A/N Someone pointed out that I hadn't exactly said her age, she is around 15-16, if she were older Konoha wouldn't have expressed interest in an old civilian. Teenagers experiment a lot of body changes so there was still a chance for her to grow her chakra pool and learn quickly the ninja arts. And a new ninja clan with a new Kekkei Genkai is useful, especially if she is an innocent, easy to manipulate teenager going through a loit of changes in her life.
Chapter 14
The Hokage hadn't cared much and said something she didn't understand. She was pleased regardless because it had been a joke at Kakashi's expense judging by the laughs and how much he had hated it. She didn't catch the look Third gave her as they left.
Apparently Kakashi's opinion had made an impact because Izuma-sensei avoided chakra training altogether and stopped helping her individually on taijutsu. He looked like he pitied her when she asked to learn about the Academy's ninjutsu. He said no, of course.
Still, if it was going to be like that she was going to take advantage and try to study the language fully now. She made a clone and both of them took notes. The clone went with past and future tenses along with its negative versions and she wrote down vocabulary pronunciations and meaning. She would have to search for the kanji and she was pretty sure she discovered a new sound they use. She'll definitely practice that when she is alone in the woods and no one can hear her.
Yes, alone. The threats stopped following her three days after the kagebunshin thingy. She was free do to whatever, she just did the same thing as always: train, talk to the locals and avoid streets with drunk men.
She started to stay on the academy training fields after classes to practice with only one blunt kunai and a shuriken she had stolen/picked up when no one was looking. She was pretty sure that Izuma-sensei knew it but he didn't mind.
Kakashi was uncooperative, he only talked when he was spoken to and answered in short sentences, no more words than necessary and never long enough to take a second breath. How are the genin people? Annoying, Can I train? Sure, Where is Pakkun? Busy…
Dinner wasn't much better, complete and awkward silence. She finally decided to start filling it with one sided conversation. He kept trying to give her cues to end the exhange, being very obvious about ignoring her and not wanting to talk.
"I hate vegetables" She commented chewing on her steak, Mm-hmm " Vegetables are evil" Mm-hmm. "They suck, I think they-" Mm-hmm "-they make people boring." He still mm-hmmed but she could tell he was insulted.
She rose her face to serve herself some water and he made a sudden movement to pull his mask up with the bad luck that a lettuce leaf peeked on the tip of his mask. She let out an involuntary snort as he picked it from his face. She had to put the jar down from the shaking of her hands that came with trying to contain her laughter. They could count as spasms. He didn't look amused.
He used his unusually long arms (they were average but she liked insulting him) and grabbed her last steak. He pulled it towards his mask-hidden face. She had to lean over the table and grab one of his arms as she attempted to cause a chopstick fight to steal the delicious steak as he opened his mouth and tried to get the meat to his face.
She started laughing then. "Stooop, pleaaase Kakashiii." He looked confused for a second, like he just caught himself being funny and interesting while he was clearly trying not to be anything but dull. She took the opportunity as soon as it presented and got the meat. She swallowed it immediately without even chewing. "Meat is mine, boring man has boring vegetables."
He still looked stunned by showing behavior that could be considered 'amusing'. He should apply the best advise a gay porno ever gave her it's not weird unless you make it weird, bro.
He was still lost in thought and she was having none of that. "You clean, I don't understand what dishes are." He was displeased. She showed him a sly smile before heading upstairs to sleep. He didn't even try to stop her.
That night she woke up agitated, with a terrible feeling. She headed downstairs to the kitchen and it only intensified. It came from the forest, she was sure. There was a problem in her woods.
She had to get there.
She could tell Kakashi was awake, she couldn't leave without him knowing. She had to think of something else. Hmpt! She turned the tap on to let the water flow so it muffles the sound as she made a Shadow clone. Now, as the two girls stared at each other they began to think a plan, both of them realized she should have prepared one before making the bunshin but it was too late now. One of them sat on the counter and slithered towards the window, making sure they didn't cause a suspicious number of footsteps. The other helped her jump out of the window, she rolled on the grass of the garden to avoid landing damage. She heard the window close with a thud and ran to the woods.
She didn't have time to note that she didn't pant nearly as much this time, she had better stamina. She was shaken by the intensity of the wrong that was in the forest. She moved silently through the mute trees who felt abandoned and dead.
She reached the clearing, the air vibrated with wrong. She looked, stunned from the back of the tree, as a giant snake and an androgynous snake humanoid talked. It sounded important, the smaller snake, the being, made her shudder when he looked at her. She stayed in her position, frozen as he spat an order and disappeared along with wrong she had followed. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.
"My, my. Silly little girls shouldn't be spying in the woods. You should have run away the moment he ordered me to kill you, at least I would have gotten to hunt you down. That's always fun." The purple snake moved slowly towards her and the forest fell again in unnatural silence. Her throat clenched painfully and her muscles tensed, she felt cold sweat in the back on her neck and shuddered, she knew what was going to happen. Her fight or flight instinct kicked in. Who was she kidding, she didn't have one of those.
"How stupid do you think I am? I know you don't take orders from that."
It stopped. "Oh? and why isss that, human?"
It was working, oh god, oh god. " It's pretty fucking obvious isn't it? You can't fool me. It was a poor attempt" The nervous swear slipped through her mouth but she was busy pretending her mouth wasn't dry. The conversation seemed to finish there and they came to a stall point, she needed to get the conversation going before the bluff stopped working.
"Why did you come here, fool?"
"I felt a disturbance in the forest and came to see what was happening, you know that I haven't heard anything important, anyways." Another bluff, she didn't understand what was being said.
" A dissturbance? Can you ssense Natural Chakra?"
"… Who's asking?" The fuck's Natural Chakra. It slithered to the side but didn't come further.
" You may call me Manda." He waited a second. "Well?"
"Why ask what you already know?" Manda darted his tongue tasting the air and looked at her curiosly.
He waited before speaking again.
"What's your name, human brat."
"I'm Arabella, but brat's fine." She waited for him to do anything, but he just stared at her, so she kept talkin Maybe she could distract him from eating her. "I'm interested in you, did you know that every animal in the forest has been hiding since the moment you arrived?"
"What do you want from me? It's not every day that a human dares to put themselves in from of me. If they do dare, they always ask something of me."
She swallowed air and hope that her twitching hand wasn't a giveaway of how scared she really was. "Do you keep count of how many you've eaten?"
"Not really."
"Didn't expect you to. My question is why haven't swallowed me yet?"
He darted his tongue again, in annoyance she noted. "You said you were curious of me, I am curious of you. I will, most likely, eat you afterwards, don't be impatient."
Her shoulders shook with a nervous laugh. "I hate waiting." She was so utterly stupid, it was nearly impossible for her to have lived this long.
"Iss that what you crave? Death? Oh, I see, it won't look as cowardly if you fall by me, is that what you thought?" It moved forward to her hissing dangerously.
"I didn't come here to die, but I knew it was a possibility." She shifted her footing to give her the right impulse if she needed to run. He realized and looked amused at her. He changed trajectory and began to circle her. The top of his skin was as high as the lowest branches in a big tree, once he cut her escape routes there was no running. "I came here to…"
"Why did you come here? I'm waiting."
She shot her eyebrows up and accepted she was dead as her finally cut off any chance of escaping from him. "I came here to make friends" The clearing echoed with a deep and rough snort.
"Iss that ssooo?" He looked infinitely amused.
"Yes. You see, I am new here and am looking for some friends. You just happen to be perfect for it. Tell me what are your hobbies?" He placed his head in front of her and rested it in his own long body as his sharp and short laugh spread through the forest.
"I enjoy terrorizing children and destroying cities."
"Well, I haven't had the chance to do that yet but I am definitely looking forward to. Do you have, eeh, any cities you can recommend me to destroy?" He just kept laughing in front of her.
"I'll make a list." Then his face came further, towards her. "Do you, perchance, have any hobbies you can recommend me?"
"Knitting" She said way too fast. Then made an ugly sound in her throat. He didn't have hands. She tried to amend it quickly. " Can I touch you?" She made it worse.
"Are you sure you didn't come here to die? You seem very keen to" But moved anyways.
"I won't hurt you, I doubt I can hurt you anyways. You seem… ehh… ehh… resistant. "She choked on her words as he place his head inches away from her face. "Can I..? I'm going to… I'm… I'll do it now." She walked a step like she had never inhabited a human body before and shoot a shaking hand and pressed it against a scale. "Can you even feel it? I think yo-"
" I can't" He moved his mouth to speak causing the scale to shift.
"Kay" She doubted it sounded like a real word, it was more than a shriek. She patted it up and don twice to calm her nerves and took a large step backwards. "Thanks" She cleared her throath. "Do you have any other hobby?"
" I know fuuinjutsu. And torture. Sometimes I do them at the same time."
Her smile, that was already poor, crooked. "I am not familiar with the concept of fuuinjutsu? Sounds painful." He laughed again.
"I was under the impression that you were a ninja, are you really just a little girl in the wrong place?"
"I am an idiot if you ask my opinion" She earned a laugh and tried to keep her hopes up. If he liked her, she survived, if he didn't she died, it wasn't so bad. She cleared her throat again. " Well, I think you are very polite, you surly wouldn't play with your food feelings like this, right, Manda-chan?" She sensed she had gone too far with the chan. She sat in the floor and crossed her legs in front of him. Trust me! I trust you. "I assume I am a friend to you as you are to me, do you mind telling me more about your interests."
He seemed pleased. "I can only assume you mean fuuinjutsu. It is the ninja art of sealing, very useful, Arabella-san. It teaches you what lines not to cross."
" As our friendship progresses you'll find that I am irrevocably stupid, Manda-chan." She screamed in her mind. "Keep going, please."
"I appreciate your guts, tiny one." He smiled. "I cherish fuuinjutsu very much, I learned from my father in a very young age. It teaches As I got stronger he got warier of me. He was right to, of course. Once I was ready, we fought and I killed him, reaching to the throne of the snakes."
"Cool!" She swallowed air again and her throat itched. "I had a cousin like that once. They're all dead now. I also set fire to the house so their corpses would burn down before the hunters got to them, haha. Wouldn't it be glorious to have some tea now with us? I'll make sure to bring some next time." She smiled sweetly and spoke in the same breath." Fuuinjutsu, seems lovely. I accept, of course, I would love to learn. What should I bring to my first lesson? Also, could it be on Tuesdays and Thursdays at midnight, that's when I'm free."
He didn't look surprised. "I have no concept of Tuesday or midnight."
"Every two days starting tomorrow as the night falls in this same place, does that sound right?" She was still sweating, it was disgusting. He didn't answer this time. " Well, I have to take my leave now, I loved meeting you, Manda –chan. See you tomorrow. You are so cute, Manda-chan. Bye." The snake shifted and allowed her to leave. She walked away to the woods and when she looked back the snake had disappeared.
She shank to her knees and pressed her head to the floor as a stray tear fell to the ground. She panted as if she had been running for hours. She managed to realize that she had only been that scared for her life once before collapsing to the floor and disappearing with a pop.
In her bed, the original shifted as the nightmare took space in her mind before disappearing into a world of marshmallow, she began eating the marshmallow-men. They were so delicious.