A/N:
Alpenwolf: Yeah... I knew that, lol. Srry it's just when I'm typing sometimes my fingers type one name when I'm thinking another one, lol. But thanks for pointing it out! :) And thanks for reviewing again!
PLEASE please please review guys! I KNOW you're out there! I know it's not just Alpenwolf (whose like, my bestest friend at this point) and Ousama2 reading! SO please review, it'll make me so happy! :D
Chapter 9:
A New Sensei
I groaned as my eyes fluttered open. I looked around in confusion. Bright lights blared down on me, and I groaned as I forced myself to a sitting position. I had bandages wrapped around my arms, and then ones wrapped around my legs. I was wearing a hospital gown with a pair of my normal clothes folded up on a chair beside my bed. I groaned and looked at the IV in my left arm. I growled and yanked it out, before getting out of bed and changing quickly. I yawned before walking out of the room calmly, and stopped as I stepped out. To my left and right there was an ANBU guarding my door. I blinked and looked at both of them, and they looked at me, before I made a mad dash down the hallway.
"Hey! Get back here!" One of them shouted. I growled in fury as I ran for the elevator, but right as I slid to a halt the doors slid closed. I cursed under my breath and then turned down another hallway. I glanced behind me as I ran, before suddenly slamming in to someone. I grunted as I tripped and fell back, my head slamming on the hard linoleum floor. I groaned and gripped my head, before opening my eyes and looking up.
"Whaddya want, Kakashi?" I growled as I sat up, before pushing myself to my feet.
"Why are you trying to get out of the hospital?" I heard slipping sounds as the ANBU turned around the corner and slid across the slick linoleum floor to a halt.
"Because I need to get to the Chunin Exams to participate!" I growled in response.
"No, you don't. As of two days ago you had a full month to prepare." Kakashi informed me, and I sighed.
"That happened after the sealings huh?" I muttered, rubbing my neck where the mark was at unconcously. Kakashi nodded, confirming my thoughts. "You're first fight will be against Shikamaru Nara. They drew numbered slips, and everyone chose the numbers 1-9, and they paired everyone up accordingly. So, you get to fight him."
I sighed and groaned. "Isn't he the guy that uses those shadow techniques?" I muttered.
Kakashi nodded. "Yes, that's him." I sighed and rubbed my head.
"So, hey! I got an idea! Why don't you train me?" I asked, smiling hopefully. Kakashi sighed and shrugged.
"Sorry, Koinu. But I have, er... special business to attend to."
"You're training Uchiha aren't you?" Kakashi blinked in surprise. "That's fine, I wouldn't expect you to want to train the unwanted tag along anyway." I snarled over my shoulder as I shoved passed him. "I'm outta here."
Kakashi sighed, but I continued down the hall. There were no sounds or signs of pursuit, so I calmly walked out of the hospital. I crossed my arms over my chest, mumbling in annoyance to myself. As I stepped in to the sunlight, I let it wash over me as I leaped in to the branches of a nearby tree and sat there for a moment. I'd have to go out searching for a mentor soon. Like, real soon. I crossed my arms over my chest as I thought. I watched as a man came walking calmly down the road towards the hospital, though he looked like he was in pristine condition. Maybe he was visiting someone.
As he came closer I saw that he was slightly tanned with long red hair that fell to his shoulders. He had dark brown eyes, and looked to be in his mid thirties. He had black, loose pants on with a white shirt and blue overcoat thing on. He also wore a blue sash around his head at forehead height. I watched his progress, and he glanced up to smile at me, and stopped in front of my tree.
"Uh, hey! Are you Koinu Hashitaki?" The man asked. His voice was rough, but at the same time smooth and pleasant. Weird.
"What's it to you?" I snarled, and Kakashi came walking out of the hospital, laughing nervously and rubbing the back of his head.
"Like I said, she's a tough nut." Kakashi laughed, and the man nodded.
"Yes, well. We'll see how much I get to know her by the third exam." I blinked in confusion.
"Oh, yeah. Koinu, this is your new sensei for the month. His name is Watiko Luguri."
"Just call me Watiko." The man smiled.
"Ok, so... when do we start the training?" I asked.
"Tomorrow we travel out of Konoha to a small village I live at in the fire country land. We'll train there."
"How long will it take to get there?"
"Probably about twelve hours."
"TWELVE HOURS!"
"Yes, wake up around 3 in the morning so you can have a nap when we arrive, and then we'll train."
"Wait, does he know?" I asked and turned to look at Kakashi.
"Yes, he knows both about your nighttime affairs and about Orochimaru." Kakashi nodded. I sighed in relief and turned back to face Watiko.
"Alright, so what do I do now?" I asked.
"Just pack for tomorrow and rest. Or, do whatever else you want for the day." Watiko smiled, and I smiled back. Maybe I could get used to him.
"Ok! Thanks, Watiko sensei! See you tomorrow morning at 3 at the gate!" I said, before speeding off towards my house.
I sat in my bedroom, stuffing in an extra pair of clothes in to my backpack. I stood up and quickly stripped down before changing in to my pajamas: A simple pair of black pajama pants with the signs of all the different villages spread throughout it. I wore a gray shirt that was five sizes to big for me with a black crescent moon on the front. I stuffed my bag with the necesitys, rummaging through drawers looking for stuff.
I stopped when I opened one, and found the necklace I'd been given by Motaroko. I sighed as I stared at the pitch black crescent moon attatched to the end. I closed my eyes as a flashback rolled over me.
"Happy birthday, Koinu!" Motaroku laughed, his bushy brown hair waving in the slight breeze as he held out a small silver box at me. It was my tenth birthday, we had just graduated from the academy. I smiled and took the box, glancing at his vivid, emerald green eyes.
"Motaroku, you didn't have to get me anything." I muttered as I blushed and looked away from him.
"Uh, yeah I did! You're my best friend!" He laughed and nudged my shoulder, before motioning to the box. "Now open it up!"
I smiled and dug my index finger's nail through the wrapping paper, before slicing it across. I then slid my fingers in and ripped it open, revealing a plain, small white box. I lifted the lid off, and nuzzled on top of a gray cloth lied a pitch black crescent moon, attatched to a black leather string. I blinked and stared at it, wondering what Motaroku's reasoning behind it was.
"Uh, Motaroku? I mean, thanks and all... but why'd you get me a moon? I mean, you know WHY I hate the moon and all."
"Yeah, but even if you didn't have that wolf inside you you'd be a creature of the night. Even if you'd grown up to be your awesome self without that demon in you,you'd still exlpore the forest at night and be a creature of the night. And you know it!" Motaroku smiled at me. "So, I thought it was the perfect gift!"
I smiled as I looked at it again, now understanding and realizing that it WAS the perfect gift.
"I don't see how you can look at me and treat me like a normal human being, even though you've known what lives inside of me before we even went to the Academy." I said, because it was true. Motaroku had been the only kid to approach me when I was alone on the playground. He'd befriended me and about a week after I told him I didn't understand why he accepted me. He asked why, and I'd told him about Garou. But he'd only smiled and told me about how he didn't care about the demon, and all that mattered was that I was just supposed to be myself.
"I've already told you, Koinu. I like you for who you are. Not some stupid demon." He smiled and grabbed my pinky with his pinky, and laughed. "Pinky promise that we'll always be friends, Koinu. No matter what."
"I swear it!" I laughed.
"You do realize that if you break that promise, then I get to break your pinky without any retaliation, right?" Motaroku asked, I laughed in understanding, before taking the necklace out of it's box and slid it over my head.
I growled and took the box that the necklace had been in and threw it across the room. I slid the necklace back on and glared at the box, tears starting to leak out of my eyes.
"You promised..." I sobbed. "You'd promised we'd always be there for eachother..." I clenched my hands in to fists. "YOU PROMISED!" I shrieked, and kicked the chair that had sat in front of my desk over. I missed Motaroku, desperately. He's the only person in the whole damn world who's ever treated me like an actual person. Uchiha, Naruto, and Sakura don't care about me. They just want to get through the exams. Kakashi practically admitted that I was just an extra load on the team's shoulders.
But I never asked for it! I was perfectly fine with my team! Me and Motaroku, the best two on the team who were as close as two friends could be! Rashin, the strategist who hung back, but could also hold his own in a fight. He knew about me, treated me like a human too. We were close, but never as close as me and Motaroku. And then Gakuro sensei. The man who treated me like his daughter, who I wished was my biological father.
I curled up in the corner of my room as I let the memories of how my team and family had been slaughtered and killed in front of me. Between each of their deaths the only thing I could see was Orochimaru's face. That bastard's face. Anger flared through me with my grief, and I hissed as the mark burned, but forced that other demon away. I would kill Orochimaru one day. Not today, but one day I would.
"Why kill him? You know he can offer you greater strength?" Garou's voice pushed itself in to my head.
"Piss off, Garou." I snarled, and he did. He left me alone. That was how our relationship worked. We hated each other, but we also respected and helped each other to survive.
I finished packing my bags, set my alarm clock for 2:30, and then curled up in bed. I didn't bother to take my necklace off or pick up that box or the chair.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. I snarled as my alarm clock went off, WAY to early to be getting up. I rolled over and slammed my hand on the off button, before grudgingly getting up. I changed in to my normal clothes, and stuffed my pajamas in my bag. I then opened my bedroom door and went to the bathroom, brushing my teeth and hair and just getting ready. After that, I packed up my toiletry items and threw them in my bag too. THen I grabbed my bag, turned my room's light out, and went to the kitchen.
I heated up a bowl of ramen, devoured it, and then went outside to the village gates. As I walked through the town, the few people who were up and about avoided me like the plague. I ignored them though, it's been like this since I could remember. I sighed as I stopped at the gate, waiting a whole five seconds until Watiko showed up. He nodded to me, before we headed out.
It took, as expected, forever. My legs were aching after five hours of walking, and I groaned.
"How much longer do we have?" I whined, sounding like those spoiled little brats.
"About seven hours. Don't worry, you'll be fine."
And so I starved and suffered for seven more hours. Finally, when I felt sure that I was a member of the walking dead, Watiko stopped and smiled at me.
"We're here."
I looked up to find that we were in a little village. Or, atleast on a hill overlooking it. There was a strip of stores that the town needed, with houses surrounding it and then farms surrounding those. Watiko smiled before we continued down the road. But, before we reached the village he turned down a dirt road secluded in the forest. At the end of the road, there was a two-story wooden cabin. I blinked and Watiko opened the door, motioning me in.
As I walked in, the first thing I noticed was the smell of rice and fish wafting through the house. My mouth watered and a girl in her early or mid twenties popped her head out of the kitchen and smiled. She wore a simple brown robe, and sweat beaded over her brow. She had beautiful brown hair pulled up in to a sloppy bun, with the warmest amber brown eyes ever.
"Dinner will be ready in about five minutes, Watiko." She said, Watiko nodded, and she then returned to cooking.
"That's Sintaki. She's a sweet girl. Never really had the desire to fight or be apart of any of that. Her parents were killed by bandits, so I adopted her a while ago. She's taken care of me and fed me ever since. She's more of a housekeeper or somthing besides a daughter in-law." He laughed lightly. "Why don't you go upstairs and unpack? First room on the right, feel free to use the drawers." I nodded and walked down the hall, glancing through a doorway to find Sintaki smoldering over the food. I walked all the way down the hall, and turned right to find a stairwell.
I climbed up the stairs, before sliding the first door on the right open. When I opened it, I wasn't surprised to find a pretty small room, but I didn't care. All that was in there was a bed, and a drawer at the end. I opened the drawers (there were three). In the top one I put my extra set of clothes. In the middle one I put sentimental stuff like pictures and such, and in the bottom I tossed my empty backpack. I stood up and cocked my head to the side when I spotted a partially slide open door on the side of the room. I walked open and slid it open, finding it to be a bathroom. The bathroom contained a shower, toilet, and sink.
I closed the door as I walked out, doing the same with my bedroom door. I climbed down the stairs, before finding Watiko standing at the bottom. He smiled warmly, before leading me down the hall and sliding the door across from the kitchen open. Inside was a relatively normal sized table, with windows lining the other side. Sintaki was sitting at one end, smiling at me warmly. Watiko sat at the end across from her, and I sat in between both of them. In front of all of us there was a plate with a fried fish, with some vegetables and rice. I gulped as my mouth watered again.
"Hi, I'm Sintaki." Sintaki smiled warmly, and I smiled back. I couldn't help but like her.
"Hi, nice to meet you, Sintaki. I'm Koinu." I replied, Sintaki replied saying how it was nice to meet me, and we began eating. I picked up my chopsticks, broke them apart, and began devouring my food. I was done before either Sintaki or Watiko were halfway through. Sintaki smiled at me.
"I figured you two would be hungry after your traveling. There's more in the kitchen." She laughed as I grabbed my plate and all but sprinted in to the kitchen. I piled another fish and some more rice and vegetables on my plate, before running back to the table and devouring my food again. Once we were all done eating, Watiko yawned.
"Yes, well, Koinu and I are going to bed for a little bit. I'll come wake you when it's time to train, Koinu." I nodded, said a goodbye to Sintaki, before climbing the stairs to my room again. I flopped down on my bed, and fell asleep as my head hit the pillow.
