"The nara clan... specializes in shadow technics... manipulation and possession. I don't know what do you think Neko?" Neko mewed softly. "Yeah I think we'll try another one..." she scans the scroll. "The Huyga clan... All members born into this clan possess the Byakugan, a kekkei genkai that gives them extended fields of vision and the ability to see through solid objects and even the chakra circulatory system, amongst other things, and expel chakra from any of the tenketsu in their body... oh that sounds neat but I feel like I wouldn't quite fit in there... right Neko? I don't think that's something I can just learn." the cat mewed again and Kiku looked for another family. "Bug manipulation... that's sounds creepy... next!" the kitten mewed in agreement. "oh hey that's Kiba's family there the Inuzuka clan... but being surrounded by dogs all the time could get very out of hand for us... I think we'll find somebody else... although... it was sure a good thing they came when they did..." the cat meowed and stretched her legs and laid down.
"I don't think I see anything in this stupid scroll!" she yells and throws it down on the floor. "What does he want me to do if I don't like anything from that list." the kitten jumps up in the window and meowed. "What Neko?" Kiku walks over to the window and looks out. "I wonder who that is... I've never seen that boy before..." she stares down at the training grounds not far from the hospital. "Maybe we should go see what he's up too? I mean down there by himself kicking that stump must be pretty boring..." she picks up Nekomari and heads down stairs and then out the front door towards the place where she had seen the boy.
"If I cannot do 100 kicks... then I will do 1,000 pushups." the boy was chanting over and over as he counted the amount of times he kicked the stump. "Excuse me... I'm sorry if I'm interrupting... but I thought you might like some company..." Kiku stood a few feet away from the boy. The boy turned quickly towards her. "I am Rock lee! And I am training to become a splendid ninja using only tijutsu!" he started kicking the stump again. "Tijutsu? But that only one of three skills a ninja can have... why not use tijutsu and genjutsu?" the boy stopped kicking and looked down. "Because I cannot..." Kiku looked surprised. "Really?" lee looked at Kiku. "Perhaps you would like to do some training exercises with me?" he got in a battle ready position. "Um... I guess... what kind of training... the clone thing they have us doing at school so we can become Genin?" she asked putting Nekomari down on the ground. "Fist to fist combat! It's the only thing I can do." he charged at Kiku who wasn't expecting him to be so fast.
Lee blew past her with ease and landed a kick to her back sending her face down into the dirt. "owww..." she groaned on the ground. "Sorry were you not ready?" "No its fine I just didn't know you were so fast. That's one heck of a kick... whatever you're doing is working..." "I train tirelessly for hours a day! I eat sleep and breath training to make my sensei proud!" she raised an eyebrow "but don't you get tired?" lee turned and looked up at the sky. "This training will make me the strongest tijutsu user in the 5 great nations. I cannot afford to rest when so much work has yet to be done." She smiled a bit thinking of how her father used to say the same thing. (Why would I stop training when there's so much work that I still have to do.) "My dad used to say that... but I never really understood what it meant."
"If you don't mind I need to get back to my training." lee said turning around and started kicking the stump again. "Well good luck lee... I guess I'll see you around." Kiku turned and began to walk up the road. She walked to the remains of her old home. "Well I don't know where we are going to go Neko but maybe we should do like lee and get in as much training as possible." Kiku said looking at the cat. "we've been practicing chakra control in class and the art of cloning yourself... it's pretty easy but we should still practice anyway." she put her hands together and started to draw on her chakra then popped a clone of herself next to her.
"Look Neko I did it!" she smiled and then remembered when she had shown her mother that same move and how she had congratulated Kiku on being able to do a clone. Kiku was sad that she would not be able to receive praise from her parents anymore. "come on Neko... let's go see if anything survived the fire... maybe some of mom or dads stuff is still there." she climbed through the boarded up gate and squeezed her way into the small village. She walked down the path of wat was once her home. "Everything's all burned up... there's not a single building left standing... this is horrible." she walked to the main house where her and her family had lived. She pushed some burned wood out of the way and stepped into the remaining frame of the house. "There's nothing left here... but it won't hurt to look."
She searched the remains of the kitchen and found nothing. She tried the remains of the living room and still found nothing. "Man there's nothing here not a single thing." she headed back for the front door and the floor cracked under her feet and gave in. "what the!?" she fell into an underground room. "What is this place? I didn't know we had a basement." she looked around eyes adjusting to the dim light in the room. She walked forward into the darkness curious what she might find. Suddenly lanterns on the wall came on and lit the room up. "What is this? The lights just came on by themselves." Kiku continues to walk down the lit up path. "Man this hallway sure is long... I wonder what's down there."
At the bottom of the long pathway there is a door. "Neko... what do you thinks in there?" Nekomari looks at the door. "Yeah... the only way we'll find out is if we open It." she reaches for the door knob and turns it slowly. She walked into a small room lined with shelves that were filled with books. "Wow Neko... look at all these books... there must be a hundred of them." she walked to the small table in the middle of the room and picked up a metal box that was laying on the table. "I wonder what's in here?" she opened the box and took out the book that was inside. "Katsu clan jutsu book?" she open to the first page and thumbed through quickly. "Neko! Do you know what this is! it's the clans jutsu book that documents our keka genkai! And other jutsu members of the clan can use!" she looked at the other books on the shelves. "These are research books?" Nekomari runs to the door. "yeah I was thinking it was about time we got out of here, but I think I'll take this book with me..." she turned back to the table and saw a picture of her with her mother and father and their cats from back when she had first gotten Neko. "I think I might take this with me too."
-Outside the clan gate-
"Well Neko, I still don't know where we will be staying but at least I have this book now. I should start practicing right away!" she sat down by the gate and began reading the book. "There's all kinds of neat jutsu here... let's see..." she flipped to the end of the book. "Hey there's even a little written history in the back of this book." she began reading it out loud.
The katsu clan history
The history of the katsu clan began with the forming of a great clan of cats and dogs alike. However the peace within the formed clan did not last as the cat lovers would always fight with the dog lovers. And so the great leader of the clans decided to split the groups in two and separate them to keep peace between both clans, and he named these clans katsu and Inuzuka.
But it wasn't long before the clans began to fight again this time over the amount of land each clan was given by the leader. The katsu clan elected a primary leader to cut the rule the Inuzuka had over them. And the Inuzuka clan raised up against this leader claiming that the katsu clan was ungrateful for the land which their leader had given them.
A civil war began among the two clans that day. But no matter how many battles were fought the katsu clan never won. In order to save what remaining people they had the leader decided to make a deal with the Inuzuka clan. For both clans to live in peace the katsu clan vowed they would build a civilization on the far side of the leaf village so that no more fighting would happen.
So the leader gathered the remains of his clan and moved them across the village. And they re-built their homes and lived in peace.
"The katsu clan used to be joined with the Inuzuka clan... wow I had no idea..." Neko mewed softly and looked into the trees. "Yeah I can sense it too... somebody's watching us..." Kiku looked up at the tree tops. "I know your there you can't fool these cat senses so you might as well come out." a shadow figure jumped down out of the tree's and landed in front of her. After a moment it stepped forward to reveal the boy from her class whom she had sat behind. "How did you know I was there?" the boy said scowling at her. "I am a katsu after all you didn't think that I wouldn't be able to sense you? Did you?" she said looking back at her book. "Don't you wonder why I'm watching you? Do you even care?"
She looked back at him. "What do you mean? I figured you just decided to stop and watch me sit here..." the boy turned around and scoffed. "Not entirely. You know my whole clan was wiped out too." she stared at him and thought back. "uchiha... so that's what the Hokage meant by problem with the uchiha clan..." the boy looked back at Kiku. "Yes I am Sasuke uchiha... the last uchiha." her eye widened. "Your home was destroyed too?" he looked at her his eyes began to fill with sorrow. "Not the way yours was but similarly. My clan was destroyed by my older brother... I'm the only one left." he turned away and stamped his foot into the ground making a small crater. "That awful... why would he do something like that?"
"How should I know... but I saw him... and I will have my revenge." he looked angrily at the sky. "You hear me Itachi! I will get stronger and one day I will come for you!" Kiku was started to get scared of the energy Sasuke was beginning to give off. "Um... Sasuke... are you ok?" he turned and jumped back into the trees and yelled back down to her. "I only came to see if itachi destroyed this place. But it seems like this was caused by something else. So I have nothing left to say to you." then he disappeared. "What a strange boy..."
Kiku stood up and began walking down the road back towards the town. "It's starting to get dark Neko... what should we do? I don't want to tell the Hokage I couldn't make my mind up." Neko sniffed the air and started walking off the path. Kiku followed Neko until they stopped in the middle of town. "What is it Neko?" Neko looked up at a close by building and Kiku followed her gaze. "The trouble making kid from our class that always gets Kiba in trouble... what was his name... Naruto? Yeah that sounds right. I wonder what he's doing up there?" Naruto was sitting on a railing near the top of an apartment building. "Is that what you dragged me over here for Neko?" Neko scratched the top of her head with her back paws and then continued on. "Lead the way Neko."
Finally and hour after night fall they stopped. "well this might be as good a place as any to rest... it's not far from the school and it looks like this hallow truck might have just enough space for the both of us..." she sat down under the tree. "I'm sure this will be fine I mean I would hate to be a burden on someone's family... and I didn't really see anybody on that list that I wanted to live with..." Kiku pulled the katsu clan jutsu book out of her backpack and opened it to the first page.
Jutsu one man beast transformation
The art which allows a person to become an animal or an animal to become a person for as long as the user of the jutsu wishes. This is the art which give the clan the ability to connect chakras with another to form other jutsu like the claw over claw and the method of changing into one massive beast. This art can also be used on a clone.
Kiku read the jutsu and looked at Neko. "It says here that we should be able to change you into a copy of me... I guess that means I could turn you into a clone of me?" she placed her hands together to draw on her chakra. "Feline art! Man beast transformation!" but nothing happened. She tried again but still nothing. "ok one more time and we'll call it a night." just as she was about to draw on her chakra lee came through the trees on his hands followed by somebody else who was older but looked just like him. "Lee? Is that you? What are you doing?" lee lost his balance and fell backwards being startled by Kiku. The older man stopped and pushed himself into the air and landed on his feet. "Come on now lee you have to learn to keep your balance..." "I'm sorry Gai sensei I will do better I promise!" he jumped up and stood in a salute to his sensei. "Gai sensei? So this is the teacher of yours you spoke about when we talked outside the hospital. "Oh my friend Kiku. How surprising to see you outside still and not in bed like everyone else? Perhaps you are doing some kind of late night training?"
Gai looked at her and noticed the book. "No lee I think she's just reading..." Kiku closed the book and turned red. "Actually I was training... but it doesn't seem like I'm able to do this jutsu right now..." lee looked up at Gai. "Sir! Perhaps she should join us in our pursuit to walk around the leaf village on our hands!" Kiku and Neko exchanged a worried glance. "Um... no I'm fine I don't..." "Well lee I don't see why not... but isn't tomorrow big clone jutsu test? You are still in school aren't you young friend?" she gasped realizing she had completely forgotten. "Your right! Tomorrow is the big test! And if I fail I won't get to become a Genin!"
Gai looked back at lee. "Perhaps another time lee she needs to rest now let's get back to work!" they both jumped back onto their hands and started on again. After they disappeared into the brush she took a deep breath. "How could I forget something so important... tomorrow will decide if I am ready to train or not..." and I'll be able to accept jobs from the Hokage and actually make money. I can't afford to fail... because..." her stomach rumbles loudly. "I can't fail because if I do... I'll starve..." Neko cuddled up next to her and closed her eyes. Very soon they had both drifted off to sleep.
