The Fire, the Ice, and the Wind Chapter 11: Parties and The Plane, a naruto fanfic

~Chapter 11~

The holidays are warm.

The holidays are happy.

The holidays are a great time to prank your friends.

(and students)

She thinks it's funny how every time they get a moment it seems like forever because there isn't any fighting.

Fighting has become living and living has become fighting, for all of them.

But dark secrets also loom ahead, stifling and hot.

But Anko stays strong. She expects their doom, readies for it, wishes for it feverishly at night.

At night.

Her masochistic tendencies have spread, and she must pull them back from their recipients.

But can she?

Or will they cling to the gleeful pain?

Hopeless cases are like holidays. Warm, happy, and prone to pranks.

…_-=[( Itachi )]=-_...

It's been a month and a half since Dragga came to me pleading on Ino's behalf. I also learned that Shiro's suspicions had been confirmed- Kazuki's father had been beating both him and his twin brother Yukio every night that he came home. For now, Kazuki stays with us. Shiro has practically given him the guest room and Hideo (being foolish) had even returned to his house and smuggled out everything he could find of Kazuki's, which wasn't much.

Apparently, he and Kazuki's twin do not get along at all.

He came back from his second break-in with a bloody nose. I inquired about it and he exploded in a wild flurry of cursing mixed with the occasional 'Yukio' in it. From what I could decipher, he had gotten in a fight after Yukio punched him. I tried to explain that Yukio probably thought that Hideo was someone else (his father), but Hideo wouldn't have any of it. Kazuki was mortified.

I've met Yukio once. Very mean-looking face with bleached white hair with one black streak- the inverse of Kazuki. That encounter ended with him flipping us off.

Even so, Anko decided to have the annual holidays party at Tsunade's mansion. The place was large enough for all of the Camp, plus the three new students. I met the one I didn't know- Kikyo- just last week.

Intriguing girl.

Anko seems to like her. The two get along quite well. Kazuki seems on the fence about her- I have known him long enough to know that he is hesitant with talking to her, yet relaxed in her presence. It is puzzling.

Hideo is, as per usual, completely relaxed with her. They have similar personalities.

Sakura, on the other hand… She and Hideo have been avoiding each other. Eye contact, sitting next to each other, even being in the same conversation.

It makes me wonder. Shiro told me that Sakura had found out about him having the switchblade wound in his side (which has healed by now). Perhaps that is why they are ignoring each other.

However, let me go back to the present. We are waiting at Tsunade's house for the other guests.

Yes, it is our Annual Holidays Celebration. I, being an atheist, am merely here because I was invited and Shiro was going whether I was or not. The whole Camp should be here, but I worry that it was unwise to include Sakura, Kikyo, and Kazuki.

Saying that, for instance, I met Rayn after I was shot in the leg in a skirmish would not be a favorable introduction.

Sakura comes downstairs, excited and dressed up. Even after all the years that have passed since her incident with Sasuke, she has not changed much.

She's happy. It makes me feel like less of a failure. You see, if I had seen the darkness growing in my brother I might have been able to protect this little girl from the pain she went through. Part of me feels responsible for her.

But my job is done for now. I was to make sure that she did not get in trouble before Hideo got here.

Hideo is here. Hideo is… late. And slightly underdressed. I prefer to wear a multi-purpose suit to most formal occasions. My foolish almost- brother gets away with a long-sleeve black shirt and dark jeans.

… I sigh.

Shiro is in the kitchen, helping Tsunade and Kurenai get dinner ready. She was radiant in her white dress and together with Tsunade, Kurenai, and Asuma, they were a professional kitchen.

Yes. Asuma cooks.

The women forbid him to smoke inside, though, so he is miserable.

Hideo is miserable, too. He has to find an excuse to follow around Sakura for the rest of the evening, being assigned as her bodyguard. Not that she knows.

So he does. Kazuki came with us, leg healed, and they are just conversing (Kazuki, like me, has the sense to wear a suit.)

Shiro comes out of the kitchen before dinner.

"'Tachi! How are you?"

"Just fine. And you?"

She laughs and grins softly, playfully running her fingers through my ponytail. "I'm always okay. Poor Otouto… Sakura-chan is going to think he's following her on purpose."

"He is."

"You know what I mean, silly! I just know that he'll complain all the way home."

I sigh again.

She is still smiling. "Maybe I can get him out of it later, when Anko's had a few glasses of wine."

I raised an eyebrow, "Kakashi's not going to let her drive again, is he?"

"They walked just to avoid that. That's why Anko is barefoot. She wore sneakers."

Typical. Something must always be dysfunctional. I lift my head at the doorbell rings. Shiro trots over and answers it.

It's Hana and Deidara. And the rest of the Camp. I nearly was able to get up when my phone rang. Sliding the thin silver device open, I put it up to my ear.

"Itachi. Bring the girl."

-~+{[( Kikyo )]}+~-

I woke up this morning with the hugest smile on my idiot face ever. You see, I got this dress. And it's pretty. And I get to wear it today, at the Christmas/ Off-From-Work Party at Tsunade's humungous mansion and everyone's gonna be there.

Sakura, Hideo, Anko, Ms. Yuuhi, Mr. Sarutobi, Mr. Hatake, Principal Tsunade (of course), Shiro, Itachi, Ms. Inuzuka, and that creepy Deidara guy she's engaged to. And other people. Gosh, but something…

Kazuki. Kazuki's gonna be there. Like, oh my god. It's been a month or so since I talked to him by the window now and even though I've talked to him at school something has been bothering me. Maybe he's gained some weight or something- which is good for him because he was so skinny. Maybe he just got taller.

I shower and let my hair down for once. I didn't even remember what I look like with my hair down, but it looks okay, I guess. Then, grinning like a maniac, I took out my dress almost creepily reverent.

You see, it's a dark grey shiny material that ends at my knees and has off- the- shoulder straps. It's so cute. After slipping it on, I reveled in my fashion win before slipping on my short heels and trotting out the door with my poofy winter coat on.

I was walking down the street, though, when some guy started to follow me. Now, I don't appreciate creepos following me. Although something looked familiar about his face, he was pretty rough-looking. I picked up the pace, and he just plodded along behind me.

Finally, I reached Principal Tsunade's house just as a large group of people passed through the door.

I glanced behind me. Oh my God! He was going to the SAME HOUSE!?

"Who are you?!" I exclaimed, and he just glared at me before answering, "None of your business."

I huffed, "Uh, yeah it is, punk, because this is my friend's house and you're creepy and annoying." I said sulkily.

He scoffed at me, "Whatever." I walked inside without looking at him anymore. He was a jerk. But his face still irked me. He had white hair with a black streak (just like Kazuki… but different colors) and weird green eyes that were hard and cold and mean.

He brushed past me, too close, and I think- I think he just brushed my butt. And he is going to die.

"Hey! You!"

He turns, and so does half the room, "What?"

"Don't you 'what' me! Watch where your hand goes, you creep! Manners evaporate in your presence or somethin'?!" I said loudly, relishing in the horrible looks this kid was getting. Instead of eliciting embarrassment like I wanted, he smirked, "Ooh, the girl is spunky. I like that."

I was choking on the disgusting-ness when I heard a familiar voice, "You."

Hideo parked himself in front of the guy, and had this really evil look on his face. Like killing someone was morally right and he could do it right now. With a spork or something. Bloodily.

"Shinigami. You bastard."

"I'm the bastard? I really don't think you should be here, marshmellow." Marshmellow? What kind of insult is that? You can do better, Hideo!

"G-guys, cu-cut it out."

Kazuki edges out from next to me, and I faintly wonder how he got by the door. The winter light streams in from the still-open door, and his hair turns dark brown in the halo of light behind him.

He was so different, for a moment. With that light, and the silence, and his cute stutter, and his dark, dark hair and how he looked healthier than ever. Sometimes he and Hideo are like brothers, but today they were night and day. In retrospect, I guess they always were. Hideo was the fight and Kazuki was after the fight. The mediator. The aftermath.

My god, the aftermath could be gorgeous. Like right now.

While staring, I managed to ask, "Do you know this freak?"

His soft green eyes looked into my purple ones, "Ye-yeah. K-kikyo, this is my brother Yukio…" My eyes widened and I looked back over to the newcomer who had violated my 'No Touchie' rule. As soon as I saw him, I knew…

I absolutely, positively, irrevocably… hated him.

That's right, I hate Kazuki's twin brother with a burning passion. On sight. No wonder Hideo wants to murder him. I do too.

By now, Anko had shoved everyone out of her way and made it to the front. She marched over to Yukio (ignoring Hideo), turned him around, and practically shoved him out the door, while a woman with long (LONG!) red hair slammed and locked the door afterwards.

"Whew!" the red-haired woman breathed out, "What a nasty child." She then looked up and saw me. "Hello, I don't think we've met. I'm Kushina Namikaze, and you must be Kikyo?" Her eyes were large and green like Sakura's. She extended her hand.

"Uh, yeah. That's me." I shook her hand and discovered that even though she looked delicate, her grip was like iron. When she walked away I turned to Kazuki and winced in an outrageously exaggerated fashion.

He laughed, and the blush had returned to his cheeks. It looked very out of place when he was wearing a suit.

"What's up with your brother? He's an ass."

Kazuki looked up at me through his spiked bangs, bending over to grab his notebook which he had put on the ground. Unlike his usual cute look, I was fixed with a very un-Kazuki-like stare.

"Yukio terrifies me." He said simply and then looked embarrassed and seemed to evaporate through the crowd.

Took me a while to get it through my brain that there might be a part of Kazuki I didn't know at all. Did I even know him at all?

No. I didn't.

_-{[( Hideo )]}-_

It's amazing that I'm not dead.

Either getting killed by someone else or pulling the trigger on myself, it doesn't matter. But alive or not, getting missions still sucks. Especially when they don't involve something interesting. Like this.

I'm put on guard duty. Secretly. You see, in short, Tsunade has become increasingly paranoid and has assigned me to be Sakura's bodyguard. Except Sakura doesn't know that. Tsunade figures that if anyone was going after her, they'd try and get Sakura first because she's close to Tsunade and vulnerable. I tried to tell the old hag that maybe she should just TRAIN Sakura and all problems would be solved, but no. Hideo's advice is useless once again.

We picked up Ino on our way to Tsunade's place. She looked okay.

I knew better.

Dragga has been bothering me all the time recently about it. He says she's been in a questionable employment. I can't get anything else out of him. It's especially annoying because of a few key facts:

Dragga is, like, in love with her. So why hasn't he done anything?

Ino's like a sister to me. We GREW UP together. And now I can't help her because I don't know what's wrong because Dragga insists on being a douche.

He texts me. And I still don't know what moronic arsehole thought it would be funny to give him my number.

So, I'm in a crap mood. Sucks to be me. And near me. Ino had been silent the whole car ride. She's in a black turtleneck dress that goes to her knees. Everyone in the car besides her seemed to realize that it wasn't flattering. At all.

(I think she knows.)

When we had arrived, she accidentally slammed the door and my head jerked up. I hit my forehead on the window. I didn't feel anything. Nothing seems to hurt me anymore.

It's frankly quite creepy. I hate it.

Right now I'm waiting with Kazuki in the living room. I had tried to slip into the kitchen but Asuma had chased me out with a frying pan. It was worth it, though, because someone had forced him to wear a frilly yellow apron. He hates yellow more that he hates pink. It makes me want to come to school in a neon yellow shirt just to tick him off.

"Hey, loser."

I know that voice. I know that voice. Crap. Slowly turning to face her, I glared and exchanged an equally insulting greeting to my temporary partner, Karin. She was in an obnoxiously neon green dress and fishnets. Fishnets.

She put her hand on her forehead, "I know what you're thinking. You," she paused, "are thinking that fishnets are indecent. You're such a old fart, Spike."

Darn it, she got me. "I hate you." I let her know. Normally I would have been punched, but I guess the holiday spirit had infected us. I hate that virus. Worst kind.

She smiled {demonically} and twirled her hair. This was my other 'sister', Karin. She'd been orphaned for so long nobody even knew her surname.

Before you start, she's like sister. Really. Like Ino. And Hana. And Hinata. And Tenten. And almost every girl in the Camp. Kiba, Hana's brother, loves to point out that I was raised by women and call's me a sister's boy {then I point out that I know that he's madly in love with Hinata, and he shuts up}.

"SPIKE!" Speak of the devil. And Lucifer. And Beelzebub. And Beelzebub's twin sister.

Oh, yes, Kiba showed up. He threw a punch at my face, but I ducked and Karin punched him in the face instead.

"Yo, Fishlegs. What's shakin'?" He said, grinning at Karin's fishnets. She called him a dumbass and tried to sneak into the kitchen to steal some chocolate. Kiba kept grinning and it was starting to get unnerving. "You're creeping me out, freakazoid."

"I'm the freakazoid, freakazoid?" He shot back {still grinning!}. I growled at him. "I hate you."

Before Kiba could reply with his customary 'Love you too,' I heard Kikyo yelling at someone at the door. When I heard the reply, red seeped into the corners of my vision.

That voice was Yukio's. Must. Kill. Now. RIGHT. NOW.

I slipped through the living room to the front door.

"You." I was going to start slinging profanity at Kazuki's twin, but then I remembered that the whole Camp was here. Including Saya.

Saya is an orphan whose parents died during a mission. She's only ten. And I'm sworn not to curse in front of her, ever. Can't say that much for Yukio, though.

"Shinigami. You bastard."

"I'm the bastard? I really don't think you should be here, marshmellow." I called him a marshmellow because I can't curse and… ugh, I really need to just cuss him out, don't I?

"I'd have a hell of a lot more choice words for you if we weren't being stared at by this whole freaking room. A dark alley would be nice, where I could beat the ever-living crap out of you." Ooh, Yukio thinks be can beat me. He doesn't know me at all. My line of vision starts to narrow, and my hearing gets sharper. I can practically hear the air swirling around me. Last time I'd confronted Yukio, he'd nailed me in the face because I was ordered not to fight back. Right now the only orders I had said nothing about holding back.

"G-guys, cu-cut it out."

Agh, Kazuki, way to mellow my harsh. Damn. But maybe it wasn't him at all.

Saya is right next to Sakura, and she knows that I was about to explode. Sakura doesn't, but the ten-year-old does. Maybe she's secretly older than that. I let out a sigh and rub my temples. Kazuki is talking to Kikyo. Yukio is being shoved out the door. Kushina slams the door.

My right eyes starts to itch, and I know that it's going to start hurting badly soon. I press my palm over it, wincing as a nerve twangs painfully. My sister motions me over, and I slip away from the living room to the upstairs bathroom.

Sis pulls my hair away from my face with her hair tie and starts running the water. Then I look up into the mirror.

I wish I hadn't.

I want to run.

-{=( Shiro )=}-

Holidays are too good to be true. The fog in my head has cleared so, so very much.

I flit around, helping cook and talking to Kurenai a lot.

I am very happy for her and Asuma. They got married recently.

We weren't able to come to their wedding because we got sent on a mission.

It made us sad. But Itachi and I came back later and we congratulated them anyway.

The only problem is that Kurenai is scared to have a child because their missions might take them away too often- or worse, permanently.

Itachi is surveying the room quietly.

I sneak up behind him and ask him how he's doing. He's annoyed that Otouto is going to be complaining all day.

'Tachi's so funny. His hair is even softer than mine.

Tsunade is yelling loudly in the kitchen, and Kurenai is bossing Asuma around when I get back. He grumbles about needing a smoke.

I tell him smoking is bad for you.

He chews on a toothpick.

Suddenly, there's Saya, pulling at my sleeve with her other tiny hand in a surprised-looking Sakura's.

Sakura's so pretty. She doesn't even know it.

But Saya pulls me into the living room, and Otouto is there. He is angry.

I tell Saya to hold on. I nod to Sakura. Standing where Otouto can see me [if he can still see clearly through his dislike for Yukio], I wait for him to calm down.

Kikyo is confused.

I think Kazuki's confused too.

Yukio is shoved out the door, and in the following chaos, Otouto turns very pale. I motion to him.

We go upstairs. He almost runs into a wall. I pull his hair back and run his eye under freezing cold water.

He yelps in surprise. I didn't have time to wait for the water to get warm.

The white porcelain sink turns red, and I know that his black hair was been getting stained with blood for at least two minutes. Maybe more.

His eye is dilated and I know that if the injection was dangerous he'd die.

Otouto.

Otouto!

Otouto?

He's crying.

Crying blood.

~#((( Kazuki )))#~

Dear Nameless,

Been a while, huh? Nothing really exciting has happened the past month and a half. My leg healed, and despite feeling a bit itchy and achy sometimes it's pretty good. Itachi says even that will go away in another month.

OUT64s heal fast. Very fast.

Anyway, this morning we had all piled into Shiro's silver station wagon and drove to Tsunade's house. On the way, we picked up a girl named Ino Yamanaka. She is very beautiful, but kind of thin. Thin like I was back when I'd skip breakfast and dinner. She's blond and has very long hair. I got the impression that she wanted to talk a lot but didn't.

Hideo was acting weird. He didn't talk to her. He barely even looked at her. When he got to the mansion, the only people talking were Itachi and Shiro. Maybe it's normal.

Once inside, Shiro ran off to the kitchen, Hideo evaporated somewhere, Ino went… somewhere, and Itachi sat down in the living room. I decided to go find Sakura, because we were early and Hideo was creeping me out.

I found her a few minutes later. She came dashing down the steps, and she was all excited. She looked just like her namesake, in a light green dress. Sakura was pretty.

[

But Kikyo is prettier!]

Ignoring the weird little voice in my head, I went over to Sakura and we talked and she made fun of me. I think she knows about me liking Kikyo. I hate how girls know stuff. It sucks. And when I say big, I mean it was around twenty, twenty-five people. Give or take a few.

I finally caught sight of Ino again. She ran up to this group of girls that just came in, and melted right into their group. She started to smile.

Sakura was watching all the people come in too. We were sitting on the steps. The carpet was nice.

Sakura got up. "I think I'm gonna run, K? Just see who's around."

I nodded. I didn't feel like moving yet. Sakura disappeared, too.

Closing my eyes, I leaned back. Hearing everything around me, I don't know how long I stayed like that. When I opened my eyes, I heard Kikyo. Yelling.

I leapt up a little too fast and slipped like oil to the door. She was there, yeah, and she was so gorgeous. Her hair was down for the first time since… since she was young.

But something made me choke. Yukio. Yukio was here, and she was yelling at him. My heart started to pound. What did he do? Why was he here? Was… was Father here?

I checked to see that Father wasn't here [he wasn't], and wedged myself between Kikyo and the door.

Hideo was arguing at Yukio already. They looked murderous, and I knew that if I tried to stop them they may get angry at me instead, but I called out anyway. The door was still open and the cold air was blowing my hair around. It was slightly annoying.

"G-guys, cu-cut it out." Agh, I was stuttering again.

Kikyo whirls on me, and I almost jump away. Almost. "Do you know this freak?" she asks incredulously.

"Ye-yeah. K-kikyo, this is my brother Yukio…"

I could tell. She hates him. A lot. Anko had plowed through everyone and throws Yukio out. I think she's still angry that he called her a biach in the middle of Science the first day of school.

Kikyo looks at me quizzically, "What's up with your brother? He's an ass."

I bent over to pick you up, Nameless, and I looked up at her.

"Yukio terrifies me."

I've never spoken truer words since, unless I summon up the courage to tell Kikyo I love her.

… which I never will.

-=([{ Sakura }])=-

When I woke up this morning, I was so happy I could burst. I dashed around, helping Auntie clean and cook while getting dressed.

I chose something that I swore never to wear again. But it was something I had to do. It was a sea green dress that was German. Mother and Dad had sent it to me a year ago.

On the card, it'd said 'from Mom and Dad', but I knew that Dad had picked it out for me. Dad always knew what I wanted, how I thought.

Now, I knew what he would have wanted. Dad would have wanted me to wear this dress and be happy. But not forget. Never forget them.

When I heard people downstairs, I had just put on my jade earrings. Actually, I was still putting one in as I thudded down the stairs.

Kazuki, Shiro, Itachi, and Hideo had arrived. And this girl. I saw her go into the reading room. She was blonde- very pretty. Classically blonde and blue-eyed. But she wore this really ugly sweater dress. I wondered why. Someone like that didn't not have fashion sense. Did they?

I was still pondering this when Kazuki came up. He looked so cute in a suit. Kikyo would be all blushy and stuff. I'd laugh at them later, though.

"Hey! What's up?"

"Nothing, really. You?"

I waved my hand comically, "What do you think? Nothing at all! Except I'm excited! Are you? Come on, you gotta be!"

He just suppressed a laugh at my hysterics. That boy… silly boy, thinking you can outwit the great, the illustrious Sakura.

"Well, I bet you're a lot more nervous than you let on."

He blinked.

"KIKYO'S COMING! SHE'S GOING TO WEAR A DRESS!"

He blushed madly. Silly, silly boy. "Where's Hideo?" I blurted, accidentally ruining my triumph. Now I'm the one who sounds lovesick.

ARGH! I'm not! Ugh…

Kazuki just shrugs. "I'm not sure where he is. The question is, are you sure you want to find him?" Kazuki pulled at the collar unconsciously. "Bad mood?" I asked, and Kazuki nodded again. He was done writing. I think he didn't record our conversation. That's okay, though, because it wasn't that important anyway.

Eventually, I got up to go see who'd arrived so far. Kazuki stayed on the steps. Silly little emo boy.

All of the guests arrived at the same time, and there were a lot of them. It was like watching a giant family, too, everybody seemed to know each other. Kikyo hadn't arrived yet, though, and I couldn't wait to see what she was wearing. I was sure she'd choose something great. Something Kazuki'd blush over. Wait… never mind. He blushed every time she even glanced at him.

Weaving through the crowd, I noticed a little girl. She could only be about ten or even nine, and she was looking around like she was trying to find someone. Wondering if she needed help, I walked over and smiled brightly, stooping down to her height.

"Hey, are you looking for someone?"

She turned to me. She had bright green eyes and light brown hair; she smiled and said, "Yeah! Have you seen my Aniki?" I blinked. Her older brother? Hmm… I didn't know who she was…

She went on, seeing my confusion, "He's tall and has black hair and," Okay, so that's narrowed down a tiny bit, "And usually looks annoyed."

…

……

………

………… I can only think of one person that description applies to.

"Uh… Hideo?" I asked dumbly. I was flustered when she nodded.

"Yeah! Is he here?" She exclaimed hopefully. Her dress was cute.

… I didn't know Hideo had a little sister. Maybe she just called him that. Can't imagine how a little kid got so close to him, though, because he doesn't like little kids. At all.

I stood up. Okay, find Hideo… It shouldn't be that hard.

She pulls on my dress, and I look down at her face. "Let's look!"

"Mmhm! Okay, um, I'm Sakura, what's your name?" I took her hand. She pulled me through the room.

"I'm Saya! Nice to meet you!" Then she suddenly stopped. A crowd was forming at the front door. "What's going on? It's probably Kikyo being weird…" I grumbled and started towards it.

Saya, however, had other plans. She dragged me to the kitchen and looked at Shiro. Shiro looked surprised, especially when she was pulled up to the door. I didn't say anything.

The scene at the door didn't alarm me at all. It was Kikyo, who was seething, some guy who looked annoying, and Hideo arguing with him.

Zoning out, I ended up staring at Hideo. It was like he wasn't seeing anything at all. Single-minded. Angry.

I wondered what he would look like completely relaxed. Would he look younger? Maybe her would. Maybe we all would. Saya held my hand. The white haired guy got kicked out, apparently he was Kazuki's brother.

I kept my eyes on Hideo.

I even saw him stagger up the stairs with Shiro.

I even cleaned the blood trail off the floor.

I even felt like screaming.

I even… I even felt like running away.

Just like him.

Somewhere over the Atlantic, a plane hummed across the blue ocean.

Hun, please pass me my laptop.

He does.

Hun, please don't waste time. Work on your presentation!

He does.

Hun, what's wrong? Are you alright? Your data's wrong…

He turns to her.

Do you recall a girl named Sakura? He asks his wife.

Hun, Sakura's our daughter. Are you sure you're okay?

How long?

How long what, Seiji?

Since we saw that girl?

Um… three months? She's fine, Seiji, she's introverted like you. Remember; we made her take the test a few years ago?

Amaya?

What is it? She sighs. She's exasperated. He's keeping her from her work.

If you were going to die, what would you say?

She looks at him critically. Her lips move.

I would say that I was wrong.

I was wrong.