Finding a Sakura Tree
Chapter 8:
Koomahana
I am so sorry! I didn't mean to do that!
Thank you MysticWolf71891!
I don't know how i managed to pull it off, but I have seven chapters in my 'FAST' file (Yes that's abbreviated for 'Finding a Sakura Tree)
Now i have to go through it and figure out what went wrong!
Prepare, the next time I update it'll be to the undoubtedly missing chapter! (Which ever one that is)
Until then, please excuse this one, it isn't complete :)
Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine; you want the real stuff get off this site
Thoughts
Paragraphs are memories
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Recap
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"Okay!" Rin called out, she jumped over the edge of the ship and into the ocean. It wasn't long after word that the shinobi of the five nations were driven to their knees as the pressure of an intense chakra crashed down on them.
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End of Recap
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"I have never thought of traveling like this," Kiba grumbled, his face was green and he hung over the edge of a bright pink and sharp border.
"I can't believe your sea sick," Tenten replied with a raised eyebrow as booth Akamaru and Kiba proceeded to barf over the edge of their giant pink coral platform, "this isn't that different from the boat, so why are you sea sick on this and not on the ship?"
"We're on coral!" Kiba all but cried out, tears forming in his eyes as Akamaru whimpered next to him, "Rin made a giant bubble out of coral and she expects us to ride in it without any problem?! She's insane!" although Kiba most certainly not the only one who was feeling sea sick within their little underwater bubble, he was certainly the loudest.
"I'm from the desert," Kankoro grumbled lowly a few passes away from the Inuzuka "I have a right to be sea sick, what's your excuse?"
"So you're sick because you can't see the sky?" a new voice asked softly, everyone turned to stare at the figure half consumed by the coral wall. Rin smiled at the group before her, her arms were spread out to either side of her body and fading into the wall, Rin's legs were part of the wall up to her waist, her whole back side was attached to the wall while her head remained free for the exception of the hair on the back side of her hair leaving only her bangs to frame her face.
"That's because he's a baby" Tamari commented from where she sat next to Gaara, both were apparently unaffected from the faint swaying of their coral bubble, Kankoro glared half heartedly at his sister who smirked in return.
"Rin-chan…" a voice called everyone turned towards the speaker, "How much longer until we hit land?" Mild surprise filled the group as they saw the young man sit up against the coral wall where he previously laid.
"I need some fresh air… I think that'd be helpful to the boys as well…" Rin's eyes narrowed at the young man for a moment before she nodded her head in understanding.
"Hold on tight," Rin said softly, the boy's groaned as Tamari laughed, the ground under their feet suddenly tilting as they shot towards the surface. As the majority of children screamed out profanities at the laughing white haired young man, a single voice could be heard above all the terrified voices.
"Curse you Shiki!"
Laughter permeated the air joyfully…
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Sakura stared out the window of her room, the ocean stretched out before her like a great endless mirror; it was a beautiful starry night with five tiny, funny looking clouds and a full yellow moon. The only thing that marred the scene were the dozens and dozens of ships fallowing her.
"Nee-sama?" Sakura glanced behind her using the reflection in the glass in front of her, "Nee-sama do you think it's him? The traitor? You think he's ready to strike back?"
"You believe he survived?" Sakura asked softly, her eyes narrowed slightly at her twin's reflection, Sakura's mind filled with an image of rising stone spikes piercing a young man's body, long snow white hair flinging around his head, an agenized scream echoed in the air. "He'd be pretty ugly now… Kisu doesn't hesitate…"
"But he was Kisu-nii's big brother!" Kura said urgently, sounding worried. "If he lived and he's found that island, then surly he's found the others."
"If…" Sakura repeated dejectedly, "the balance is held on an 'if', how depressing…"
"Nee-sama…" Kura whispered softly, Sakura glanced back at her twin lazily. "The balance must be up held… if he survived then it was meant to be…"
"The balance is fading," Sakura replied coldly, ignoring Kura's flinch. "Something must be done when we reach the eternal spring… we must summon her." Whatever Kura was going to was interrupted by the sound of a rather loud explosion that rocked the ship so much that Sakura had to grip the wall and her seat tightly; Kura let out a startled cry and collapsed to her knees.
"What was that?" Kura asked as she turned back to the door, Sakura looked out her window once more, watching the ships just out of sight. Seeing the sky turn orange as one of the ships caught fire, hissing in displeasure Sakura snapped to her feet and marched towards her bedroom's door. Snatching her twin up to her feet both twins headed for the door, Sakura snatched her crimson robe from the wall and slipped it on as she marched out the door. As soon as Sakura and Kura hit the deck, Kura took over the 'pissed-demon-get-out-of-my-way' attitude as Sakura took on the 'curious-but-lazy-cat' attitude.
"What's going on?" Kura roared out, her voice echoing in the air; both twins turned towards the disturbance and Kura nearly collapsed to her knees as her eyes widened. There high in the sky was a huge bug in the sky; hundreds of smaller versions surrounded it like a very angry hornet's hive. The monster had huge bug like eyes that were as red as blood, its body shaped similar to a dragonfly's with three wings on either side, it had giant beetle like pinchers and four legs on each side beneath the wings. Even from their distance, were they must have looked like mice, the twins could see people riding upon the backs of the strange demon like creatures.
"What's going on? What is that?" Kura asked no one in particular
"You're assumptions are correct…" Sakura said softly, she stepped up beside Kura, her eyes locked on the flying insects.
"…Shiki has returned."
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Teal blue eyes stared out over the dark stormy seas, nearly a dozen ships were docked on the shore more than a hundred feet below. The most important one was, luckily, closest to the group of hidden children in the trees above the cliff. Tamari Sabaku looked back up at the sky, eyeing the huge ugly bugs wirily before they looked down at the two dozen ships still at sea fighting the ugly creatures desperately, then the young woman's eyes swept towards her right. Her younger brothers stood on the ground watching as their companion's friends let out an attack on the docked ships.
Startled screams and shouts permeated the air below them and Tamari watched as the a few leaf shinobi had to grit their teeth and clench their hands to keep themselves from jumping down into the fray to help those they could. Then everything on the ships seemed to change, Tamari watched as their targets climbed onto two separate seats and their carriers' quickly rushed towards the cliff that they sat on. It wasn't long before the carriers were half way up and the twins started getting targeted by the shinobi on the ships.
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"Dump the damn thing!" Sakura snapped out as she jumped off her seat and into the arms of a nearby relative. "Nee-chan! You too!" Kura nodded her head as she looked to either side for a scapegoat. The men carrying Sakura's chair quickly dropped it on five approaching enemies, crushing them as they landed on the deck of the ship, hopefully dead.
"Lady Kura you mustn't touch—" the young man was cut off as Kura let out a startled cry as her seat moved dangerously to avoid a strike.
"I know damn it!" Sakura snapped out in irritation as she launched from her cousin just as the carriers of Kura's chair lost traction and started to fall. Sakura landed into a nearby man's arms and reached out a hand to her sister, Kura reached forward but their fingers barley even brushed before Kura started to fall backwards and away from her sister. Sakura cursed and released her hold on her cousin, giving her the added space to clasp hands with Kura.
"SAKURA-HIME!" cried out several voices as Sakura tugged Kura close to her at the same time Sakura released her coat from around her shoulders and wound her chakra through it, making it whined up almost like a rope as it soared towards her closest cousin. Immanently three men launched on to it, working together to hold the coat as Sakura and her twin swung from its bottom half. At the same time three others charged themselves at the twins, while two of the men clutched at the twins desperately the third member took on the two men trying to attach the Hime twins.
"Sakura-Hime, are you okay?" one man asked both twins, his green eyes glowing with worry, the girls looked at each other and nodded their heads in unison; the two men sighed together in relief.
"Kura-Hime please reframe from drastic measures like that again," a man with orange hair chided softly as he swung Sakura on to his back, "You nearly gave us a heart attack."
"But how else am I to keep you on your toes?" Sakura asked softly as she clung to the man's back with her legs clasped in his hands, she felt more then she heard him laugh at her reply.
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Tamari watched as the men rushed the twins up the side of the cliff, their third member quickly rushing after them, however, the men's fait ended there. Deep teal eyes widened in horror as four bugs appeared out of nowhere and aimed themselves at the rushing men and twins. Tamari watched as one twin sprung from her cousin's back and landed in the rigid arms of another young man, keeping the long haired beauty from touching the icy cliff face.
The short haired twin jumped from the man's arms to another cousin's, again and again the girl rushed from cousin to cousin until she reached her twin's side, grabbing the girl by her wrist she launched herself off the young man who held the elder twin. Pulling the other pinkette over her back, the shorthaired twin pushed off two other men who braced themselves together and pushed the twins high into the air. Both girls reached the top of the cliff, only they were too far away to land on the top of the cliff safely.
The twin with the shorter hair reached her hand out, swung herself around, let her feet brush the edge of the cliff before she spun from the edge of the cliff; forcing the longer haired twin to clutch fearfully to her back.
"Sakura-nee…" the girl on the short haired girl's back mumbled softly, eyes locked on the rumbling and crumbling cliff face. "You're not supposed to touch the cliff face."
"I know," the other twin growled out lowly as she lowered her burden to the ground, and faced the forest behind them. "You need to stay here, you're safer here, understand?" the twin who sat on the ground pouted up at her over protective sister, grumbling softly to herself.
"Understand?" the shorter haired pinkette asked again as she looked down at her spoiled charge, her head tilted to the side.
"Yes Nee-chan" the girl sighed out irritably, "I'll not move from this place." The other twin nodded her head and held out her hand to the girl. Pulling the long haired girl from her knees, the older twin gasped and pulled harshly on the other's wrist, only to feel her sister do the same. Moving together both girl's blocked the attach from strange shinobi attaching their island, using their enemy's kunai knifes against their attackers.
"Nice one Nee-chan" the long haired twin grinned mischievously at her shorter haired twin. "Ee~, e~, Sakura-Nee-chan can we run to the other side now?" The shorter haired twin gave her longer haired counterpart an exasperated look before she nodded her head.
Then the girls were suddenly gone, huge pale cloud fallowing after the twins, Tamari stared wide eyed at the trail left behind. Cursing herself she rushed after them as fast as she dared, the two others partnered with her quickly joining her. By the time Tamari and her team caught up with the twins they watched as the longer haired girl did a round house kick to a shinobi and cut a bug in two at the same time.
"NEE-CHAN!" cried out a familiar voice, turning Tamari cursed as the shorter haired twin grabbed the longer haired girl's wrist and spun her out the way of a bug as big as a horse. The shorter haired twin took the stinger in her stomach; several voices cried out at the same time, alerting the enemy shinobi to their presence. As Tamari swung her giant fan, Kankoro used his puppet, black ant, to pull the longer haired twin to safety and Gaara took out three assailants with his sand as he headed for the shorter haired twin.
Tamari watched as the shorter haired twin slashed the bug in half, cutting the stinger from the bug and beheading it in one strike. The girl smirked at her twin before she toppled over the edge of the cliff face, her hand out stretched and brushing against Gaara's sand as he flung his own hand forward to grab her before she fell. He slid to a stop at the edge and watched as his target fall head first towards the turbulent ocean surface below.
He glanced back at his teammates and saw that everything was under control, his siblings would be okay and the others weren't close enough to catch her. Gaara took several steps back words, took a deep breath and rushed for the edge, he vaguely heard Tamari's voice cry out at him as he and his sand spiraled down to the twin who was bleeding. Pushing his hand forward his sand rushed ahead and surrounded the girl, trying to keep the girl from splashing into the ocean.
Gaara gritted his teeth when he heard the splash and forced his sand away from his body and to hover in air above the shifting water surface. He closed his eyes as he dove head first into the frigid water, Gaara held his breath as he caught sight of a crimson trail. Turning Gaara swam down to the girl he was sent to retrieve, he grabbed at a long billowing sleeve and yank upwards. Mental-ing cursing Gaara removed the girl's outer kimono before wrapping an arm around her waist and swimming towards the surface.
Emerging from the ocean's dark depths, Gaara took a deep breath of air as he clung to the icy cliff face. He tightened his hold on the pinkette and pinned her between his body and the cliff face, gasping for breath Gaara watched the top of the cliff before pressing himself closer to the girl so that his chakra could pin his feet the cliff behind the girl.
His feet clueing to either side of her knees as he raised his left hand towards his still floating sand just feet above his head, forming a fist Gaara ordered his sand to start drilling into the icy wall. He watched as his sand drilled into the icy wall and formed a place for him to push the girl up to safety, taking a deep breath Gaara lowed himself further into the freezing water. Gaara then tightened his hold on the pinkette and used his left hand to push himself up high so he could pull the pinkette up into drilled out hole.
Gaara sat in the hole for a moment before he dragged his legs into the hole and lifted the pinkette into his arms. Calming his breathing, Gaara stood with the girl and turned towards his drilling sand, adjusting his hold, Gaara stepped forward. Walking towards the back of the tunnel, Gaara watched as his sand continued to drill and drill and only once he noticed that it was fairly dark did he turn to look back.
Gaara may not have known how long he had walked, but he knew that it wasn't that long; the light from where he entered was about the size of his palm. Sighing Gaara continued letting his sand drill before him, this time splitting it up in three different directions.
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Kankoro cursed as he held the torch up higher in the air, before him the single path that he had fallowed down was now split into three different paths.
"Leave it to Gaara to give us a headache" Temari said as she eyed the closest path.
"You think you can tell if the paths end?" Kankoro asked, "Like swing you're fan and see if the wind bounces back at you?" Temari stared down the nearest tunnel, her hand gripping the edge of her fan.
"I can try," Temari said softly as she pulled her fan out and twitched it open, the two siblings watched as a blast of air shot down the hall. "One Mississippi…"
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"Okay I'm lost," Shikamaru grumbled as he stared at Naruto, before his eyes swiveled onto his look alike. "Could you explain again, how this happened?"
"Okay here on the eternal spring," the crimson haired Naruto said with a roll of his crimson eyes. "Seals that bind two souls together is undone. Every soul, sprit or whatever you want to call us, is given human form."
"Got that," Shikamaru nodded
"Okay well I'm the Kiyobi that was sealed into Baka here," the crimson haired Naruto gestured towards the blond, who looked like he was two inches away from exploding on his crimson haired twin. "When he stepped onto the island the process of releasing me began, and once we got further inland I was released from the seal and given a human form."
"For the most part," Kiba grumbled as he stared at the nine swishing tails of the Kiyobi and the twitching fox like ears atop his head. The Kiyobi swished a tail at Kiba in retaliation, his brow twitching as he glared at the Inuzuka.
"Okay, so that explains why you guys have a twin," Neji said, his eyes roaming over seven of the previous Jinchuuriki. "But that doesn't explain why there's only one of 'Rin'-san." Everyone turned to stare at the softly chuckling brunet, she was leaned slightly away from everyone else with one hand raised and scratching nervously at her violet stripped cheek.
"Isobu-nii~" a blue haired version of Nii Yugito giggled. "Why did you pretend to be a Jinchuuriki?"
"Because I actually liked Rin-san," 'Isobu' grumbled, releasing the genjutsu over his person. The only real difference between the previous 'Rin' and the revealed 'Rin' was that her hair turned an icy blue and covered up her left eye but revealed the crimson of her right, her skin paled drastically and for some reason her body just appeared to look differently.
"She sacrificed her life to protect her village." Isobu said with a fond smile, her voice deeper then it really should be for a girl. "Before she died she actually visited me in the mindscape, before I finished healing her I was ripped away from her. But in that short amount of time that she was there, she wouldn't stop apologizing to me."
"Why was she apologizing to you?" Kiyobi asked curiously, his head tilted to the side.
"Because she jumped in front of her teammate's attach." Isobu answered with a sigh. "She killed herself to protect her village and she was apologizing to me because she had broken her medic code." The gathered shinobi straitened together, their eyes widening together as they stared at Isobu.
"You lost me," Naruto said, his brow twitching, everyone turned to stare at him. Naruto didn't notice because he was shouting and pointing at Isobu with wide, horrified eyes. "And why is your voice so deep?! I thought you were a girl!"
"In all technicality we don't have a gender," Kiyobi growled as he thumped Naruto along his head. "We're huge masses of chakra given a physical form and a personality!"
"Not much of one," Naruto grumbled lowly again, to which Kiyobi started to attach said blonde ruthlessly.
"Although if you wanted to get specific," the blue haired Nii said thoughtfully, as she ignored Naruto and Kiyobi fighting, her own two blue tails swishing gently behind her. "I guess Chōmei and I are girls."
"Matatabi," Chōmei growled out in warning, stiffening beside her own host. "Don't bring me into this," Out of all of them, Chōmei and Fū were the most alike, looking like identical set of twins... or the perfect clone jutsu.
The second closest to appearance was Rōshi and Son Gokū, but Son Gokū had golden eyes and had more of a monkey like appearance.
Even Saiken looked like a white haired, blue-eyed looking version of Utakata... well, a more feminine looking Utakata.
Han and Kokuō didn't look that much alike. Kokuō actually had long white hair pulled into for pigtails, two high and two low, with a long section of bangs pealing of to hide a portion of his face. He even had a smaller section of hair by his left eye pulled into five tiny little crimson beads.
Gyūki and Killer Bee both looked different and yet they looked identical, kind of like looking in a mirror with a black light on. Gyūki had eight violet colored braids with two braids falling to frame his box-ish face, his skin was the same Carmel color as Killer Bee's but was about half a shade darker.
Matatabi and Nii didn't look that different from each other, both with a female appearance, both with long sweeping hair; Matatabi's as blue as a summer sky and streaked with Onex and Nii's as golden as sun raises. While Nii had black eyes, Matatabi's right eye was golden and her left was a darker shade of blue then what her hair was.
The one thing that each Bijuu had in common with their host's, without exception or explanation, was the exact replica of their host's clothing. Both Matatabi and Chōmei had female hosts and preferred the female physical form anyways, so no one was all that surprised at their appearance. Only Isobu looked like a male version of his first host, something that the younger shinobi generation seemed to find slightly creepy. Apparently, boys who look like girls really shouldn't have deep voices. Kiyobi filed that little bit of information in the back of his head, intending to use it as vengeance against his host should the occasion call for it.
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Gaara looked up at the entrance of his small home and strained his ears for any sound, hearing a faint splash Gaara raised his hand and watched as the entrance to the small room was immanently cut off.
"Well they're annoying…" a deep voice sounded nearby "can I kill them yet?" Gaara glared at the blond man sitting a few passes away.
"No," Gaara replied snappishly, the way the man barred his teeth at Gaara made that blue tattoos on his face stretched and the small fire glint in his strange golden, diamond shaped irises seem a little cold. "Shukaku, we don't know if their allies or enemies."
"That'll depend on you're standing point," Shukaku replied. "According to your mission, their enemies. According to who you are they're allies." Gaara nodded his head and turned to look at his soundings, he wasn't happy that he had to use his entire gourd to make the tiny room so that the fire he made wouldn't melt the ice. The sand also doubled as insulation, it kept the heat in, the cold out and water couldn't touch them because the outside of the sand was made from the hardest minerals he could find within the rock he had borrowed into.
"So can I screw with them or what?" Shukaku asked, Gaara turned lazy green eyes on him. The room was so small that he had to hold Sakura in his lap so she wouldn't end up touching Shukaku. And because Gaara had to use a few layers of Sakura's kimono to get the fire going and strong, he was having a hard time focusing on meditation because the pinkette was in nothing more then the first three layers of her expensive kimono—he really hoped she wouldn't wake up and slap him the second she noticed her clothing was missing.
"Like I could stop you," Gaara replied. "Just don't kill anyone."
"Oh no worries pup," Shukaku grinned at him insanely. "I won't kill anyone."
Yeah right…
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"I wonder what Shukaku looks like," Gyūki mumbled thoughtfully, Kiyobi felt a sinister smile spread across his face.
"Properly a female version of his last host." Kiyobi snickered; he just never knew how right he really was. Kiyuubi knew Shukaku had a soft spot for kids and women, he just so happened to like bloodshed a bit more.
"Don't let Shukaku hear you say that Kurama," Matatabi replied with crossed arms and a reprimanding tone o voice. "He'll try to kill you again."
"Kurama?" Naruto asked looking at his red haired twin. "Your name's Kurama?"
"Damn you Mata!" Kurama snarled as he jumped to his feet and chased the blue haired kunochi, said woman was both taller and there for faster then her red haired counter part. Matatabi laughed as she dodged and out ran her elder brother, Kurama's face just got redder and redder as he chased the very amused kunochi.
"I don't think he wanted us to know." Shino said lowly from where he leaned against a tree, a pink haired girl curled up on the ground at his feet.
"When can I go home?" Kura whispered to herself as she huddled up further on her person, glaring at the neat row of perfectly black insects that surrounded her. "I want Nee-chan."
Shikamaru sighed as he turned to towards the pinkette. After they had managed to capture her they all had to run for their lives, they hadn't actually meant to bring the girl with them; Kiba had simply caught her and then ran because a few of the shinobi started to target them.
"Sorry but we can't do that." Shikaku sighed as he rubbed at his brow. "Look it's not like we're goanna hurt you anything; your sister would properly murder us if we so much as got a scratch on you." The girl didn't say anything to this so Shikamaru continued, trying to ignore how his headache was slowly turning into a migraine.
"Listen we already know that you guys split up names between twins," Shikamaru continued, noting how the girl stiffened at this. "We just want our teammate and comrade back—"
"You can't have Nee-sama," the girl snarled at him, surprising the shinobi that were turned towards them, even Shikamaru's eyes widened at the venom in the girl's voice and the fury in her eyes.
"'Nee-sama'," Neji repeated slowly, watching as the girl's brow twitched. "So that means you're the younger twin, so your called 'Kura' right?" the girl glared at him venomously, Neji took that as a yes.
"There's a lot of things I want to know," Shikamaru said, turning the pinkette's attention back on to him. "But there's something that I can't seem to figure out for my self. And I would like it if you could fill in that gap."
"How do you know that I won't lie to you?" Kura asked with a sneer, Shikamaru couldn't stop the snort from sounding.
"Sakura Haruno couldn't lie to save her own life." Shikamaru replied bluntly, Kura's eyes flashed with something, but it was there and gone too fast for him to name it. "I just want to know how she came to Konoha. How did she manage to get to the main land if she's from such a distant island? What happened all those years ago? I've seen how your clansmen treat you two, how did she even get separated from all of you and end up living in Konoha? She's been with us since she was like six; I recall her entering the Academy for crying out loud."
With each sentence, Kura pulled herself tighter and tighter together until she was eventually rocking herself in place, her face buried in her knees while her arms wrapped around her legs almost protectively.
"Please," Ino called out as she shifted just a little bit closer to the pinkette. "How did Sakura come to Konoha?" Kura raised her eyes slightly to look at Ino through her curtain of hair.
"Forehead," Kura grumbled lowly, making the blonde blink dumbly. "You used to call her forehead."
"Oh," Ino sighed, her eyes large as she sat back from the pinkette. "Um, I... well... umm..." Kura watched as Ino fumbled for words to say, noting that as the longer the blonde tried to find words, the more her cheeks would redden in embarrassment.
"Fine," Kura grumbled lifting her head and staring at Ino almost curiously.
"Huh?" Ino blinked curiously at the pinkette, who stared back at her resolutely.
"I'll tell you what I know on the condition we go somewhere warmer." Kura sighed straightening her back till her head touched the bark of the tree she sat against.
"It's not that cold," Kiba said as he rose from where he sat.
"It will be," Kura answered as she rose and stared down at the row of black bugs almost curiously, she unconsciously stepped a little closer to Shino, her one hand resting on the bark by his arm. "We need to get to the nearest spring, other wise the only one's who'll be alive in the morning will be the Bijuu and their hosts—if their lucky."
"I thought this place was called eternal spring?" Shikamaru asked as Shino crouched and Kura hesitantly climbed onto his back, as if she wasn't sure if she should trust him.
"Haven't you ever heard the saying that you don't judge a book by it cover?" Kura asked as Shino straightened.
"Yeah"
"The same could be said about names."
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Please remember this chapter isn't compleate and that after the fix it i will either update this chapter or add a new one :)
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