In a flash of lightning, all of Hitomi Kaijima's biggest hopes and dreams vanished. All she had ever wanted was to become a shinobi. Now left blind after a horrible accident, she is determined to prove herself to the people of her village. What Hitomi doesn't expect though, is to discover a kindred spirit, who will teach her to smile again.
Disclaimer: Obviously, as this is a fanfic, I don't own Naruto, or Rock Lee (le sob) nor do I own Feathergirl13's team 99. I also don't own the song "Hanging by a Moment". I do however own Hitomi, Taishimaru, Kieta and the story.
From the author of "Worlds Without End", AKA me! Hope y'all enjoy. I've done my best to banish as much Mary-Sueishness as I could from my character, so don't cringe at the letters OC. The pairings so far are LeexHitomi, NarutoxHinata, and NejixTenten, (there is also slight KibaxOC ShinoxOC GaaraxOC and GaixOC). On a final note; No flames. Thanks in advance.
Chapter Song: "Holly Wood Died" Yellowcard
Okay, as promised, here's chapter ten. Sorry for getting it up late, but my keyboard died (I typed this at school during lunch . ) and my hotmail wasn't informing me of the reviews this story got until a few days after it hit ten. However, to make it up to you all and to reward your endless patience, check this out:
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/7268/hitomichan7kw.jpg
ZOMG! It's Hitomi and Lee! He he he. I drew Hito-chan, but Lee I got off the internet. I messed around with him until I managed to get a good representation of how Hitomi sees the world. Cool no?
Also, I've given FeatherGirl13's team a cameo in this and the next chapter, since I felt bad about putting my offer of using OC's in the story banner and then running out of room in the plotline. So I extended it:) I'm afraid there won't be much room for romance, but I'll drop a few hints :P
The lyrics in this chapter lyrics are(if you can picture it) from Tai to his little sister. Enjoy all.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 10- Action
/Accidents out on the highway to somewhere
they tell us about when we're young.../
Hitomi woke with a start, heart pounding. She tried to ignore the blood rushing to her head and gave in a hard shake to wake herself. What was going on? Why wasn't she still in the training yard? It was obvious to her by the texture of the sheets and the reek of iodine that she was in the hospital. But how had she got here?!
"Hello? Is anyone there? What's going on?! Why am I here?!"
Her small hands blurred into a series of hand seals causing her vision to erupt in sky blue light. The fact that her chakra was so scrambled caught her off guard, and she let out a small yelp, clutching at her eyes as a wave of dizziness swept over her
"Hitomi-san please calm down! Hitomi-san!"
Came the voice of a blue smudge that opened the door to her room and moved to her bedside. The young nurse the voice belonged to seemed almost afraid to touch her, and so simply clasped her hands pleadingly before herself.
"Please Hitomi-san don't go moving around so violently! You've been unconscious for 68 hours, your body needs to adjust to moving!"
Hitomi wasn't really paying attention to what the nurse was saying. She was too busy panicking over her lost training and rescue time.
"Gai-sensei, where's Gai-sensei?"
She mumbled, tracking down her wayward instructor the only course of action she could think of taking with her thoughts so jumbled up. She remembered being in the training yard and crying and...wait, the kunai. There had been a kunai with a note and...Oh shit she needed to find it! Where was Gai? She had to-
"Settle down Hito-chan. He went home."
Hitomi had been so intent on re-focussing her chakra and piecing together her fractured memory that she hadn't noticed her brother's heat signature approaching. His sudden works stunned her mind into dumbfounded silence, and she lifted her sightless eyes to him in a blank stare. Tai held it for a second or two, them moved from his position by the doorframe toward her bed. He looked to the nurse and made a dismissing gesture-one which the flustered young thing was quick to obey as she looked to Hitomi for a split second, then scurried out the door.
"Tai what happened? How did I get here?"
Hitomi asked as her older sibling sat down on the bed next to her. The kunoichi had managed to direct her chakra into a semi-clear image and so watched her brother's calm features flicker and dance in her mind's eye.
Damn it.
Hitomi was really beginning to get sick of blacking out and waking up in strange places. Tai offered her a light smile.
"You were out training way too hard a few days ago and ended up using most of your chakra. You blacked out and Gai brought you here. When he told me what had happened I came in to see if you were alright and the doctor suggested that I let you stay in the hospital until you slept it off and the gashes you put in yourself closed."
Hitomi glanced down at her hands out of habit. She couldn't see the bandages of course, but the feel of the mildly course fabric on her skin told her that they were there none the less. Her knees, shins and forearms were all bandaged as well, and she noticed upon shifting into a kneeling position that they all stung like crazy. It was strange-she hadn't realized when she was out training just how badly she'd roughed herself up. Maybe the doctors had put some kind of nasty, stinging antiseptic on the dressings that made them hurt more now than they had when they were fresh...
Or maybe she'd just been so angry that afternoon she hadn't noticed how much she hurt on the outside, so desperate she had been to numb the pain she felt on the inside. Hitomi ran her fingers along her left arm, wishing the healing cotton material could do something to soothe the internal sting of guilt and regret she felt rising in her chest.
/Rescuers working to clean up the crashes
before she can see what they've done.../
Well where was she after all working herself to the bone? Nearly three days farther from Lee, that was where. She didn't know if feeling more stupid was possible. How much had she really thought she could improve in one day? All she'd accomplished was wasting more time...
Then the memory came rushing back to her full tilt, setting off alarm bells inside her brain.
"Where's my note?"
The girl asked quickly, anxiety and urgency creeping their way into her tone of voice. Tai placed a steadying hand on his sister's shoulder, trying to keep her from getting upset again.
"Easy now Hito-chan, it's safe. Lady Hokage has it. She's asked that you report to her office as soon as your feeling better.
Hitomi furrowed her brow and looked away.
"Tell her I'm not going."
"Hitomi-"
"No! I won't sit there and listen to her lecture me on anything! I'm still so mad at her for forbidding me to leave Konoha!"
/Nobody told her she'd loose in the first round.
That last fight was fixed from the start./
Tai sighed deeply. Hitomi was actually amazed that he was being so patient-even she realized she was acting like a total brat. She was a Konoha shinobi-what right did she have to refuse a direct order from the Hokage?
"Hitomi Tsunade-sama understands how frustrated you are, trust me."
Tai said calmly and quietly.
"Now I'm asking you to please go and hear her out for both our sakes. How would I look if I told her I let you simply refuse to go see her?"
Hitomi sighed. He was right-as ususal. Tsunade was the Hokage and she was a genin of Konoha-she owed the woman respect, even if at the moment she wanted to bite her. She didn't exactly want to make her older brother look bad either.
"Yes Onii-san."
She said simply and quietly. Tai hugged her around the shoulders and kissed her forehead, drawing a small, complacent groan from the younger ninja.
"That's my girl."
She knew he was babying her, but somehow, it just didn't seem to matter today.
For once in her life, Hitomi wanted to be sheltered and comforted.
She wanted wrap her older brother in a strangling hug and cry into his shoulder.
She wanted to hear him soothe all her fears and worries as he gently stroked her hair and rocked her back and forth.
She wanted him to tell her just one more time that he would make everything right again.
But Hitomi knew that she was the only one who could end this nightmare.
/Names on the sidewalks, they move through her body.
Like razors they cut through her heart...
Like razors they cut through her heart.../
The young kunoichi was bandage free and walking around by noon, working the kinks out of a body asleep for far too long. She gathered together her things, dressed in the clean, untorn sweatshirt and shorts Tai had brought her and headed, for the lobby. Her brother was there waiting for her, and bought her breakfast in the cafeteria, which Hitomi forced herself to swallow despite her lack of appetite. The siblings then left the hospital, down the streets of Konoha toward the hokage tower. An awkward silence fell over the pair as they followed the winding dirt roads. It seemed that neither really knew what to say. Chatting about the good weather seemed highly inappropriate considering the current situation, though the prospect of talking about anything remotely pertaining to Lee or the note was just as daunting.
When they had finally reached the Hokage tower and been directed to Tsunade's office, Tai knelt down and gave his sister a tight hug.
"Hito-chan, please just listen to Tsunade-sama."
He said, pulling back and offering a weak smile. Hitomi could tell he was forcing it, but appreciated the effort none the less.
"I have total faith in her directions and so should you. I have to go out on guard duty now, but I'll see you later okay? I love you."
Hitomi bit the inside of her cheek and forced the edges of her mouth to curl up into what she hoped her brother would see as a smile so he would think she was optimistic about what Tsunade had to say.
"I love you too Onii-chan..."
And he was gone, leaving her to knock thrice on the carved hardwood door and await an answer.
/Hey, let go of all you know.
If you fly away now,
what have you got to loose?
And say out loud these words I've found;
I'll be there when you come down.
I'll be waiting for you.../
Hitomi was admitted into the Hokage's office by a chuunin guard, who closed the door behind her as she stepped inside. The unexpected sound of the heavy door sliding shut made the young girl jump. Hitomi fixed her wide, spiralled eyes on it in a blind stare, as if waiting to see if it would make any other startling noises.
"Kaijima Hitomi, good to see your feeling better. Come in won't you"
Came a voice from behind her. Hitomi turned around to face Tsunade, feeling heat rise to her face she realized how silly she must have looked staring at a door. The kunoichi was somewhat surprised to find that, upon focussing her chakra into an image, she picked up five heat signatures other than herself and Tsunade, all clustered around one side of the Lady Hokage's desk. She sent out a pulse of heat to clarify them without even thinking.
She noted that they were all women, and dressed as shinobi, though she couldn't make out the symbol on their headbands. One held a small animal in her arms...a...dog? Cat? No more like a dog...or, it was something like a dog anyway...
Tsunade cleared her throat loudly, obviously annoyed with the fact that she was being ignored once again. Hitomi snapped her sightless eyes toward the woman in surprise, her face growiong hotter. She dipped into a small bow.
"I-I'm sorry Tsunade-sama."
The Hokage gestured for her to come closer, and so Hitomi hesitantly stepped toward the desk, eying the other kunoichi suspiciously out of the corner her mind's eye. What were they doing here?
"Um, Tsunade-sama, might I ask what's going on? I thought I was being summoned so we could discuss the last note I received."
Hitomi let out a small startled sound as the older woman thrust something under her nose.
It was the note.
"Here."
She said simply.
"I've re-copied and filed what Gai-sensei told me you read off of it. You'll be needing the original."
Hitomi hesitated a moment before taking the note, gazing down at the faint aquamarine glow it emitted. She then looked back to Tsunade, a puzzled expression on her face.
"But...why?"
"I've assigned you to a mission, along with Konoha's other available Shinobi. I trust you remember that one of our own was taken captive not long ago?"
Hitomi nodded, unable to speak as images of Lee flashed through her mind. Tsunade continued, steepling her fingers.
"With most of our junior shinobi are off relaying information to allied nations and our senior shinobi guarding Konoha, you and four other of our ninja are the only ones available to go out on a rescue mission."
Hitomi was numb to the world. She was allowed-she was actually being ordered- to go out and rescue Lee. She was caught halfway between the fear she still held for his well-being and utter elation at the prospect of being able to help him. Her thoughts were rapid an incoherent, making it difficult to understand the Hokage's next words.
"Now usually I wouldn't so much as consider such a thing, but Lord Kazekage had sent us a genin squad from the village hidden in the sand to assist you."
"And...why are you sending me?"
Hitomi asked, still very unsure. As much as she hated to chance being rebuked by Tsunade for asking such a stupid question, it seemed just too good in her eyes to be true-a dream that she would wake up from at any moment. Tsunade closed her eyes and Hitomi prepared to be chided.
"Your brother asked me to assign you."
Now that was something Hitomi had not expected.
"Tai? That's impossible! He didn't want be to have anything to do with this!"
" Well, hearts change Hitomi-san. I was planning on simply sending the squad with the translation of your note to go searching, but he convinced me that it makes much more sense to send you out looking. It's been made obvious by the notes that you are what the abductor in question is seeking, and chances are you are the only one who will be able to find Rock Lee. This is your mission Kaijima-san-the others are simply going to be sure you stay alive until you complete it."
Tsunade gathered some papers from around her desk and began writing . Hitomi couldn't speak, couldn't think for that matter. Tai had...he was so scared for her and yet he...he asked if she could help? But why? Hitomi realized he really must have believed her when she told him she was in love with her best friend.
She didn't think there was ever a time when she loved her brother more than she did at that very moment.
Hitomi fixed her unseeing gaze straight ahead and blinked rapidly to keep her tears at bay as Tsunade looked up from her paperwork.
"Now, you have a choice in this matter. You are only a genin-an untrained one at that. This is an A-ranked mission and will be dangerous even with a team of nine going. Kaijima Hitomi, do you accept this mission?"
Her response was automatic.
"I do."
/Night life? The high life?
She just wants a good life,
so someone remembers her too.../
Tsunade looked her straight in the eye, and held her sightless gaze a long moment. She then smiled-a smile Hitomi could tell held approval in it. Tsunade leaned back in her chair and motioned to one of the ninja next to her desk.
"Now for some introductions. Sanmina-sensei would you mind?"
The tallest of the kunoichi dipped her head in a quick nod.
"Yes lady Hokage."
Hitomi had labelled her as the jounin of the group the moment she'd seen her-the vest gave it away. The older kunoichi offered the girl a friendly smile.
"Hello Hitomi, my name is Tenshi Sanmina, jounin-sensei of team 99 out of sunakagure. These three are Lupe Koharu,"
Sanmina gestured to the girl standing directly next to her, who held a small animal in her arms. Koharu scowled.
"And Chi, sensei."
The jounin sighed, giving her irritated pupil a tired look before closing her eyes and crossing her arms over her chest.
"Yes, and Chi. Anyhow, next to her is Aineko Kimiko,"
She gestured to a shy looking girl standing to the side of and a bit behind Koharu. She had long hair, and fidgeted nervously with her hands, her wavering blue features glowing brighter as she blushed and offered Hitomi a small smile.
"And Houshi Yuki."
Sanmina finished, gesturing to the girl on the far right. She was dressed in loose fitting clothing Hitomi couldn't make out very well-though she thought it resembled the attire of the priestesses she'd seen at the Shinto shrines she and her brother visited on holidays. Yuki smiled confidently and gave a broad wink. Sanmina placed one hand on her hip and looked back to Hitomi.
"We're to be your escort and companions for the duration of this mission."
She said cheerfully.
"Um...okay..."
Hitomi muttered, the shinobi that had been assigned as her escort unsettled her slightly. Nonetheless she didn't question her good fortune. This was her chance to move forward, and damn it, she was going to take it running.
"Alright then! Come on gang, we're meeting the Konoha shinobi at the gates."
"Yes Sanmina-sensei!"
Chorused the girls. Hitomi simply nodded and followed them out the door. Hitomi closed her sightless eyes as the hardwood door was shut behind her for the second time, following the others using her ninjutsu. She smiled a tentative little smile, as if testing to see if she could still manage it without her face shattering.
She was free.
It didn't matter where he was or who was keeping him there anymre.
It didn't matter that she was scared.
It didn't matter how long it took.
Hitomi was finally free, and now she would find Lee and bring him home.
/But somewhere she heard there was someplace to go
when you die when you live like we do.../
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"So they say this enemy kidnapped your boyfriend. Is that true?"
Koharu asked, Chi-whom Hitomi had learned was a wolf pup, not a dog thankyouverymuch- leaning her head to the side as if to echo her mistress's question.
"Koharu-chan don't ask that!"
Kimiko scolded in an almost offended tone, the colour on her face intensifying as she blushed.
"It's rude to bring that up!"
"Well I just wanted to know!"
Koharu countered, staring down her teammate. Hitomi had been caught somewhat off-guard by the wolf-nin's question, and so only stared at her for a long moment. She then dropped her eyes to the ground.
"Not my boyfriend...but he's very special to me."
/...die when you live like we do.../
The pair stopped bickering amongst themselves and turned their attention back to Hitomi. Kimiko blushed harder and stared at the ground. Koharu looked somewhat guilty and did the same. Chi didn't quite know what to do, and so she yipped once, wagging her tail
"Hey, don't worry."
Yuki said, glancing back over her shoulder at Hitomi and the other two girls.
"Kazekage-sama sent us to help you find him because we're the best genin cell in Sunakagure!"
Koharu gave her a dry look.
"Actually Yuki-chan, I'm pretty sure it was because we're one of only two genin cells in Sunakagure, and Sanmina-sensei signed us up first. I'm not sure Gaara-sama even knows our names."
Koharu sighed. Yuki glared at her.
"That's not true! I talk to Gaara-sama all the time!"
Yuki seethed, determined to prove her point. Koharu giggled, scratching her wolf-pup behind the ears.
"Yeah, I remember. Every time we go in for a mission you never shut up."
Koharu placed Chi on her head and clasped her hands against her cheek, striking a dramatic pose.
"Good morning Gaara-sama!"
She squealed in a poor imitation of her teammate's voice.
" What mission do you have for us today sir, because I'll do anything you tell me to, no matter how dangerous or menial it is because I'm a hopeless love-struck nitwit, just desperate to get your attention!'"
"I never say that! And I am NOT love-struck!"
Yuki shrieked, but the glow of her blush gave away the fact that she was lying. Koharu smirked.
"Well maybe you never say that stuff, but you think it! Come on, it's soooo obvious!"
"Is not!"
"Is too!"
"Woof!"
Hitomi and Kimiko had picked their way around the catfight and followed closely on Sanmina's heels, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire.
"Do they always fight like this?"
Hitomi asked her fellow genin asshe cast her blind gaze back over her shouldr at the pair of squabbling sand-nin. Sanmina answered before her student could.
"Ooooh yes. They're quite a handful. Hey, you two! Shut up and pay attention, we're almost there!"
Koharu and Yuki looked to their sensei, blinked, and folded their arms over their respective chests, each grumbling their own frustrations while avoiding the other's eyes as they stalked behind her. Hitomi could pick up several heat signatures as they neared the gate, and sent out a pulse of heat as they rounded the last corner to clarify them.
/Hey, let go of all you know!
If you fly away now,
what have you got to loose?
And say out loud these words I've found;
I'll be there when you come down.
I'll be waiting for you.../
Gai-sensei made his identity obvious before the heat wave even hit him by striking a nice-guy pose and shouting.
"Welcome youthful comrades!"
At the top of his lungs. Hitomi sighed deeply at her teacher's antics, amazed he could be so cheerful after all that had happened. In a way though, it was comforting to see him acting like he usually did after seeing him so subdued a few days ago.
It added a sense of normalcy to her racing mind.
There were three younger shinobi standing next to him, obviously trying to keep from being associated with him. She recognized the first by the little animal he held in his arms-not to mention the smell. Inuzuka Kiba wasn't it? He didn't seem to have changed since the last time she saw him, though he looked somewhat more irritated today than he usually did.
Shino she remembered seeing only once when she met Hinata at her cell's training yard, but she identified him right away by the distinctive heat signature created by the combined heat given off by himself and the ten million-some Kikaichu swarming inside his body. It was kind of...okay, really creepy. However; it did make him much easier to identify ,considering that his clothing distorted his heat signature causing him to look much more smudged than the others and the fact she'd never heard him speak before.
Hitomi then glanced toward the third shinobi, expecting to see Hinata.
/Hey, let go of all you know!
If you fly away now,
what have you got to loose?/
"Keita! What are you doing here?"
Hitomi cried, stopping dead in her tracks. She was fortunate that the rest of her group did the same, as it minimized how shocked she looked. The girl glanced up in surprise from the bush she'd been studying in an attempt to ignore Gai. Expecting to be greeted with the same indignance she had offered her ex-friend, Hitomi was surprised when Keita smirked at her.
"Hey sprial-eye. Up and moving already?"
A wave of heat rose off of Hitomi causing a small dust cloud to rise from the dirt road as Hitomi unconsciously 'sounded off', warning Kieta not to try anything.
"You don't even like Lee. Why would you sign up for a rescue mission?"
Hitomi asked, her voice blunt and nearly emotionless. Keita tossed her long hair over her shoulder and stuck her nose in the air, seeming to find amusement in the way she could push Hitomi's buttons without needing to say a word.
"It just so happens I could use the money, or did you forget that real ninja get paid for their missions?"
"Oh just shut up Keita and quit being such a priss!"
Kiba snapped at her. He'd obviously gottten sick of her attitude after waiting with her by the gates for who knew how long. Hitomi admired Kiba's self control- she didn't think she'd be able to take 10 minutes listening to Kieta without strangling her. Akamaru barked at the egotistical kunoichi, baring his teeth. Chi mirrored him. Keita shut her eyes, folded her arms across her chest and huffed, showing her irritation in true Victorian form.
"Oh please, just shut those things up already will you? They're so annoying."
This prompted the disbelieving gasp of "THINGS?!" from both the dogs' owners, followed by a stream of canine-based obscenities, including such classics as "You should watch her mouth or it'll get bitten off!" and "Your FACE is annoying!" This went on for a few minutes, Keita blatantly ignoring her tormentors until Gai and Sanmina stepped in and dragged the genin away from her. While this was going on, Hitomi happened to notice out of the corner of her heated vision that Kimiko grew even brighter as she accidentally locked eyes with Shino-at least she assumed they locked eyes. Who could tell with those sunglasses? Yuki just stood off to one side, shaking her head and sighing, no doubt contemplating why she had ever accepted this mission.
The blind girl sighed, turning her sightless eyes skyward and letting the sunlight dapple her vision with aqua spots. How the hell was she going to survive this chaos? Being placed on a team with Gai-sensei and seven other shinobi she hardly knew would have been bad enough-but Kieta? God, she would go insane! Just as she was weighing the odds of being caught if she snuck off on her own while everyone was preoccupied, a light breeze drifted by her face. Hitomi felt something papery lite on her cheek, and tilted her hand downward again with a small inquisitive sound, reaching out a hand to grasp the object as it fluttered earthward. Holding it in her outstretched palm, the blind girl sent out a pulse of heat to clarify it's shape.
"A leaf..."
She muttered. For a long moment it was as if her mind and body were suspended in an ocean of quiet nothingness. She felt the leaf even began to stare back at her as she held her sightless gaze on it in silent contemplation. Then, taking a deep breath, she closed her fist around it, holding it to her heart in an attempt to dull the ache in it.
"This is nothing."
She murmured, a small, wry smile curling the edges of her mouth upward ever so slightly.
If it go her even one step closer to finding Lee, she could handle this.
She could handle anything.
/And say out loud these words I've found;
I'll be there when you come down.
I'll be waiting for you.../
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's hoping I portrayed your characters correctly FeatherGirl13! Once again, it's very long-sorry about that guys, but maybe the length coupled with that picture I drew will make you forgive my lateness. :) I love you aaaaaall! -tacklehugs all her fantastic reviewers-
Byebye!
-SS