didn't entirely trust it. The woman knew the unknown girl could very well be acting, but her expression just looked too genuine for her to be lying.
"Alright. Now, rest. I will find out what the council will want to do with you." the woman told Kushina who inwardly winced. Anything involving a council was rarely good, as a council was almost always filled with old selfish people. At least according to Kushina. As soon as the woman was out the door, leaving the room otherwise empty, the Kyūbi decided to speak up.
"What foul magic is this?" the Kyūbi grumbled, seemingly unsatisfied at their current situation. Kushina closed her eyes and meditated with practiced ease, slipping into the seal space she had been in quite a few times in the past – though it had never looked quite like this. "I thought you were sleeping or something?" Kushina replied, looking up at the shadow-cast shape of the fox. While her inner space had used to be entirely lit up, it was now only glowing golden in the half she was currently in – the other, where the Kyūbi had now taken residence, was cast in a shadow that seemed to emanate from the creature itself. The large molten ball the Kyūbi had otherwise been impaled to had been shaken and broken apart from the events that lead to her death. The stakes that had impaled it now lined the ground, creating a wall of sorts between herself and the area the demon fox occupied. The chakra chains that used to be present in her inner world had disappeared along with any other signs of her Uzumaki heritage.
"It is hard to sleep when one is forcibly ripped out of one body and pushed into another." the Kyūbi grumbled, unsatisfied, red eyes glaring menacingly from behind the makeshift bars. Kushina inwardly sighed. The Kyūbi could be a bother sometimes, but at least he was currently cynical more so than evil.
"Any magic that could accomplish something like this is either very ancient or very powerful… Or in the worst case, both." the fox continued, sounding vaguely bored, although Kushina suspected it was just a façade. Anything that could scare a bijū like that was bound to be dangerous. "Is that genuine concern I hear in your voice?" Kushina asked mockingly, causing the Kyūbi to sputter undignifiedly. "I am simply reminding you of how foolish it is to look a gift horse in the mouth! When dealing with ancient beings, some care and tact is usually required. Of which you lack both, might I add."
Kushina could quite hide the concern in the cocky smile she sent at the red eyes glowing in the darkness. "I'm always careful!" she said more convincingly than she felt. "Hmph." was all the Kyūbi replied with, before the glowing red orbs disappeared from view.
Kushina took that as a sign to leave and returned to the physical plane. She flexed the muscles in her body tentatively and found them more respondent than they had been before. She also checked the wings that were currently sprawled out underneath her and noted with some fascination that she was able to fold and move them, even if it took a bit of effort. It was like using a part of her brain she had never used before, in addition to all of her muscles being incredibly weak. It would probably be some time before she could run, or even walk properly. Doing what limited exercises she could in her bed, she started getting to work. 'Hell, I'm not just gonna lie here and wait. It's not like I'll recover by myself, dattebane!'
A week later, Kushina had gained enough strength to run around, even if she couldn't run very fast or very far. At least she was not limited by the house walls anymore and had been allowed to go outside as long as she stayed within the property's perimeter. It was a rather small and remote village, and the property was rather large. At first the 'council' had been suspicious of her; and it didn't help that Kushina was practically about to burst out laughing when she saw them.
They weren't like any other council she had seen before, and her prejudice about councils being filled with old grumpy people was very much opposite of this one. It did make Kushina very happy though, to actually see a proper village council. This council was basically just the house-owners in the village; and there weren't a lot of them. The council was composed by 16 people, excluding the village leader, and they were all young men with similar traits.
Kushina guessed that the one who had found her was also in there somewhere, but she honestly couldn't tell which one it was. The village leader was a very old man with a cane and a long grey beard. He could almost be compared to a fossil, and the 16 other members of the council acted like they were all sick of him. The old guy had bad hearing, constantly told bad jokes, and could be mistaken for borderline insane. It was a wonder the village was working as well as it was. Apparently, he was only the leader because of some weird old prophecy written ages ago by their ancestors and didn't have much actual power.
At least it wasn't some strict leader she would have to convince to let her stay, and even though some of the council didn't approve of Kushina's presence, most of them thought it was alright if she stayed around - especially since she had their bloodline.
The woman, whose name she had later found out to be Naiyami, had been by to visit Kushina several times after (partially because Kushina stayed at Naiyami's house), and they were now almost a kind of friends. They had mostly talked about the village and Naiyami, since Kushina didn't have much to offer in terms of stories. She was very surprised to discover that most people in the village were in possession of the Tsubasajin kekkei genkai - they just used a clan-jutsu to hide it. It also raised the question of how much in-breeding there was, but that was not a question she wanted to dwell on too much.
Apparently, they had an entire taijutsu style and ninjutsu that depended on the wings and the razor-sharp feathers. Kushina was definitely going to try to learn it - if only she could find a master to teach her. She decided to ask Naiyami for lessons, since their friendship would make her more likely to agree. And since Kushina was very limited in what she was allowed to do, she decided to ask for lessons the next time Naiyami decided to visit. Until then, Kushina was stuck with trying to build up her chakra levels and strength, and she was progressing quickly.
'I guess it's easier the second time...' Kushina sighed, being the impatient person that she was. It also helped to have a giant fur-ball in her gut, that allowed her to overwork herself regularly and still build muscle instead of simply breaking it down. Her healing had been significantly slower with only a small part of the Kyūbi, but even a small part was a lot better than nothing. Not that she would ever thank the fox for its work.
She had also wanted to test out her calligraphy and fūinjutsu, but the village didn't have any materials she could use. They didn't actually have paper (apparently they weren't that much in contact with other villages and couldn't make paper themselves - they used wooden and carved signs everywhere) and they didn't have ink either; so since drawing in the ground wasn't really precise enough for most things, Kushina was stuck with doing other things. She went over some of the seals and sealing types in her head sometimes, though - just to make sure she didn't forget anything while she was out of commission.
Kushina looked up from her meditative position when she heard the door creak and smiled as she heard the distinctive footsteps of her host. "Hi, Naiyami!" Kushina exclaimed with a smile. Naiyami, who had just entered the door, looked back with the same smile. "Good day, Kaiya. How are you doing today?" she asked politely. Even though they were practically friends, Naiyami still saw Kushina as her tenant and charge, placed onto her by the council.
"I'm doing good... It's getting a bit boring in here, though," she paused dramatically, capturing her warden's eyes before continuing. "Hey, hey, Naiyami, do you know how to fight?" Kushina asked, using the excited tone of the average 10-year-old that she was supposed to be. Naiyami looked slightly displeased at this - she didn't really like the prospect of teaching a kid how to fight, but since these were tough times...
"So you want to learn from our Guardian traditions?" she asked in minor disbelief. Kushina nodded excitedly – in this place, there weren't anything called a 'shinobi'. It was a foreign concept. Here, the fighters of the Tsubasajin clan were called 'Guardians'. They didn't really have any knowledge of kunai, chakra or ninjutsu either; that probably said something about how far away she was from the five Elemental Countries.
Their weapon was a sickle-like sword, developed from a farming tool; like a short sword that was curved to be like a crescent moon called 'gekkō'. Instead of using the term 'chakra', they just referred to it as 'spiritual energy' (though the shinobi would claim that to be false, since chakra is the mix of physical and spiritual energy). The only jutsu they knew, were the ones where they used chakra to make their feathers into weapons. They did, however, still call their techniques 'jutsu', even though the term 'ninjutsu' was foreign as well.
"Well... I suppose I can teach you, even though a proper Guardian would be better suited. I agree that you should be able to defend yourself, though..." Naiyami sighed. Kushina almost jumped around in excitement. She had gotten quite fond of the 10-year-old act; it was almost like being allowed to be a child again. Actually, it was exactly like being allowed to be a child again.
"Alright. I'll start by telling you a bit about the Guardians. You should know about them, before trying to learn anything." Naiyami said, before sitting down in front of the small fireplace in the wooden house. A hole in the roof directly above the fireplace ensured that the foul smoke could escape harmlessly. She looked up at the grey clouds through the hole, before continuing.
"As you know, the Guardians are the protectors of our small society. However, they date back very far, since the time where monsters were wandering around the earth." - Kushina guessed she was talking about the Bijū and was comforted by the fact that they apparently weren't too far away from the Elemental Countries - they were just in a secluded place. "When our clan was founded by the first winged people, they quickly found out that the world can be very hostile, and very dangerous. The village needed able-bodied people to protect the women and the children, and those later became the first council. Even though everyone in the council are Guardians, it doesn't mean one has to be in the council to be a Guardian. Most of the boys and even some of the women are taught the art as well."
Kushina nodded at her and wondered if the old geezer and leader of the village was also a Guardian. He certainly didn't seem like it. Naiyami continued; "One day, a man from a faraway place came to the founders of the village, on the brink of death. The founders nursed him back to life, and in return, he taught them how to use their spiritual energy. The wings we carry turned out to be deadly weapons for those who learned how to harness this energy. Thus, the Guardians of old were powerful enough to keep our enemies away and secure prosperity for our kin. The art has been passed down, generation after generation, ever since, along with our gekkō and fighting styles. As I said earlier, I only know some of it since I'm not a Guardian myself, and I can't use very much spiritual energy, but I can teach you how to use a gekkō and fight effectively with our bloodline." Naiyami finished, looking at Kushina who was staring in awe at the older female.
Naiyami pulled something out from a leather wrap and presented it to Kushina. "This, Kaiya Kushina, is a gekkō." Kushina stared at the two well-kept and polished crescent swords with large eyes. Their handles were bound in leather. It wasn't amazing craftsmanship by shinobi standards, but it was kind of amazing considering how primitive everything was in this village - including their tools.
"These are passed down through families like an heirloom, since we don't have a lot of materials like metal. But we won't be using this yet; these ones are reserved for the Guardians. No, the ones we'll be using are these," Naiyami said, and pulled forth a set of wooden replicas with blunted edges. Kushina was a bit disappointed at having to use wooden replicas, but supposed it was for the better anyways. She didn't want to scratch the heirlooms, and the worst thing that could happen to her with the wooden ones, was that she could get bruises. It would probably be safer, not swinging an unknown weapon around (and potentially cutting someone else, or herself) without any training. Kushina had never been a weapons' expert.
"Alright, we'll start with the basics, also known as kihon - let's go outside so that we won't wreck anything!" Naiyami exclaimed with a smirk. Kushina followed, grinning (almost) evilly. 'Time to learn how to fight, dattebane!'
Kushina had spent another week on learning the kihon and first two kata of the Tsubasajin kenjutsu style and was actually getting quite alright at it. She still couldn't win against Naiyami, but it wouldn't be long, now. Naiyami had been surprised at how quickly Kushina was getting the hang of it, and (even though she wouldn't admit it) was actually a bit envious. The two had trained every afternoon, until both ended up lying on the ground, panting heavily.
Kushina had used the mornings to try and get back to her former strength. It wasn't easy with a 10-year-old atrophied body, but she was getting quite strong already. Admittedly, not as strong as she wanted to be, but there was a limit on how quickly one could gain muscle. She expected to be on the level of an average genin in no more than four weeks, with her previous knowledge putting her far ahead in a fight, making up for her lacking finesse and strength. The overgrown fur-ball hadn't said anything since the time she had gotten here, but Kushina knew he was watching from the seal space.
This day, Naiyami felt that there wasn't more she could teach Kushina regarding the gekkō, but as she had said; "We're still going to spar every evening, to get you into shape and improve your speed". Instead, they were going to work on taijutsu. Because of the wings, the taijutsu style of the Tsubasajin clan was quite unique and relied on wings to block attacks and improve mobility. Kushina reminded herself that this was the first time she was going to see someone else's wings and was actually quite excited. No one had told her the jutsu they used to hide their wings yet - probably because they assumed she couldn't use chakra.
The two went outside the wooden door, and out into the 'garden'. It wasn't much of a garden, as it was mostly unkept and quite large. The grass was trampled in the middle, in a sort of circle, from their spars. The grassy area was surrounded by several of the native trees with red leaves and silvery trunks. Many violet flowers were growing under the shadows of the leaves. The place was actually quite nice, and Kushina had found it easier to meditate there.
Currently, the sun was on its way down, but it wasn't quite evening yet. They still had a couple of hours before sundown.
"Alright!" Naiyami exclaimed and went through some hand signs. Tori, ne, inu, hitsuji. Kushina looked at the hand signs and memorized them. Naiyami clearly wasn't used to casting long jutsu and went through the four hand signs at a relatively slow speed. Kushina was almost surprised at the familiar hand signs, but reminded herself that a foreign shinobi had taught these people how to use chakra.
The air behind Naiyami shimmered momentarily, revealing two light grey wings (unfolded and making Naiyami look much larger and more intimidating), matching her hair colour. 'I wonder if all wings are the same colour as people's hair?' Kushina wondered idly. If that was the case, there were certainly a lot of brown-winged men in this village. With the grey plumage, and white and black spots, the wings distantly resembled those of a common dove.
Kushina unfolded her own wings from their resting position. They had become quite strong from training, and she could almost use them as well as her arms, now. She had studied the sharp-looking feathers when she was on her own and found them to be quite soft to the touch. The dagger-effect that the shape of the feathers had was certainly intimidating, but it was nothing more than that. At least until she could learn some clan jutsu from the Guardians - if any of them would be willing to teach her later.
Naiyami put her left foot forwards while reaching her left hand forwards with a flexed palm, keeping the right one more backwards and close to her body, resting above her solar plexus with the palm skywards. Her weight was on the back leg, and the wings were following her arms - one of them pointed slightly forwards while the other was in a more defensive position. It seemed to be a quite defensible position, not leaving a lot of openings, and even the back was somewhat covered with the right wing – but at the same time, as Naiyami would later demonstrate, the left hand and wing proved to be quite lethal weapons when ignored.
Kushina copied the pose, with a few corrections from Naiyami. They went through several more kihon stances. The style seemed to focus heavily on being defendable and using the wings as shields, but it also focused on rotation as there was a lot of poses that flowed into each other by turning, and using the long reach of the wings to their advantage (Even though they couldn't really harm anyone unless using some kind of jutsu, it still served to disorient and maybe even shove the enemy, creating an opening). A lot of the fighting style seemed to depend on unpredictability, which suited Kushina just fine.
While the large wings might have seemed unwieldy and hard to manoeuvre at first, Kushina quickly had to re-evaluate that assessment, as she saw Naiyami in action, performing the first kata of the Tsubasajin empty-hand fighting style. Even being the first kata, it included several jumps which, with the aid of wings, were much faster and longer than normally humanly possible.
As the sun coloured the horizon a bright shade of red, the two sat down, panting, in front of one of the silver trees. After going through the katas, they had tried out some of the techniques in a spar. Of course, Naiyami ended up winning, but Kushina put up a good fight.
After sitting there for a while, Kushina broke the silence. "Hey, Naiyami... Have you ever been outside the village?" she asked, curiosity spurred by the clan's ignorance regarding other villages. Naiyami shook her head. "No. I haven't had a reason to… Why do you ask, Kushina?" Naiyami replied; Kushina had expected that answer, but still found it somewhat shocking.
"I'm... Just wondering what's out there, that's all." Kushina mumbled, though it might not have been a completely honest answer. She already knew at least some of what was out there; and she knew she couldn't stay with the clan forever. She had important people to get back to, and one important person to punch in the face. Naiyami could see that Kushina wasn't telling the entire truth - they may not have known each other for too long, but they still knew each other well enough.
"Let me guess. You want to go out there, someday?" Naiyami asked, raising an eyebrow at her black-haired apprentice. Kushina smiled at Naiyami; "I do." she answered honestly. Naiyami nodded her head, before staring down at the grass and flowers around them. "There are dire wolves around these parts, who are not to be taken likely… I guess this is why you've been asking for combat training?" she murmured. Kushina frowned lightly at Naiyami's reaction. It didn't seem like her teacher thought very positively of the idea.
"Well, in that case!" Naiyami exclaimed, making Kushina jump slightly at the sudden change of mood. "I might as well take you to the town meeting with me! We have to find a proper Guardian teacher for you!" she continued, the absence of mind she had shown before completely gone. Kushina could take a guess at what this probably implied.
"... Who did you lose?" Kushina asked. Naiyami was wearing a well-woven mask of cheerfulness, and she had woven that mask for a reason. At the blink of an eye, that mask disappeared, leaving Naiyami staring at Kushina with slight shock, then replaced by sorrow, and she looked down at the ground again. She hesitated before speaking up again.
"My... My sister. You remind me of her. She also wanted to go out there..." Naiyami replied with a saddened voice, making Kushina cringe inwardly. She wasn't all that good at talking about serious matters like this. "I'm sorry for your loss..." Kushina replied in a manner she hoped would seem comforting. She had known plenty of people who had lost someone, and loss wasn't a foreign feeling to her either. 'Minato...' she reminded herself. She had spent long nights mourning her dead husband, and hidden that behind a mask of her own.
If Naiyami had seen Kushina drop her mask in that split-second, she didn't show it. Instead, she chose to change topics. "So... Want to come with me to the meeting? There's only a couple of days left until it's being held in front of the old geezer's house." Naiyami offered. Kushina nodded eagerly, and Naiyami almost let out a low chuckle. "Then it's decided!"
"But... Naiyami... Don't you mind if I want to leave the village?" Kushina asked, slightly confused. Since she reminded Naiyami of her sister, she couldn't imagine why she would let go of her so willingly. Naiyami simply shook her head at Kushina. "Why would I? I'd rather you go and fulfil your dreams, than being locked up here forever like a caged bird". The irony of that comparison was not lost upon Kushina. She nodded and locked her green eyes with Naiyami's blue ones.
"Thank you... sis." Naiyami waved it off and replied "Maa, don't mention it brat." She grinned, rustling Kushina's ebony hair. Kushina chuckled inwardly at the way of speaking; it reminded her slightly of Kakashi's.
Today was the day she would attend the village meeting with Naiyami. Kushina was kind of excited and was looking forward to meeting her new teacher. She had also learned the hand signs for hiding her wings and was slightly surprised to see it worked like a henge, except it was a bit stronger (so that it wouldn't simply disappear when sleeping or knocked out) and it only covered the wings. More so than henge, it was perhaps more appropriate to call it camouflage. Kushina was a bit surprised about the fact that she could still feel her wings - now that she thought it through it was kind of obvious, but Kushina didn't always think things through. Naiyami had been a bit surprised by Kushina's ability to use chakra, but Kushina explained it away with her 'amnesia' excuse. That excuse really was like duct-tape. It worked on (mostly) everything.
The road to the village leader's house was relatively far - they lived in the same village and yet it still took them 10 minutes to walk there. The road was not really a road; it was more like a path in the grass that had been walked on so often that the grass had been trodden down. They weren't the only ones who needed to use this path to get to the village's centre, but they didn't meet anyone on the way - except for an odd bypassing squirrel, followed by an angry cat, who (Kushina noted with some amusement) looked a lot like Tora the demon-cat.
When they finally reached the house of the village leader, there were a few other people there, most of them looking at Kushina with suspicious glances, while others looked at her with friendly smiles. She had to restrain herself from walking over to the glaring ones and punch them in the face. She really disliked being looked down upon.
They were standing in a large circle, that had been cleared of plants to look more like a meeting place. The wooden house in front of them was probably the only house in the entire village to have a second floor. Not only because it took a lot of extra materials, but also because it meant they wouldn't be able to make a hole in the roof for the fireplace smoke to escape through - that, and the villagers simply didn't need a second floor.
Fifteen minutes later, when almost everyone was gathered, the leader announced he would be there shortly (and giggled a lot at that intentional pun, considering his below-average height). Kushina noted that a few of the villagers stood out from the small crowd; they were standing in the outskirts of the circle, facing the crowd, and their clothes were different from everyone else's.
First of all, their clothing was a lot thicker. It was still made of animal hides, but it was obviously stiffer, though it still allowed much freedom of movement. They also had a belt with two gekkō - both hanging from a buckle on each side. They were wearing fingerless gloves, and their boots were of a higher quality than the common civilian ones. Some of them even had shoulder plates, and a single one of them had a scythe attached to his back. All of them were brown-haired, and their slightly-longer-than-average hair was set up in a pony-tail.
'They're probably the Guardians...' Kushina noted to herself. 'The one with the scythe looks interesting...'
Finally, the geezer walked through the door and stood on a spot slightly higher than the rest of the ground, to make up for his lacking in height. He also held a cane and sometimes cursed at his back, making Kushina wonder how he held his wings. 'They're probably being dragged across the ground,' Kushina snorted with some amusement.
"Ahem. Yes, *cough*, I'm glad you cane today. See what I did there? Eh?" the old man said while raising his walking cane, earning annoyed looks and sighs from many of the villagers. He shook his head and mumbled something along the lines of "Damn young people not appreciating humor".
"Alright, alright, got any'hin to discuss? If not, I'm outta 'ere." he said grumpily and crossed his arms at the people he apparently thought were wasting his time, when most of them would probably argue that it was quite the opposite. After going over some trivial matters concerning crops and the likes, the old man fell over, earning a few shocked gasps amongst the crowd. Kushina's was one of them.
When a villager took the courage to walk up to the old man and poking him with a stick, wondering if that geezer would finally be dead, the old man just burst out laughing. "Just kiddin', just kiddin'! Haha, you shoulda seen, *cough*, dem looks on ya faces! I was just playin' possum, kehehe..." he exclaimed and used his cane to push himself up onto his legs.
"Now, are there any more questions? I wanna go back to sleeping, dammit!" he almost yelled and waved with his staff at the villagers. When no one replied, he simply went inside his house again.
"Is he always like that?" Kushina asked Naiyami, who currently had crossed arms, glaring at the door the old man had left through. "Yes. Yes he is." she replied with an annoyed tone. Clearly Naiyami liked him as little as most of the other villagers. "Now;" Naiyami said. "Let's go find ourselves a Guardian!" Kushina nodded excitedly.
They approached the Guardians who were also starting to dissolve with the crowd to go home with their families. They tried to ask two of them, who gave excuses like "not ready to take an apprentice" and "too busy to train anyone right now". 'At least they were nice about rejecting us,' Kushina noted, before they approached the one with the scythe. He didn't seem like he was with anyone, and mostly just stood on the circle periphery watching the crowd slowly dissolve.
"Hello, sir." Kushina approached, smiling. "Reiden, please." he answered, gesturing for Kushina to continue. "Mister Reiden... I was looking fo-" Reiden cut her off before she could say anything else. "Is it not common courtesy to give your own name before speaking?" he asked the slightly baffled-looking Kushina.
"O-oh. Yes, I'm sorry, sir! I'm Kaiya Kushina, and I sometimes get a bit too far ahead of myself..." she stuttered slightly, a bit embarrassed and annoyed at making such a bad first impression.
"Meh. It's okay, Kushie, please do continue." he said, grinning slightly at the borderline-annoyed Kushina at being given such a pet name by this stranger.
"As I was saying... Reiden, sir, I'm looking for a Guardian to be my teacher". If Reiden was surprised at the statement, he did a good job of hiding it.
"I see. And you want me to teach you? I must warn you, Kushie, my methods are not for the... Weak of spirit." he replied, making Kushina look at him with her will of fire burning in her eyes. Reiden raised an eyebrow at the young black-haired girl.
"I see you won't back down no matter what I say. Very well. Be here tomorrow at sunrise - and don't. Be. Late." he said in a slightly threatening way. Apparently Reiden was not one who liked being kept waiting.
With that, the last of the crowd dispersed, leaving only Reiden in the small meeting ground.
'Hmm. Interesting girl. This might actually be quite amusing,' he thought to himself before heading off into the woods instead of following the road like everyone else.
A/N 2: And that was the second chapter. So! Is what I'm doing a good idea or a bad one? I don't know! Please tell me! :)
Also, sorry if it's a bit slow in the start (I'm trying to cut it down and make as many time-skips as I can without making it too.. hole-y), but there will only be one more chapter in this mud-hole of a village until Kushina sets out to find her own again. But who knows how far she is from the Country of Fire? I do. Kinda. But I'm not saying.
Also, here are some of the words I used that have a translation:
'Tsubasajin' basically means 'winged people'. I know, very creative.
'Naiyami' means 'No darkness'
'Kaiyasa' can be translated to 'difference and meeting'
'Gekkō' means 'moonlight'. If you want to know what they're inspired from, google 'Malthael's sickles' (That guy from Diablo 3: RoS)
'Reiden' is simply a name. Nothing special 'bout that one.
Edit: I changed a few things around, as second-time readers might have noticed. The most significant of these changes is Kushina's name. I decided to change it from "Kaiyasa" to "Kaiya" (which is an actual Japanese surname), and kept the first name "Kushina" (originally she only said she had one name). Because really, how many people wouldn't normally be called the same thing? Only in stories does everyone have a unique name. This might serve to arouse suspicion later, but that's for the better, really. It's not like Kushina wants to obscure who she is. Aside from that, I've removed a lot of the Japanese-ification like suffixes and strictly Japanese words (and added a few extra in the form of karate terms). So here are some more word definitions:
'Kaiya' – Valley of pretty things (the area name)
'Kihon' – The most basic of techniques in karate (with karate meaning "empty hand")
'Kata' – A sequence of kihon set up like a dance, to combat invisible foes in a thought-up scenario