Chapter 7 (Lie)
Shizuko's eyes went wide as Kakashi fell and she momentarily left my side to go check his pulse while Sasuke and Naruto waited with wide eyes for her analysis on him. Her worried brown eyes slowly closed as she let out a sigh in relief, "his muscles tensed up from stress. He should be fine though."
For the first time since the battle started Tazuna spoke up, "if you boys can carry him he can rest at my house. It's not far away."
They nodded and Shizuko came back to me wrapping my arm around her neck as I limped angrily, trying to keep up.
"Why the hell are you limping anyway you didn't encounter any part of that fight and you were fine before that," Sasuke asked annoyed and with a strained breath bearing half of Kakashi's weight.
"None of your damn business that's why," I counted back. I was thoroughly annoyed at my uselessness during that stupid fight.
"That's not true! Lie was injured before that fight." Shizuko tried to defend my honor towards Sasuke but I slapped my forehead. She just needed to shut up sometimes.
"Oh yeah, by what? She was perfectly fine when we fought the other ninja," Sasuke said irritatingly.
"You should leave the girl alone she's been hurt since the boat ride. The back of that leg of hers is purple," he turned to me. "I suspect you didn't say something sooner because you all would have probably left to go back to your village. Thank you."
I sighed irritatingly wishing we were there already, "it wasn't for you and before anyone asks I don't want to talk about it or how it happened. Are we almost there?"
The bridge builder nodded and I swallowed my anger trying to focus on stepping forward instead of my vision that was starting to blur and rock. This wasn't good.
We walked. I couldn't tell for exactly how long but finally we came to a small but fair sized house where the boys dragged Kakashi to a room and Shizuko dragged me to a different one letting me down on a bed with a tired sigh.
"S-sorry," I struggled to get out holding my head.
"You should be you baka. Walking around with poison in your veins. You may not have to tell the boys what happened but you will tell me so I know what I have to do to heal you," Shizuko put her hands on her hips. My timid little friend definitely had a bossy side when she got worried and I sighed, "I ran into my fiancé when I was disposing of the demon brothers."
"What!?" She practically screamed in shock. "When did this happen? Is he also a part of the Kuriyama clan? Why didn't I know sooner? Who is he? What does that have to do with your leg? Where-"
I stopped her from bombarding me with even more questions, "he threw a rose that scratched the back of my knee and then his chakra signature vanished. I didn't realize it was tipped with poison until we were already on the boat and half way here. I don't know what kind."
I could feel my strength slipping away and my consciousness slipping in and out. Shizuko worked the bottom half of my pants of by unhooking the chain links at my knees and flipping me onto my stomach to see the wound. The next thing I knew I felt a warm tingling sensation and I had lost all consciousness.
Apparently I didn't wake up until the next day. I stretched feeling a little pain in my leg and opened my blindfolded eyes only to find Shizuko sleeping on my bedside. 'What a bother' I thought as I tried to slide free without waking her up but the moment both feet hit the floor Shizuko's eyes opened.
"What are you doing? You need to rest."
I sighed but smiled, "I feel fine little angel. I can sense that there is still some poison but it should be weak enough now for my immune system to fight off. Plus you should relax your skills from healing me. Let's go check on Kakashi."
Shizuko reluctantly agreed and I followed her to the room at the end of the hallway. Sasuke and Naruto were already seated by his side. I glanced over to see Kakashi had his eyes open, "good you're all here. Gather 'round now we have something to discuss. I believe Lie was right when we fought Zabuza. He is still very much alive."
Sasuke and Naruto had looked shocked at the news when Naruto decided to speak, "but sensei that boy. That tracker ninja you said he was supposed to dispose of Zabuza?"
"Naruto that boy was most likely impersonating a tracker ninja to help get Zabuza to safety. The tracker used senbon on Zabuza which are normally used in medical procedures not as assassination weapons also he moved the body to work on it while tracker ninjas are trained to take care of the body then and there. So when they show up again we're gonna be ready."
I looked at my cautious sensei with my eyebrow raised and a smirk on my face. Sasuke mimicked my excitement. This time I was gonna play too. Naruto grinned and Shizuko sighed heavily obviously worried about the outcome.
"We will all work on chakra control until that day happens," Kakashi informed us and struggled to get out of bed and grab crutches. We followed him out to the forest where he finally decided to inform us of what our plan for today was. "Ok everyone listen up. Today you will be climbing trees."
We all looked at him like he was crazy, "however you won't be using your hands. Like so…"
Kakashi slowly walked vertically up a tree. We all looked on, some of us more amazed than others.
"Woah Kakashi sensei that's awesome," Naruto exclaimed happily.
"Yes and you will all do it as well by pulling just enough chakra to your feet. While you all try this Lie I must talk to you privately."
I nodded and followed Kakashi behind a tree. It wasn't far from the others but I doubted anyone was listening in… Boy was I wrong. A certain raven haired ninja was quietly listening while he gathered his chakra.
"How is the poison?" Kakashi-sensei asked in a serious tone.
I nonchalantly put my hands behind my head, "It's ok. Shizuko got most of it out and besides feeling like a drunk I'll be ok. You know I can't do this exercise right?"
He quirked an eyebrow curiously. It wasn't like his headstrong student to admit so easily if at all to not being able to do something. "-and why's that?"
"My chakra isn't like normal chakra. I mean I don't have normal chakra. I can only do two types of jutsu and that includes my dark jutsu and my water jutsu. I can't even do something as simple as the replacement jutsu. I passed the genin test with water clones."
He looked slightly impressed to hear that and nodded that he understood my predicament. "You shouldn't be moving chakra around your body anyway with poison still lingering. Speaking of which I will need to know how you got poisoned. You understand why don't you."
I nodded. I understood exactly why he needed to know. Kakashi was fully aware of my lineage. An enemy clan member easily accepted into Konoha with little questioning. Putting me on a genin squad was dangerous enough but having secrets from my sensei with all this considered was out of the question.
I sighed, "My fiance found me after I disposed of the demon brothers and slit my knee with a poisoned tipped rose. I didn't know it had poison until it was spread too far. Also before you ask I lost his track and I don't think he'd go after them or is still here but I'll never be certain about that."
Kakashi thought on that for a second and looked at the others, "don't wait on us, Lie isn't participating in this exercise so go."
They all nodded and began their ascent.
"So why is your fiancé trying to kill you?"
I thought for a second, "I don't think he is. He's trying to capture me and take me back to our village. It wasn't really a consensual engagement."
He nodded. Whether he sensed how uncomfortable I was with the subject or not was questionable. I was just happy his questioning seemed to end there.
"Well looks like Shizuko is the only one who seems proficient in chakra control. Good job," Kakashi praised Shizuko who blushed and did a silent happy dance at the compliment she received.
I smirked at my little friend sitting high on a branch looking down at the two boys who failed to make it four feet up the tree. She flashed me a peace sign in victory and I just chuckled to myself at her being excited over walking up a stupid tree. I sat at the base of a middle tree while I watched the boys battle out the race for the top. Soon Shizuko got bored of slowly walking up the same tree and came to sit by me.
"Kakashi sure seemed to be chatty earlier."
I looked at her and sighed staring back at our two teammates. Working so hard. Competing for nothing.
"He asked about Akumu."
"Is that his name? The boy you are engaged to?"
I nodded still looking at them struggling, one inch closer every time. Matched in power.
"There are a lot of politics about my clan that the outside world doesn't know. The second I announced what demon I would contract with I got engaged for the sake of the clan. That was if the bonding worked."
She looked on confused and shocked, "You already have a demon?!"
I chuckled a little even though it probably wasn't the time, "did you honestly think I didn't?"
Upon seeing her face I decided to get a little more serious, spreading some light on issues that should be kept in the dark, "Kuriyama's are molded from the time they are born to be killers of the night. To partner with demons. To weed out the weak and invest in the strong so that deals can be made with stronger demons. I am now partnered with one of the strongest the clan has ever known. Akumu is partnered with a demon who is equal to mine in strength and rank. I hold within me the demon Abaddon of destruction, while he holds Azreal of death. A pair made in hell. I'm not positive about what he wants, but I know it can't be good." (This parring of demons is a borrowed idea from author Melissa De La Cruiz)
She nodded slowly and looked onward following my gaze. Naruto came up to Shizuko with a childlike smile, "Shizuko-chan will you please tell me the secret of doing this. But don't say anything to that baka Sasuke about it."
Shizuko blushed deeply and followed Naruto to his tree discussing the techniques she used. I looked over to Sasuke who watched Naruto curiously waiting to see if Naruto could put Shizuko's knowledge to use. After a bit of talking she stepped back and Naruto took some time. Visible wind formed around his feet showing he had at least some chakra control.
He charged to his tree getting considerably farther than anywhere he or Sasuke had come close to on the tree. Sasuke's eyes narrowed becoming obviously annoyed at the thought of falling behind.
They continued for a while. Kakashi left and shortly after and Shizuko even left too because she was going to watch over Tazuna at the bridge. I stayed and watched the boys for a while drifting in and out of consciousness. Until Sasuke came up to me, "do you know anything about this?"
I looked at him with my eyes raised and he looked away embarrassed.
I sighed and slowly walked with him back to his spot. "Chakra control is all about harmony. All living things give off an aura, a life energy, a chakra. You have to combine the energies of all the elements around you and harmonize. Your main problem is overpowering. You've already noticed that you're breaking your tree." He nodded so I continued, "You have to think about gravity and the aura the tree gives and adjust your chakra flow. The best way to do it is to visualize yourself doing it and not overthinking it. Put your hand on mine."
I held out my gloved hand flat in a stop kind of signal. He cocked an eyebrow but slowly matched our hands.
"Sasuke and Lie sitting in a tree…"
Sasuke went to take his hand away and make some snide comment I'm sure but I stopped him with a stern voice. "Focus Sasuke, ignore him. Focus on me. My hand." I sent a small part of my dark chakra swirling around my hand. "match my chakra Sasuke. If you push my hand back your going too strong."
He closed his eyes and focused his chakra to his hands and started out pushing far too hard sending my hand farther and farther back.
"Look at me," I said forcefully and he opened his eyes realizing how far back my hand was and looked where my eyes were behind my mask. Once he did that his chakra slowly started to adjust. I started to notice things about him that I never had before. How tall he was. How wide his shoulders were. How intense and sad his black eyes were.
I gulped not sure how my throat was suddenly so dry and it must have broken Sasuke's concentration because he went from a perfect balance to overpowering my hand out of the equation. "I got it now," he said coldly and moved away from me.
Ass. I thought to myself as my moody teammate starred his tree down. He summoned a big gust of chakra to his feet and ran at the tree. Upon impact he practically split the tree on his first step and landed on his back with a thud.
Naruto started cracking up, "Lie haha you made him even worse. Hahaha that's great."
I looked back offended even though that chicken haired prick deserved taunting. "I didn't make him worse. I gave him all the knowledge he needed. Whatever Sasuke and his stupid male ego got so upset about threw him off balance."
Sasuke just looked at me angrily, "you might be able to use those stupid tricks on whatever boy is unfortunate enough to be engaged to you but they won't work on me."
What the hell?
"I don't know what tricks you're talking about but don't think you can even begin to comprehend me little Uchiha. You couldn't even scratch the surface." I marched away angrily. Who did he think he was? God I hate men.
We all ended up seated around a table at 7pm while tazuna's daughter served us.
"So how did training go guys? Did you get to the top?" Shizuko asked trying to make light conversation breaking the awkward silence. Naruto smiled happily, "oh yeah thanks to you two and your advice Sasuke and I have been neck and neck getting higher and higher."
I raised my eyebrow with an intrigued look on my face towards the Uchiha who merely looked away and mumbled, "speak for yourself dobe. I got there with my own power."
"Uh-huh sure," Naruto teased causing a competition between the two who both started stuffing their face stating that the hungrier person obviously worked harder.
I'll never understand boys. I cocked my eyebrow and looked at Shizuko who had the same expression on her face. Kakashi sweatdropped as well and started light conversation about pictures around the one about a man who was ripped out of a photo who was patting Inari's head.
"Who's the man in that photo?" Kakashi asked curiously.
All I could think was how rude Kakashi was for asking. That isn't something you ask about. That's none of our business. I wasn't big on manners but questions like that only led to sob stories.
Inari screamed towards us, "You think your heroes and can save us. There is no such thing as a hero and you're all just gonna die."
Afterwards Inari promptly ran out of the house who was followed by his mother Tsunami.
I sighed as Tazuna began to tell us the story of the man in the photo, Kiza.
At the end of the story Naruto rushed out to look for the boy and Sasuke left again to practice more on his tree climbing. I excused myself shortly after to interrogate him.
I walked through the forest the night air blew lightly although it was a little chilly for a summer night. Probably from the surrounding ocean. I continued until I found the raven haired boy exactly halfway up a tree. Notches sliced into the trunk marking every single attempt. I noticed the big jump, the notches got increasingly higher and further apart after I had talked to him.
I jumped up on the branch he was momentarily resting on making him jump slightly, "Lie… what are you doing here?"
I smirked and slowly removed my mask since it was dark enough for me to see without it now, "I came to see exactly what you overheard Kakashi and I speaking about since you were obviously eavesdropping.
He narrowed his eyes, "I was not eavesdropping. I just heard something about you and a fiancé that's all. I don't care anyway. Just feel sorry for whatever guy has to put up with you."
I laughed at his sad excuse for an insult and got closer to him. "Are you sure you don't care 'cause that comment you made earlier definitely came from somewhere."
"You're delusional," he commented stubbornly.
"Whatever then I got what I came here for." I jumped off the branch and went to walk away. "You're welcome for the advice by the way," I said with a smirk as I shoved my hands in my pockets and continued back to the house.
When I got there however Naruto and Shizuko where both nowhere to be seen.
