Disclaimer: Check my name and get the answer yourself, will 'ya?
Chapter 4
Nala slowly paced in the early morning quiet of the village, an equally slow rising sun supplying her with the light needed to read the letter time and again. It was Monday, a day for learning and socializing, but she didn't care to show at the academy. She would be graduating in a week anyway, so attending would really b a waste of time. Showing a tiny smirk she realized the irony of her tangent in thought, her whole time at the academy was a waste of time seeing that she knew all the skills needed to graduate. Letting the quick smirk fade as quickly as it had come, she returned to once again rereading her letter.
Don't decide now, I'll let you have two days so you can think it over.
The words that she heard yesterday echoed in her mind. Two days to decide on her whole future wasn't even near enough for the trained killer. Walking past a ramen stand she stoped dead in her tracks. Even though it was still an early morning, she was hungry because she practically missed out on dinner last night, and ramen was a quick and inexpensive way to fill her stomach. She turned around and walked in.
"Oi! Nala, I haven't seen you for a while. How have you been?" The old man treated her. Faking a smile, Nala looked into his eyes flashing an unnoticeable Sharingan to stop the impending flow of questions. After all the Sharingan had its advantages outside of battle, like implanting thoughts in people's minds. It was a quick way to get rid of any unwanted questions and enjoy her meal in peace.
"I have felt better before, but nothing significant these past few days. One bowl of Miso Ramen, please!" She sat down, not wanting to thing about her situation, yet the thoughts kept coming back to her.
In the ninja world, those who don't abide by the rules are trash. But those abandon their friends are even lower than trash. Kakashi once said that to her, during her second mission with his team. Leaving Konoha would feel like abandoning her friends in need and from years of missions she knew that there would always be something that required her help.
The only real purpose of power is to protect. Get stronger so you can protect, not destroy. Shuichi, one of the survivors told her after the massacre. The power born for this purpose is the purest and strongest one. Nala wasn't certain whether Hogwarts would give her this power or not. Hogwarts might be the way to become stronger than Itachi so she could make him pay for all the pain he made his family went through.
"I guess that there is nothing wrong if I leave them for a couple of months since they're not in any danger or it looks like that they will be in the nearest future, seeing that Hokage would look after them while I'm be gone." She thought as the hot bowl of noodles was set before her, its rich odor reaching her sensitive nose.
"Hey, Nala! Busted!" Nala heard a familiar voice behind her, but instead of the usual feeling of trepidation running down her spine she ignored the obnoxious voice. Opting that the owner of the voice wasn't even worth a passing glance, she took out a pair of chopsticks, and after splitting them perfectly down the middle muttered 'Itedakimasu' before digging into her steaming hot ramen.
Iruka, still standing behind her, got a little bit confused. Nala was her star student along with Sasuke, but unlike Sasuke, she did few pranks from time to time, probably just for the heck of it. She liked sneaking out of the classroom and was amazingly good at it, he would never realize that she was gone. If he ever caught her out of the classroom, she usually started running and laughing until he caught her and dragged her back to the classroom. But today, she didn't even glanced his way, let alone respond to him, was something wrong? Baffled, he came closer and when she still didn't run off, he decided get a seat next to her, slightly concerned about her health.
"Oh, Good Morning, Iruka-sansei." she mumbled in a low voice verging on depression, a trait in it which was very unlike her. "Would you like some ramen? It's my treat." she continued with an air of indifference. From Iruka's point of view, she had the air of the undead - there, but not really aware of her surroundings. A condition due to her currently one track mind that refused to ponder anything but her current dilemma. Needless to say, Iruka didn't understand this sudden change in behaviors but wrote it off as the enigma that is the female race, after all he had enough experience with them to understand that he didn't understand anything about them. .
"Nala, lets go back to class again, ne? I'm going to leave you off with a warning this time, I'm feeling charitable so if you come with me now, there'll be no detention." Iruka joked in an almost hopping voice.
"I'm sorry, Iruka-sensei, but I have a lot to think about, ja ne." With a puff a smoke, she left behind some money and a very confused Iruka.
Materializing on Yondaime's head at the Hokage monument -her favourite place to think- she sat down to glance at the village before her. Nala couldn't think of leaving this place, the thought was too absurd to her. She lived here for her whole life and was prepared to give her life for the village any time, so why should she leave?
"I will tell you this only once, kid." Kyuubi got her attention. "In that world, there is a piece of you that you need to become whole. It will also help you realize a montage of thoughts that your memory has forsaken."
"Now even you are turning against me?" Nala chased away the thought of tears. She couldn't cry, she was a ninja, she don't have emotions. Letting a sigh escape her soft lips she succumbed to the feeling of the gentle wind playing with her hair.
"Your right, the thousands year old tyrant demon and lord of the biju is turning on you, poor, poor little girl. Just take my advice, I have my reasons and if I'm being helpful it's best you listen."
"Tell me what happened?" Nala tried to convince Kyuubi again even though she knew it was hopeless. Once a demon made up its mind, nothing could change it. Kyuubi stood quiet for few seconds, and then responded, a hint of playfulness in its voice.
"You want to find out? Accept the mission."
"I feel like this is one of Kakashi's tests." Nala got lost in the past for few seconds. She remembered how he sent different ninjas after her to test her ninjutsu, taijustu and genjutsu abilities. He also made her take the imitations of chuunin and gennin exams to find out where she stood in regards to intelligence. "He always made me make difficult decisions just to test if I was worthy of the rank. This feels like one of the decisions he would make me think about."
"If it really was a test that Kakashi would be putting you through, what would you do?"
Nala thought about this for a second, closing her eyes. She became oblivious to everything around her, going through all the possibilities, as if it really was only a test. There was new spirit in her eyes as she opened them and said out loud:
"Accept the mission." Standing up again, she decided to take the stairs down. She didn't have her mask on, so if anyone happened to see her running down the Hokage monument, she could get in quite a lot of trouble. It would also help her clear her head a little more as she decided what to do.
Keeping the fact that she wasn't delighted by the idea of going in mind, she decided she would not go without "special" privileges.
"What kind of things are you planning on demanding from them?" Kyuubi asked, interested in what ludicrous things her container would demand.
"Sorry Kyuubi, but I'm not going overboard this time." Nala jeered with a smirk. "They did say that I will also be responsible for protecting the student body, right?" When Kyuubi sighed in confirmation, Nala continued with her theory. "That means that I will have to be in top shape, so I thought about demanding a room where I could train and full access to the school grounds as there are bound to be forbidden places. Then few more minor conditions , but without them, I'm not going."
"Your plan is sick, sneaky, evil,… I'm so proud." Kyuubi finally felt some relation to Nala, because if she was her place, Kyuubi would do exactly the same. They continued down the stairs in a comfortable silence, Nala fully occupied with thinking about new benefits for her.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Nala mentally sighed. The discussion had gone on long enough and she wondered if it really was a good idea to accept this mission, even if they did give into all her pathetic demands. She wondered why did Dumbledore wanted her in Hogwarts so much, it was illogical to waste so much time on one student, even if she was from a hidden village unlike the others.
They agreed that she would leave in about two weeks to pick out her school supplies and then stay a week in London, where she would work on her language skills. She would also have enough time to look around the city to familiarize herself with their customs.
"The connection point, as we wizards call it, is located far beyond Suna, but there is something similar to a train that will get you there in less than two days. There will be a man waiting for you there, he should be easily noticeable. He will be your guide through our world. Understood?" Dumbledore finally finished giving directions after what seemed like hours for Nala. She didn't regret loosing her precious time listening to the old man for she has learned a lot of valuable information. She made a slight nod that confirmed her understanding of the directions.
"How will I communicate with the man? Does he know Japanese?" Nala asked, her voice devoid of emotion as usual.
"No, I couldn't find anyone Japanese speaking that would be willing to show a ten year old around for a whole week. I also believe that speaking English will benefit you. Here, let me give you some books." Taking out a seemingly harmless stick, Dumbledore muttered few words under his breath. At that moment, a pile of at least ten books appeared. Nala was caught off-guard, but suppressed her need to jump away and hide. She was grateful for the mask on her face that hid her moment of weakness under the seemingly mourning face of a fox. She swiftly looked at the books before sealing them away in a scroll. "There are some English-Japanese books in there, a dictionary, a travel guide about London, books talking about Hogwarts and a copy of today's newspaper. Make sure you read through them all."
"Understood. Now if you excuse me, as I mentioned before, I have a two year old to raise. I promised Aki-chan that I will take him to the playground, and…" Nala shrugged. "I guess I have to think about how to tell my family about all this."
"Ah, yes, I believe that my portkey will activate any time soon too." They bid their farewells. Nala blurred out of vision like the good little ninja she was, while Dumbledore carefully touched the dumplings before him. Before the waitress of the restaurant could do anything to stop them, they were both gone, much to her chagrin. They didn't order as much as a certain Akamichi, but money was still money.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
With a pair of phoenix eyes watching him, Dumbledore appeared in his office. He sat down at his desk, allowing himself a moment of self pity.
"You do know that there is a possibility of your death, right?"
"That possibility appears in every mission, I am well informed sir."
"Very well, you know what to do, stop at nothing to fulfil my orders."
"Yes, sir."
Letting a sigh escape his mouth, he chased away the bad memories. She did fulfil his orders and suffered so much because of it. Every time he looked at Nala, he wanted to apologize and beg forgiveness from her, but he knew he couldn't. It was difficult to talk to her, her lost memory making matters even worst for him. He was unsure how to act in front of her, because she could get her memory back any second.
It was partly because of that fact that he decided to bring her to Hogwarts at any cost. Dumbledore thought that if he filled her mind with wonderful experiences at the school, her grudge and hate against him would be smaller once she got her memory back.
Allowing himself another groan, he started the needed paperwork. Dumbledore partly hated himself for feeling so bad about Nala. He, one of the greatest wizards that ever lived, felt guilty for ruining one girl's life.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
While supervising Aki on the playground, Nala unsealed one of the largest books, the dictionary. Activating her Sharingan, she looked at the writing on the cover carefully. At first it looked like a bunch of lines some restless kid put together, but then they slowly begun to make sense. She unsealed another book for support, the Japanese-English workbook. One book in every hand, she began scanning through them with Sharingan for a picture perfect memory.
It didn't take long for her to learn the Alphabet, seeing that it had much less characters than Japanese. She didn't encountered any problems in any other rules except for past tense but decided that she will think about it later. Soon she was able to read simple sentences without looking in the dictionary for support.
"This is taking too long." Kyuubi groaned with boredom. Thanks to Nala's locked memories, Kyuubi already knew English and from what she compared, it didn't take Nala this long to learn the new language last time. "It would be so much easier if you just remembered the language so I wouldn't have to learn it with you all over again." Nala got little snappy with Kyuubi. She was learning a new language, something that too years to complete and didn't need a bored demon complaining inside of her head.
"Fine, you teach me. We'll see if it takes any longer."
"Point taken."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
It was late night when Nala finished with all the books. She yawned and looked out of the window. She didn't pay any attention to the empty street, instead she shifted her gaze to the stars and the Hokage monument yonder.
Tomorrow, she would take the exams at the academy, finally graduating and she then would have to tell her family that she was leaving. She expected that to be the hardest point of the day, seeing that the graduation exams would probably be something primitive like Henge. Fixing her gaze on one of the stars, she wondered if they will understand.
"Get some sleep, kid, it will be a long day tomorrow." Obeying Kyuubi's orders, Nala stepped away from the window and quietly slipped in her bed, clothing her eyes immediately. Without doubt, tomorrow will be one of the harder days of her life.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Author's Notes:
Me: ……
Kakashi: Hmm, no notes today?
Me: No, can't think of anything funny.
Sasuke: As if they ever were funny… (doges two kunais and a pillow thrown his way)
Me: GET OUT OF HERE AND LEAVE ME TO MY DEPRESED SELF!!
Sasuke: (Dodges another pillow while listening to Rock Lee anxiously scream "Pillow Fight!") Please review so she gets out of her 'so-called' depression and stops throwing pillows at me. Why is she even throwing pillows anyway?
Ian: Because I used all her other kunais to kill the emos...I have a daily quota and 582 is hard to fill each day :P
Kakashi: He scares me...
Sasuke: And I thought I had problems...