REVISED CHAPTER.
A/N: I wanted to change a few things up, and develop Ilki a bit more. I tried to summarize the dialogue in these episodes as much as possible, because I know it can get irritating rereading what we've all read/seen many times before. Enjoy!
Disclaimer/Claimer: I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own the characters Mirani and Ilki, as they have previously been copyrighted to me by a friend who borrowed them for her privately published book. So yay, I own something!
Glossary at end of the chappie.
All was quiet in the forests of Konoha, where a lone cat ran for its life. Chasing it with equal quietness were the six members of team seven. Mirani, however, was mentally cursing its existence and the nature of their mission. D-rank missions were boring, and even team training was not as rigorous as she was used to. Granted, she gave Kakashi credit for doing what he could with such a large team.
She knew he and the Hokage had been surprised to see the results of the initial test. When he told them they passed, she had figured it was because he saw potential in them – and wanted to see how far they could go. That was completely fine with her. Her headset cackled to life, and she pulled her focus to the present.
"What's the distance to the target?"
"Five meters. I'm ready anytime."
"So am I."
"Me too."
"Ditto." Ilki's affirmation was punctuated with a sneeze. "I hate cats..."
She snorted. "I'm good here."
"Okay...go!"
Naruto jumped out of the bushes screaming "Gotcha!". As soon as he grabbed the cat, however, it howled and started attacking him. Then it saw Ilki, and for some reason, walked over and started rubbing around her legs. 'Well, she does have the two-tails in her,' she thought in amusement as her friend started sneezing.
"Ribbon on the left ear...are you sure this is the target, Tora?"
"Achoo! Yes, yes, now get this cat away from me!"
"Good. Lost pet 'Tora' search mission complete."
Twenty minutes later, they were watching the cat's reunion with its master. 'It's a scary sight,' Mirani thought with a sweat-drop. 'As long as we don't have to go back out to catch it...I don't think Ilki can handle it again.' Looking at her team, she added, 'I don't think any of us have the patience to do that again.'
"Hmm." The Hokage puffed on his pipe, eying the team and then glancing down at his papers. "Your next duty is babysitting an elder's grandson, shopping in the neighboring village, and help with the potato digging."
"NO!" Naruto shouted, stomping his one foot. "No thank you! I want to do, you know, a more incredible mission! Find us a better one, dattebayō!"
After Iruka yelled at him and the Hokage started explaining missions, the blond immediately tuned him out and turned to his teammates. "So Ilki, you have any good ramen lately?"
"Have you had, baka," Sakura corrected, whacking him on the head.
"I had miso last night again," Ilki said, tapping her chin. "It was really good."
"Last night I had pork ramen, so miso sounds good for -" He was interrupted by the Hokage yelling at him again, to which he replied with, "Geez, all you do is give lectures like that. But you know what? I'm not the trouble-making gaki you still think I am!"
"Besides," the other Jinchūriki said with a huge smirk, "we work really well together. Ne, Kakashi-sensei?"
After a strange look in her direction, the Hokage sighed. "Okay. If you want it that much, I'll give you a C-rank mission. It's the a protection mission of a certain individual."
The door opened, and they got their first good look at the drunk that was Tazuna the bridge-builder. He looked over all of them, and the scowl on his face got deeper.
"What's this?" he grumbled, then took a swig from his bottle. "They are all a bunch of super brats."
After Naruto threatened to kill him, they were dismissed and given an hour to pack. When they met at the bridge, the hyperactive blond once again launched into one of his Hokage tirades, and then they left. As they walked, Sakura asked about shinobi in other villages, to which Kakashi explained the shinobi village system.
It was not long before they passed the puddle that should not be, where two Kiri ninja appeared and pulled the jōnin to pieces. The genin and Tazuna were shocked, but Mirani – and presumably Ilki – were stunned at how real it looked, even though they knew it was Kawarimi.
"One down," one of the shinobi said, and the two turned to a frozen Naruto. "Two down..."
Sasuke jumped over and, with shuriken, pinned the chains the shinobi were using to a nearby tree. He then delivered a swift kick to each of them, but they then broke free from the chains. Regaining their senses, the two went straight towards Tazuna. Sakura and Mirani were closest to him, and both moved in defensive positions – but Ilki came flying from the shadows.
"Kage Nageyari!"
One of the Kiri shinobi had a cape, to which she threw the spear at it. It pinned the cape to the ground, keeping him from moving forward. She then delivered a swift punch to the shinobi's rather resilient head. That left only one shinobi left that was going after Tazuna.
It was then that Kakashi decided to reappear, stopping the shinobi from harming anyone else. "Naruto, sorry for not helping you right away. I got you injured...I didn't think you wouldn't be able to move." He turned the others. "Nice job Sasuke, Ilki. You too, Sakura and Mirani."
A flurry of events happened, including Naruto and his promise after finding out about the poison-dipped claws and learning about who the Kiri nin were actually after. They traveled to the Nami no Kuni by a silent boat, where Tazuna explained that a evil business man named Gatou was trying to stop the building of a bridge that would significantly help the country. Kakashi decided that they would stay to protect him, and the group continued their journey.
–
"Naruto! You idiot!"
Sakura bopped the blond on the head as the boy started to apologize to the frightened snow white rabbit. With a sigh, Ilki looked around. She knew what was coming next – this whole arc was one of the most drawn out ones of the whole series. She rocked back and forth on her heels, watching the woods for any sort of rustle. The moment she heard one, Kakashi yelled for them to duck.
"Well well," he said, eying the man standing on the giant sword that had just flown over their heads – and was now deep into a tree. "If it isn't Kirigakure's missing-nin, Momochi Zabuza." Naruto attempted to attack, but he held him back. "Everybody, get back. This one is on a whole other level. It will be a little tough, unless I do this..." When he pulled up his hitae-ite, he revealed the red eye that was the Sharingan. "Surround and protect Tazuna-san. Do not enter the fight. That's the teamwork here."
"I don't believe that is the wisest idea."
Another figure walked out from the shadows, directly behind the group. It was a male, with black eyes and red hair. Killer intent radiated off him like heat radiates off the sun, stunning the inexperienced genin. 'This...this is crazy,' Ilki thought as she blinked several times. 'There was nothing like this on Earth...this, this fear.'
"I'm your opponent, Kakashi," Zabuza said, attacking the jōnin.
"And you guys are mine," the other man said, grinning. "I'm going to enjoy this."
Something caught her eye, the glint of metal from the sun. Around the man's arm was a hitae-ite with a symbol she did not recognize. There was a gash in it, signifying that he was rogue. Cocking her head to the side, she studied the symbol. It reminded her of the Amegakure symbol, the four vertical lines that she had seen in the series around the Chūnin Exams. The only difference was that there were three horizontal lines, forming a rectangle with lines crossing in the middle. To her, it almost looked like a cage...
Her vision blurred suddenly, and she wondered for the briefest moment if she had been hit with a jutsu of some kind – maybe a genjutsu. A horrible pain appeared in the back of her mind, growing to a throbbing pain of indescribable pain. She clutched her head, moaning and making the genin turn their attention from Zabuza and the man circling them like a shark. The symbol from his hitae-ite floated in her mind, and she squeezed her eyes shut, as if closing them could make the image disappear.
My mother's name was Akane, after her red hair. She jumped as the thought entered her head, and it was as if the floodgates of her supposedly fake memories had opened. Father was called Kenji, because he was a smart ruler. Our house was in the middle of the Aneigakure, one of the larger ones because father was on the ruling council. There was a coup from one of the lesser houses...but he would also mention the ruling houses...Raikatuji was the one that father would mention the most. I used to hide on the stairwell when he and mother would talk about the family, and how they wanted...something, and they didn't like that the ruling council had control over whatever it was.
I had just turned...eight? I was celebrating with my parents when...when there was screaming. Someone pushed me into...a cupboard? It was dark...so dark...but no, there was a crack of light... There was lots of red...so much red...so warm. And there was someone else there...standing over my parents...his hands coated in the red liquid that matched his hair. Was he mother's cousin? He was someone...someone from the ruling council...he had killed them. He...he had helped the coup...
There was only one image in her head when she finally regained relative control of mind. Around her there was fighting – she had passed out. Kakashi was in the water prison, and Zabuza clone and the man were hounding her teammates. That man – she tensed as she recognized him. His face haunted her memories, stained with the blood of her parents.
"Raikatuji Takeo."
He stopped attacking, surprised to hear his name from the group of genin. "How do you know that?"
"You killed them." Something snapped inside her, and a hiss escaped from her mouth. "You killed them in front of me."
"W-What?" He frowned, studying her. A spark of familiarity flared in his eyes. "You...where have I seen you before?"
But she was no longer listening. Her vision narrowed as the pupils of her eyes became cat-like slits, and a different voice inside her whispered for her to destroy him. She was all to willing to comply with it as her body shook in rage. Red haze appeared in her peripheral vision, but she ignored it. Takeo was her victim, someone who needed to die.
It did not occur to her that she was now on all fours; neither did she hear the swishing of two tails made from chakra behind her. All she saw was him widening his eyes in fear. He reached for weapons, but she pounced with the speed and grace of a cat.
"You killed my parents!" she hissed, swiping at him with a paw. "You betrayed the whole village!"
She opened her mouth and blew a ball of fire at him, lighting the woods on fire. He had dodged it, and had put a decent amount of distance between them. Somewhere behind her, the genin broke Kakashi free from the water prison. But she did not care – she wanted the man in front of her dead, his blood on her hands.
"Bijūdama!"
While she had only seen the move on the show, a voice inside her told her exactly how to do it. Some part of her mind told her that the Nibi was fueling her desire for death and destruction, and the saner part of her told her she needed to stop. Mentally, she glared at it until it curled up in one of the far corners of her mind and complained quietly. Turning her attention back to her enemy, she found that the surrounding area had been destroyed. It looked, simply, as if a mini atomic bomb had went off.
Takeo was nowhere to be found, and she circled the crater several times in search of him. For the briefest moment, she caught sight of the hunter nin that was Haku standing over Zabuza's "dead" body, and she growled again. They were enemies, and they associated with the traitor. They need to die! the Nibi told her, and she prepared to pounce.
"Ilki."
Appearing in front of her was Kakashi, and she glared at him. A stupid idea, she realized, as she was caught in the spinning red of the Sharingan. Suddenly, she was very sleepy, and her body hurt worse than it ever had. Curling up on the ground, she closed her eyes. The last thing she heard was a voice, floating somewhere outside of her.
"I...didn't think that a genjutsu would work on her."
Glossary:
Kiri – Mist.
Nami no Kuni – Land of Waves.
Ilki:
Akane means "brilliant red" and Kenji means "intelligent ruler".
Bijūdama – Menacing Ball.
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