Not edited or proof read.
Yayy.
She came again. Every day, she came back, eager to do something new.
And something new we did.
I still hadn't introduced her to anyone else I knew, and people started asking where I was every evening.
It only took a few days for her to be seen though. Thankfully, when that time came, she wasn't alone with me.
Right in front of the Hokage tower. Yup. I'm standing still. In one place.
It had become a little habit of mine; staying in front of the building until Aelita showed up. The rest of team seven left to attend to their own devices after the customary debriefing to the hokage that came after the day's D-ranked missions.
I waited, even though it took about an hour for her to come. And it usually became very hard for me to stay in one place for that long. But once she came, the wait was ably compensated for every time.
I let my mind roam over the last day, frowning subtly. Aelita had come, dressed the same way as usual, coming from the same direction she always came from. Big surprise. We'd gone to one of the training grounds, and Aelita had leapt onto the wooden training logs instantly, leaping from one to another with unnatural grace, jumping from tiptoe to tiptoe. Even Ninja couldn't do it the way she did.
I'd asked her about what she was another time. She had just smiled and continued jumping around.
I'd sighed, more than a little frustrated.
My theories currently ranged from her being a bloodline scion forced into hiding by Konoha or some other village, to her being a foreign civilian who thought that the Inuzuka clan-marks were pretty… or her being a runaway from the circus.
But her voice steered my suspicions to the first idea. No-one could have such an inhumanly mesmerizing voice without it being a Genjutsu.
I told myself that I was going to ask her. I steeled myself, every day, preparing myself to confront her about this, and threaten her with not seeing her ever again if she kept her anonymity.
But I never could bring myself to do that. Somehow I knew that if I said it she still wouldn't tell me anything and I would lose her forever.
Damn. This dating business is trickier than I thought.
I saw Aelita coming closer in the distance, and I quelled my disgruntled thoughts, making sure that I was as cheery as I usually was for her sake.
But she wasn't alone today.
A girl nearly a foot taller than her was walking besides her, a girl with black long hair and porcelain white skin. She held herself up like royalty, and she was dressed like a… Geisha. Her sight briefly evoked the image of a Hyuuga, only a lot less somber, waaaaaay more colourful yet still just as confident. And her eyes were black instead of pale lavender.
She walked on with Aelita, laughing with her and putting her arm around her shoulder. They looked like exceptionally good friends, what with the way they talked; eyes full of laughter, gestures of happiness tossed every which way.
I didn't like her much, I decided.
And once they were within a few metres of me, I walked forwards to meet them myself.
"Aelita...?" I asked unsurely. She just looked up, smiled and gestured to her friend.
"Ishiyama Yumi," she introduced, straight off the bat.
Good for reducing awkwardness, that particular style of conversation was.
"Uh, hi…" I said, looking at the general vicinity of the Girl's face.
All I could think of was how she was looking down at me effortlessly, what with her five inch height advantage.
"…Yumi-san."
I promptly stood on the other side of Aelita after that; probably for the whole day.
"So who are you?" I asked, pretending to be more interested in the fence on the other side of the road.
"I'm a companion of Aelita. I live with her and I came here to visit her," came a VERY formal and VERY stiff reply.
She talked like one of those Daimyo's Assistants that came around to check on the academy every now and then to express their discontent. I caught myself a moment into my weirded-out glare at her, and jerked my head away.
"Right… And I am Uzumaki Naruto, the greatest Ninja in all of the five elemental nations and the one who is destined to be the hokage."
Yumi tittered for a bit, and I had a feeling that she had not understood the particular angle of sarcasm I was going for. Maybe she WAS used to being eloquent and scary.
"Don't talk like that Naruto, you sound creepy," Aelita reproached.
"Fine, fine," I placated.
She smiled and started talking to Yumi, telling her about all the things that she had seen here and what she was expecting to show her today. The raven haired 'friend' nodded, sounding a little glazed and mesmerized before replying in her snobby tone and accent.
Man, what was with these people? It seemed as if Aelita and her associates were nothing but a bunch of Aliens, from the looks of it. If things got any weirder, I would have to resort to darker and more effective methods of extracting information.
With a grin, I realized that Yumi would not be safe from me the same way that Aelita would be.
Heheh. Sweet information, here I come.
But first, Aelita wanted to go to Ichiraku's.
Ramen took precedence over all other objectives, and I heartily approved of Aelita's initiative. She took my hand, lightly, as she was wont to do, and I squeezed hers to show that her priorities were Naruto-approved. Even if I would have to pay for the whole thing.
Yumi followed, slightly apprehensive for some reason.
I noticed why; walking in front of us with eyes closed disapprovingly was a teenaged Hyuuga. I looked back, and the resemblance between the two was indeed uncanny.
He passed us by. I could hear him snort disapprovingly.
But I glanced backwards after a while, and the Hyuuga was standing with venous eyes, face ashen and mouth open. Facing us.
He started walking away, and I paid it no mind after that. The guy couldn't have been staring at us; we weren't that surprising.
A wholesome and expensive lunch later, I took the both of them to a training ground.
"I think we've been here before, Naruto," Aelita muttered.
"I know, we were here yesterday. Don't you remember?"
She just hummed back. She did that a lot.
I came here because even though Yumi wasn't a ninja, she was a combat-enthusiast, or so she put it. She had said that she would show me her weapon of choice and I was really curious. It was highly unlikely that she would use a sword or a dagger; I couldn't see one on her earlier. Although she looked like someone skilled with such a weapon.
I kept theorizing. I even asked Aelita, but she just said that it was a surprise and told me to hurry up.
We got there, and Yumi revealed her instrument of destruction... A fan.
Figures.
I was going to laugh. At least I was until she sliced a rock in half in front of my eyes.
I'd watched with open-mouthed awe while Aelita shook her head, and Yumi had acted as if it was of no great consequence; like she was used to being stared at with admiration.
Said a lot about her. And her fans.
Then-
"Dynamic entry!"
-Lee happened, somehow, through some weird quirk of fate.
The scream broke the Geisha's composure horribly. I could sympathize, it was enough to send shivers down my spine too, though for a different reason.
A barrage of Kunai swept into the middle of the field. Right towards Yumi.
She used her fans as a shield and moved them in front of her, and the rushing knives were deflected away, some landing near us, some falling to the ground.
Out of the trees jumped Lee, eyes closed, mouth open in a yell and leg extended so that he'd land straight in front of the Fan-wielder.
A high pitched note sounded out from beside me; the next thing I knew was that Lee had slipped, quite devastatingly, and his face came to rest – inch by dragging inch – right in front of Aelita's feet. Who, at that moment, was giggling irreverently.
The victim raised a shaking arm up, lifting himself laboriously.
"Naruto… Such unyouthful trickery… will not go…"
He glanced upwards, unfortunately.
"…Unpunishhhooh. Hellllo, Sakura chan!"
Wasting no time, I picked him up by the scruff of his suit and dragged him over to some trees nearby, trying to ignore the struggles he made in his pursuit of 'youth' or whatever he was mumbling about.
"Listen Bushy brows. I really like you, okay? But you have to stop doing that."
Maybe he'd listen to reason, I reasoned.
"But… But she-"
"She's not Sakura. She's Aelita. MY friend."
"…Oh."
And just like that, he left, jumping into the trees and vanishing off.
Hmm. That was easy.
I found my guests where I had left them, Idling around and looking at their fingernails and stuff. Aelita was whistling.
I had a feeling that the awkwardness had made this place unfit to stay in, so I thought of some other place to go to.
"Come on… Let's go to the top of the Hokage monument!" I said, excitedly punching the air.
Maybe it was time to show Aelita the ENTIRE village. With her friend around, she might not feel bored.
We moved out after a hum and a snort from my delightful entourage.
Interesting things seemed to happen on our way to the top.
Hyuugas kept popping around, gawking at us when they thought we weren't looking.
Yumi shared a meaningful and slightly hostile look with me; she had noticed, apparently.
"What the hell is wrong with you guys? I finally found a few friends, Deal with it!" I screamed behind me into the open air.
A squirrel seated on a branch cursed and left. Nothing else reacted.
I felt mildly stupid when I saw Aelita climbing with us; despite the long way there, she wasn't exhausted at all.
And there I was, thinking she couldn't make it.
And any obstacles that came up; Aelita just gracefully went past them like there wasn't something blocking the darn way. She climbed over giant boulders like they were normal stairs, crossed tangled thorn bushes like they were made of water, and when a Lion popped out of nowhere, it just walked away after seeing her, yawning.
That was just not possible for a normal person to do. It was as if the world itself was going out of its way to be kind to Aelita.
That was it. I was going to find out one way or another. Once we reached the top, someone was going to start talking.
We reached the top, and surprisingly enough, no one was even panting. Everyone was still as energized as they were before; Aelita was positively skipping around in joy, admiring the wind, the view, the stony texture of the monument itself…
"She seems awfully skippy, doesn't she?" I sidled over to the black-haired girl who was conveniently standing still in one place, out of her friend's earshot.
"Uh… Yes. She is always… Awfully skippy," she awkwardly stuttered.
"I wonder why though. How can someone climb a whole damn mountain and still be so chipper? Unless she's some kind of ninja…" I slyly mentioned as I walked around her.
"We are not ninja," she denied. "We just know how to fight."
"Reallly?" I purred. "Then how do you explain-"
I flourished towards the singing Aelita, whose very presence seemed to send all the nearby birds into some weird cacophonous song.
"-her bloodline?"
"Bloodline? What is a blood-"
She stood stock still for a moment, her confused look freezing, then abruptly drew her fans out.
I ducked, instinct urging me that she was completely crazy and was going to slice me apart for prying.
I heard a slight thud behind me though; when I turned, I saw a member of the ANBU kneeling with a trail of dust extending behind.
The upper half of his mask broke off and fell onto the ground, revealing brown eyes. Menacing, hateful brown eyes.
"Naruto… I don't like this…" A trembling voice cut through to my ears. Two ANBU were surrounding Aelita, preparing to grab her hands and shackle them into some kind of restraint. Only empty air was behind her; she was standing at the edge, and was inching backwards.
"Get away from her, you idiots! You'll kill her!" I shouted, but they might have been dead for all they heard.
Yumi said something incomprehensible; in the next second, Aelita was surrounded by a red glow, lifted into the air, and deposited right next to us.
They caught each other's arms and started to run.
"Hey! Are you out of your minds?" I screamed at the stupid masked ninjas who had completely ignored me to run after the girls.
Damn it Damn it Damn it…
I made a handseal and summoned a batch of clones, and they spread into the forest, aiming to find and guide my friends out of here. This was completely absurd, and I was going to make sure nothing happened to them until I was absolutely sure that they deserved to be chased and caught.
I, personally, rushed into the forest with my clones, no coherent plan in mind as of yet.
Why would Konoha think they were a threat? They were CLEARLY not ninjas, even if they knew how to... fight…
Doubt creased my forehead.
What were they anyways? What kind of people randomly appear into a village, have mysterious and unexplainable powers and won't tell anyone about them?
Enemies, obviously, my ninja-academy trained mind made a jump I didn't want to believe.
I ran along, jumping from tree branch to tree branch, trying to think of the easiest way to get the hell out of the forest, trying to ignore the sting in my throat.
Betrayal really hurts.
I heard a twitter echo out from somewhere behind me; my clones had been engaged. I redoubled my efforts to make it in the general direction my two erstwhile companions had headed off to…
I made another group of clones, just in case. Damn, but these trees were hard to navigate through. I ran and I ran, air brushing past me, branches rustling from my passage. Then I ran some more. And I kept running.
The absence of activity began to disturb me after a while, and I had this nagging feeling that I should have encountered SOMEONE by now, ANBU, Aelita or Yumi.
And did I see that forked branch before?
I slowed to a stop onto the ground, skidding and sending leaves and branches scattering into the undergrowth. I looked around, smelling the dusty smell of the trees just for the heck of it before I actually got down to business and did something more effective to find my targets.
"AELITA! YUMI! Where the hell are you?" I screamed at the top of my lungs like a lunatic.
To hell with the ANBU. They seemed pretty intent on ignoring me anyways.
To my surprise, I heard a few garbled mutters sound out from right behind me. I turned, kunai already in hand… The sounds were still coming from right behind me.
I twirled once more, and the noises still seemed to come from my blind-side.
I paused, freaked out, until a hand shot out from the ground and grabbed my ankle, dragging me into the Earth.
"Auughhh-!" My shriek was interrupted as the ground crumbled from beneath me, and I plunged through into… A completely rectangular room made of mud. Filled with four different people, Aelita and Yumi being two of them. Aelita's hand clamped my mouth shut, and I resumed my freak-out session.
"Shush!" A boy with short brown hair said. Brown hair, with brown eyes. Menacing brown eyes.
"What the- you're that ANBU!" I reached for my kunai, intent on rooting him out of our little hideout, but Yumi's hand grabbed mine and she hissed, "NO. He is a friend."
The 'ANBU' just turned around and sat down on a rock, ignoring my presence.
Aelita sang a little and the hole my entry had made sealed itself shut. The light from the sun faded away, leaving my eyes blind momentarily. Then I caught the light coming from a flashlight a disjointed hand held.
My eyes shifted upwards to the owner of the light-source to a blonde-haired… boy? Cat? Thing?... that was waving his hand at me immodestly, shouting something that was complete gibberish.
Yumi snapped at him in another incomprehensible ream of words, and the boy suddenly looked apologetic.
"Oh, sorry about that. You do understand Japanese though, right?" The thing continued, rubbing the back of its head with an overgrown paw.
"Japanese? What's that?"
"Uhh... Never mind. So whazzup? My name's Odd, and this here's Ulrich-"
The grumpy 'ANBU' waved a hand at me.
"-and you know the rest. Never met you before, but I'm sure I know you very well, what with the way that Aelita's been talking about you-"
"Hey!" Aelita grumbled, cheeks tinged pink.
"-and the Ramen you always-"
"Ramen?" My ears perked, plugging me back into the conversation and pausing my outraged and confused ramblings of rage and hurt for a moment.
"Yeah! Ramen! It's kinda weird though that you'd take the stereotypical poor college student's food to be your favourite! I mean, you REALLLLLLY couldn't find something better?"
...That's it.
I was seeing red by the time he ended. I walked over, grabbed him by the scruff of his neck (oddly furry and purple) and growled my displeasure.
"Oh, not that I don't like it. Ease up, would ya?" He sidled out of my grasp and sighed.
"So now what Aelita?" He continued, addressing the pinkette. A pinkette I had darn near risked my ninja life for a moment ago.
I decided that now would be a good time to irrevocably loose it.
"Now what? NOW WHAT?" I exploded. "Will you frickin tell me what the hell is going on here?"
Ulrich tweaked an eyebrow before looking away. The others winced and I felt even worse at their guilt.
Oh, they were gonna get something to wince about, all right.
"First, she shows up in the village and she won't tell me who the hell she really is, then her 'friend' comes along and all of a sudden the ANBU are after you and you're hiding in a room underground! And it turns out that he is pretending to be one of them! And what the hell is up with him?" I ended, pointing at each of them when I referred to them and ending with… Odd.
I noticed that everyone was glaring at Aelita and she was wringing her hands and looking down.
"Naruto, I-"
She was interrupted. By three sandle clad feet bursting downwards into the Earth above me.
...
A short explanatory chapter coming next. Hopefully with less delay.
X.x
