CHAPTER ELEVEN: Training! Whiskers, Tattoo's and Dresses
disclaimer: I do not own Naruto! All I own is Aguri, Akari, Eiichi, Ryoma, Hayato, Ryuu, Kairi and Yuuma. They are my own original characters. But Naruto, as much as I wish it was, is not mine.
summary: Akari is a princess that belongs to every nation. As a princess and as a member of the Shinaho Clan, she is extremely unique. One day, her families compound is attacked and both her parents are brutally murdered by Hayato of the cloud. She goes into an intense state of shock, which is broken when she is kidnapped, by a genjutsu. The genjutsu is broken and she remembers nothing that happened. After, she is forced to stay in Konoha, where they believe she will be safe. But the thing is, is anywhere truly safe from those who seek her power
a/n: okay, so I am really not sure what you will think of this story. It all kind of came to me at random, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I do
"Again!"
Akari got up from the floor, to face her current instructors. She had been training with most for over a year and a half, but Gai sensei had only been around for a couple months. Still, everyone knew as soon as he had begun teaching her, that they had made the right choice.
The princess had gotten much faster, and much stronger since she met Gai.
Not really because she admired him, and aspired to be just like him, but more like her drove her to aspire to greatness. And although the man was strange, he knew how to get her going. "Come on! You are young! You must aspire to things greater then me, and your other teachers." he would chant.
That made Akari smile.
"You got it."
She ran at Gai full force, the weights he had given her holding her down considerably, but she was still fast in her own right. Kakashi watched from the sidelines, Asuma and Kurenai next to him.
They had decided to test the child's limits. Training since she was three made it obvious she should be able to handle the strain her body was taking.
There were times when all of them, including Hiyori and Yasunari would attack her. But, sometimes, they decided to take it easy on her. Right now was not the case, as Kakashi stepped forward, forming his chidori.
It was at the lowest setting, so if it made contact, it would only cause a small shock. Nothing too serious.
Asuma stepped forward, simply allowing wind chakra to spread over his hands, while Kurenai readied her self for simple genjustu tricks.
Both wolf summons were watching from the back of the room, neither really interested in beating their summoner to a pulp. They did that last week. So instead, they watched as the four sensei's surround the girl, giving her no escape, except one.
Remembering what Hiyori and Yasunari had taught her, she quickly used the substitution jutsu, using her sand clone. She then quickly slipped herself down into the earth. Kakashi was the only one who fully seemed to catch what was going on, and he laughed. That's my move. He realized. Though I usually don't use sand clones.
But, Kakashi decided to take it easy on the child, and followed the actions of the other jonin. Aim at the clone.
Everyone but Kakashi cringed as they made contact, but sobered up when the clone slowly crumbled apart.
Akari, taking her chance, brought her hands out of the ground and pulled Kakashi down first. He was most dangerous, because she knew he would recognize her actions. Then, he pulled Gai-sensei down. He was the most brutal.
Finally, she came out of the ground, with a smile on her face. She knew her sensei's well, leaving Asuma, who would never fight her with the intent to kill, and Kurenai, who most often used genjutsu.
"Release." As the genjutsu was removed, she saw everything as it clearly was. Asuma and Kurenai were no longer in front of her, but behind her. Kunai pointed at her throat.
"Very good Akari." Kurenai commended. "You saw through it and released it. I am proud of you. But still, you would be dead now. You realized it was genjutsu far too late. You are too slow to react."
The princess nodded, as the kunai were dropped from her neck. "I really need to work on my sensory skills. I kind of really suck." All her sensei's laughed, as Kakashi and Gai pulled themselves out of the ground.
"You made an excellent choice, by the way." Kakashi responded.
"Obviously Kakashi and I are the two strongest and most dangerous," Gai was slapped on the back of the head by Kurenai, making him cringe slightly. Akari giggled at the sight of her sensei cringing. It seemed that finally shut him up from his speech of youthfulness and the like. "Well, anyway," he began again, "Kakashi recognized your move, seeing as it is one of his. And my taijutsu overwhelms people greatly, and in your current condition, I would have beat you easily. Then Asuma tends to fight more with ninjutsu and his chakra, which I'm sure you realized we are all running lower on so you could have beat him with taijutsu, while Kurenai fights more with genjutsu and assassination. So you would just have to release the genjutsu and attack her with your weapon."
The two summons on the other side of the room, put in their two cents. "She didn't have her weapons on her remember. You wanted her to fight with simply ninjutsu and taijutsu."
Gai nodded, "right, right, but in a battle scenario, that would be the ideal situation."
Akari nodded, bowing to her sensei's. "Thank you." She said happily. "But I have to go! I'll see you all tomorrow!"
The four teachers waved their student good bye, as her summons followed her out the door.
Kakashi turned to the others. "Our princess sure has grown."
The others nodded in agreement. "And Hokage-sama is helping her learn a clan jutsu. I also heard there is a special communication jutsu, within her clan that the summons are helping her with." Kurenai added.
"She will be a deadly force to be reckoned with, by the time she makes jonin." Asuma stated.
The others nodded solemnly. "How much longer did Lord Hokage give us?" Gai questioned, youthful speeches and odd bouts of challenges forgotten.
"He wants her to be fully trained in genjutsu by the time she graduates. He wants to keep an incident like what happened with Ryuu, from happening again." The others nodded.
"We can do that."
~000000000000000000000~
Akari walked outside, followed by a red, stripped wolf that looked more like a kitten and a grey wolf cub. Ever since she told them of her encounter in the red light district, they had been wary of leaving her alone.
The princess didn't mind. They were her friends, after all.
"Let's walk through the village, yeah?" Akari hummed.
Hiyori mumbled her response. "Yeah, okay."
Amused, Yasunari spoke. "But let's stay away from the red light district."
Akari glared at him, though there was no anger in the glare. Just friendly amusement and slight annoyance.
"If you say so, Yasu." She said cheekily. "Personally, I thought it was a fun place."
Yasunari growled, Hiyori howled with laughter. "How many times have we told you, hime. You always manage to find trouble. I always knew you liked it! You're like me in that sense!"
The grey wolf barked, in humor. "And yet she has the name Wolf princess, half tiger."
The stripped wolf growled at her friend, before turning back to Akari.
They had just exited the hokage compound and were walking through the town. Akari was thankful that people on this side didn't seem to know she was a jinchuriki. Or if they did, they didn't seem to care. It may have had something to do with ojii-sama, she had no doubt, but it didn't really matter to her.
They still treated her like she was human.
Not like a beast.
Walking into a store, followed by the half-kitten and cub, she moved straight to the back where they customized outfits.
The women at the desk greeted her with a warm smile asking her the customary, "How may I help you?"
Akari, wracked with nervousness, temporarily forgot how to speak. Instead, she pulled out a scroll from her bag, and unraveled it to reveal the kimono's her family were once known for.
The blonde women looked at the scroll, to the girl and back at the scroll before a smile took over her face.
"Oh I see!" she cheered. "You got it cutie," her voice was warm and soothing. Akari found that she liked the voice and broke herself from her nervousness.
"Ah, right!" Akari said. "I um... I wondered if you could make me a blue one, a black one, and a green one?"
The woman gave another friendly smile, pushing her glasses back up her nose, while nodding. "Of course, dear. Come back here so I can do your measurements."
Akari followed the woman into the back of the store, where the woman pulled out a tape measure. Hiyori and Yasu watched from the sidelines, as not to trip people as they walked by. Especially considering the woman hadn't noticed them yet.
"Tell me more about how you'd like the designs?" the woman asked, her voice welcoming and open. She obviously knew the girl was nervous, and was trying to soothe her.
"Well, I need it to be made similar to battle gear. But I want it to be light and loose, if that's understandable?" The woman nodded, realizing this child was a kunoichi in training.
"That is something we can absolutely do. Anything else?"
The princess nodded, looking to her summons before looking to the woman. "My next stop is to get my clan tattoo, on my arm. My father had it, my mother had it, and I think I should have it, as well." The brunette child answered, smiling ever so slightly. But the woman saw the pain behind that smile. "I am getting it on my left shoulder." She continued, "So I would like the kimono's to either have no left sleeve, or be entirely sleeveless. And I would like the clan symbol on the bottom right, of the front of every dress."
The woman nodded her head enthusiastically. "What is your symbol, dear?"
"The Shinaho clan symbol. A water dragon circling the kanji for earth."
The woman gasped slightly, stopping her work. She knew of the Shinaho clan, vaguely. They were rumored to be extremely powerful, though that was all she knew. Nothing more then rumors and legends.
Resuming her work, she smiled. "I will see to it. Can you draw the symbol for me?"
Akari motioned her hand to her summons, and the wolf cub went up in smoke before returning with a small bandana in his mouth. The woman gasped, when she saw the small dog, murmuring a faint aw, before taking the cloth from Yasunari's mouth.
She looked over the design carefully, examining every detail in it, before nodding. "One more question. How many do you want?"
The girl jumped down from the stool, resting her hands on her hips, thinking. "I want as many as you can make. But at the minimum, I want four black dress, four green, and four blue."
~00000000000000000000000~
Hiyori cringed as she watched the sight in front of her.
Yasunari barely seemed to notice, ignoring the faint grunts of pain, in favor for observing the area.
Akari sat on a chair, a man in a white coat standing beside her, with a needle in his hand. "Would you stay still?" he asked, as he held her arm in place.
She flinched back as needle met skin, once again. Inhaling in relief when he removed the needle again, she breathed out, "you're more brutal then Gai-sensei."
The man gave her a quizzical look, before going back to his work.
"I warned you before hand. When I pump chakra into it, it's going to sting."
She clinched her teeth in annoyance. "It. Doesn't. Sting. It hurts," she took in a deep breath and hissed. "like you just cut off three pounds of flesh."
Hiyori cringed again when she saw Akari growl and flinch away, as the man poured another round of chakra into the ink.
Getting up from her corner, she jumped onto her summoners lap, and purred in an attempt to calm her down. Akari relaxed physically, as her tiger-wolf cub curled into her lap and she noticed the tattoo stung less.
"I told you relaxing would help."
"Shut up and finish the bloody thing."
The man sighed as he pulled out some bandages. "I am already done. Shinaho clan symbol, infused with your three chakra natures. Honestly kid, I'm impressed you could change between the three, let alone give me any of it while I was working."
Once he finished wrapping her arm, she shrugged. "Sensei taught me."
She got up, picking up Hiyori as she moved, and was about to leave for the door when the man spoke again. "Remember, be careful with it, and clean the tattoo daily for a month. You can remove the wrap in two weeks!"
Akari nodded her head as she pushed the door open.
"Now what, Yasu?" she asked as she pet the sleeping cub in her arms.
"Home." He answered, as he grew to his full size. He stood over Akari, at least a foot taller, now, as he lead her home.
People cleared the path way, as they walked, too afraid to come near the large wolf.
They were nearly back to the hokage compound, when the wolf caught sound of a crash, and loud sobbing.
Yasunari stopped, tilting his ears to listen, then rushed forward to the source, Akari following close behind. When they turned the corner, they caught sight of three very drunk men and a child no older then the princess, her self.
By now, Hiyori was awake, and jumped away from her summoner, changing mid-air. She was now the fearsome tiger-stripped wolf she was known to be, standing just a couple inches taller then Yasunari. Both summons growled angrily at the drunks, when their shouting was turned to them.
"Oh look! It's the other demon and her two slaves!" One man, who seemed less drunk then the others slurred.
All three now had their attention on the jinchuriki. Akari remained unaffected by their taunts, as Hiyori and Yasu guarded her faithfully from their flying bottles and weapons. One of them was a ninja.
This enraged Yasunari even more so, as he stepped forward, followed by Hiyori.
The men flinched back, but kept their taunting up.
One moved to the blonde boy, picking him up by the back of his neck. "Look at this, boys. The little demon boy is weak."
He howled with laughter, as his glare turned towards Akari. "I bet she isn't any stronger."
That was the last thing needed to set the two summons off. Yasunari ran forward, pushing the ninja down first. He scratched at his clothes and face, but left no fatal wounds, as he jumped at the other.
Both men had been too drunk to really put up a fight.
The third man, holding the blonde boy, had been the least drunk out of the group, and was holding off Hiyori fairly well.
His face was scratched, where her claws had made contact and the blood was slowly pooling down his body. But neither seemed to notice, as the tiger was furiously trying to get the boy out of the mans grasp.
Yasu ran forward, tugging at the mans arm. The man howled in pain, and threw the boy back.
Akari, not wasting a second, ran forward just in time to catch him. The boy had passed out, as the mans large hand was able to cut off his air circulation.
She moved her head to his chest, to check for a beat, and sighed with relief when she heard a resounding thump, followed by another.
The man was taken care of quickly, begging for them to leave him alone. He ran off after that, leaving his buddies behind.
The tiger and wolf walked over to their summoner soon after, nudging her gently.
She responded, "he's fine."
Both summons sighed with relief and Akari felt the weight of the child being lifted off her body. Hiyori lifted him gently, and rested him on the grey wolfs back, as gingerly as possible. The boy let out a soft moan of protest, but a peaceful expression made its way to his whiskered face after.
"They said he was an orphan," Grumbled the wolf. "We will take him home."
The others nodded, as they made their way forward.
"You know," Akari said, as she pushed the gate open to let the others in. "I know him from my class. I think he had said his name was Naruto Uzumaki."
The other two nodded. "Strange kid, isn't he?"
"Definitely."