Communication with Outsiders
Something wet and cold (like an animal's noise) rubbing against Anju's cheek woke her up the next morning. However, Anju refused to wake up, all the trauma from last night had made her feel broken and exhausted; plus, she really wasn't much of a morning person. Trying to avoid the thing that was trying to wake her up, she turned over to face the other direction. Someone's soft and gentle hand started caressing her bruised and swollen cheek and then a cool healing sensation sank into her skin, reducing the pain that had once been there. Slowly, Anju opened her sleepy eyes to see her older brother crouching beside her with a concerned look on his face. Before she had a chance to thank him and push his concern face away, a large black lion jumped on top of her and licked her in greetings.
"Eeeewwwww! Shadow, get off me!" Anju moaned as she pushed the oversized kitten off of her. A deep musical laugh came from Tadashi's firm mouth, making Anju truly smile; even though her face was dripping kitty salvia. One of the things that made Anju smile in the world was seeing Tadashi smile, since he always seemed to carry the whole world on his shoulders; it was nice to see him relax a bit sometimes. Once Anju managed to push Shadow off her Tadashi handed her some scrambled eggs and bacon. It was probably the smallest portion of a breakfast anyone would see but every bit of useable source they could find was sacred to them.
"Eat up; you've got a lot of explaining to do with the shinobi you brought here." He advised. Between bites, Anju repeated the whole story to him. How she had jumped into battle when she saw them greatly outnumber, how one of them had mistaken herself for someone else therefore followed her into the forest and Kakashi revealing his eye. During their interview, Tadashi sat calmly and listened to the whole way through. Shadow on the other hand got bored and left to find her mistress. "Sounds like you've been busy when I was gone." Tadashi forced himself to joke (since the situation was not a good one to exist in at the moment) not that he should be surprised; something always happened, whether he was with here or not.
"You know I get bored easily, I have to cause some mischief." Anju laughed back, causing another musical chuckle from her brother.
"Get changed, we're going to meet our guests." Tadashi explained, pushing himself off the ground. Letting out a deep sigh, Anju followed her brother's instructions and went behind the trees and walked over to the river to get washed and changed quickly. It didn't take her long to get ready, so it didn't take her long to rejoin her brother and was heading in the direction where their visitors were if Tadashi hadn't grabbed her by the shoulder. "Forgetting something?" He indicated, pointing to the sword on his back. Anju wanted so badly to defend herself, she wasn't a little kid anymore, she didn't need to be loaded with weapons all the time. But they had all these arguments before and right now Anju was in no mood, especially since they were in a good mood at the moment. Stomping back to her homemade tiny campsite she strapped the katana to her back before placing herself next to her brother again before making their way over to the strangers sleeping quarters.
"Where were you last night?" Naruto demanded as soon as Anju and Tadashi approached the campsite that was not only surrounded by the eight shinobi but by Tadashi's team mates as well. Shadow had returned to her mistress Jin, whose black Amazonian muscles gleamed in the morning sunlight and her golden eyes sparkled with amusement as she watched Hansuke, whose bright red hair and green eyes shined alive with fire, fighting with the dog boy shinobi who had the giant white dog, it sounded like they were arguing over food. Knowing Hansuke, the dog dude had insulted his love for pepperoni pizza that he had come to adore when the team had gone to explore the far west. I swear it's more than a curse then I am, Anju thought to herself, as she made her way closer to the group. She refused to answer the blonde's question since she thought it was very rude to shout at someone but then again, she guessed she deserved it, since she didn't meet them last night like she said she would. Instead, she just sat herself down next Jin, who shot her a quick smile before returning to pet her feline friend. Kiba large white dog, seemed t not like Shadow that much and stayed low, with his hair standing up and low rumble grows grew deep within his mouth. Shadow displayed the opposite effect, grooming herself and wagging her long slender tail round happily. The only people that seemed to show any sign of looking relax were Kakashi, Yamato, Jin and Tadashi, who went over to Hansuke and whispered something in his ear (probably threatening to give him toilet duty for the next few weeks) which made Hansuke instantly back down and apologise. This is too weird, Anju thought. The two groups stayed away from each other before they began to merge a bit. In fact it was Shadow who made the first move to make friends with the giant white dog. Sneaky a piece of meat out of Jin's bag, the giant cat walked over to the white dog and placed it in front of him. Akamaru sniffed the piece of meat curiously before eating it, wagging her tail in excitement; Shadow ran back to Jin and grabbed her play ball and took it back to Akamaru and began playing it in front of him. At first the large dog tried to take no notice but it didn't take long for him to be memorised by it, Shadow past it to him and Akamaru picked it up and handed it to Kiba. Taking the ball from his fluffy friend, he threw it. Before Kiba could realise his mistake both cat and dog kicked off and chased after the ball, knocking everything over in sight. They were both fast but Shadows flexibility gave her the advantage to get to the ball just a second quicker. Everyone could only stared in bewildment at Kiba who had mud dripping off him. Then, laughter cracked through the air, as everyone couldn't control themselves any longer at Kiba's condition. That's when everyone started weaving in to the new groups. The first group to form happened between Jin, Sakura and Hinata, who started talking about girly stuff which Anju didn't understand most of it. Then it was the boys and finally Anju little group consists of herself, Tadashi and Kakashi. They all sat in silence and watched the other groups, since they weren't the talking type.
"Anju you're humming again." Tadashi suddenly pointed out, snapping Anju out of her day dream.
"Oops sorry." Anju smiled back and turned back to watch the groups in front of her. She wished she was as good as communicating with people like Jin and Hansuke were. Hansuke was Tadashi best friend since they were young, so when Tadashi needed support against his father when he saved her, Hansuke was the first to leap in and back him up. Jin and Shadow didn't join the little group until a week later when baby Anju had been crying and the boys had no she why was upset, it wasn't until Jin had walked past, carrying fire wood to her families campsite that she suggested if they had tried burping her, after that when she felt the boys were being incompetent, she would take me and look after Anju herself. These people were the only family Anju had and she would do anything to protect them. Her group continued to sit in silence until Tadashi pointed out Anju was humming again. I've really got to stop doing that, Anju thought to herself. It wasn't like she had a horrible voice or anything (actually her friends had quoted that she had a very beautiful voice) but singing was a very important thing in her clan and if she got caught again she would be in serious trouble...
Anju had just turned five and it was the same age that everyone began their warrior training. However, because of her background, Tadashi had been training her hard since the day she could walk and far exceed anyone in her class –even though her teachers were unwilling to admit it- one of the lessons she and all the other children were learning were the traditions: special dates, ceremonies and songs. When the children first started learning this subject Anju was forced to stay in the corner when the other children went into lines and sang songs. One day, Anju got up the courage to also begin singing; big mistake! She had been enjoying herself so much with the singing that Anju had not notice the entire room go silent. Even though she was an experienced warrior at the age of five, she was still a child and did not except what happened next. Out of nowhere, a hand slapped her around the face, making her scream out in pain and full on to the floor. From there it was utter chaos, teachers, assistants and students began a blood thirsty bombardment on to her, screaming at her and calling her names. Using what her brother had taught her, she escaped from some of the blows that hit her body and ran like hell away from the area, she ran so far that she had just reached the bordered for the land of lightening, until Tadashi and his time finally caught up to her.
A light tap on her shoulder caught her attention. Looking up she saw her brother smiling back down on her and holding out his hand out. Smiling, she took his hand in hers and squeezed it tightly; Tadashi always seemed to know what she was thinking and how to cheer her up. Meanwhile, Kakashi was watching the scene from the distance. The bond between Tadashi and Anju was nothing he had ever witness – sure he had seen sibling relationships before but this was on a whole different scale. The truth to this observation is the fact that the brother and sister helped each other. Anju kept Tadashi from falling into a pit of loneliness, since the two people he had ever loved where dead and Tadashi offered Anju guidance and love. They both knew that they had each other's back no matter what. However, they could not say the same thing about their other brother. The sudden hiss and growl that had sent Shadow on to high alert made everyone break from their small conversations and turned to face him. Their questions were soon answered when Surin stepped through the brushes.
"Hello."His emotionless echoed through the area, sending chills down everyone's spine. Their brothers stone grey eyes held an icy coldness which was the complete opposite to Tadashi's liquid warm ones. The happy, comfortable air that had once surrounded this place had turned tense from the new arrival. Tadashi was the first to break the silence.
"(What do you want Surin)" Tadashi asked flatly like his younger brothers presence bored him. Despite his good acting skills, everyone could sense the tint of pure hatred behind it; even if the hidden leaf ninja couldn't figure it out what he had just said.
"(I only wanted to see our... special guest's.)" Surin sneered, his eyes dangerously moving towards the pink kunoichi and looked her up and down like he was examining a prize bull on sell. This action did not settle well with the other Konohagakure ninja who looked like they were going to jump and kill him any second; that is actually what Naruto attempted to do. He had always loved Sakura; she was one of his closest friends and to see this prick look at her like that. Before he could control himself, Naruto leaped on to his feet and charged towards the ungrateful basterd and was only one more step, until he felt something jerk him back. It took Kakashi, Yamato and Tadashi to restrain him from beating the crap out Surin. The middle child of the Tsukiko family smirked in amusement as he watched the blonde boy struggle between the three men; who stood solid to the spot.
"(Leave Surin.)" Tadashi grunted through his effort to hold back Konohagakure number one hyperactive knuckled headed ninja. Surin smirk only grew even wider. Just as he was about to make some kind of comment back, Tadashi cut him off. "(Leave. Now. Surin!)" Tadashi hissed, his usually soft grey eyes turning hard silver. Fear grew in Surin's eyes as he realised he had set his brother off. He left but not before he muttered something that only Tadashi seemed to hear and it shocked him to his very core.
Sakura was still trying to figure out who Anju was and what was she like. At first she seemed aloof and silent just like Sasuke but seeing her calm self with her brother began to make the pink hair ninja think differently about her. At first she had seemed mean and rude when they had first met her but then again they had attacked her out of the blue and mistaken her for someone else but today she had offered Sakura some of her own ink and paper when she had run out of it when she was labelling some of her medicines that she had been refilling. Back then she had not realised what the gestured had meant, until Jin explained how little their clan had and how precise every single of item a person own was. The stranger had not said much towards her or any of her team mates but she hadn't sent any hostile glares of feelings towards them either. To Sakura, it seemed like the girl didn't know how to mix in with new people like her brother and his team mates were. She had tried to get up the courage and try to invite Anju into their conversation but she wasn't sure how. This is complicated, she thought, taking a bite of her apple as she admired the small stream in front of her. Naruto had begun to drive her insane and she needed some time away from her best friend's loud mouth.
"Hello." A sweet voice spoke nervously; making Sakura jumped out of fright and turned to face the new presence with a kunai in her hand, only to find out it was Anju holding a pile of dirty laundry. "Sorry to scare you but I came down here to wash some clothes. You don't mind having a bit of company." Secretly telling herself off for getting herself worked up over nothing, Sakura smiled back at Anju and gestured to the river. Smiling back, Anju made her way over to the river and began cleaning the dirty pile of clothes. Regardless of the fact that Anju had hoped she wouldn't bother Sakura by accompanying her presence, nothing was said between the two girls for a long time until Sakura decided to break the silence.
"You don't talk much do you?" Sakura inquired. Anju felt her cheeks burn bright red out of embarrassment and she looked down. When she had met the strangers from the Land of Fire for the first time she had adrenaline running through her system and was in warrior mode but now that she saw these people as no threat she wasn't sure what to say or how to act around them.
"I'm sorry I'm not very good at talking to people." Anju admitted, continuing with her duty. The sound of movement made the disowned Tsukiko daughter to look up and see her female companion had taken some of the dirty clothes and began to help washing them. The silence between them continued for a long time until the washing was down. "Thank you for your assistance and I'm sorry about my brother Surin, he's a total dick." Anju smiled, as she folded up the clothes.
"It was no problem at all, thank you for lending me the paper and ink earlier." Sakura grinned back while placing the last piece of clothing on the small pile. Unknown to Anju a small bond of friendship had just formed between the Tsukiko warrior and the Cherry Blossom.
