Chapter four: Intrigues of the Shinobi-world
Shin was making very little progress, if any at all. Her legs felt shorter than usual and she was wet and hungry. The forest seemed endless and she wasn't entirely sure about the way back to wherever she had first arrived. Her companion 'mr chatty' wasn't being of much use either. Shin had discovered that he was extraordinarily tall. When he stood up he seemed to be at least twice her height and because of this he wouldn't have to take more than one stride every time Shin took three. Except he didn't…stride
The man (if he really was a man. Shin was having her doubts about this) crawled gracefully beside her, but the point was that he was doing it with seemingly no effort at all while Shin was getting very tired, and also very cranky. She felt a lot like jumping up and down while whining loudly and wailing incoherent complaints. But she suppressed this strange urge to act like a two year old and continued onwards.
Must be a delayed effect from the shock.
Shin stopped. The black figure followed her example. She looked around. She turned a full circle and then realised that now she had absolutely no idea where they were heading and nor did she know where they had come from.
The urge to cry like a baby was becoming very hard to ignore. Shin did her best and turned sourly to her shadow.
"You wouldn't know where that clearing is, do you?"
Silence.
"I guess not"
A picture of the nins' scattered bodies flew through her mind when she recalled the miniscule battlefield. She was startled out of her thoughts by the figure that had jumped up into a tree and was looking at her over his shoulder.
"Where are you going?", she asked.
Once again, silence.
"Do you want me to come with? Cause I can't climb that high. You'd have to carry me, and I don't waaaAAAAAAAAH!!!"
She was yet again being swooped of through the air under the guy's (she was pretty sure that whatever he was, he was male since he was so tall) arm, just like you would a... goose. (…or something. I'm at a loss here people!)
When she finally got to put her feet… and hands, and knees on solid ground, they were back in the bush from where she had watched the fighting. Shin sent her friend a glare. If he had known all along he should have said something.
There were more people in the clearing now. They looked like ordinary villagers, mostly men but a few strong looking women as well. To the looks of things they were tending to the wounded and moving them away, towards what appeared to Shin like a shrine. Quickly and quietly she snuck away and motioned for her friend to follow.
She saw the puddle in which her face had landed earlier. It was much bigger now and very muddy. Unfortunately there was no sign of anything anywhere. Well anything besides the usual stuff you find in a forest. You know, trees, grass, leaves, maybe a squirrel. Shin didn't see any squirrels though (probably too wet) and neither did she see any old family heirlooms that could magically transport her back to her closet in the real world.
"What did I do to deserve this?", she asked the treetops, kneeling in the muddy puddle (he he… muddy puddle) where she had been searching.
"Great Odin, if this is because of the cards and the money I swear I'll sacrifice it all on an alter together with a white little lamb if you just bring me back!", she pleaded.
There was no answer. The all mighty was being just as communicative as her companion.
She was about to call out to the higher powers once again (thinking that the trees were blocking the signal) when she stopped herself.
What am I doing? I must be losing it.
Here she was. In the middle of the shinobi-world and she was asking to go back?! To school?!
She stood up, filled with new energy. First things first, she thought, I need to get something to eat…and some shoes.
The water almost reached up to her knees. She looked down and noticed that her legs didn't only feel shorter, they looked shorter too. Shorter and scrawnier. A shout from one of the injured made her look up.
"If there are villagers here then there must be a village somewhere close by", Shin pondered intelligently and crept back to the bushes, "Village equals food and shelter"
The villagers looked like they were about done and only a few lingered behind, collecting the remaining weapons before they headed towards the shrine. Shin noticed however, that they didn't enter it as she first had thought. They went around it on a, from Shin's point of view, barely visible path.
"Food wouldn't sit to bad with me", she said with a grin and turned to her friend, she was suddenly in a much chearier mood and to make things even better, the sky was clearing, "How about you?", she asked.
Of course there was no reply, but that didn't dampen Shin's spirits.
"Fine. But I'm starving. You can come along if you want"
When they reached the settlement the sun was peaking out and Shin's cold, stiff body gratefully soaked up the warmth, even though the wet clothes were doing there best to freeze her to death everytime a breeze came. As they drew closer to the main street (There practically weren't any more streets in the small village) sneaking through the unguarded gate, Shin noticed something very unsettling.
"The buildings are really big!", she murmured astonished.
But it didn't end there. The street was filling with people who were setting out their wares for sale, talking to their neighbours or simply getting some vitamin D, and they were all huge. (The people, not the vitamins)
Shin walked up to a barrel that was standing at the corner of a house. She guessed that it was meant to catch the water from the rain gutter but couldn't confirm this, as the barrel was taller than her.
"What's going on here?", Shin furrowed her brow and continued down the street.
She also saw that compared to these people her dark shadow wasn't as intimidating as she had thought. He looked to be just about half a head shorter than the average adult.
Why is everything so big all of a sudden? Her question was more or less answered when an angry man came steaming towards the table of bread she was eyeing.
"Oi, kid! Stay away from there! Does your mom and dad know you're out stealing from honest workers, huh? No, didn't think so. Now get your filthy little hands away from my bread or I'll give you a good whopping"
Shin just gawked at the man. Firstly because she couldn't grasp this very unfamiliar attitude aimed her way but also because some of the words he used sounded so strange. His entire way of talking was foreign, but at the same time she thought she'd heard that kind of speech before.
"I'm not stealing!", she exclaimed in surprise, "And I'm not a kid!"
"Ne? Not a kid? Has the legal drinking age dropped to four? Bwahaha!", the baker laughed hard at his own joke.
"I'm not four!", Shin protested indignantly.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Four and a half, now get, before you scare of the customers", the man turned around walking into the store again, leaving a seething Shin behind.
She grabbed two loafs of bread and walked away slowly the way she'd come so as not to look too suspicious, but it wasn't an easy feat since her new companion had decided to come with her and his crawling form should attract more than enough unwanted attention. It had only been sheer luck that the shopkeeper hadn't looked his way. Somehow people seemed to let their gaze pass over him without really seeing.
Shin hurried of to a little alley where she had intended to sneak in and eat her meal in private but just as she was about to turn the corner, a voice was heard from the other side of the bend and she halted.
"…Akatsuki again. It's the second one, which means there's only two left now"
The voice was hushed and nervous, Shin leaned her back against the wall, listening intently.
Were they talking about what had happened earlier? Probably, but why where they discussing it in a dirty back alley?
"We should go straight to Konohagakure and offer our services. There's nothing more we can do. This is out of ou...", the nervous person continued but was interrupted by a raspy, yet soft sounding voice.
To Shin it sounded like a young woman with a half broken voice box or suffering from chronic soar throat.
"It is still our duty to see to it that the black scrolls do not fall into the wrong hands. Now that the Akatsuki has half of them we no longer have a choice. We must keep the Uchiha from calling forth the monster at any and all costs. If we fail to protect the scrolls there is only one solution."
"N..nani?! Roujo-sama, the third himself said that…"
"I know what the third said, Sato", the young womans voice was still soft but it had an edge to it that tolerated no contradictions, "The Hokage repeated it when the first scroll was taken a few days ago. But our loyalty lies not with the Hokage in this matter"
The one called Sato let a small gasp escape his mouth.
Shin was munching on her stolen food and was all ears. Obviously something was going on here. Something big. Maybe even something to do with Naruto, she thought at hearing them mention the monster.
"We are to do our duty and prevent the demon from answering his call"
"Y..you mean…?"
"Kill it", the young woman replied coldly and with poorly hidden malice.
Shin froze to the spot. Kill it? Kill who? Naruto? They can't do that! I have to stop them! 'Yeah, right. You and what army? They're ninjas, remember', a small voice inside her head reminded her.
So?, she thought, I could beat them…Okay maybe not, I really don't feel like dying just yet. New plan…um…I could trick them or something or maybe I could get those important scrolls back. Yes, that is a great idea, just walk up to the homicidal, clan killing, s-class nin and ask him to give it back. If I say please he might even tie a bow around them. Not a good plan. But I have to do something
An angry outburst not too far away made her snap back to reality. (…or…nya, you know what I mean) The baker was fuming like and old-fashioned locomotive and heading straight for her.
"Maybe I'll just warn him…", she mumbled before setting of at top speed in the opposite direction.
Running past the alley she got a quick glimpse of the conspirators and got her suspicions about one being a young woman confirmed when she saw the elaborate redish kimono. Both turned their masked faces towards the street when she rushed past. It was the same kind of masks she'd seen before on the nins in the forest.
How can they see through those?, she wondered as she kept on running.
Realising that the baker would catch up with her before she could reach the gates and freedom Shin glanced at her companion. She wasn't too happy about what she had to do.
"Hey!", she panted gaining his attention, I really got to find out his name, "Pick me up!"
Within less than seconds they were in the air, and Shin (to her dismay) once again had his arm wrapped around her middle and was looking back at the street they were leaving behind.
This kind of travelling better not be turning into a habit, she thought and tried to grab on as tightly as possible.
Before vanishing into the trees she caught a quick glimpse of the two masked figures watching their departure from a roof.
"Roujo-sama…that looked a lot like…"
"Yes, it did", Roujo Daichi broke of the friend's sentence and followed the disappearing forms with her gaze, "Gather the others, we still have some things to discuss"
A/N: Hm...I haven't edited this chapet since I wrote it several months ago and it is also written in wordpad (Which I hate!) So if there is any funny spelling or something that doesn't seem right, please tell me and I'll fix it once I have Word again.
I would really like it if those of you who read this little fic of mine would let me know. You don't have to review if you don't want to. I'm just curious : )
Ja matte neh!