Chapter 7
Again with the tears? What was wrong with me? I crouched in the middle of the street again as I had my emotional moment. Sasuke looked on awkwardly, not sure what to do in this kind of situation since he wasn't exactly the most comforting person in the world at the moment, my secret, slight crush aside of course. Then, Sasuke seemed to loosen up slightly, and he crouched down beside me, and half wrapped his arm around my shoulder. Me being the emotional wreckage I am at present leaned my forehead on his shoulder as I continued to cry, as his other hand went awkwardly to my back and rubbed soothingly up and down.
We stayed like that for a moment, yes, in the middle of the street, before Sasuke shifted a little.
"I know I may not be the right person to comfort you at the moment, but what's on your mind?" He asked as he pulled us up and then, the next thing I knew, we were in the forest. He gently pressed a hand into the small of my back, leading me over to a large, shady tree and sitting down, pulling me down gently beside him. I sat in silence for a moment, contemplating how much I should tell him exactly. Then, I decided I'd come clean.
"I just feel so worthless at the moment, Sasuke. Like I can't do anything without hurting someone or feeling as if I've hurt someone. My whole life I've felt like that. I was pushed around, I was bullied immensely, I was treated like the class reject, because, in a way, I was. Then I met Zeala, and later Alyss, and finally Viva, and they made me feel like I belonged somewhere again. Like I was actually wanted.
"Right now I feel like a bitch for just storming off and leaving them behind like I did, I also feel like a bitch for getting mad at Kakashi because of my own impatience. And, to be honest, I hated feeling like that when I was younger, and I don't want to feel that way again. In some ways, I feel like I'm walking on eggshells with my friends. If I say one joke they could take wrong, and they felt insulted by it, I'd immediately feel like I am right now, and this feeling, my feeling of worthlessness and self pity, I hate it with every fibre in being. I want so badly to stop feeling like this, but I don't know how." My voice finally cracked at the end of my speech, and tears continued to roll down my cheeks in silent rivulets.
Sasuke looked thoughtful for a moment, as if what he was thinking could be of some assistance, but he never said anything. We just sat there in silence as I cried and he rubbed my upper arm slowly and soothingly. Come to think of it, the way his arm was moving was very comforting at the moment.
I rested my head on his shoulder, and the last thing I remembered was feeling something soft and warm pressed against my forehead for a single moment before I cried myself into the pits of unconsciousness that come with sleep.....
~*~*~*~~*~*~*~
I woke up to find that I was staring at Naruto's ceiling, and that I had been lain down under a blanket on his couch. I pressed an arm into my eyes and groaned. I forgot, never open your eyes straight away after waking up when there are any form of bright lights in a room. In this case, that would be bright sunlight streaming through a nearby window and onto my face.
I attempted to roll onto my side and ended up falling off of the couch and landing with a dull thump! on the wooden floor. I groaned again and swaddled myself in the blanket, closing my eyes again. Then, my about to be peaceful slumber had to be interrupted by the sound of running feet dashing into the living room, followed by a skidding sound, and then a loud oomph! on my part, as a certain hyperactive fourteen year old, cheetah eared girl had glomped me whilst I remained in my position on the floor.
"ARTEMIS!!!! YOU'RE AWAKE!!!!!" Viva screamed, causing everyone else to run into the room while I proceeded to turn blue, then purple. I gasped, trying to suck air into my lungs, with little success.
"VIVA! Artemis can't breathe!" Alyss reprimanded as Zeala and Naruto quickly pulled her off of me. I gasped loudly, gratefully sucking air into my lungs.
"Air! Sweet nectar of life!" I exclaimed in a gasp as I sucked much needed air into my lungs. Everyone in the room then started laughing as Viva sweat dropped and I sucked in breath after breath until I was no longer gasping for breath. Then, I sensed that something was off, so, I closed my eyes and concentrated. Alyss mumbled an excuse of having to do something before leaving.
Viva's chakra signature was only half of what it should be, and, to my utter astonishment, Viva's chakra signature felt exactly like.....Zeala's! I stood up on shaky feet, sucked in the biggest breath of all as I turned to face everyone.
"WHERE THE HELL IS VIVA?!?!?!?!?!?!" I screamed as loud as my raspy voice would allow. After a moment of stunned silence, Zeala broke it with a sigh, before making the handsign that released her shadow clone jutsu.
"That's the thing Art....we don't know." Zeala murmured quietly. I didn't notice, but at this point, my eyes had gone from emerald green to amber yellow-green as my canine teeth became slightly sharper. I was practically enraged.
I turned around, so as not to verbally hurt my friends in anyway, and screamed at the top of my lungs, "I SWEAR THE SECOND SHE COMES BACK FROM WHEREVER THE HELL SHE WENT, I'M GOING TO KILL HER, BRING HER BACK TO LIFE AND THEN KILL HER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!" Yeah, you don't get me enraged without regretting it.
I cracked my knuckles and flexed my hands repeatedly. Everyone, already witnessing what had happened to Sakura, stepped back warily.
"Where's a pink haired, bitchy, drama queen when you need a punching bag?" I asked through my teeth. Then, lo-and-behold, there's a knock on the door. Naruto quickly departed from the room to answer the door, and you can guess who's annoyingly pitched, nasal sounding voice was on the other side of the door. I grinned like a mad woman and walked to the entrance hall where I saw a familiar pink head of hair. I grinned maliciously. If you haven't guessed by now, I was sorta on the same train of thought as Onitora because she and I were currently having a Viva and Evaan moment where Onitora had half taken over my body.
I stalked closer to the door and growled lowly.
"Naruto, would you move out of the way please?" I asked in a sickly sweet tone of voice. Naruto, currently fearing for his life, shivered uncomfortably, and stepped aside rigidly, revealing my soon-to-be punching bag. When she saw me, she didn't gulp fearfully, she sneered instead.
"Oh, it's you. I was thinking it was my Sasuke, but then again, why would he hang around the likes of a bitch like you?"
The word bitch reverberated throughout my mind as I twitched from the insult.
'Can I rip her apart?' Onitora asked maliciously. What scared everyone is that the voice was heard aloud, not just throughout my mind. Sakura's eyes now widened in fear. I contemplated a moment.
"Hmm....should I really let you do that Onitora? This is surprising I know, but she might, might be missed if we did."
Onitora's growl was also heard aloud, and that was all I knew as I was pushed to the back of my own mind, and instead of my green eyes now, were eyes the colour of a cats, with black slits.
~Onitora Artemis' POV~
I closed my eyes, and breathed in deeply, relishing in the feeling of being slightly free of my restraints, at least for a moment, Artemis was becoming an insistent nagging in the back of my mind. Well, our mind, nothing was private concerning the girl's thoughts anymore, especially the fact that she has a crush on the raven-haired boy that seemed to treat her nicely, unlike the pink haired girl that was finally beginning to cower in front of us.
I opened my eyes when I smelt her almost palpable fear. It was the sort of thing that, in a way elated me when I was fully free, able to run around and destroy things, but I'm nowhere near as bad as Kyuubi was, sure, I had tumbled the occasional mountain, but I always made sure there weren't any villages near or on the mountain beforehand. I may be a demon, but I hate the idea of snuffing innocent lives. Right now I was contemplating whether I should just scare her or kill her, but then again, fans of the pink haired idiot in front of me wouldn't be too happy with that, so I opted for scaring her.
I grinned maliciously and to the naked eye, it looked like I had disappeared. In actual fact, I was just running at almost the speed of light. I 'reappeared' right behind Sakura, leaned in, and breathed loudly onto her neck. I heard her gasp and stiffen. I grinned, and leaned into her ear.
"Boo." I murmured. You'd be surprised how loud that girl can scream. And how high she can jump when she's scared. It's entertaining. I made sure that my human self could see all the action and she laughed in our head, then I decided to let her have her body back again and retreated to the recesses of her mind.....
~Artemis' POV~
After Onitora had shown me through our eyes what was happening, I cracked up laughing the second I saw Sakura scream and jump. As my canines shortened and my features became less prominent, I busted out laughing, in the threshold of Naruto's house, clutching my sides from the pain of laughing.
"Oh my GOD!" I gasped. "You have no idea how fun it is scaring a pink haired idiot who's lusting over an ice prince!" I continued to laugh as an anime anger vein appeared on Sakura's forehead *cough cough* billboard brow*cough, cough*.
"How dare you?!" She exclaimed. I calmed down and shrugged, a smug smirk on my face.
"Quite easily actually. By the way, that wasn't me, that happened to be my demon, Onitora, and she says that she had fun playing with you like a cat does with a mouse."
'I like the way you think, cub.' Onitora purred in appreciation.
"I ain't no cub.' Was my mental reply.
'Compared to my 7'000 years? You wish darl.' Funny, her voice actually resembled that of my Australian accent when she said 'darl'. I was going to ignore the shortened pet name though.
'7'000 years my ass-foot-face!' I retorted, before returning to the present from the recesses of my mind.
"Y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-your d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-de-DEMON?!?!?!?!?!?!?" Sakura looked panicked. I grinned a cheesy grin and shrugged again.
"Eh, what can I say? I have the ears and tail to prove it, don't I?" Then, my carefree smile turned into a scowl as I stepped closer to the pink-haired weakling.
"Maybe next time you should think before insulting someone who's stronger than even your capabilities can reach." I gave her the cold shoulder as I passed by her to the spare room in Naruto's apartment, grabbing my guitar before pulling myself up onto the apartment complex roof.
As I like to say, when life gives you a guitar; tune it, play it, and sing as best as you can.
Unwell-Matchbox 20
All day, staring at the ceiling,
making friends with shadows on my wall,
all night, hearing voices,
telling me that I should get some sleep
because tomorrow might be good for something,
hold on, feelin' like I'm headed for a,
break down,
and I don't know why
But I'm not crazy,
I'm just a little unwell,
I know,
Right now you can't tell,
But stay a while and maybe then you'll see,
A different side of me,
I'm not crazy,
I'm just a little impaired,
I know,
Right now you don't care,
But soon enough you're gonna think of me,
And how I used to be.
Me.
Talkin' to myself in public,
And dodging glances on the train,
And I know,
I know they've all been talkin' bout me,
I can hear them whisper,
And it makes me think there must be something wrong,
With me,
Out of all the hours they can,
Somehow,
I've lost my mind.
But I'm not crazy,
I'm just a little unwell,
I know,
Right now you can't tell,
But stay a while and maybe then you'll see,
A different side of me,
I'm not crazy,
I'm just a little impaired,
I know,
Right now you don't care,
But soon enough you're gonna think of me,
And how I used to be.
I've been talkin' in my sleep,
Pretty soon they'll come to get me,
Yeah they're takin' me oh~
Yeah I'm not crazy,
I'm just a little unwell,
I know,
Right now you can't tell,
But stay a while and maybe then you'll see,
A different side of me,
I'm not crazy,
I'm just a little impaired,
I know,
Right now you don't care,
But soon enough you're gonna think of me,
And how I used to be~.
How I used to be (x2)
Well I'm just a little unwell.
How I used to be (x2)
I'm just a little unwell.
I sighed as I finished the song. I loved this song back at home, every time it played on the radio when I was younger while we were travelling in the car I'd sing along with it every time. I tuned my guitar a tiny bit more, and started to strum again, not noticing the person standing behind me on the roof, listening to me.
Problem Girl-Rob Thomas
Don't let 'em get where they're goin' to,
You know they're only what they think of you,
You heard of this emotional trickery,
And you felt like you were learnin' the ropes,
But where you're goin' now you don't know.
When the kids on the street say 'What's your problem girl?',
And the weight of their smile gets too much for you to bear,
When they all make you feel like you're a problem girl remember,
You're no problem at all
You're no problem at all~.
A pride like promises can let ya down,
You thought that you'd be feelin' better by now~
And you worry all the things they could do to you,
And you worry bout the things they can say,
Maybe you're seein' things the wrong,
Way.
When the kids on the street say 'What's your problem girl?',
And the weight of their smile gets too much for you to bear,
When they all make you feel like you're a problem girl remember,
You're no problem at all.
You're no problem at all~.
When the kids on the street say 'What's your problem girl?',
And the weight of their smile gets too much for you to bear,
When they all make you feel like you're a problem girl,
Try,
If you stand all you're for.
You're no problem at all~
You're no problem at all~
You're no problem at all~
I placed my guitar carefully to one side, making sure that it wouldn't slide off of the roof before tucking my knees up to my chest, wrapping my arms around my knees, and resting my head in my upper legs as I sighed into them.
"When they all make you feel like you're a problem girl~." I murmured harmoniously as I pulled my head away from my knees.
"Remember~, you're no problem. At, all~." 'Problem Girl' was another one of my favourite songs. If I could match it to anyone from this world, it would best suit Hinata in my opinion, as she feels like she's such a burden to her teammates. Hinata is a good person though, quiet and shy, kinda like how I was when I met new people and I didn't have my friends with me. Until I was comfortable with someone, I was shy and somewhat stand-offish. When I got to know someone, or was comfortable around them, I was my loud, crazy, book loving, anime addicted self.
It was then that I sensed the somewhat familiar chakra. I didn't move my head to acknowledge that I felt his presence, I let him keep believing that I didn't know he was there. After a moment of silence, I was bored waiting for him to speak first, so I acknowledged his presence.
"Why must you insist on being almost everywhere that I am?" The boy who had found me crying in the street and whom I had growled at earlier today approached and sat down beside me, some of his brown hair falling into his eyes.
He said nothing.
"Can I at least know the name of my potential stalker?" I asked sarcastically. He turned his head and grinned at me.
"Hibari, my name's Hibari." I shook my head with my eyes closed.
"I should've figured you'd have a name like that." He looked surprised.
"You know what my name means?" He looked incredulous. I grinned and gave him a peace sign.
"In my world, I've had eight year experience in learning Japanese, your name means Skylark." He nodded as he listened.
"Yeah, that's about right." We then sat in silence for a while, before I decided that I wanted to interrogate him some more.
"Why are you following my friends and I around everywhere we go?" I murmured the question, resting my chin on my knees. He looked thoughtful for a moment, as if contemplating telling me lies, part truth, or full truth.
"I'll know if you're lying." I added, and he flinched visibly.
"Well, you see, the thing is.......I'm from your world too." My eyes widened. That had come as a shock. Hibari, was from our world? This confused me to no end. I shook my head and rubbed my temples.
"Impossible," My voice was barely above a whisper. "How can you be from my world?" He looked like he wasn't joking, and Onitora confirmed that he wasn't lying.
"You remember, sometime a couple years ago, in the news papers all over Australia, how a half Japanese, half Caucasian guy of 16 just vanished?" I wracked my brain as it came back to me, the headlines, the posters, flyers, pictures of a teenage boy with dark brown hair that accompanies most Japanese, and the blue eyes of his Caucasian parent.
"That's impossible. You can't be him, because he's been assumed dead for over three years now. I was about to turn thirteen when that boy's disappearance graced the headlines of Australian news." Hibari turned to face me with sadness and slight surprise clear in his eyes.
"I know, I'm nineteen this year." Was all he said, and my eyes widened a fraction more.
"My name in our world was Hibari Seijaku. 'Skylark Silence'." My eyes widened even more. That was the boy's name. The one that had disappeared.
"Oh my wow." I murmured, unable to think of anything else to say. One of Australia's biggest mysteries, crime mysteries of all time, was sitting right next to me. He hadn't seen his family in three years, almost four. In a way, my heart went out to the poor guy.
"Your parents were in the news recently. After three long years of searching, they've given up, but they were distraught when they found out that they had no other choice. Your supposed murderers had probably already fled the country, committed suicide, anything was possible when they decided to give up." I let my words hang in the air a moment before I stood up, brushing my pants off.
"I'm going back inside now, but, Hibari, it was nice to finally meet you and not growl at you." I gave him a soft sad smile as I teleported my guitar back into my room before jumping down and flipping through the open window and landing, cat like, in the middle of the bedroom floor. I stood up, fixed my clothes, turned and shut the window. I sighed as my hand rested on the sill a moment.
Viva was gone, and, in return, I had just found a missing man classified as dead three years ago in our world. Life couldn't possibly get more complicated than this.
Author's Note: Review because you no you love me even though I'm leaving you hanging a little bit, please? I'll give anyone who review a free imaginary micro cookie *holds up a jar of cookies* =3
