Tigara's Tale

Tigara's Tale

An Offshoot of Nari's Story

By Dawn Loge

Disclaimer:

Sadly, I don't own Naruto, I do, however, own Tigara and Ari and my sister owns Nari and several other original characters. Please have the consideration to not use them; I don't use your characters, so don't use mine or my sister's.

I have my sister's permission to use her characters, since she is also helping me with this story, otherwise, this would be rather boring.

Chapter 4

Suna

They reached Suna around ten the next morning, set up camp outside the village, and went into town. Their first stop was an antique shop to unload the silver. They haggled over the price and when they walked out, they had 100,000. Konan took about 10,000 to get supplies after they stopped at a restaurant for lunch. Tigara went to a candy store first, then to the tobacco store. She picked up Christmas presents for most of the guys next. Her last stop was a jeweler. She sold the jewelry she had gotten from her family's home, except for a few pieces that she liked. She then got some presents for Konan and Pein.

On her way back to camp, Tigara spotted two children running through the sand. She decided to sit and watch them for a while. One of them, a little girl with hair the color of a raven's wing and eyes that could only be described as mesmerizing, spotted her and came over.

"Hi. I'm Nari. This is Gaara. We're playing ninja and I'm winning."

Gaara whined, "You are not."

Nari stuck her tongue out at the boy, saying, "Yes, I am." To Tigara she said, "Wanna play? You can be on Gaara's team, since I'm winning."

Tigara laughed, "Well, I'm Tigara, and I don't think it would be fair if I was on a team, why don't you two pair up against me?"

Nari put her hands on her small hips and said, "Because I'm winning and if Gaara and I teamed up, we'd be unstoppable."

Tigara asked, "Then why don't we each be our own teams? That way, no one has to feel like they're weaker than anyone else?"

Gaara said, "That sounds like an idea to me."

Nari threw her hands in the air and huffed, "Fine, but just so you know, you're both toast."

Tigara thought, "That's what you think, little lady."

The three played for about an hour and a half before the younger two started throwing jutsus around that made Tigara step up her game. Nari said, "I've wanted to try this ever since I saw my cousin use it last year." She did the necessary hand signs and threw a jutsu at Tigara that she immediately recognized and dodged.

Tigara, getting up and dusting herself off, asked, "Just who is your cousin, Nari?"

Nari said proudly, "Uchiha Itachi. He made Chunin last summer, along with a couple of other people."

Tigara smirked, "I thought I recognized that jutsu. He used it against me too."

Nari's jaw almost hit the sand, "You mean you were the one that he battled in the final round?! I didn't recognize you."

Tigara said, "Not many do. Anyway, I gotta go, my partner is meeting me outside the village in a little while. I'll see you tomorrow, we'll be here for a few days, I hope."

Outside the village, Konan paced next to their camp. Tigara was over an hour late. When the little girl finally showed up, Konan shook her by the shoulders, "Where have you been? I've been worried sick."

Tigara pried the older girl's hands off of her, saying, "I was playing with a couple kids. One of them is the cousin of the boy that I battled in the final round of the Chunin Exams last year."

"How much did you get for the jewelry?"

"I decided to keep a few pieces, but I got 50,000 for the rest of it."

"May I see what you decided to keep?"

Tigara pulled out four matching sets of earrings, bracelets, and necklaces; the only difference in the sets was the stones in each one, one had rubies, one had amethysts, the third had sapphires, and the fourth was emeralds. She explained, "These belonged to my mother and her sisters. I kinda thought I'd keep one, give one to Ari, and the other two would go to a couple friends of mine."

Konan asked slyly, "Am I one of the friends?"

"Of course, silly; you can pick any of them but the amethysts, that one's mine."

Konan picked up the ruby set and put it on, "Thank you, Baby Bird."

They had supper and sacked out for the night. The next morning, they were rather rudely awakened by laughter coming from not far away. Konan immediately had a kunai in her hand, but Tigara kept her from throwing it, saying, "I recognize that laugh, it's the girl from yesterday. May I go play?"

Konan put the kunai back into her pouch, saying, "Eat some breakfast first, then go ahead. We're leaving in the morning."

Tigara ate quickly and then ran off to play with the two younger children. She caught up to them and said, "Hey, guys. I'd like to give you something, if you want it."

Nari asked, "What is it?"

Tigara handed Gaara a carnelian ring and held up the two necklaces, saying, "Pick one, Nari."

Nari said, "I want the green one. It matches my eyes."

Tigara helped the little girl put the necklace on, and then pulled out the earrings and bracelet, saying, "It's a set, I have one too, only mine's amethysts. This way, we'll always know each other when we see each other."

Nari looked up, confused, "What do you mean?"

Tigara looked at the ground sadly, and said, "I have to leave tomorrow morning."

Gaara's lip twitched into what could only be described as an attempted smile, and said, "Then we had better get busy then. We want to have as much fun with you as we can."

Tigara clapped the boy on the shoulder and took off running, saying, "You're it!"

Gaara chased the two girls, eventually catching Nari, making her it. They played tag for over three hours before Gaara's uncle came out to get the younger two for lunch. Nari said, "Can our friend join us? We're gonna play some more after."

The man said, "I think that'll be fine. Does she need to tell anyone where she'll be?"

Tigara said, "No, my friend knows I'm playing with these two. I don't have to meet back up with her until just before dark."

The three played for the rest of the day, until it was time for Tigara to go, then it was a very tear-filled goodbye.

Konan and Tigara left the next morning before sunup and arrived back at the lair just before noon the following day, at the same time as the rest of the guys got back from their respective missions. Zetsu asked, "And just where have you two been?"

Tigara was bouncing on her toes and Konan said, "We just got back from her first real mission. Why don't you guys go wash up upstairs, we'll surprise Pein and tell him that you guys are back too."

They split up, Konan and Tigara going through the garden and the guys through the front door. Pein was fixing himself a sandwich when the girls came in. "Hey, you two. I didn't expect you back for a couple more days yet."

Konan said, "Full mission accomplished. We did what we set out to do and Baby Bird made a couple friends in Suna."

Pein said, "Oh, really? Who?"

Tigara shrugged, "Just a couple of kids. By the way, the guys are back too."

Just as she finished the sentence, all five guys came in. Pein said, "Reports, gentlemen?"

Orochimaru and Kisame said simultaneously, "Mission accomplished."

Pein turned back to his sandwich, saying, "Well, let's eat lunch while Tigara shares what she did."

They all fixed their plates and Tigara handed Pein her file. He opened it and moved the pictures. "Birth certificate, you hang on to that one, Baby Bird…Medical record, we'll give that to the medic next time she's here…Education record, that's what I wanted to see…Entered Academy at four, graduated at six…Transformation, Excellent…this one's not usually taught, Animal Transformation, Excellent…Weapons, not trained…Water Clones, Excellent…Other jutsus merely passable…Chunin Exams at seven, one of only two that year to achieve the rank…Akimoto Tigara and Uchiha Itachi battled in final round, both passed out, Uchiha from Chakra drain, Akimoto due to low blood sugar, her family probably knows…Obviously they didn't or they just didn't explain the situation to you…Killed her clan 6/23/88, leaving only her sister, age two…Classified S-class 6/24/88…Well, it looks like you have some pictures here, I'm guessing Konan is going to help you put them into an album. What else did you…Never mind, you listed it out. Well, it would appear that you got a handsome amount for the silver, the jewelry I would have thought you'd get more for. Why did you only get fifty thousand?"

Tigara swallowed and said, "I decided to keep some of the pieces."

Pein asked, "May I see the pieces you decided to keep?"

Tigara spread out eighteen rings, saying, "Each of you get one, because I don't know when your birthdays are, including you, Konan." Pein picked out a garnet; Konan chose a ruby; Kisame got a blue diamond; Zetsu picked a tiger's eye; Orochimaru selected an onyx; Hidan chose an alexandrite; and Sasori picked an opal. Tigara put the rest back and said, "I'll give one to any new members that join, too. That way, it'll be like a link, another way to recognize each other. If you'll notice, they all have a different symbol engraved in the top of the stone. These rings were specific to my family; they were the ones who put the symbols on them. They were the only ones who knew the meanings of the symbols. Mine's an amethyst with the symbol for spirit. If you want, I'll tell you what your symbols mean." They all nodded. "Pein, yours is wolf, it was my father's. Konan, yours is fox, it belonged to my mother. Orochimaru-sama, you got the snake, it was my grandfather's. Kisame's is fish, it belonged to my grandmother. Zetsu's is tree; it belonged to my father's brother. Hidan, you got the phoenix, it was my mother's sister's. Sasori got the rock; it belonged to my father's sister. Mine has been mine since the day I was born."

They finished lunch in silence. The next few months fell into a comfortable routine. Tigara went on a few more missions with Konan, but otherwise she trained.