kitsunegirl1 here yeah like I said it's the before school rush anyway... I just want to thank all the reviewers, especially soccercrazyfreak, who has reviewed for nearly all our chapters!! So read and review people!! NOW!! Thoughts/ideas pm or email us, and now on with the story. -kitsunegirl1 P.S Sorry not very much Nejisaku in this chapter. Double digits yay us!
"Talking"
'thinking'
'Inners/demons'
"Talking Summons/Inners outside body"
Chapter 10: Lessons, Missions and Gasp
A Semi-Helpful lnner
Poke
Poke
"Damnit Naruto, stop..." I grumbled, batting away his hand. "Let me sleep."
Poke
Poke
"Goddamnit, stop!" Finally I managed to open my eyes and gazed grumpily up at said blonde. In his hand was a stick, looking ominously like the one that he had used to poke me awake back in, my home village. It's come back to haunt me... Naruto interrupted my thoughts. He looked rather smug and said proudly, "I stayed awake all night and you fell asleep. So ha. I win this time."
I merely scowled at him and pushed myself upright, yawning and rubbing the sleep from my eyes. "Now who is going to fall asleep during lessons and get us all killed, huh?" He taunted, pointing a finger accusingly at me. I batted it away and stood, pulling him up with me. "Get rid of that damn stick before I shove it up your ass. And I'd advise that you do it...I don't want another Neji or Sasuke hanging around." He gave me a playful scowl and tossed aside.
What the hell was up with him and that fucking stick?
Silently, I slid open the door to my room,and crept outside, dragging Naruto along besides me. We made our way through the apartment, and I nearly died when Naruto sneezed in front of Kyo-sensei's room. I silently made a promise to kill him once the lessons were over. Once we were out of the apartment, getting down to the training grounds was a piece of cake. I made out everyone that we had 'invited' to come with a bit of surprise.
Heads turned our way as Naruto and I made our way towards them. "Hi," I said lamely, finding no better greeting. No one answered. "Um, right. So, where do we start? With the no-faces, I guess. Although you three know about them already," I gestured towards Neji, Tenten and Lee, "The rest of you don't." Inhaling a deep breath I began explaining what a no-face is and how it is created, what we do to protect people from the ones that have lost their souls completely.
"Wait, what's the point of even dealing with these things besides sending them straight to hell?" Kiba asked, waving his hand in the air so fast that I thought it might go flying off, or I hoped it would at least. I sent him a cold glare and said, "We don't send them to hell we just help them move on, but we can only help them if they truly want to move on," There was an edge in my voice that was steely I hoped he caught it so he knew that I was about ready to kill him.
"Whatever, I still thinks it's stupid to risk your lives to help some stupid ghosts move on." his tone was bored, like he thought he was so much better at understanding, my teachings. Apparently he didn't get the tone in my voice, and apparently he had a death wish, because before anyone could act, I snapped and launched at him and delivered a punch right into his annoying, idiotic face.
In that punch I had put so much force in it that I felt my knuckles crack; it was pretty painful but judging by the look on his face he had gotten worse than my knuckles and I felt very satisfied, but this did nothing to stop my rage. Grabbing him by the front of his sweatshirt, I growled at him, "You think this is a joke?! Well let me tell you, I know a lot of people who have died to stop no-faces from devouring ignorant little bastards like you! So I'd shut your little mouth, you arrogant punk!"
I could feel my face flush with anger, and the only reason I wasn't beating him into a bloody pulp was because I was better than that... doing stuff like this is for people who couldn't control themselves... like Etsu and her gang. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be all noble and honorable and all that shit, I was just trying to be the person that people knew me for, because that was the person I had worked all my life to become, to create.
And yes I know that this sounds like a soap opera, but this is the only thing that keeps me from murdering people like Kiba... Neji and- 'YOU WILL NOT KILL NEJI-KUN! At least wait until we get tired of him and his amazing body-' 'Umm... sorry but you're kind of ruining the whole moment of truth "look deep inside your soul" crap, so if you don't mind...' 'Whatever just DO NOT kill Neji until we've had our way with him!' Well once again my inner ruined the moment... sighing I dropped Kiba and walked away.
"Well it's like three, so I'm gonna go and crash..." I said faking a yawn, the others shrugged, and began to go in their separate direction, however Kiba was muttering curses while rubbing his cheek, and I could've sworn that Tenten had been sending me worried looks when she thought I wasn't looking.
Shaking my head I began walking away, when I heard Naruto talking, and of course he was apparently trying to engage Hinata in a conversation. Rolling my eyes at him, I studied the Hyuuga... she looked like she really would die of blushing to hard; she had really surprised me earlier by showing up.
I know I shouldn't 'judge a book by its cover' but I was human and most humans do judge before they know, and I had immediately pegged her for the naive and overly worried type that would most likely stay away from trouble... probably a teachers pet. But then I realized that I had read the signs wrong which was like a slap in the face, and I immediately felt bad for thinking like that she was just shy, not the overly obsessive worrying type, and that unlike a teachers pet she tried not to draw attention to herself.
Kami, I am stupid. 'Oh yeah you admit it when you feel bad about judging someone you don't know but you wouldn't admit it when you realized that you are in love with Neji-kun! Shannarro!' My inner ranted on angrily, once again I sighed shaking my head... I seemed to be doing this a lot more often than usual.
"Hey Naruto leave the poor girl alone I doubt she'll last long enough to go home... at this rate, she'll probably keel over from your stupid, idiotic stories!" I said trying to rescue the poor girl from him, which earned me an angry growl and glare for my best friend and a look from Hinata. I guess she probably like talking to Naruto. Grinning to myself I realized that at this rate those two love birds will be married as soon as the big eighteen comes around. I walked towards the two - who made a very cute couple by the way - and maneuvered my way between them.
"Hey Hinata... I was just wondering... Do you want to train together sometime or something...?" I asked as casually as I could; she looked at me eyes widening before looking down again, "Umm... I'll take that as a yes..." I began digging inside my pouch for a piece of paper to give her my address; I still needed to find my cell... Well I found the paper but unfortunately most ninja don't carry pens with them.
"Aw... crap I don't have a pen so-" "Here." Naruto said quickly interrupting me. In front of my face he waved a simple ballpoint pen. Taking it from him I gave him a look, and asked, "Why do you have a pen?" He replied with a simple shrug. Shaking my head, I said, "Yeah well let me use your shoulder while you're being useful," I put the paper on his shoulder so I would be able to write it well enough so that it'd be legible. When I was done I flashed Hinata a cheerful grin and handed her the paper.
"T-thanks," she said quietly, taking the paper from me. "Hey," I called, raising my voice so that my voice could be heard. "I haven't finished everything you need to learn. I was rudely interrupted," I shot a glare towards Kiba, "And therefore haven't finished teaching you. So, I think that we should meet next week at this time and this place. Sound good?"
There was silence before Kiba said, "There's no point in coming if we're just learning about these stupid ghosts that we have to 'send on'." I turned towards him and gave him a cold look. "Well if you have a problem, then don't come." He didn't say anything but turned away and vanished into the trees. "Alright, well it's really late – or early – and I'm tired so I'm going home. See you later..."
Grabbing Naruto I dragged him away from Hinata. He dug his feet stubbornly into the ground and I pulled harder. "If you're tired tomorrow and Kyo-sensei suspects something, you're really gonna get it." I hissed the threat into his ear and he reluctantly let up. "See you later," He called cheerfully and waved goodbye to Hinata before turning and following me back home.
I went to my room, crashed right away but got like two hours of sleep after the lessons because of my dreams - I mean nightmares, it was so not cool to have a half nude Neji come into my dreams... it sucked. 'Keep telling yourself that, love... yep just say that over and over again...you are so into him! Shannarro!' 'Just shut up... I swear one of these days-' 'You're gonna rape Neji-kun?! Yeesssssssss!! Shannarro!' 'I hate you...' I grumbled angrily in my mind.
It was like five forty five in the fucking morning and I could no longer sleep. Stretching out my limbs I poked my head out of my door, it was dead quiet meaning no one, even Kyo-sensei, was still sleeping. I let out a small groan... there was nothing to do at five... nearly six... in the morning. Maybe if I close my eyes and try really hard I'll be able to sleep, and dream of Neji... DEMISE! I meant Neji-kun - er I mean NEJI's demise... yeah that's all I meant.
'Keep telling yourself that hon.' I threw myself onto the bed and screamed into the pillow, I just wanted to think and be with out a sadistic evil voice, girl hormones, and little bitches who won't leave me alone! I waited a few more moments and finally raised my head to look at the clock in my room, before groaning again... only five minuets had passed, someone really hates me!
I go up again only to trip over my bag that I brought from the Haruno tribe. Some of the sealed scrolls had fallen out of the bag picking one up in my hand and I glared at it. "Oh what?" I said through gritted teeth, still glaring at it, "You want me to unpack you don't you?" I accused it, and vaguely, very vauguely, I heard my inner say that I really was insane. "Says the inner that wants to rape someone who has a stick wedged up their ass!" I accused my inner out loud, grabbing the scrolls from my pack and stuffing them in random places around the room.
I stuck one on top of the lamp and told it not to catch fire before sighing and plopping down on the floor. It was sorta ordinary and empty inside, and I realized that I had been avoiding unpacking at all because I was trying to keep up the idea that being in Konoha was a short-term thing.
What had I been thinking?
Sure, I wanted to go home, but being here was...fun I looked at the pitiful scrolls around the room and with a heavy sigh got up. I started unpacking my things one by one, finding special spots for each thing. I even managed to re-create a wall of memories – basically a wall covered in pictures.
Ami had insisted that I call it something besides 'wall of pictures' so it had ended up as 'wall of memories'. Personally I couldn't see where her logic was coming from... 'Wall of memories' sounded really cheesy and more than a little stupid. I heard the door open, and Kyo-sensei stuck his head inside. "Sakura, time to...oh, you're already up. Well," He said pausing to look around my room, "It seems that you were busy." He smiled and I realized that he had guessed what I had just realized a while ago.
The man really knew everything, didn't he?
"Um, yea. So... what're we doing today?" I wanted to do something instead of bumming and lazing around all day. He smiled slyly. "I can't tell you...it's a secret. But you're going to be doing stuff with Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi." I groaned. "Do I have to? Sasuke is more like Sasu-gay, Kakashi reads porn all day, and Naruto, well, Naruto is Naruto." He said nothing, only shook his head and rolled his eyes.
--Later that day--
Missions... D rank missions, that was the big 'secret'. Dear Kami I think I understand why Sasuke is on suicide watch... hey maybe we can start an emo-suicidal-bitches club. I mean seriously we had to catch a fuckin' cat that was our latest mission! "Yeow!" the shrill cry of the cat we just 'rescued' and brought back to some lord's wife shook me from my thoughts. I did feel a pang of pity for the poor thing, though it was being squished in a death grip of a hug by his mistress.
There was another pained yowl and a gasp, "Oh dear! Fuzzykins, come back," the lady called out to the cat, which had darted across the room to where I was standing and lunged at me, I of course caught it in my arms, and the poor thing seemed to be giving me a look that said 'please-please-don't-let-her-get-me' and began to purr against my chest.
"Oh thank you for saving my poor fuzzykins again! Here's a little extra for you!" She said tearing the cat from my arms and shoving some extra money into my hand. Looking down I nearly died... she had said a little extra I thought it'd be like 5 bucks - which was half of what we got paid for most d rank missions - but no what she considered to be a little could paid for a meal with Naruto. She obviously had no idea of what the true value of money was, just lobbing it around like that.
"Uh, thanks," I said, surprised. After she left Sasuke turned to me expectantly. "Split that evenly," he demanded, gesturing towards the money clutched in my hand. "No. This money she gave directly to me so therefore it is mine and I have no reason to share." He lunged for it and I pulled my hand back expertly and swiftly tucked the money inside my shirt.
He stopped suddenly and turned a faint shade of pink, and looked at my chest for a moment to long for me to feel comfortable, before stepping back. "Fine," he said grumpily, "Keep it then." I grinned triumphantly. And for the next few days, this was routine.
Catching the stupid cat all the time, pulling weeds, what great fun! On the rare occasion there would be a medicine to be delivered and I would get to do it, learning a little each time. I could tell that Naruto was the one who despised the missions the most – one, they were easy, and two, they made him spend time with Sasuke. And after a while, he finally got fed up. We had just finished catching the cat (for the 8th time) and he finally spoke up.
"All right, jii-san, I'm done with this. These missions are way too easy! And they're demeaning, too! Be serious. Weeding gardens. Catching a stupid cat. I'm fed up with this!" With a huff he crossed his arms. The Hokage sighed. It still was weird to me that Naruto spoke to him so casually and was able to actually yell at him. "Your argument has a point. I suppose that I could see about a higher-ranked mission..." Naruto started cheering.
The Hokage scanned his papers. "It seems you're in luck. I've found this easy little C-ranked mission. Escorting a bridge builder named Tazuna. He's from the Wave Country, so that's where you'll be taking him." Naruto grumbled a bit more before I stepped in, "Thank you for your kindness, Hokage-sama," I said with a bow, then we heard the door swing open and turned to see and old man with sake who was commenting on Naruto's height.
"Ah well there's your client; you will leave in a few hours so be ready and pack your things," Hokage-sama said, and we nodded in his direction, "Oh wait, young lady, would your father happen to be Tenshi Sadahiro?" That caught my attention, whirling around I stared at him. "How did you know who my father was?" I asked suddenly breathless, and he smiled at me. "He passed through here a long time ago with Kyo-san."
I nodded slowly, my father... I could feel a tug at my heart at the thought. The Hokage looked at me before he said, "You have his eyes you know," A small smile made its way onto my face. "Yeah," I agreed. "Well off you go then you'll want to leave as soon as possible." We nodded again, and I felt so happy, I realized that leaving my village felt like leaving my parents, but I felt close to them again. Giving a happy sigh I skipped through the streets.
"Wow you seem happy," Sasuke said observing me, I spun around and stared at him with wide eyes, "Oh my gosh, it speaks!!" I yelled, alarmed... I know that I once implied that I would die from being killed by either Hyuuga or Uchiha, but now I believe that Sasuke's fan girls will be my undoing when I called him an 'it' all of his surrounding fan girls pounced.
I was forced to use any evasive tactics I knew to avoid the evil grip of those little hoes. However it was very very difficult because their numbers kept increasing, and when one girl managed to tackle me all the others pounced. "Hey get off me!! Now!" I growled trying to shove the girls off me, "You little bitch don't ever insult Sasuke-kun like that," One of them spat at me, I hissed and tried to break her nose when one of them yanked my hair from it's bun I let out another hiss of pain.
Dear Kami I am doomed to be attacked like twenty four fucking seven! Another girl was cussing me out like there was no tomorrow, that was it I was done I wouldn't stand for this, 'Get the fuck out here!' I screamed in my mind. 'Well, well it looks like proud little Sakura-chan needs little old me!' 'Shut up and get out!' here I hissed. Finally I could feel the strange bubbly feeling begin to build up; this was the signal that my inner and I were separating... for the moment anyway.
"Get out of my way! shannarro!" my inner screamed tossing the fan girls aside. "Yes! Beat that evil parasitic fan girls!" We looked at each other and shared the same grin, she and I were mirror images, except she had 'inner' on her forehead, and everything that I wore was in black on her. "We so," I began, "Kick ass!" my inner howled.
"Hellz yeah!" Naruto cheered and the three of us began walking together shoving some more fan girls away. "What the hell is going on?" Saskue yelled; we simultaneously spun and looked at him; he along with Kakashi-sensei and Tazuna looked well...shocked. "Isn't it obvious?" he and Kakashi-sensei and Tazuna shook their heads. "We are one person," "That has been divided into two."