"Oh, I see! So you woke up and found yourself on our ship!" said the very understanding man as the little child in front of him spilled out all that had happened through mouthfuls of ramen.
"Aha! Oh, sorry I bumped into you before, I was just too excited to see the ocean that I wasn't watching where I was going!" the bubblegum haired child apologized.
She tilted the large bowl of ramen to pour the remaining soup into her mouth.
"Wow, you sure were hungry!" the man said with a wide grin.
The girl placed the empty bowl onto the table. "More please!"
"More? You mean you weren't filled with that one?" he asked amazed.
Her once glittering emerald eyes changed to an empty dry green, though she tried to hide it with a broad smile. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be a burden. I'm fine. Really…"
"No!" the man said frantically waving his hands in front of him to help prove his innocence. "I didn't mean it like that. It's just that I didn't think someone as small as you would be able to eat so much! I find it rather refreshing!"
The pink haired girl just blinked at him.
"You see," he started, "only our captain eats a whole lot of food, so I'm usually only allowed to make small portions. That is just a waste to me. Why eat so little when you can enjoy a whole lot! But I never thought a girl of your size could eat a bowl that's almost as big as you and still be hungry! It makes me so happy!"
"It's because Mister's food is the best! It tastes so good! I can't help but want to eat more! Mister is so lucky!"
"Huh? Why is that?" he asked dumbfounded.
The little girl looked him over.
The young man was leaning on the table with his chin resting on his clenched hand. He was normal looking, but not like anything she had seen in her life! His hair was long and wild, and looked exactly like the mane of a strong lion. She wasn't quite sure if it was a natural birthmark or if he had tattoos, but on the sides of each cheek was a red swirl. But the one thing that the girl found most enviable was the fact that…
"You're fat!" she said with a bright smiling grin.
The man clenched his hands at his sides and tried to control the anger that was bubbling inside him…it wasn't much use.
"I'M NOT FAT, OKAY! I'M JUST A LITTLE CHUBBY!" he bellowed at her.
She froze, stunned by the outburst of the now wheezing man.
"Mm," she said gently turning her head from side to side in denial, "Mister is lucky because he is so big! I bet every time Mister asks for food he gets a lot! I on the other hand…people take one look at me and think I'm a scrawny non eating girl and only give me small amounts." she said in a small, almost depressed manner.
The man calmed his breathing.
"You think being chubby is a good thing?"
"Of course!" the girl yelled rising out of her chair to place her hands on the table. "Chubby people can eat all they want and have proof that they love food! But people like me can't show how much they love to eat! So that's why… that's why Mister is so lucky!"
The man smiled. "You really are something, aren't you?"
She stared at him confused.
"Something? No, I'm not. I'm just me!" she sang happily tilting her head to the side that made the man blush at her adorableness.
"Um…Mister…?" she asked innocently.
"The names not Mister, kid, it's Chouji, Chouji Akimichi." he said with a proud grin.
The young girl's face lit up with an even brighter smile. "Chouji! That's a nice name! It's so cool sounding!"
Chouji blushed once again at being called cool.
"Hey, what's your name? You haven't told me." he asked with a small laugh at his forgetfulness.
The girl traced her fingers over the cuts edged into the table. "I don't know. I don't have one." she said happily.
Chouji looked at her in a new way now…in a way almost like pity.
"Didn't your parents give you a name?" Chouji asked in a concerned voice.
She looked at him and tilted her head to the side as another smile crept its way up her face. "I don't know my parents!"
"Not even your father? What about your mother?"
The little girl looked deep in thought as she tried to remember anything about her parents.
"Well, this old man said the Mamma died when I was born, and then he said something about me being such a demon that Daddy committed something called…suicide…I think…was that the word he used? I don't know what any of those things mean though."
Chouji just stared at her, not quite sure how he should react.
The pink haired innocence blinked at him in a curious way. "Is something wrong Chouji?"
"N-No! I'll go make you another bowl of ramen now, I'll make it twice as big and with pork too!" he said with a fake smile.
"Really!" she gasped in delight. "I would love that! Thank you Chouji! You really are the best!"
"And don't you forget it." he said with a cocky tone.
The next few minutes were spent with Chouji making the new bowl of ramne, and the child watching him make it with a fascination stronger than she had ever felt before.
"Amazing! Chouji makes his food so delicately!"
"Of course, if you don't take time in making your food you only get a half hearted edible substance, but if you take your time and make everything to perfection you can make the most delicious food that will leave customers filled with happiness!"
"Wa? Chouji, did you run a ramen shop before? You know exactly what you're doing!" she bubbled as the man precisely and adequately cut perfectly proportionate pieces of meat.
He smiled as his past memories flooded into his head.
"Yeah, me and my family-the Akimichi clan-specialize in food. My parents and I used to run a shop when I was still a young boy. It was always filled with customers because our food was well known for being the most delectable throughout the whole village I lived in. We served barbeque, ramen, and had a bakery and butcher shop in the back of our house. It was always so lively."
"Oh, I knew you were amazing but this is incredible!"
Chouji looked at her for a quick moment before returning to his work.
"It's nothing, really. Anyone could learn it if they studied long enough." he said quietly as he passed the finished product over to the girl.
She gladly accepted, but with slightly less enthusiasm.
"That's not true." The pinky said determinedly. "There have been many people in Port Angels that have tried to run a proper food shop, and none have come to be as good as you, even with all their training. You have a gift!" she announced proudly as she slurped at the ramen without using chopsticks. "A very, very delicious gift!"
At seeing such a young girl filled with unwavering determination, Chouji couldn't help but laugh.
"CHOUJI!"
Both Chouji and the pinkette were surprised by the sudden outburst of a blonde haired teen stomping into the eating quarters.
"I'M HUNGRY!"
"I get that Captain, you don't have to yell!" reminded Chouji who had lifted his hands to his ears to try to block out the loudness of the captain.
"I want a ramen with two eggs, pork, and tofu!" he demanded.
"Yeah, yeah, Captain, just try to keep your manners in tact when we have a guest." Chouji reminded his captain again.
The blonde stopped his advancements and looked at the girl behind his cook. She merely blinked innocently and stared at him with a confused and surprised look plastered on her bright face.
"Nice to see you out and about!" he laughed.
"You know her, Captain?" Chouji asked confused.
"Of course I know her. That girls the newest member of our crew!"
"Really!" both surprised members said at the same time.
The blonde captain nodded his head in approval. "Really, truly, absolutely, 100 percent, accurately, real."
"Um…" came a soft voice from behind Chouji.
"Do you disapprove?" the captain dared her.
"No, I'm really happy to belong to this crew…but…what does…"
"What does what?" the captain said threateningly. Chouji sent him a cautious glance to see how angry he was. Luckily he wasn't too angry, but he was very serious, and irritated.
The little girl adjusted herself to look at the captain better. "What does… accurately… mean?" she said slowly trying to sound the word out.
"Without any errors and destined to be flawless in its existence." a monotonous voice came from the door leading to the deck.
"Neji!" the captain wailed as he sped around so fast her nearly tripped. "How is she? Is she getting any better? Is the medicine working?" he demanded.
The long haired man couldn't even look his captain in the eye. "I'm afraid not, sir. I've tried all the fields I know, and she doesn't seem to be responding to them."
The blonde charged forward and grabbed Neji by his shirt collar. "Then find something she will respond too!" he bellowed.
This time Neji stared right into his captain's fury filled eyes. "Don't think you're the only one that's angry about this! I'm her cousin! I care just as much as you do, maybe more, but getting angry isn't going to do anything! You need to think rationally in order to figure out what to do about it! Getting hotheaded is only going to make things more difficult!"
Stunned at the calmness that the desperate crewman displayed, the blonde released his collar and walked away.
"Is someone sick?" the pink haired child asked.
The pale eyes of the man wandered over to the kid. "Yeah, we passed through a tropical island a while ago, she must have caught the virus that's very common over there…but the medicine isn't working. It may already be too late to save her." he stated, hand shaking at the mere thought of loosing his precious cousin.
"How do you know she has the virus?"
Neji stared at her. "She was showing the sings of the virus a few days after we passed through, she wasn't eating as much, had chills, then later on she started having headaches, fevers, and major fatigue. Then she started vomiting a lot, until she finally went unconscious. She still hasn't woken up. All of these are signs of having the virus." he said slowly, as if trying to hide his sadness.
"That alone?" the bubblegum girl said wide eyed.
Neji could hardly contain his rage. "Yes! Do you have any idea how serious this is! She could die! Don't act like death is something so meaningless! Once you're dead you can never come back! It is a fate we cannot escape and it is a fate that is feared because of it!" he finished more calmly, as if coming to realize that his cousin was most likely dying, and that he needed to accept that fact.
The pink girl walked out of the kitchen to the deck, slowly making her way past Neji, and then running full speed once she was passed him.
"Did you have to be so hard on her?" Chouji asked quietly, both Neji and their silent captain looked at the cook. "She didn't mean any harm. She probably feels really bad now."
"She didn't take the situation into consideration." Neji said darkly.
"Neither did you, Neji." their blonde comrade accused. "She's just a kid, she doesn't know anything, she doesn't fully understand."
The man of monotone returned to being his stoic self and replied with a small 'Hn' and left the kitchen as well.
"What's your name?" asked a small child to young woman that appeared to be unconscious. The woman's breathing was heavy and quick, creating beads of sweat over her fever red face just from the mere exercise of it all. "I can't help you unless I know your name." continued the innocent girl as she leaned over to observe the ill crewmember.
"Hinata."
The girl immediately spun around in a moment of shock as an emotionless voice emerged from the darkness of the doorway. The figure stepped closer.
"Her name is Hinata." said the now revealed man with blood red hair as he leaned against the doorframe intently watching the girl.
The pinkette smiled in thanks then turned back toward the sick woman. "Hinata. What a pretty name! It means in the sun, or a sunny place, right?" she said excitedly as she wiped a few strands of the ill woman's short black hair out of her eyes. Once she did so, the woman's eyelids slowly fluttered open revealing a pair of colorless orbs. Though her breathing was still heavy, the woman managed to move her eyes toward the girl to inspect her, slight worry in her eyes.
"It's alright!" the child giggled. "I'm here to help you." with that she dug into her rag like clothes and pulled out what appeared to be a bottle.
The figure at the door seemed to lean forward defensively, as if preparing to attack.
"This was given to my by a healer in a village I once lived in a long time ago. It is a very good herbal remedy, and it helps especially to immediately heal people with your illness." she said calmly letting her smile shine throughout her eyes.
The woman's face cracked into a look of panic at the mention of illness.
"Ah, don't worry. It's nothing serious. Though I suppose it could be… You merely have a case of dehydration." the rosette announced as she placed the opening to the bottle to Hinata's mouth.
Hinata was hesitant to drink it at first, in fear of a terrible flavor, but as soon as the first drop touched her lips, a sense of peace swept through her and she found the taste of it rather delightful, like honey and cinnamon, and she soon drank the whole bottle.
Though she did not know it, the man who had been watching her at the door had come to realize just how strange this girl was. Not only had she pink hair, but her medical skills proved far past Neji's when she immediately realized that Hinata was dehydrated, not with a virus, not to mention the fact that she was able to heal her so fast, or even make her open her eyes without doing anything but touch her.
Confused as he was, Gaara kept on observing the scene before him.
The strange healer knelt down and sat on the wood floor and rested her hand on Hinata's own pale hand. "You need to rest now, for the medicine to take full effect…so, I'm going to tell you a story to help you sleep."
Hinata slightly nodded.
The girl took in a breath and closed her eyes, trying to picture the story she was about to tell.
"In the village where I was born, there was a legend. Based in a time when man was first introduced to the world, lost and confused, there was a goddess that was born from the sea. She had no name, and had no true form. She was merely an essence of existence, and felt pity for the lonely humans. Being the merciful goddess she was, she pleaded to the spirits of the land, asking and begging that she, of the waters, would be able to help mankind. The spirits were surprised at her, for water had never before wanted to interfere with creatures of the land, and told her of a sacred place where she could find help for them.
"In the vastness of the world, was an existence that could not be explained, yet it was the most important, and wisest existence of all creation. A tree, made from the beginning chaos of time, whose roots reached all the way through the earth to the other side, an existence that has felt everything from the smallest of emotions, to the creation of the grandest of mountains. The goddess begged once again for the great spirits of the land to tell her where the tree was located, but the spirits said nothing, for they did not know themselves.
"For years the desperate goddess searched for the sacred tree, but to no avail. From her place in the sea she searched along the shores, and rode the storms and wind searching in the deep deserts and the high hills. After 5,000 years of searching, the goddess returned to the sea, knowing that if she had not found the tree by now, then she had been found unworthy of asking for its help. Another 100 years went by, and the goddess was forced to see the sadness of mankind from her faraway waters. When she could bare it no longer, she cast herself to the waves deciding that if she could not help that of man, then she could not be considered a goddess, and therefore she cast away her life. The goddess had never known about death, and had always thought that when one died, they became that of their element, and she would become the foam left by the waves. Left in the darkness of the loneliness of her unneeded existence, even in death, the goddess was still able to feel, and was still forced to learn or man's growing need for help. No one knows for sure how long the goddess stayed as the foam on the waves, all that is known is that she one day saw a great light, and was filled with such hope that she returned to the surface to see what had happened. Before her was a giant tree that reached up to the sun itself, and down below the waves, all the way to the blackest of depths. Tear of joy filled her eyes at finally being able to find the sacred tree. When she had returned to her dignified state, she asked of the tree to save mankind of the cruelties they are facing, the loneliness, the darkness, the inability to feel what others around them felt. The tree obliged and cast a great mist around the world. All was calm. Man was given the power of empathy for its fellow man, and was able to see the brightness of the sun for the first time, but also, they were able to see the beauty of the vast ocean around them. It was then the first pirates voyaged through the seas. Not to pillage and rob, but to fight for their existence, and to feel the glory of being alive.
"The goddess, proud of the new humans, showed them of her existence, and they were not afraid. However, humans themselves can never be truly happy, and those of the land and those of the sea were bitter enemies. When the free pirates made port, those of the land captured them and sacrificed them to the water goddess, who they had learned of through old sailors. With the blood of her precious pirates spilt in an offering to her, the goddess became weak and full of hate. She vowed that she would never allow those of the land to harms her precious seamen ever again. When another sacrificial ritual was preformed, the goddess broke free of her bonds with the land men, and cruelly slaughtered those who had dared call her their goddess, when they were not her precious humans. They say she disappeared after that, and returned to the sea, forever protecting her pirates from those who were caused them harm on land, in a world meant only for those who loved the ocean. In a place that one must have the strength of the originally pirates, the original sea demons, a place so dangerous that it is to this day, the very entrance to the place feared, called Hell's Gate."
With the finished story, the girl realized that the woman had fallen into a deep sleep, and that her breathing had returned to its natural easy inhales and exhales. A pleased smile spread across her lips, and she soon found that her own eyes were very heavy. Before she could help it, she too had fallen into a deep sleep, head resting on the cured woman's stomach.
Gaara, seeing the two females asleep, left the room to report to his captain.
"What? You mean Hinata is fully healed! Isn't that great Naruto, Captain, sir!" The brunette cried happily.
"Yeah, really great," their captain said, wiping away tears falling from his eyes. The whole crew, besides the two sleeping, had been assembled on the deck. Gaara had explained to them about Hinata's miraculous recovery once the pinkette had fed her a remedy made to cure dehydration.
"Thank God." Neji sighed in relief. Chouji set down a bowl of ramen in front of him to help relieve him of the stress that had built up inside him. He repeated this process until everyone had a large steaming bowl in front of them.
"Don't worry Tenten, I made yours smaller, so don't worry about not being able to finish it again." Chouji announced. Tenten smiled and began to eat.
The blonde girl broke apart her chopsticks. "Thanks a lot Chouji, you know just how to calm us down through your cooking." she complimented.
Chouji sped away to do the dishes in order to hide his blush. "Anytime Ino." he called back.
"There is one thing that bothers me about that girl." Gaara suddenly said, startling the whole crew.
"What would that be?" asked Ino innocently as she lifted another string of ramen into her mouth.
He was glaring at the floor, arms crossed, as if in defense consentration. "To help Hinata get to sleep, she told her a story about the goddess of the sea and the spirits of the land. Judging by the legend's content, it's obvious she's originally from Damon's Island, where the legend is told as a fairy tale to children. However, there is one thing that those islanders do not know about, yet she did." he continued suspiciously.
Naruto leaned forward to better hear Gaara. "Something she shouldn't know? What do you mean?"
Gaara looked up from the floor with a fierce look in his glaring eyes. "She knew about the sacred tree."
Nearly everyone froze at the statement.
Naruto dropped his chopsticks in his moment of shock.
"You're kidding right?" Tenten said hopefully.
Gaara glared at her.
"…but then that means…" Neji added in with a serious tone.
"But… Captain…I thought we were the only ones that have made it back from Hell's Gate." Ino said in a fearful tone.
Their blonde captain leaned forward and placed his elbows on the table, interlocking his fingers in deep thought.
"It appears" Naruto started with a dangerous tone, "that we are no longer the only monsters of the ocean…"
So, what did you think? Please review! I think I already told you about my syndrome…and it's kinda depressing if people just read and don't leave comments or reviews…cuz then I feel like my story was bad and people just looked at it before closing out right away…
Anyway, I'll try and update soon, though I can't promise anything…though it won't take near as long as it has to upload this chapter. Why? Cuz I am now in love with my own plotline.