Guys I'm so sorry this chapter is like FREAKISHLY long. 10, 000 words long.
its pretty funny because I have maybe 15 chapters made up and I'm already writing in shippuden, I didn't think this story was long, but the chapters are more or less 10,000 words long. if anyone find crazy long chapters annoying leave some reviews or pm me and I will separate the chapters.
On a side note, in this chapter Shin will simply summarize things that happened instead of me doing a play by play, hopefully you don't find this to annoying.
Also sorry I dont leave many authors notes, but I'm a horribly awkward person, and never know what to say.
Enjoy this chapter! happy reading! ^.^
Finding Shika's scent...easy.
Fending off two teams at once. Yeah that sucked. Two grass teams came at me with literally every thing they had.
And boy did they have allot. Water spouts and waves, and wind tunnels, and rock spikes.
It took about forty minuets of me jumping around and avoiding them, for the past while I hadn't been using jutsu's because compared to what I could do with seals it was kind of lacking, but in this fight I spat more fire balls then medically recommended, before my trap had been set.
I let one hit me in the side...okay he hit me in the side and I took it as an opportunity to play dead. Then all cautiously came forward to look at me, thats when I sprung the trap. Domino inferno seals is what I would call it.
One by one they were surrounded my blue hot flamed, I rolled away but my arm got burnt, the fabric of my shirt melted.
I paid no mind to the pain. Just kidding I yelped and wined and babied the arm until I reached a near by tree I pressed a seal to it and made it grow into the fire.
Then I watched as the six kids inside tried to summon waves and wind to blow it out.
The water worked but they were reactivating seals, so once it burnt out fresh blue fire erupted from them.
I waited a bit longer, and sure enough the oxygen had burned away and the six had passed out.
I waited another ten seconds and the flames went out. Except the tree, it still burnt. I'm not sure what its job was. But it felt important at the time. I went over to the grass ninja's body they were breathing and hot, but they were all still alive. I grabbed their scrolls, not that I needed them but they pissed me off.
At this point I was hobbling to Shika's scent.
They were in a clearing, that smelt like...death. They were sitting around a small fire and Ino was cutting Sakura's hair.
Because why not. I've just constantly been fighting people for the past threes days, why not be doing each others hair and sitting around a campfire.
"Shin! Are you okay?" Shika asked running to my side.
"uuuhhh I burnt my arm, broke a few ribs, I think I twisted my ankle, someone tore the left leg of y pants off, I havn't eaten for two days becuase I have literally not had time to sit down." I reported as he lowered me to the ground, I took it a step further and laid my head in his lap.
"Your face...is pretty bruised up shin." Naruto said sticking his face into mine. Well he didn't look to hot either.
"well you want to know what? Why don't you try fighting six teams of three for the past three days and tell me how your face looks. Also I'm pretty sure I saw a humongous snake. And a man with a long neck but I couldn't be sure becuase at the time I was stuck in a genjutsu." I complained loudly.
"It took you three days to have six fight?" Naruto asked.
"Well three of those teams kept tracking me, then I'd have to lead them away from Shika's scent before dealing with them." i explained. "Hey pass me that rock." I ask naruto. He passed my the palm sized rock and I press my water seal to it, then drink up.
"So you were all those forest fires?" Shika asked smiling.
"And all the random floods?" Choji asked.
"Oh were you also those big stone pillars?" Ino piped in.
"And those blue flames?" Sakura chimed in.
"Yes yes. Those were me. My head hurts." i quickly sniffed the air. "Shit come on guys we have got to go." everyone looked at me.
"You look like you can barely walk, Naruto and Sasuke are both injured." Sakura argued. I looked the two boys over. They did look a little worse for wear.
"Well then, we have three water fall and mist heading our way." I thought quickly. "Okay Sakura what is your specailty?" because truth be told I didn't know what she did.
"I...uh...I" She stampered.
"Never mind. You and your team go chill in that tree you protect them." She nodded.
"No way I want to fight!" Naruto screamed.
"No, dont argue. If you guys get more hurt your hard to carry back. If I get more hurt I'm light go into the tree!" Both of them looked at me like they wanted to argue.
"LISTEN TO SHIN! Get in that tree!" Ino yelled pulling both of them into the tree, sakura nicely followed. I summoned an earth wall around them closing them in.
"Okay shin what's the plan?" Shika asked.
"Your the boss now, whats the plan?" I ask him. He was a good tactician like our father, smart and twenty moves ahead. I went with my gut and improved, it could keep me alive, but not a team.
"Tell me about them."
"guy cant we just run from them?" Choji asked but we all ignored him.
"The mist are tricky, they have a powerful genjutsu they will try to start with. I can smell where they are though, and they learnt that real fast so I don think they will use that. But they do use the earth swimming technique, but their hand to hand sucks. The grass are jutsu jocks, earth wind and water. All C-rank but a bitch to fight." I report to him.
"Okay who is going to arrive here first?" Shika asks.
"The mist from the west in three minuets, and the grass ten-ish from north east though their pace kind of fluctuates."
"Okay, Shin make two lava pools spaced ten feet aapart to the west, the heat will force them to surface, then we can do our thing. Then land mind the north east of the feild."
"Okay but I'm making them nonlethal." I tell him and he just nods. "Wait...they are both stopped. Now they are changing direcctions completely."
.
.
The Grass Pov.
"Wait it's ...him." the three ninjas shudder.
"He is protecting two other teams. Thats not fair."
"He is suicidal." they all nod in agreement.
.
.
"Thats so weird. They have been trying for three days, why stop now." I wondered out loud.
"Probably because you have six people with you now " Shika says. "What a drag I had seven different battle stratigys planned out." He sighs. "Maybe you should free them." I turn to look at the tree I had trapped team seven in.
"Oh right. I had six people on me and one of the sound teams came at me still. Though they left right away, it got pretty confussing for all partys, when the grass teams were ffighting me and fighting the sound." I laughed even though it really wasn't funny, there was a moment when I thought one of the sounds was going to kill one of the grass, but a Kunai thrown handle first to his hand loosened his hold enough for the little grass ninja to get away and kick the shit out of the sound.
"I think your slap happy shin." Ino giggles. "OH MY GOD!" Ino yells as I place my hands the wall around the tree, Naruto was banging and screaming through it like the annoying little booger he was.
"Whats wrong!" I ask quickly inspecting her limbs.
"your arm looks so grosssss" she cries wiggling away from me. Shika and I sweat drop.
"Thanks for that, I really wanted to add heart attack to all the other injurys I have." I brought down the wall the glanced at my burnt arm which I had been avoiding.
She was right.
It looked gross. Five massive blisters covered it.
"Okay Sasuke on my back, Naruto on Choji's lets go people, who knows when more people will show up."
"I'm not getting on your back." Sasuke stated outright.
"Then get on Ino's back." I said dead panned.
"No."
"Well I'm not waiting for your slow crippled ass, my back oor Ino's back." Ino didn't look thrilled about carrying him either.
"What about Shikamaru?" Naruto asked. Shika glared at Naruto.
"Shika couldn't run and carry him, and we will be running."
"Sasuke just get on his back." Naruto nudged. And with much Sass Sasuke jumped onto my back. I winced then cried out when he touched my arm.
"Touch my burn why dont you! Just stick your arms around my neck like a normal human, or I will carry you like a baby." He listened and quickly at that threat. My ribs felt like fire, almost as bad as my burns now.
"Shin...are you coming?" Ino asked.
"I need to take in chakra give me a second." I filtered in only life chakra and let that pool into my body. The pain lessoned quickly and felt awake again.
.
.
The trip to the tower was uneventful, there was quite a few teams still scrambling about, but they seemed to give us a wide birth. Though there was a guy who seemed to be waiting for us to stop but wee didn't we just ran straight to the tower, when Sakura complained for a rest we just told her to stfu.
But then we realised she had also not slept this whole time and was hurt, so she was on Ino's back.
When we arrived I'm sure the people in the camera room had quite a laugh seeing team eight carrying team seven.
Okay so basically we opened the heaven earth scrolls Iruka popped out of team sevens- Assuma popped out of ours. Iruka did all the talking.
Basically if your strong you need to be smart, and if your smart you need to be strong. I don't know something like that., and thats what it means to be a Chunin.
Blah blah blah.
I was taken to the infirmary where I promptly fell face first into the bed and slept.
.
.
When I woke Kiba was howling with laughter about the fact that we carried team seven in. Also that I passed out.
"I didn't pass out I fell asleep thank you very much." I groan as I stiffly sit up. "They didn't even heal meee." I complain.
"My sister is coming in a few hours to fix you." I nod at Kiba's word then happily drink the glass of water at my bedside. "You totally passed out." He chortled.
"You had it easy, you got here on the first day. That forest was hell for me. And these guys, though I still don't know howw they got ruffed up." I say pointing at team seven strewn across the cots like my own team.
That's when the big long story came out.
But I'm going to break it down for you.
Basically they got attacked by a big gust of wind, Naruto was thrown away. Sasuke and sakura were then attacked by this women who scared Sasuke so bad he had to stab himself in the leg, they then ran away, and then the women found them, the women crawled out o her skin and was a man.
Infact one of the evilist ninjas to come out of Konoha, Orochimaru *cue gasps* Sasuke got scared again, Sakura passed out again.
After being eaten by a snake Naruto came to the rescue, and the rest of it is clearly Naruto lying to make himself sound cool, because I highly doubt he karate flipped a snake the size of the whole forest.
Basically all you have to know is this Orochimaru guy is a lunatic, who for some reason wants Sasuke.
Story time over.
Its kind of hard to top that story.
They fought a sanin.
I looked around the room at the other Genins. One of the grass teams were laying in beds at the end of the massive barraks. There were the sound ninja's, but that was it.
"Are we all that made it?" I asked.
"There is also the sand trio but they are in seaperate barrack and there is another leaf team but I think they are in the dinning room." Ino told me.
"the one Sand ninja with the red hair is dangerous. Stay away from him." Kiba warned.
"Why?" Choji asked through a mouth full of chips.
"He crushed a guy with sand." Kiba told us with a haunted look in his eyes.
"That grass team doesn't have any scrolls but they needed medical attention." Shino stated though I'm not sure anyone but me heard. We were all hung up on the 'crushed someone with sand bit.'
.
.
I slept most of the remaining days, on the morning of the fith day my medic came, Hana Inuzuka, Kiba's sister. Last time I saw her I was naked and mostly incoherent.
All the other Genins who made it got called to the main room, but sadly Hana was still healing my arm, then had to heal my ankle which had a hair line fracture.
And perhaps if she had enough chakra she would heal my ribs.
"Do you know if any other teams made it?" I asked her.
"one last Konoha team made it in last minuet, but other than that it was just you six, or seven since you are your own team." She smiled warmly.
"You know you not really like your brother." I comment.
"My brother can be a handful." She chuckles.
"Oh it wasn't an insult to either of you. I used to find him annoying, but as a fox I found everyone annoying all the time, except for my family." She just laughs again.
"Can your seal turn any animal into a human?" she asks looking as the seal on my leg. Then at the no scent on my hip, and the clothing one on my ribs.
"Yes, or at least I think so I only ever tried it on a rabbit. But I don't think I have met another animal who wanted to be human." i say wistfully.
"Why did you want to be human. I always thought it would be more fun to be a dog, or in your case a Fox." I thought bout that.
"Well, even with out being told you were a girl, or even if you didn't know the word for female, you would fundamentally feel like a girl. It's just in your nature." I try to explain. "I knew I was different my whole life, the second I woke up in the forest I felt like it wasn't where I belonged, but with the Nara's it felt better, more...right. Then I was able to understand seals and chakra, and able to make myself talk. Then turn into a human, and it felt right. Sometimes I miss being a fox, but mostly those reasoning's are because I can pee outside and not get in trouble, and no one would force me to eat veggies." Hana laughs at my attempt to lighten thee topic, though its genuine laughter.
"So whats going on out there?" I ask After a series of large bangs reaches the echoing walls of the barrack.
"Preliminary's, to many teams made it to the tower, so they are placing you guys against each other, one on one, and the winners advance." she explains moving onto my ankle.
"Oh well then heal my ankle then I can probably get through a fight..." I say poking at my tender ribs. She told me she knew my anatomy well enough to not have me change into a fox, which was nice.
"The Hokage is giving you a pass." She said smiling. I stared at her...huh.
"Why?" I ask.
"Well we had two anbu following you the whole time, incase you ever looked like you were about to die, since the test was heavily weighted against you." She explained. "And in your fights you injured both of the anbu with your seals, and impressed the two new anbu who were sent to replace them, as you fought nine people, and saved one of your enemy's then created a new seal, stumbled to your friends, then carried them back." She finished taking in a breath. "Something about that impressed them all enough that they decided you would get a pass." i thought about it.
"They do realise when I was fighting all those people, sometimes they were fighting each other, and I was mostly running around and avoiding them, while taking serious damage." I thought about the three days more. "Actually the whole time i was just running away avoiding them all and getting them off Shika's trail, and mine, so I could meet up with them."
"Well I'm just saying what i was told."
"I hope my team makes it." I mumble. I thought more about my time in the forest, it didn't feel impressive, i felt like I fumbled through on luck and stupidity and somehow made it out alive. There was never a plan, and I really just used the same four jutsu seals over and over. Water wave, inferno- then Domino inferno blue seals, plant growth seal, and rock pillar seal. Oh also I used the lava seal to scare away some people.
It was mostly frantically running and screaming "oh my god" my throat hurt both from screaming and the fire balls. Nothing about the three days was smooth calculated or impressive.
"IF it helps you feel better, there is an uneven amount of people in the prelims, so they had to choose on person so get a pass." Hana informs mee with a smile.
Huh, that did make me feel better.
"And they chose you because we watched you fight six diffferent teams." She continues moving to my ribs.
"Well that makes sense." I admit. Though from team sevens storys they should have been watching them, not me fumbling about the forest.
.
.
I ended up being healed ten minuets into the Hokage's speech, just intime to pick a number. I got paired with the one guy with the paint on his face and weird thing on his back. I'm sure Shika would fill me in on his deal.
Shino had a pass for the first round. He ddidn't seem to happy about that.
Shika would be fighting the girl with the large fan, he wasn't to thrilled about fighting a girl again. The rest of my team didn't make it, in fact Sakura and Ino found a way to both loose the match.
I think that requires an amazing amount of suckage on both part, not that I would say that outloud.
Choji had apparently done really good but still got beat.
Also the sand guy almost killed Rock Lee, the kid who had a bowl cut and worse a green spandex. Apparently his taijutsu was really good, and he was so fast using pure strength that the genins could barely track his movement. He still lost to the red haired guy with no eyes brows, and the word on the street was it was unlikely he would ever be a ninja again.
In another morbid high light, Neji, Rock Lee's teammate and Hinata's cousin, almost killed Hinata. So thaat was freaky.
Naruto defeated Kiba by farting in his face.
Sasuke was taken away for medical treatment, which was weird because he had seemed fine for the last two days, he mostly just stayed to himself and yelled at anyone who got close, which seemed like his normal behavior.
Since Shika and I were the only one's on our team who made it to the third stage we were 'one on one' training. But it was just us spending the day with Asuma, Shika would play shoji, I would work out then work on my seals.
Kankuro was a puppet master, I was a funjutsu specialist, there was no specail move that would put the ffight in my faavor instantly, like if Shino was the one fighting him.
It was simply my specailty against his, naturally the plan was to incinerate his puppet.
"Hey Shika?" I say stopping my pushups and sitting cross legged on the grass. Shika and Asuma were intensly focussing on the game of Shoji, clearly Shika was winning, but if Asuma was smart he could give himself a fighting chance in five moves, but he wasn't and Shikaa could counter it easily.
"Whats up?" He asks moving a knight.
"What do you think would happen if touched someones chakra string with pure nature energy?" I ask.
"Well..." The three of us look to the sky all with our own brand of 'thinking' fface on
"Sages can't use sage mode and heal people, because the nature energy wouldn't be balanced." Asuma stated. I nodded allong, it was true, they would turn to rock.
"So then I'd assume the same thing would happen i you charged someone elses Chakra strings with nature energy." Shika finished, I nodded again, already having come to the conclusion.
"Well then scratch that." I go back into plank position and begin doing pushups. "So is this all we are going to do?" I ask struggling through my reps.
"Well do you want me to teach you something?" Asuma asked.
"I'm already working with dad on my shadow jutsu." Shika reported giving me the evil eye. He was probably scared I would make it so he had to do more work.
"Do you have anything you want to teach me?" I ask him raising my eye brows.
"No, i don't know anything about funjutsu, sorry kid. We could spar." He offered.
"Naw. Thats fine." I sigh then fall onto my stomach to the ground. For some reason I thought this would be more exciting.
"I can teach you the body flicker technique." Asuma offers. I lift my head up to get a look t my sensei.
"Really?" I ask.
"Yeah it should be easy enough for you to learn." He shrugs.
.
.
Learn body flicker they said. Should be easy they said.
I collapsed to the ground after five straight hours of trying to hyper speed so fast the it looked like I was teleported.
I got the hyperspeed down.
The control...no not so much.
Asuma had to leave the field every time I tried to do it.
...after a while he just left me. That jerk.
I laid down in the middle of the field panting. All these jounins made it look so easy.
"I'll give you blood pure blood!" A rather scary voice carries on the wind, along with a scent, one of the sand siblings scent. He was walking straight towards me until he was in the clearing I was in. "You?"
'killhimmmm' a voice thrummed weird and whispy like the feeling of chakra.
"his blood is not good."
'killhimmm!' the chakra voice spoke louder.
Okay this is scary. The logical thing to do would be to run very far away. But I knew I couldn't outrun his sand if rock lee couldn't. So i sat in the field trying to act natural.
"Oh hey there, did you want this training field? I just finished up, so you can have it." I tell him trying to smile. The red haired guy stares at me almost bewildered. "Do yu want some water?" I offer my water bottle.
'heissfakeing' the voice tells the boy infront of me. 'killhimmm!' I dont know who is saying those words, but I want to know why he hates me.
The red haired boy comes towards me and grabs the water bottle out of my hands, though he doesn't drink it. This is good. I mean he isn't killing me right.
"I was in the Chunin exams too, though you may not have seen me since I didn't do the prelims. I am Seishin, the one they gave four scrolls then sent me in all by myself. I didn't get to see you in the forest, I was mostly running around trying not to die repeatedly." I nervously rambled. "I do seal work. I figure its only fair you know and tell your brother since I know the basics of he does." I say nervously scratching my neck. The red haired guy barely even registers that I am talking, but I do realise that as long as I talk the chakra voice doesn't say anything.
"I hate my brother." He tells me blandly, making awkward eye contact. Well this is weird.
"My brother is also in the Chunin exams. The one with the black hair that looks like a pineapple. He annoys me sometimes too." I quickly think back and realise there was never a moment i was actually mad or annoyed with him. Guess I'll have to exaggerate something.
"What's he like? What's family like?" He asks as I tried to think of a story.
"Well I was adopted into my family. I have a Dad, he is a jounin. Unlike most Dad's he is really calm, He wants us to be happy no matter what. My Mom stays at home and cleans and cooks which is allot harder than you think. She always wakes us up early and makes us eat veggies. She makes us train and clean things. But she is very loving and concerned with our wellbeing." I say smiling. "Even though my brother annoys me sometimes, he is my bestfriend, the person I can go to for anything. If I feel sad or lonely, he helps. Siblings are cool like that." The boy sits next to me.
"My siblings are scared of me." He tells me, I'm surprised to find that both of our postures are more relaxed.
"Why would they be scared of you, you even have love written on your forehead." I laugh at my own attempt to be funny.
"I'm a demon." He tells me point blank. Well...this escalated rather quickly.
"well I'm a fox." He gives me a questioning look. "No really look" I activate my clothing rune and then my shifting seal, then I'm a fox sitting beside him. "See this is what I was born as." I tell him before shifting back. "Even though my brother didn't understand it at first I explained my feelings and why I wanted to be human, and everything worked out." I shrug. That was almost all a lie but who cares.
"I really am a demon." He repeats gotten over the 'the boy beside me is a fox' thing.
"Are you sure YOUR a demon. Because you look human to me."
'KILL HIM KILLHIM NOW!' the chakra voice screams. The red haired boys face contorts in pain and a sand cloud erupts from the boys barrel thingy on his back.
"Oh can it you creepy demon!" I say annoyed with the weird voice following this poor kid.
'you can hear me?' the voice asks.
"Yeah I can hear you, what are you?" I ask, the boy relaxed and the sand went back into his weird backpack thingie.
"You can hear it?" the red haired guy asked.
"Yeah, its voice travels on the chakra, and I use nature chakra, so I don't know I some how hear it. I can also tell you it isn't you, because you have normal human chakra, and what ever that weird thing is, it has nature chakra." I tell him.
"It's a demon." He says in a daze.
"He kind of reminds me of a racoon. Or at least his chakra feels the way a wild racoons would." I could have just said racoon, I don't think people tame racoons. I mean could happen.
"He is a tailed beast. My father put him in me before I was even born. I killed my mother." he whispers.
"Women die in pregnancy more than we would like, don't blame yourself." I thought about what he said about the tailed beast portion. "So he is a tailed beast? Tailed beast holders are usually chosen as young as possible so its more likely that they will be able to hold the tailed beast. Kind of like how we teach kids to talk right away, and not later on in life because as babies the adapt to things easier." I tell him half wondering where this information was coming from. "also I read that the holders are usually someone close to the Kage of the village, so its less likely for that person to run off with a dangerous weapon inside of them." the red haired guy nods. "I'm not justifying your fathers actions, I'm just trying to explain why he did what he did." I tell him quickly.
"It's weird that I can hear and feel your tailed beast though. We have a tailed beast somewhere in our villiage and I have never sensed it." I said thinking.
"He is constantly in my mind, whispering things, only rarely like right now can I break away from him. And the moment I sleep he takes over me." I purse my lips.
"Here look at this." I turn my head and show him my balancing rune. "This is a rune, it mean its a perminate seal on my body. It balances my natures. Since I am fox and human. Maybe if I tweak it I can make it so he is locked out of your mind." The boy cringed in pain.
"you'd have to work fast." I nodded already tweaking it. Instead of it being an even split of the two different natures inside him, I had to make it so only his humanity ruled. I pressed my hand to the back of his neck, the ink spread, I felt a strong pulse of he tailed beast chakra, and the boy cried out loudly. The seal was set and activated, and the beasts chakra fell from the air, like hitting a mute button. The boy and I starred at each other for several moments, then I realised our faces were really close and my hand was on the back of his neck.
I took my hand away and cleared my throat. "How does that feel?" I ask.
"empty...he isn't there any more..." He says in wonder.
"Well I assure you he is there, but he is locked out of your mind the way he should be. I would get a seals expert to look at your seal though." I tell him.
"Are you not a seals expert?" He asks touching the back of his neck.
"I wouldn't say expert...more like educated Novice. But don't worry about the seal-slash-rune I put on you, that one will work, but I couldn't look at your tailed beast seal." He nods. "Oh by the way what's your name?" I ask remebering that I had been calling him 'the boy' or 'red haired boy' or 'sand guy' which I guess isn't polite.
"Gaara of the sand." He tells me in his emotionless voice. "Yours?" He asks stifly.
"Seishin Nara, but you can call me Shin if you want." I tell him reaching my hand out for a shake.
"Seishin." He says nervously reaching his hand out our skin touches and he look releaved. "Usually my sand doesn't let me touch anyone." He mumbles to me as we take our hands apart.
"Well you wont have to worry about that anymore." I say smiling. "Well...do you want to go eat some food or something?" I ask him. He nods but doesn't look my in the eyes. "What kind of food do you like?" I ask. I don't know why I felt so compelled to help him, or even now why i felt like I needed to help him reach out to his siblings, to help explain why he acted like a psycho and tried to kill people, but I did.
"Barbeque?" He asks still not looking directly at me, and I dare say their was a blush spreading across his face. So he want from raging psychopath to horribly nervous and socially anxious.
"Good choice, Akimichi barbeque is to die for. Come on." I say standing up ignoring the burn in my legs. I reach my hand ut to help him up and he just looks at it oddly. "Take it and I'll help you up." I explain. He puts his fingers in mine, much the way a princess would present their hand to be kissed. Its not typically how this is done but I let it slide. I gently hold his hand and pull him up.
A laugh escapes his lips. "That was fun." He decides. I feel a pang of sadness for this boy, he had never had enough human contact to even know what it felt like to be helped up.
.
.
We sit at a booth table which is more secluded, and I order for the both of us, mostly because when the waitress asked what Gaara wanted he just starred at the table.
When the food arrived Gaara starred at my plate.
"Your meat doesn't look cooked." He comments. As per usual I simply ordered a plate of raw meat, but for Gaara I got him some beef ribs and pork slices, side rice and veggies.
"I'm a fox , in human form I can't really catch a rabbit and eat it whole like usual, so this is a happy medium." I explain cutting into some of the red meat on my plate.
"Why is everyone watching us?" He asks motioning to the store. There was about fifteen women openly staring, and half that trying to be sneaky about looking.
"Oh uh...those are my fan girls...em, they think I'm attractive." I tell him trying not to sound awkward.
And failing.
"Thats weird." Gaara decides. "not that they think your attractive because you are, but that they watch you eat." He quickly recovers, his eyes widen as he registers what he said.
"thanks man, yeah I think its weird to but I have gotten used to it." I shrug taking another bite.
"Gaara?!" A girls voice shouts. I turn to look at it, it's his sister and brother coming this way.
"Tamari." Gaara says stiffly. "Kankuro" the two sibling look at me then their little brother then me again.
"Hey there. We just finished some training and came to eat want to join?" I say casually sliding over in the four person booth. Kankuro slides in next to Gaara, though he gave him a wide birth, and the girl slid in next to me. I chuckled at their weapons beside our table. They all went for oversized and impractical I suppose.
"You trained with him?" Kankuro asked me.
"Yeah we ran into each other, and I thought it was only faair you know my specailty since you didn't see me fight. So I told Gaara to pass on the message, and I was able to help him out with something." i shrug trying to be nonchalant.
"Shin is a seals expert." Gaara tells them as I signal a waitress for the two new commers to order.
"I'm a puppet master." Kankuro tells me patting the weird bandaged thing.
"Yeah my brother told me, so it's really just two specialty's going against one another. Unlike some of the other matches which seem more weighted." i agree.
"weighted matches?" Tamari asks.
"Well not weighted, but they compliment each other, would be a good opportunity for the fighters to show off." I explain. "Naruto and Neji are both hand to hand minor jutsu's, and both of them just have jutsu's that compliment their hand too hand. As you saw. It makes for a smooth even fight. Tamari and my brother, mid to long range fighters. Again smooth complimenting fight." I brush over that way so I didn't give anything more away. "Gaara and Sasuke, well they are the only even matches for each other, Sasuke is close range, Gaara iis mid to long, but their power levels are quite above the rest of ours, so they are paired together." The three sand siblings nod. "But us it was kind of one poison over the other. They could have put you with Shino, but he could use his bugs to rot your puppet in no time flat, or make them eat your chakra string, or even fill your whole puppet with them and take the control away. So if they did that then the matches would look weighted in our favor." i explain. "But with me I have no real defense against puppets, no secret move that would destroy your battle strategy." i say honestly.
"You expect me to believe that?" He asks raising one eyebrow.
"Well I mean you don't have to believe it, but really my seals if use the right way and with extensive planning on battle field could destroy your puppet, but I dont have something up my sleeve that puts this in my favor. So its just going to be which of us finds away to immobilise the other, or outlast the other." i shrug eating another bite of food just as the other two's meals arrive.
"Why are you telling me this?" He asks.
"Well...I guess I'm not one of those people who have to win all the time, be sides making it to the second round would mean more work. Which would be a drag." I say quoting my brother.
"Your kind of weird...is your meat raw?" Tamari comments and then asks looking disgusted.
"He is a fox." Gaara tells her. She looks at him with an odd expression. "Shin helped me get control of...him. I uh. I'm not like before." Gaara explains awkwardly.
"Eh it was just a rune to keep it out of your mind. I still think when you get home you should get a seal expert to look at it." I tell him smiling. I was starting to feel uncomfortable though, I didn't particularly like many people, and Gaara was cool, but the other two were just...you know humans. They were to close and smelled to strong. I scratched my arm well I quickly finished. "Gaara I have to go, we can meet in the field from before tomorrow if you want I'll be training there again." I tell him quickly. He nods looking at me questionaly picking up that something was up.
While I poked fun at his social anxiety I had the same thing, it usually didn't bother me unless Shika wasn't with me. But I was at a table with three people I had just met who weren't even from my country and it felt suffocating.
"I'll walk you out." Tamari decided.
"Just let him go." Gaara told him. She nodded and slid out of the booth to let me out and I followed suit. I placed money for mine and Gaaras meals on the table, I smiled at Gaara then left quickly.
.
.
Once I was home I closed the door quickly leaned against it and sighed.
"Hey Seishin...you alright?" Mom asked coming over and petting my head, fixxing my braids. I'm not sure why she continued to brraid my hair like a 'sexy nature fairy' but she loved it so I let her.
"Yeah I just made a new friend, it was scary." I told her. She smiled at me well furrowing her eye brows. Wow that was a look I had never seen before. "you know the Kazekage kids? Well lets just say that the red haired one that hurt Rock Lee stumbled upon me training, we chatted a bit. I kept hearing a very mean voice in the chakra, then I realised something was making him act like a psycho, I fixed the problem using my seal. Anyway we went to eat, then his sibling showed up. Then I was at a table with three people I barely know." I finished in an exsasprated voice.
"So let me get this straight. It wasn't the psycho chakra voice, or the boy who hurt Rock Lee, it was the fact that you were alone and sitting with three new people?" She asked.
"Yes and where is Shika? I haven't seen him since this morning." I asked squinting at my mom as she let out a peel of laughter.
"He is fine he is training with your father, sit down I'll make you tea." She doesn't give me much of a choice though, and just plops me into a kitchen chair. "Shika said something curious." She said as she filled the kettle with tea. I quickly thought of all the secrets I had ever told Shika that wuld get me in trouble. Yesterday I swept the dirt under the rug...maybe it was that.
"He said that you told him, you could never get married or fall in love with a human?" She asked. I could tell she was trying to be casual.
"Well isn't that obvious. I'm a fox genetically speaking."
"you might not be able to have kids, but i see no reason why you can't fall inlove." she fills a tea kettle with water then sticks thee tea leaves into steep.
"Well...I've never been attracted to human women." I tell her honestly.
"And men?" She asks. I think about that for a second.
"Nope." I decide.
"Here I know what to do!" She puts the tea pot and cups on the table then shuffles into the living room with magazines. "these are your athers." she explains sitting right next to me. She openes one up between us and points to a half nakid girl on the inside.
"Mom is this porn!?" I ask pushing it away.
"Shin concentrate." she turns the page over to a burnet girl in heels...and thats it.
"Mom I don't think this is doing anything for me." I tell her honestly as she flips to the next page of three girls hanging out in a soft bed. "I think there are far to many pillows on that bed."
"This one has nice breasts Shin look." She says tapping the page. Compareing them to the other girls breasts I had seen in the book I agreed, they did seem nice. I nod and flip to the next page.
WOW that was a graphic page. Mom flipped over it real fast as we both screamed.
"What is happening here?" Shika and Dad ask having enered the room to see Mom and I screaming trying to flip a page.
"Mom is showing me porn." I tell them inspecting the more tame page.
"we are trying to descover his 'type" She explains.
"Hey are tho-" Dad stops speaking but we all knew what he was going to say. Shika and I both take that moment to quickly exit the house, hands over our ears.
.
.
The next day I headed to the same field, Gaara wasn't there, I had brought my seal note book though, with no real idea in mind I started doodleing some compository seals.
Huh I wander if I could spread seals with my feet...
"Seishin?" A shy voice called me out of my thinking, I looked up from where I was laying to find Gaara looking down at me.
"Oh hey Gaara, how was your day?" I ask sitting up and crossing my legs. Gaara wincd at the question.
"It was...something."
"Do you want to talk about it?" I ask motioning for him to sit.
"It's weird not having him there, it was like I was somehow empty." He explained.
"That makes sense, he was a major factor into your personality since he has been with you from birth, so it will take a while to find out who you are without him leaking into your mind." I explain. He nods seeming to accept this.
"Did you change once you changed." He asked.
"Well." I thought about it, my personality from when I was a fox till now. "yes I have. I used to be closed off, and I hated nearly everyone, well hate is the wrong word. They all annoyed me. I didn't really talk to anyone, and now that I think about it I was more focussed and calculating. Now I talk allot more, I think less and rely on my instincts, it's easier for me to create runes, I am less annoyed by people, but i do have...Social anxiety, which is why i left last night." I explained. Later on I felt bad about ditching him since I had resolved t help him.
"I'm not supposed to talk to you anymore." He says after a few moments silence.
"oh...why not?" I ask a bit curious. You think they would have been happy I cured their little brother.
"My father had plans for me in the future...the way I was before that is." I looked at him, my concern dripping into my expression.
"why would he want you like that? Unable to control your own mind." He looks at the ground grimly.
"I don't think my father is as loving and accepting as yours." I think about that for a moment.
All the fathers I knew were loving and accepting. Although I heard Hinata's father was a dick.
"How did your siblings react?" I asked deciding not to talk about his father, seeing as he was the Kazekage, and I didn't want to start a war.
"I think they are going to make me do something i don't want to do." I looked over at him alarmed at his words. I could see tears in his eyes, but his ace looked neutral and void of all emotions. I didn't know how to react...should I hug him. No definitely not.
"No one can make you do anything anymore, they can't force you to do things. If you don't want to do something just say no."
"I don't know if it's that easy." He commented dryly.
"Well maybe its easier said then done." I admitted. "But if it's something you don't want to do, you owe it to yourself to say no." I said in what I hoped was a kind soft voice...yes I was trying to mimic my mother, but it sounded awkward and wrong in my deep voice.
"I have to go Shin. O don't think I'll be able to see you again." He said in his monotone voice. I looked at him unsure If I should grabe him and never let him go or slap some sense into him. Thankfully I am a rational human being and did neither.
"Okay Gaara remeber what I said, and also I will always being your friend and no matter what I am here to help." He looked at me with the same wonder he did when I placed the seal on his neck
"friend." He said dreamily, then turned and left the clearing.
To be perfectly honest I didn't know how to feel, or what to do. Over the short time I knew Gaara I had gotten attached to him, not in the way I was attached to my family, more like how I was attached to my team and sensei.
Seeing him in pain didn't feel right to me, it made me feel...icky
But would I get involved in Ino's family business? Or Choji's. Probably.
But Asuma's family business was a better example.
I'd never get involved with a fight between him and his father...you know the hokage.
.
.
It had been a been a few weeks since Gaara told me he couldn't see me anymore, and true to his woords, he never sought me out again. The Chunin final exam was in two days, so the day after tomorrow. I wasn't particularly nervous. I learnt a few things in my month break. Like now I could almost fully body flicker, and also I could place seals with my feet.
"SHIN WHY ARE YOU JUST SITTING AROUND!" Ino's voice yelled, I had gone back to laying in the grass trying to figure out how I could spread seals with my feet. "YOU NEED TO TRAIN!" She screamed. She came in front of me, hand on my hips frowning down at me.
"Ino I am training. I am thinking of strategy's and Ideas." I said tapping my note book.
"Ohhhhhh sure. Your just doodling what is that?!" She asked pointing the seal I had been writing that may or may not suck all oxygen from the air. Making un prepared people freak out, and stun them. It would also be helpful if one of my fire attacks get out of control.
"Well it's a seal that will give me an upper hand in thee chunin exams." I say not explaining it because I knew she could care less.
"Well since your not doing anything I need you to go on a date with me." She grabbed my arm and pulled me into a standing position. "Is that really what your wearing you look awful, this is a date not a trip to the training fields."
"Well in my defense, I didn't know I had a date planned with you." I said in aa bored voice. "So who exactly are we trying to make jealous?" I asked letting her pull me home.
"well news of my failure has spread around, I need good publicity." she said in an unusually high pitched voice. "Yeah yeah I'll owe you one." We walk into my house she pushes mee into my bedroom. "Now wear something nice." I look through my draweers then at the clothes that I'm wearing.
"One problem. All I own are black pants, and black long sleeved shirts. I have a white shirt?" I call out.
"Yeah, wear the white one, I brought this blazer." She opened the door and thew in said blazer. It was a deep purple with black lining and borders. I wasn't particularly concerned about how I looked so i shrugged and pulled it over the white shirt. It didn't match the cargo pants and to be honest it would look better with a black shirt underneath, but I could never change Ino's mind. I looked in the mirror at my hair. Just like everyday four of the front stands of my hair were braided and twisted together into my loose ponytail. Not knowing what else to do with myself I walked out of the room.
"Good?" I asked noticing for the first time she was in a purple sundress thingie. She looked nice I suppose.
"Yeah lets go." She nods wrapping her arm around mine.
"Whoah where are you two going so fancy? Its getting late." Mom asked stepping into the kitchen as we walked by.
"Oh Ino needs me to go make people jealous." I said at the same time Ino said.
"We are going on a date."
"A date!?" Mom asked clapping her hands together excited.
"Mom, it's a fake date, not real. Dont get excited."
"Oh annd what about Gaara?" She asked still hopeful.
"I think he dumped me." I said laughing.
"What! You were dateing a guy!" Ino screamed.
"No we are just friends but he told me we can't hang out anymore." Mom frowned.
"I'm sorry sweaty, well have fun on your fake date." She called.
We walked out of the Nara district before the curiosity finally got to me.
"So where am i taking you one this date?" i asked her.
"Well first you will take me to a movie, then to that new classy restaurant that was set up down town, and then your going to take me window shopping until the stores clothes at ten." She tells skipping as we walk. "Make sure you compliment me allot though." She pouted. "You didn't even say I look pretty." She complained motioning down to her dress.
"You already know you look pretty so why do I have to tell you?" i ask her.
"Because it's nice to hear." She explained elbowing me. We approached the movie theater, and there was already a long line up. "Don't worry about the line you reserved us the best seats in the house."
"Ah, well how smart of me." I said awkwardly as we stepped into line. Basically the whole line turned around to stare at mine and Ino's arms linked together. Several girls began to cry. "oh I forgot to tell you, you look really pretty Ino." I said smiling down at her, attempting to be smooth and sexy the way she would want me to be. Ino giggled and placed her fingers to her lips, pulling off the bashful look well.
"Thanks Shin." She giggled out. "So how is your training going for the chunin exams?" She asked.
"It's mostly strength training really." I tell her naturally. "Maybe you could help me spar?" I ask adding velvet to my voice.
"I would but i don't think I would challenge you enough for it to be usefull." She pouted again and looked down at our feet. I grabbed her lightly and made her look at me. Hmmm what would a guy in a drama say right now?
"I promise, fighting you would be a challenge in more then one way." her eyes widen and she blushes. I drop my fold on her chin and she looks to her feet. The crowd in screaming in both excitement and in sadness.
Hell yeah, I'm a great actor.
When we sit in our seats the movie is already about to start, and I admire the seats Ino chose, it's further back and in the middle, a perfect view of the over sized screen. I felt a bit panicked when the lights turned off and the previews played at a uncomfortable volume but Ino's arm around mine calmed me.
"Shin what drink did you get for yourself?" She asks as the previews are playing for other movies.
"Oh I got...Iced tea." I take a sip and confirm. "Want some?" I ask offering it to her. She doesn't take it out of my hands but leans down to sip from the straw.
"Yummy." She decides then leans back in her seat.
.
.
I'd like to say the movie was epic and I loved every moment about it, but it was about a doctor who fell in love with her boss, then became really sick, and when the doctor she loved, and by the way he loved her to, was operateing on her, the women died. Then their is about fifteen minuets of this doctor doing everything to get her back, in the end he splits open her chest and manually forced her heart to beat, and saved her.
Then the movie ended with the to of them looking fabulous getting married on the beach.
Yawn.
We made our way arm in arm to the fancy resurant, being the gentleman I am i reserved us seats, thankfully these ones were private, so we didn't need to act anymore.
"I think your plan is working." I tell her as we sit at the table. She pouted and blew her hair out oof her face.
"I doon't think so." She said sinking into her chair.
"Are you kidding me? All of those girls are freaking out." I tell her pointing outside the resturant.
"Well the real plan for tonight was to try and get you to fall for me." She tells me in her sassy voice. I open my mouth to speak then close it. I try again but not thoughts reach my brain neverrmind words reaching my mouth. "Yeah but yoour so good at acting, and completly dense that you didn't even realise. I think all I did was make me like you more!" She yelled pokeing a finger at me.
"Well if you asked me on a date then I would have showed up as my normal self not pretending!" I yelled back trying to defend myself. I wasn't dense, i just thought she wanted to get her image back.
"You wouldn't have even came if I asked." Her bottom lip wobbled and tears filled her eyes.
"Ino don't cry. You can't like me, I'm not human, it wouldn't be right." I say in the soothing voice I used oon Gaara.
"Well to bad!" She yelled at me. I cringed back. "That doesn't matter to me!"
"Well it matters to me, I maay look like a human right now, but I am a fox, and you are not my species. I'm not attracted to humans." I tell her in a final tone. "Besides what about Sasuke?" I ask. She gives me her normal Ino angry face.
"Clearly I'm over him Shin! Catch up." She uncrosses her arms and grabes the menu. "I'm exprienced with one sided love so dont worry about me." I looked at her doubtfully, she looked up and grumbled. "Hurry up and order, I was only half lying about the image thing."
.
.
After the not so fake date I walked Ino home then took my time walking home, walking the long way around then taking yt another detour. I felt extreamly uncomfortabe having someone like me.
Wait what is that smell...blood.
I follow the scent, and a few blocks from it I hear fighting, I aproach stealthily to get a peak. The man who I think was Gaara's sensei was fighting the proctor who coughed allot at the prelims.
It didn't look like a friendly fight. Gaara's sensei spit weird black gunk in the other guys face which caused him to step back. I ran in, not sure of what I was doing or why I was doing it. I sent a series off fire balls at the Sand guy which caused him to back up so I could quickly check the proctor.
"What the hell is going on?" I ask lifting up the proctor then looking at the Sand sensei. "This is horrible timing for a spar, people are sleeping." I reprimand. "go on back to your designated sleeping quarters, I don't think you were given passes to gallivant around at night." The Sand sensei sweat drops as I turn to the proctor. "Shame on you, your a leaf special jounin exhibiting this poor behavior." Both of the men looked to stun too do much of anything.
"Kid get out of here, your not involved in this." The sensei said.
"well if this isn't a spar, then it's a fight, and there for I am involved because that means a foreign ninja is attacking my comrade in an unsanctioned fight." As I talked I was taping my feet onto rocks near by spreading explosion seals ready to be activated.
The man lunged forward I activated the pebbles then kicked them towards him they exploded but he easily dodged.
"Get out of here I can take him." The proctor complained. I kicked the last pebble at the man and the oxygen was ripped from the air around him. Any fires that would have started died instantly, and he fell mid jump clutching his throat.
"Lets hope that stunned and didn't kill him." I said quickly tugging on the guy to run with me.
"Go warn the Hokage." He tells me ripping himself from my grip.
"I have a feeling that he has back up so I wont leave you alone until our back up comes." I yell at him tugging at him again.
"We don't have back up." He tells me calming his voice.
"Do you think our fellow ninja's are going to hear explosions in the street and then dismiss it?" I ask and he sweat drops.
"You really seem to be messing up all my plans Seishin Nara." I voice calls out, the proctor and I turn towards the voice. The white haired leaf genin we met before the exams stood on a near by water tower. How many water towers did Konoha have? I just saw one a few blocks ago.
Focus Shin, think of a witty come back.
"I'm sorry have we met before?" I ask. "Was it Chin? Kuro? Am I getting warmer?" the proctor and The white haired guy sweat dropped just as the other guy from the sand shows up.
"It doesn't matter. I have decided I'm going to bring you back for tests." He sad menacingly. "Kill the proctor, capture the other." The sand ninja goes to lunge at us, and the proctor moves to intercept.
"WAIT WAIT WAIT!" i yell and to my surprise both parties do in fact stop and look at me. "We would really love to fight and all that stuff, but you see I have a hair appointment to get to, and this guys promised he would there for moral support." As I ramble I spread ink across the roof and it slowly seeps to the roofs and water tower the other two were standing on. "But if you want I can schedule you in for Tuesday. This Tuesday." I say in a cheerful voice.
"The more you talk the more I want to kill you!" The white haired guy yells. I activate the seal. Never had I made such a large seal, and it uncomfortably ripped my chakra from my body. The oxygen was taken from the air, I was the only one prepared with a lung full of fresh air. I grabbed the proctors arm and ran, pressing a seal to enclose them in the concrete of the roof.
I just bought us about thirty seconds.
Whoa the world didn't usually wobble and sway. I look down at my leg to find a senbon dug into it. I look up to see the two enemy ninjas had broken out already and were approaching.
Also the proctor I was dragging had a matching senbon in his ass. When did those get there?
Okay last card. I took off the proctors sandals and decorated them both with domino blue inferno seals. I had placed one every place I had stepped. I threw sandal fast enough to watch as the first explosion went off.
Then once again I passed out.