-Chapter twelve readers, woo! -
Chapter Twelve
Memory
Villagers stared as Shiro dragged along the protesting Hatake Kakashi to a nice little bar that Kurenai often visited around the time it was now. Shiro poked her head past the cloth barrier and smiled when she saw the crimson-eyed woman sitting with Sarutobi Asuma.
"Kurenai-chan!"
"Shiro? What are you doing here, I thought you had your first day with Kakashi today."
"That why I'm here," Shiro pushed her sensei in front of her and held the smut book out to her, "I was wondering if it was appropriate if he read this while training us."
Her red eyes locked on the book and slowly turned to a tiptoeing Kakashi.
"Hatake, what have I told you about reading this in front of others?"
He looked back, his visible eye an up turned U that betrayed his worry.
"Um, that you don't really mind?"
The next few things that happened were nothing more than a blur. One moment her sensei stood sweating bullets in front of the entry way and the next he was being beaten to a pulp by the scary woman before her. She smiled as an old memory surfaced.
Flashback~It had been a cold day, one that a six-year-old Shiro didn't mind too much. With a full stomach and a happy bounce, she was on her way home after gorging herself Ichiraku's. Shiro rounded a corner and found her short cut blocked by a gang of drunken men; a few were still taking long draughts from unlabeled bottles. She froze, not sure if they were drunken enough to not realize she was there or were drunken enough to play their favorite game, beat up the little girl.
One looked up, his glazed over eyes sparking dully in recognition.
"Hey luhky what whe, erp, got 'er, itz the li'al demon brat."
A shiver of fear coursed through her small form as they all looked at her with a predatory smile or grin. She took a step back slowly, her eyes not once leaving the group.
"'Eh now foxy, we ain't gonna' 'urt ya'…much, just a li'al ring around the rosy."
She shook her head and bolted, running as fast as her thin legs could carry her. But for drunken men, they were fast. One tripped over his feet but managed to grab her ankle in a bruising grip. She down with a small scream, one laced with fear and anguish, the man pulled her back harshly, scraping the delicate exposed flesh on the rough ally terrain enough for it to bleed.
A loud wail wrenched its way for her throat in a vain and desperate plea for help. The man holding her growled and drew back his free fisted hand, preparing to strike the small child with a gleeful look.
Shiro closed her eyes in anticipation a harsh grunt came from the direction of her assailant. She peeked and gasped at the sight before her. The man holding in to her let go and grasped his now bleeding forearm, pulling out the kunai with a strong jerk and fixed the woman standing next to her with a vehement glare.
"What are you doing to this girl?"
Her voice was smooth and soothing, but seemed to freeze over the minds of the men. The bleeding one spoke first.
"I 'twas teaching teh hell spawn some manners."
"Oh? I see no hell spawn, just an innocent girl."
"Open yur eyes woman, that's the-,"
"I know just who and what she is, and you should know the penalty for abusing her."
"Just what I thought, a kunoichi. You women are better off in men's beds then on the battle field."
At this her savior became silent, a small furious smirk tugging at the edges of those painted red lips. She turned her red-eyed gaze to the sky.
"Sorry Ibiki, looks like you'll be short a perpetrator."
Shiro watched with wide eyes as her savior closed the gap between her and the man, a spray of crimson blood following a second later as she passed him. She looked to the blood with wonderment, how could something so pretty come from a man that was so ugly at heart? Her fear flared slightly as a squad of ANBU arrived on the scene.
"What happened here?"
Questioned one wearing a bear mask harshly.
"These men were intending to attack this child with brutal force. I stepped in."
"Did that one attack you Yuhi Kurenai."
Shiro saw the woman was going to tell the truth and she knew very well that ninja who attacked civilians without reason or say at the loss of temper, they would be charged heavily.
"Yes he did, he didn't like it when the lady stopped him from hurting me."
The men looked at her for a second before erupting into an uproar. This time, the man with a bird mask spoke.
"Shut it you lot, I can trust her word more than yours at the moment seeing as how you reek of sake and other various alcohol," he turned to his companions, "Let's get them to Ibiki so that we can go home."
With a bit of a struggle and a message sent out to the proper people to pick up the corpse, everyone departed save for Kurenai and Shiro. The young kunoichi knelt next to the child, locking her unnerving gaze with Shiro's suddenly blank and dead stare.
"Why did you lie for me?"
"You saved me."
"You don't lie just because of that, it's a bad habit to start so early in life."
"But the life of ninja is dependant on weaving said lies and passing them off flawlessly, why not start now?"
"You speak quite coherently for a six year old."
"I read and no one ever spoke to me with baby talk."
Suddenly the icy woman laughed and hugged the child with all the comfort a sister would give to a worried sibling.
"So grown up for one so young, you'd make a fine kunoichi."
Shiro smiled and nodded before pulling away and saying goodbye. ~
End of FlashbackAfter that they had met several times, at first when Shiro had been caught up in a few run in with horrid village and then as friends and Kurenai taking her out for a meal here and there. But after the young kitsune had started in the academy, they had lost touch for the most part, maybe going out for dango once every blue moon.
Shiro turned her attention to a dazed Kakashi and a gently smiling Kurenai.
"So what have you been up to, aside fro making yourself look even more similar to Kyuubi and…"
"Kesshoo."
"Right."
Shiro stepped over Hatake's body and hugged the woman warmly. The return hug was slightly suffocating, but something told her that the genjutsu user wasn't used to returning such affection. Kurenai pulled back and ruffled Shiro's short gold hair.
"Why did you cut your hair? It took you such a long time to grow it out."
"I figured it would have to go eventually with me being taijutsu oriented. With no family ties or history, it's kind of hard to get a hold of learnable jutsu."
She nodded and moved her hand to one of the vixen's ears and tested to see if it was real. The girl melted into the touch, pushing into the hand that was giving her the unexpected pleasure. Kyuubi sighed shook his head. Perhaps he should have warned her about the new sensitivity of her ears. Kurenai laughed and pulled her into another hug.
"What's this, the Ice Queen of Konoha heart has melted and is showing affection? Maybe I will be allowed to read my beloved books in public once more?"
Kurenai growled and punched the man hard on the top of his silver topped head.
"Not on your life hentai."
Shiro giggled and moved away from her sister figure as Kyuubi whispered something in her ear.
"I have to go now, see you around Kurenai-chan!"
Shiro bowed politely and left after she responded with her own farewell.
"To our training grounds, I believe that it is high time that we address your limited knowledge of ninjutsu."
"What about genjutsu?"
"I'm sorry Shiro-kit, but neither of use really know genjutsu besides releasing one. I'm afraid you'll either have to be content with your current level or go to an outside source like your friend back there."
She nodded and took off for her secret grounds, excitement welling up inside of her. Shiro stopped just short of her hand made training post and let her furry senseis off.
"So what do I learn first?"
"Nothing just yet, that pitiful test your sensei put you through wasn't enough for you to break a sweat. First you will start with ten minutes of tree climbing, twenty minutes of water walking and then fifteen laps around the entire perimeter of the grounds. After that you will execute one hundred each of the basic kicks and punches. Then you will break for five minutes before I even tell you what I am going to teach you. Now get started, the day is already half over and the technique is time consuming."
With a groan the girl went over to her favorite tree and began the light exercise. Irritation itched at the underside of her skin as her fluffy guardians criticized her in every section. Shiro dropped next to her mate and glared.
"Alright, now that I smell and I am all sticky, what is it that you wanted to teach me, or did you forget when Kesshoo was telling me how to water walk properly and you were napping."
"Watch that tongue kit before I find a new use for it." He shifted into his human form and sat across from her. "Now, the name of this jutsu is Katon Hachi Hi No Ryuu Jutsu. This jutsu will call forth eight dragons made of fire, or in my case fox fire to strike down the enemy. Since you are an ice affinity, you cannot perform this using Katon, but I think we will be able to manipulate it into hyouton."
Shiro nodded and watched as he showed her the hand signs and then set to work to manipulate it by tweaking here and there. An hour passed and the most she could do, as an end result was to send out a few pulses of icy wind. Frustrated she ran through the original hand signs, but out of a burst of anger sent a massive wave of her chakra through it. Both Kesshoo's and Kyuubi's eyes widened as a massive blast of arctic air erupted from Shiro's tired body. Eight thin ribbons of pale blue chakra snaked out of her form, moving in a whirlpool like spiral, swiftly thickening into five-foot thick bodies.
The two jumped out the way as the dragons finished forming and reversed direction, slamming into the ground when no target was sighted and leaving deep trenches in their wake. After a few minutes the immense beast made solely of ice broke up and fell to the ground as she cut the connection.
"What did you do?"
"I used the original hand signs and placed my own chakra into it."
"Good, that's what shout have happened."
"What?"
"You see, with demon chakra, it is so powerful that it doesn't truly matter that the hand sign pattern is designed for. The charka with over power the required affinity and place it's own spin on the technique. But this doesn't always work. And another down side is that it will drown out your secondary and third attributes. Now that we have the way to do that down, you should continue to practice that, try and get it to focus on one object instead of twisting around in a spiral."
"Yes Kyu-kun. But won't I have to worry about chakra exhaustion?"
"No you won't, being a demon gives you a limitless or at least extremely large chakra reserve. No human has ever fought a demon without depleting their chakra nor has one ever witnessed a fight between two demons."
"That and one of the demons normally runs off or is too injured to battle further before their chakra limit is reached, now continue working on the technique."
Shiro huffed and focused on the task at hand, that is, until another question came to her.
"Kyu-kun, what were you going to give me for returning the bells?"
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