Dangerous lives
Chapter 8
Like flies in a spider's web
Minato was sitting on the steps of the house when he noticed his sister walking up the walkway. Immediately he jumped to his feet.
"Where the hell were you Aya? ! We were worried!"
"I took a nap at Anko sensei's then got called for an ANBU meeting. We had more training….a lot more training, I just happened to bring spare clothes because I wanted to relax when we were finished." She said motioning to her dress. Minato immediately deflated.
"Oh. I was worried about you, just let us know next time ok?" the bluenette said gently.
"I will Minato-Nii. Don't worry." Aya said as she walked into the house to change.
Minato shrugged and walked from the house. He was off to find Naminé it was almost time for her to start working as ambassador again, and he wanted as much hang out time as possible, especially since she'd been busy with her mom all day. Before he could make it to her house though, he was stopped by Tenten.
O0o0o0o0o0
Herbs hung on lines drying in the large room, Naminé watched as her mother expertly plucked the completely dried plants and dropped them into separate sections of the basket. It was the red headed girl's job to hang fresh herbs where dry ones were removed, she'd been doing this and all sorts of work like this all day.
"All done! I'm going to bring this to Koori-Baa Chan, you finish up your work and we'll go to the basements and I'll teach you some more stuff ok?" Nia said smiling sweetly to her daughter.
"Yes mom!" Naminé had no idea how her mother could move around the room so fast, while half her work was done, her mother had completely finished her job and was moving on to the next thing.
Often her grandparents would tell her stories about her parents when they were her age and younger. Naminé simply couldn't imagine her mother being a quiet girl with very few friends, and could imagine even less her father being feared by a mass populous of people. That always brought questions to the girl's mind, why did they fear her father? What had they thought he had done? When Naminé was younger she would ask for a bed time story, and would refuse to sleep until she got one, and not just anyone could tell her a story, it had to be her father. She could remember the look of surprise on his face when she first asked, and she even recalled how he sat silently stone faced while he thought of a story for his three year old daughter. What she remembered most though was the soft smile that broke through. When he finally opened his eyes the story began.
~~~~****Flashback****~~~~
(A/N: This is pretty much Gaara's version of A Tough Life for his daughter, the story of how he met Nia how they fell in love and all that stuff, it can be skipped without missing any of the story, but those who have read Sanctuary only should read it…)
"A long, long, time ago in the land of deserts and dunes, a monster was born. This monster did not have claws, nor sharp teeth, nor scales and fur. It was disguised as a human child, and the disguise was to protect it from people who would want to hurt him. It worked for many years, until finally the people realized what the boy was. They called him a demon, they called him a beast and a monster and shunned him, not knowing that by treating him like a creature to be despised, he would soon turn into one.
The boy was alone, and suffered heart ache after heart ache for many lonely years. He had siblings, an older brother and an older sister, but they feared him more than they loved him, and even though they wanted to love him, their father refused to let them.
Every night the boy would sit alone and lonely looking up at the moon, hoping that someone somewhere would want to be his friend. He didn't want to be lonely any more.
The boy and his siblings eventually became ninja and they would travel the world. The boy who had been treated so poorly for so long did not know what to do with his siblings. They worried for his safety, yet they feared his wrath. It made the boy's heart hurt knowing that what he longed for was so close, yet so far from reach. As they traveled the world, eventually they came to a green lush village surrounded by trees and rivers. The forests were thick and the trees tall and wide, much different from their sandy home.
The people in this village were different. They did not view the boy as the villagers back at home viewed him. Here they treated him like a normal person, they offered him and his siblings food, water, and shelter.
After they were settled, the boy left to wander the green village, which was so different from his home. Night fell in the village and as the boy walked around, he entered the park. Normally because of how he was treated, the boy avoided people, they would hurt him with their words and actions, and of all things the boy feared being hurt more than anything else.
However this evening being in a new village surrounded by new people, the boy sat on the swings and looked up at the moon, knowing that a girl was sitting on the swing farthest from him. He was surprised when she spoke to him without fear, surprised that she had not shunned him or pushed him away like the others had done. The girl smiled and offered him her hand in friendship. He met the girl's family, and they showed him the same kindness. The boy wanted to protect these people who showed him happiness, that, however was not his job. He and his siblings were sent to the peaceful village for a very different reason. They were sent to destroy the village and make their own stronger. After meeting the people who were so kind, the boy couldn't bring himself to lift a finger against them. He was afraid he would hurt them by letting them close to his heart, and so he pushed them away though still refusing to cause them and their home harm.
The girl he had met was very strong willed and refused to let go of their friendship and eventually began to seek him out with the help of the boy's sister. Many more people from the boy's village were sent to help in the destruction of the peaceful land in which the girl lived. They were cold hearted and mean people who thought nothing of hurting the peaceful girl. Eventually the girl was cornered by four ninja from the boy's village, and they began to hurt her.
The boy who had been sitting in a nearby tree at the time had taken no notice until he recognized the girl's panicked voice. She asked them a simple question: "Why are you doing this to me?" Their response angered the boy. They said that they were hurting her, "Because she was here." The boy felt rage like no other and immediately saved his friend and killed the people from his own village with no remorse. He would not allow them to threaten her with harm once again. The girl began to apologize to the boy she thought that she had offended him in some way causing him to turn from them. After that she hugged him, it was the first hug he ever remembered, and it would be the hug he never forgot.
After that the boy allowed the girl's family to help him with his monster. They knew he had it, but were not blinded by the fear of it like those in his village. They cared enough to want to help him. When he returned home the boy decided that he could not hurt the kind peaceful people of the village in the forest, he decided to help them. With the help of his siblings who had grown closer to him after learning of his change of heart they foiled their village's plot to destroy the girl's village. The boy from the desert, who had never had such a friend, felt his bond with the girl grow, they became best friends, and when he went home, their bond of friendship stayed strong.
Many years passed and the two friends stayed in contact, however they could rarely see each other, until finally the boy was recognized as the most powerful person in the village and was made leader. During that time the girl supported the boy with his dreams, and when it was announced that he was the leader the village threw him a party. The boy made sure his friend was invited, and she happily accepted. Finally the day came.
He looked for the girl, but she wasn't there. That wasn't like her and it worried him a great deal, for the girl was punctual and disliked ever being late. The boy left the ceremony and sent a letter to the girl in the peaceful green village. He waited days for a return letter, and when it arrived he felt his heart break into hundreds of tiny pieces. The letter was not from his friend, whom he had grown to love like no other, it was from her family. While on a mission, the girl was taken and had been missing for weeks, and her family was still trying to find her.
The boy immediately hurried off in search of his friend, leaving his home to go to her village. His siblings joined him, and eventually a week passed and they turned up nothing. The last evening that they were searching, the boy stood guard at his siblings' camp, but felt as if he needed to go to one special place the two had shared. Waking his brother the boy took off to find the girl. He finally arrived the next day to a clearing in the woods that was next to a tall beautiful water fall. Under the waterfall was a secret passageway that the girl had shown him many times while he stayed in the village. Although the boy was not a good swimmer he dove under the roaring waters and swam into the underwater cavern where he found the girl cold, shivering, and asleep. The boy was afraid for his friend, she was hurt. When she woke, he brought her back to the village to see their medic. Then it was revealed to the two teenagers that the girl was just like the boy, for she too had a monster in side of her, not as large, nor as strong but it was still there carefully sealed away. That evening the two met in the forest and they each told the other of their love for each other.
While trapped, the girl feared that she would never see the boy ever again, and while searching, the boy feared that he would never see the girl again. Eventually the girl became the ambassador for the boy's village and they spent all their time together, and more than once, the boy saved the girl from the dangers of the village.
Because she was not native to the desert land, she was not used to how quickly the land heats up, and got stuck outside when the sun was at its peak, then again the boy saved her during a sand storm that lasted for days on end. For you see, the girl worked in the green houses and did not know the signs of such a dangerous storm approaching. Many times the boy saved the girl, and in return she filled his heart with love and happiness.
Finally the day came that the girl's duty as ambassador had ended, and it was difficult, but they said good bye and the girl returned to her village. She had only made it a few miles or so when the sound of a loud explosion made her come rushing back.
There were dangerous people in those times you see, and these people wanted what made the boy strong, his monster. They over powered him and used his village as leverage and stole him away. The boy's brother eventually gave chase, and the girl seeing him run towards the cliffs followed. As easily as the boy had been defeated, so were the girl and the boy's brother. Both were almost killed, and the boy's brother most certainly would have died had it not been for the girl who removed as much of the poison from his wounds as she could before collapsing.
The girl was in agonizing pain, and the doctors said that she only had a few days left to live if help did not arrive in time.
Ninja from the peaceful village came to rescue the boy, and to save the brother and the girl. As the brother and girl recovered, the boy was brought from the dangerous people's clutches, however he was close to death. The girl was not supposed to leave the hospital, let alone go after the boy, however she pushed aside the rules and went to the boy whom she loved deeply. People were crying for their leader was dead, and upon hearing these words, the girl collapsed by his side.
She called his name and gained no response she shook him and pleaded with him to wake up but to no avail. With tears streaming from her eyes, she kissed him, and around the pair a green light started to grow. It was the girl's monster which had until that moment been sealed away. She didn't want the monster's power, she didn't need it so she willed it to revive the boy, and to power up what left of his monster there was.
The monster warned her however that if she were to do this she would die because the only powers she had left was its own, she told it that it was fine with her and that she was happy. The monster then informed her that the original carrier of the monster's energy, her father, had died in the same way the boy had done. Hearing these words only furthered the girl's drive as she willingly gave her life to bring the boy and his monster back, and when she fell slipping into darkness, the boy still had yet to wake.
The boy himself was walking in darkness until he could see a growing light with a figure moving towards him. It was the girl. She told him that she loved him, and how much she cared, and that she was sorry, but for what she wouldn't tell. The boy however seemed to know and refused to let go of her hand, he would not let her slip away, not unless she would be going with him, so together they waited for what felt like years. Suddenly they heard it, it was the sound of a heart beating, and soon it was joined by another as the darkness slowly started lifting as the darkness was illuminated with bright streams of energy.
Then they opened their eyes to see the ninja from the peaceful village standing over them. The village elder gave her life to bring the girl back from death, and the peaceful ninja gave their energy to bring them towards consciousness. The girl took the boy's hand as together they thanked those who had helped them, and as together they prayed for the old desert woman who had given her life to save theirs.
Soon after the two were married, it was a private and secret affair for the two were not but teenagers, and the only ones who knew were very close friends and family. In years they had been blessed with a child, who soon became known as the princess of the desert.
The End
~~~~****End flashback****~~~~
Naminé smiled at the thought of her father's story, though it had taken years of telling, the girl finally came to realize that the boy in the story was her father, and the girl in the story was her mother, and the child at the end was her.
"Naminé, I thought you'd be done by now my little desert bloom." The red head blinked and realized that she totally spaced out.
"Sorry Mom got lost in space for a moment there."
"That's ok love, it happens all the time to me too." The older woman said with a smile taking the basket from Naminé's arms. "So tell me, what is on your mind?"
"Nothing really just remembering Dad's bed time story from when I was younger, it was my favorite." Nia smiled.
"That my dear is because you know it's true. That story is something Gaara holds close to his heart. That's why he made us these." She said pointing to the black and silver charm with the symbol for love on it tied around her neck. "As you know your father is very protective of us, and these charms call him to us in times of emergency. He had them crafted especially for us, they activate with chakra, blood, and tears. One of those three things lets him know that we're in danger. We talked to Naruto when Gaara was having them made and apparently there is a similar jutsu that the fourth Hokage invented that is what this jutsu was based on. Your dad's afraid to lose us and I don't blame him baby, the world's a dangerous place…Naminé will you promise me something?" the brunette said suddenly as she turned to face her daughter taking over the red head's work of hanging herbs. Once the girl nodded, her mother continued. "Promise me that you'll never get over confidant. Promise me that if you ever need your father's help, or my help that you'll ask for it. Will you promise me that?"
"Of course I'll promise Mom...but I'm not going to use this unnecessarily, I'd never want you or dad to get hurt if it's something I know I could handle."
"Good, but if it's something you can handle we wouldn't get hurt. Just be careful love and don't forget to ask for help when you do need it. You get that stubborn streak from your father." She said pointedly making the red head grin. "Now go down stairs, Minato-kun is down there waiting for you." Nia said pushing her daughter from the room with a gentle nudge.
Naminé headed down the stairs and met Minato in the living room.
"Come on, we have a mission you want to come?"
"Yeah! Let me get my stuff."
Minato watched as the girl hurried off, it wouldn't be a tough mission just checking up on a few areas near the border.
O0o0o0o0o0
Tenten, team 8 and Naminé stood before the Hokage and received their orders. They would be checking up on several spots along the border that had not checked in recently. Once confirming the presence of the patrols or the presence of enemy they were to report back to the village, and to not engage unless they were attacked first, simply observe. It was a high ranking C mission because there were still two members of the group that were genin. The squad made their way from Konoha and headed to the closest area first.
The first three areas were simply late in their delivery of status updates, one even being sent as they spoke. The fourth area seemed to have had some trouble with bandits and they were currently waiting on ANBU to have them brought to the prisons on Konoha. By the time they reached the farthest out post, it was night time and they arrived silently. The two patrols were slain and lay in pools of their own blood. Once Tenten cleared the immediate area, Naminé hurried over to check on the Konoha ninja, there was nothing she could do for them.
"Tenten-sensei, the bodies are still warm. Whoever did this could still be around." The girl said quietly to the bun haired woman. Tenten nodded and gave the warning look to her group, and signaled Minato who discretely activated his Byakugan.
"How many and where Minato?"
"Sensei, were out-numbered." The bluenette said in a very serious voice.
"By how many?"
"Three to one each counting Ume, there's about eighteen of them."
"Kaya, confirm this." Tenten said to the Inuzuka girl. The shaggy haired teen sniffed around and her ninja hound Ume started growling.
"There's roughly twenty or so Sensei, Ume's telling me that about five or six are at Jonin level."
"My Kikai are telling me the same thing Sensei, I've already sent some back for reinforcements when we first arrived at the site."
The five ninja stood back to back waiting for the enemy to strike. Minato stood in his stance waiting and watching the enemies, Kaya and Ume were crouched and ready to pounce while Tenten pulled out one of her many weapons scrolls, the sound of Toshi's Kikai could be heard buzzing angrily through the clearing. Naminé scanned the area, and with some of her chakra infused sand she began shifting the earth beneath them grating the rocks into usable sand in case of an emergency. The red head didn't want to rely on her sand, especially since the only other person able to do the technique was her father. That would put a giant target on her back, and was something she did not want to happen.
A flash bomb went off blinding the group, and the fighting began. Minato fought and deflected the shuriken that came towards him. Kaya had already transformed into beast mode and was clawing away at one of the opponents with Ume. Toshi was blocking hits as they came, and using his kikai to drain the enemies' chakras. Tenten was fighting against two at once and holding her own as she watched out for her students, and Naminé was leading one of the enemies a good distance away before her kunai was knocked from her hand. She ducked a blow and put her palms to the ground summoning the sand she had been creating. The man was stunned when sand blocked his kunai, and was even more stunned when it began to bind him tightly.
"W-What the hell is this!?"
"The last thing you'll ever see." The red head said quietly before clenching her hand making the sand implode and crush the enemy. Quickly she headed back to the center of the fight, unaware that she had been watched by three others before she returned.
Minato struck quickly and precisely disabling his first opponent before kicking him away and ducking to avoid a stray kunai. A swarm of beetles attached themselves to the owner of the kunai in front of the bluenette, and after giving Toshi a nod of thanks Minato went back to fighting. Another enemy shinobi went flying back as a twister of black and brown crashed into it, the spinning stopped and Kaya looked around for another victim and began trading blows with a nearby shinobi while her ninja hound Ume growled before pouncing onto a nearby enemy that tried attacking her master from behind. Tenten had killed one of her opponents and was currently fending the second off when the sound of a whistle came. A smoke bomb was thrown into the center of the fighting group, and immediately the enemy ninja began falling back, disappearing into the trees.
As the smoke cleared Tenten and the group watched as the ninja fled until finally they were alone she quickly began counting the members of her group.
"He, heh, heh, look at those S.O.B's run! ! !" Kaya shouted happily. Toshi was recalling his kikai, and Minato and Tenten were looking around.
"Where's Naminé! ?" the bluenette said in a panicked voice as he looked around. Tenten too was looking for the red headed girl, she had just been there!
"I have her tagged, if she's taken by the enemy we can find her." Toshi said simply as he sent out a Kikaichu beetle. Immediately the group began to follow the scent until Kaya stopped.
"Toshi, we're going the wrong way, her scent is going this way." The brunette said pointing in a different direction. Tenten looked torn.
"Minato, you and Kaya follow that scent. Use your Byakugan and do not engage. Run first or send up a flare. Toshi and I will follow the beetle's scent. Leave signals in the wood so we can follow you." With that the group split looking for the 5th member.
After another mile or so, the Aburame led Tenten to a clearing and stopped.
"Damn it." He said as the Kikaichu beetle landed on the dead beetle on the ground. Tenten and Toshi immediately hurried back to where they last saw Minato and Kaya.
O0o0o0o0
Kaya and Ume followed the scent until it led them to a split in the forest, the same scent going in different directions.
"Minato, we're going to have to split up, take Ume with you and keep going down that path, I'll follow this one, use her to sniff me out if you find something." Minato nodded at the plan and immediately ran down the left path with the ninja hound while the brunette Inuzuka hurried down the path leading to the right.
Minato followed as the dog continued to run, and eventually it stopped near a tree. Using his Byakugan the boy looked around until a flash of red caught his attention, there tied to the branch of the tree was Naminé's red sash, they had been tricked. He climbed the tree and pulled the sash free and held it to the dog's nose. Ume once again ran through the forest following the scent until finally they stopped exactly where Kaya lay, right at the edge of a wide river.
"Kaya!" Immediately Minato ran over noticing a large gash above her eyebrow which hadn't been there before, the Inuzuka girl was out cold. He had only moments to register the sound of Ume's growling yelp and the snap of a branch before he felt a blinding pain in his head and blacked out.
UH OH! Minato's in a bit of trouble here and what happened to Naminé? What's in store for the both of them? Questions comments or just your thoughts on my story, you can PM me or drop a review and I'll get back to you!
