The Hidden Countries
Chapter two
Annoying bodyguards or ninja? And a irritating blood debt.
Rose had always gotten into the strangest situations – always since before she could remember. When she was six she'd turned her teacher's wig blue – a much better colour if you asked her. When she was eight she'd teleported herself onto the schools roof somehow – she'd been running from bullies. When she was eleven she'd set a snake onto her cousin. She had gotten into worse situations after she started at her magical school though.
But none of them compared to where she was now. The white- haired bodyguard, Kakashi and his students had just defeated the bad guy. As Rose assumed he was, sort of – and the buff man had been taken away by some sort of hunter-nin. Rose had wondered what the bloody hell a hunter nin was, but first they had to deal with the bodyguards, who had turned on them the second the hunter-nin had left.
They held a staring match for a few moments – the younger children held out their knives again. Was she going to die via getting stabbed? She had never thought of getting killed in that way.
"Now," Hermione began slowly before the teacher stumbled slightly, but he quickly righted himself. Never the less Rose cut Hermione off; she couldn't let the man get injured or worse killed! That would be bad – very bad!
"No! Don't die! Um... We can't let that man die!" Rose yelled almost hysterically pointing at the white-haired man. Gaining a lot of odd looks from people around her, (Except Ron, who had a slight idea of what was going on).
"What? HUH!?" The blonde haired student yelled at her – obviously confused. They all were, the white-haired man just narrowed his eyes – wait! Was one of his eyes red? How had she not noticed this before? Did it do something special?
The blonde went ignored – mainly because of Hermione. "What, Rose? What are you on about?" She sounded slightly panicked. This was going to complicate things but she couldn't leave, until she had payed off her blood debt. She would rather get rid of it now then let it wait and have it damage things further on. Pettigrew had died because of his blood debt – she was not going to let that happen to her.
"Blood debt?" Ron cut in, confirming his theory. Rose just nodded her head in a sulky way. Ron's and all the bodyguards – bar the blond ones- eyes widened drastically.
"But! But what's that!?" The blonde yelled again pointing at the red-haired boy in a dramatic fashion. Rose considered the possibility of the boy being an idiot.
"It's when someone owes the other person their life, Baka." The black-haired kid – she wished she knew their names... said to the Blondie.
"What!?"
Kakashi hummed, "Quite you two. We can talk about this at a later time, right now-" he didn't get to finish his sentence because he fell face first into the dirt ground.
Rose's eyes widened, no he wasn't allowed to die yet! She could possibly lose her bloody magic! That was not an option here! She should have just run when she had to option too... Stalker mode was locked on.
(:~THC~:)
There were many things Rose and her friends had been in their lives; students, teachers, friends, siblings, children, and so on, but one thing they had never been? Stalkers. Stalking might be fun, if it wasn't for the distrustful glances and the sharp knives, but they saw it though.
That man needed to stay alive. No one really knew what the consequence of breaking a blood debt was, simply because no one to date had really broken one. Well, when Pettigrew tried to break his – he'd died. Killed by his own magic hand. But Rose didn't know if it was him killing himself or the debt talking. Either way – she wasn't going to risk it.
"Is there no food shops in this place?" Ron asked the other two girls irritably. Rose couldn't blame him; she was really hungry as well. It had been a few days since Rose managed to incur a blood debt but the white-haired male hadn't woken up yet. Not wanting to impose on the family – like the nice people they were – they had said they'd be back when he was better.
They hadn't asked to be informed, Hermione would know almost instantly – magic was wonderful at times. So all they could do was wait and plan out their moves here carefully. They had all the time in the world (-insert sarcasm here-) but they just had to do everything smartly. Like figure out where this snake-summoning scroll could ever be.
"Ron, shut up," Hermione snapped and for once Ron didn't rise to the argument – it was rather nice.
Ron sulked though. "Rose, do you think – there'd be any way out of the debt?" Hermione asked the back-haired girl.
Rose shrugged her shoulders, even if there was she wasn't willing to risk it.
"Even if there was she shouldn't risk it – horrible things have happened to people who ignore blood debts," Ron informed them, in a cool informative tone, completely getting over being told to shut up.
"Horrible things?" Hermione asked curiously. It was some sought of sign for disaster – Hermione hadn't already known something.
"Death, loss of power," Ron said just as seriously. Rose shuddered, no; she did not particularly fancy those. Hermione glanced at Rose.
"You're right, let's not risk it."
Rose sighed, "It is going to complicate things though... How're we going to figure anything out while I'm trying to find a way to save this guys life?"
Ron rubbed his face with his hand, a clue that he had absolutely no idea what-so-ever. Hermione nodded her head, "We'll have to do it, and you focus on... saving his life?"
This did not feel right to Rose at all. This was her fight and yet she would leave all the work to her friends? No, they didn't deserve that – it was her fight. She was going to fight it; she'd find some way to do both... somehow.
Foreseeing Rose's protest, Hermione cut her off before she could start, "No, Rose you can't do everything! Why won't you ever just let us help without arguing it?"
"I hadn't said anything..." Rose said moodily, fully aware that Hermione had just predicted what she was going to say to the two of them and fully told her off for it.
"You were thinking it," Hermione accused.
Rose shrugged, "It's the truth – it's my fight-"
"No," Ron said placing an arm on her shoulder. "It's our fight, now, we need you alive and with magic – so go and save the bloody old man's life."
Rose gave Ron a deadpan stare, "And do you know how long that could take, Ron? You saw how he could fight! He could take on Dumbledore and I wouldn't be too sure who'd win!"
Ron rolled his eyes. "You're exaggerating, Rose," Hermione informed her briskly. Looking like she was mentality going over some sort of list in her head.
"I am not!"
"Well, look at his hair! He must be old – save him from a heart attack or something," Ron said easily brushing Rose off. Rose felt the brief feeling of indignation.
"He can't be that old and still move-"
"Rose, use that saving people thing you have – you'll be fine. Oh, and by the way... He woke up about ten minutes ago – so if you want..." Hermione trailed off. Rose's eyes widened, she needed to go and calmly explain to him that she was stalking him until she saved his life. Yea that was basically it. She wondered how he'd take it...
Rose looked at Hermione at the last bit, "Me? Wait your not coming with me?"
Hermione and Ron shook their heads, what? "No, we'll start on out investigation – we'll stop by later. Have fun explaining... Oh, and be careful. Appreate out of there if anything happens, and... the meeting point will be where we came out in the forest okay? Send a Protonus to tell us okay?"
Rose scratched the back of her neck and nodded. It was nice to have a backup plan – for just in case after all. Things didn't always go famously...
(:~THC~:)
About ten minutes later, a nervous Rose knocked on the door of the bridge-builders house. She just hoped that everything would go well... hopefully.
The door opened to reveal a pretty black-haired women – Rose envied her easy straight locks of hair. Rose had always cut hers short because her hair was just too unruly to manage with it any longer – although it fell into her face allot. Maybe she should get that headband?
"Oh, it's you... How did you know he woke up?"
Rose figured it best to play it cool, "Oh? He's awake? Cool! I just came to check but, cool!"
She didn't sound like a complete idiot at all.
The black-haired woman, who was the bridge-builders daughter – and for the life of her, Rose couldn't remember her name. Smiled and said, "He woke up about half an hour ago, and his in the kitchen – having lunch. You're welcome in if you like?"
Rose smiled up at the taller woman – another reason to dislike her – and nodded her head in a polite manner, following the older woman into her house and to the kitchen area. There she found the white-haired male sitting down what looked like slosh – really, Hagrid's cooking was better than that. And considering Hagrid's rock cakes – that was saying something.
"Would you like something to eat, dear?"
Rose flicked her eyes to the bowl in front of the bodyguard, no, she didn't need to be poisoned.
"No thank you," Rose said politely, with a fake smile. The woman smiled at her again and said, "Well, here he is, sorry but I need to go to the laundry." With that she left the room. It was slightly awkward to say the least.
Rose tried to smile again, politeness never killed anyone. "Hello, I feel like we need to be formally introduced... I'm Potter Rose," She said only remembering at last minute to change around her name. She walked over to where the white haired man was and stuck out her hand to shake.
He smiled – while Rose thought he smiled. She couldn't tell – it was that mask, but his one eye curved into an upside down U. He grabbed her hand and shook it as he said, "I'm Hatake Kakashi – Jonin of Konohagure. It's a pleasure to meet you Potter-san."
Rose mentally filled away the terms 'Jonin' and 'Konohagure' so she could figure out what the hell he was talking about.
He let go of her hand and Rose almost instantly took the seat opposite him, across the table that he sat at. Rose took in a deep breath – she'd been rehearsing what she was going to say on the way there.
"Well, now that we're introduced Hatake-san," she stumbled over the sub-fix slightly. "I would like to thank you for saving my life."
"It was nothing." The man smiled and waved her off. Rose felt her eye twitch, he wasn't letting her finish! Damn she had a speech planned here! Smothering her slight annoyance into a strained polite smile, Rose went to continue. She hated it when people didn't let her finish.
"Yes, well, you see that was kind of a big thing. In my family we are very big on the honour thing, and what you did called in a blood debt and... well... I'm not leaving until I have that settled."
He raised an eyebrow, but Rose didn't let her fake confidence and fake politeness falter for even a second. "Ah... Okay then."
"Now I'm willing to stalk you so – wait! What?"
Rose couldn't help but let her bewilderment show on her face. What was that? He'd not argued with her? Not told her to get lost or threatened to kill her? Well, she had a like ten minute speech all planed out and everything! Rose couldn't help but feel slightly cheated out of something.
"Hm? I said okay – do what you must."
Rose looked at him like he was some strange being that she had never encountered before. He was an odd one, a very interesting odd one – but an odd one never the less.
"You are very strange," Rose said not even bothering to hide her slightly confused feelings.
He smiled again, she was glad that she amused someone. He smiled a lot to... "Thank you!"
Rose blinked; silence reigned over them for a few moments until Rose broke it. "I had a speech planned out and everything you know? Informing you how important this was and everything! It took me ages to come up with..."
He gave a short laugh in amusement. "So Potter-san, how old are you?"
Rose tilted her head to the side, what the hell? That would have had to be the most random things anyone had ever said to her. Why would he want to know her age?
After a measured look at Kakashi she responded. "Seventeen..."
He gave off a surprised look, "You look younger..."
Rose felt her eyebrow twitch. How young had he thought she was? She had always looked a few years younger than she should have. It was the Dursley's fault really. She was short and skinny, but her years of Hogwarts and having a motherly Mrs Weasley force feed her, she'd gained some weight.
Sad part was that she had never actually gained much weight. It was like it wasn't possible – it didn't matter how much she ate. She just couldn't gain anything – something irritating.
"Bloody Dursleys," Rose muttered under her breath before returning to a normal voice level, completely missing the Hatake's narrowed eye. "How about you Hatake-san?"
"Twenty-six."
What!? There was no way that that was possible. Wasn't Ron just joking about saving an 'old' man from a heart attack? This wasn't going to end well. He was only nine years older than she was – he wasn't going to have a heart attack any time soon... Damn...
Resisting the urge to yell and call the man a liar, Rose very painfully smiled. She couldn't stop the annoying twitch of her eye. "Oh? You look older..."
He raised an eyebrow at her. Rose figured that he was wondering what he had said to get such a reaction out of her. In all honesty Rose was a little let down that he wasn't going to have a heart-attack or something any time soon. It wasn't like she wanted him to die, but it seemed an easy way to get out of her debt. Why did everything have to just go and get confusing?
"So," Kakashi said as he played with his spoon. He'd actually eat that garbage? Rose would have preferred to go hungry... "Those two you were with... friends of yours?"
Rose wondered why he wanted to know all of this. Was he simply curious? Or was he hiding something more sinister? Or was it just him simply making sure she didn't want to ruin his... mission? That would probably be it. Rose wasn't an idiot, she'd never tell him anything too incriminating. Could this possibly be why he had accepted her blood dept stalking so easily – did he have a plan in mind? Was this going to kill her?
With a genuine smile this time Rose answered, "Oh yes, Ron and Hermione. We've been best friend's since we were... eleven, I think..."
His eye narrowed and this time Rose caught it. What was so bad about being friends with two people since they were eleven? That didn't seem so bad... Maybe she offended some sort of rule they had here... But didn't he have three eleven year old students?
"Did you meet at the academy?"
Rose had never known Hogwarts to be called an academy, but it was a school. Academys and schools were almost the same right?
"Yea, we met at school..."
He seemed a little put on edge with the information, and Rose felt the need to change the subject. "Um, those kids your students?"
She was referring to the kids that were his apprentices from the previous days. The blond haired kid, the pink haired girl and the emo looking boy, it was an odd bunch if you asked her.
"Ah... My cute little students... yes."
Right as he said that one of his 'cute little students' walked into the kitchen and she looked like she had just been dragged through hell and back.
"Are you alright?" Rose asked as an imminent reaction to seeing her so dishevelled.
The pink-haired girl smiled at her, "Oh! Yes I'm fine, just tired."
What the hell had the girl been doing? She looked like Rose after a particularly difficult Quititch training session.
"Where are Sasuke and Naruto?" Kakashi asked the pink-haired girl. Rose figured that was the names of the blonde and black-haired children. Now she only had to match the names... She sucked at doing that...
The girl scowled at her teacher, "Sasuke-kun and Naruto are still trying to do the tree-climbing exercise."
Tree-climbing exercise? Kakashi was teaching the kids how to climb a tree? She had known how to do that since she was like five!
He eye-smiled, "Ah and you're done... Sakura?"
So that's the pink-haired girls name was, Sakura? It was a nice name, and it for some odd reason seemed to fit the girl.
The girl nodded her head with a forlorn look. Kakashi smiled again, "Care to let your dear old Sensei see?"
Rose couldn't help it, he wanted to see? Wanted to see his student climb a tree? Was that really how these people learnt to fight like that... by climbing trees? Of all things... Trees?
"You want to see her... climb a tree!?" Rose asked the man incredulously.
He just smiled, and motioned for her to follow. Rose did, things had been going well so far after all – she could always magically 'disappear'. But still... A tree?
They walked out of the house and went past the first line of tree's. Sakura looked a little annoyed about having to climb another tree. Rose wouldn't blame her.
Rose watched as the girl walked up to the tree and placed her foot on the bark, she then pulled herself up and walked up the tree. She actually walked up the tree! With two feet and no hands! Rose knew magic could do some amazing things but that couldn't be possible.
For one, she didn't have a wand. Two, Hermione had said that it wasn't possible for the people here to even have magic. So the girl did not have magic, no one here could have magic. They must have something else, but what else could they possibly have? Their own source of mystic energy? Would it be odd for her to ask?
"What... How, what was that?" Eventually Rose decided to ask. She wouldn't ask about much, she didn't want to give the two distinct opinions of her being an obvious foreigner.
They seemed surprised, but the pink-haired girl answered her. "It's a form of Chakra control, you just have to channel Chakra to your feet and use it to stick onto the tree... I take it you're not a ninja?"
Chakra control? Ninja? So Chakra was the thing that people used here? It was obviously very different from magic. This might be a problem, Rose mused thoughtfully. Rose not wanting to give off that this was all completely new information to her decided to speak. And what was this shit about ninja? Didn't they wear black masks and have swords? Well, Kakashi did have a mask...
"Ninja? No... Maybe I wanted to be one when I was like five..."
This effectively stopped them as they turned to stare at her completely shocked. Had they thought she was a ninja? Really? Her? She did want to be a magical police officer, but that was not a ninja... Maybe she should mention that? Or would that be bad.
It was around times like these that Rose missed her endless fame. Being famous meant that she could say stupid things and mostly get away with it... But then again, when anything went wrong, she'd also get blamed for it.
"You're not?" Sakura asked her incredulously. When had she given them that opinion? Rose never remembered telling anyone that she was a ninja.
"Did I ever say I was a ninja?" Rose asked with genuine confusion on her face. "I'm not... I'm just a... well, a dropout really..."
Sakura looked like someone kicked her dog. Kakashi looked thoughtful, and was watching her like she was a rabid dog. What in Merlin's name had she gotten herself into?
The white haired man suddenly smiled, and ushered the two girls inside. Confusing Rose slightly – what on earth was she getting into?
While Kakashi was simply just curious about the odd power that she and her friends had shown. He would let her do what she needed to in hopes to see how they managed to pull of techniques without any chakra. He was an elite ninja – he could sense that they didn't have any – they had something but not chakra.
A/N – Thanks for reading my new version. There will be more regular updates. I'm going to try updating this story every week – at least once. Tell me what you think about the changes – no uncle Orochimaru in this one...
