"Why is it that when the human mind does not understand something that is
not considered reality, they try all their might to make it so? If I tell
them the truth, they'll probably send me to a mental house where I'll be
stared at through a small window forever. But if I don't tell, my
conscience'll be the death of me. Literally. What should I do? I have no
one close and personal who understands me completely to share these secrets
with, so my closet is making my skeletons VERY restless, if you know what I
mean."
She closed her journal, and with a giant gulp, she lifted up the Vol. 2 of Naruto and opened to a random page. She could've died from a heart attack if she wanted to.
There she was, on the page, fighting with Naruto.
Her fingers went numb, and she dropped the book mistakenly into the water.
(Oh no!)
She dove in, splashing noisily like a rampant shark, frantically trying to save the book before it was destroyed. She heaved herself back onto the docks, spluttering water as she tossed the soggy book onto the planks. Knowing her book was safe, she collapsed on her back and just gazed at the stars as she caught her breath.
She lifted her torso upright, looking around.
"Well, can't have him following me if he decides against it. Better get going with the plan."
She stood up, stretched, cringed at the pain in her side from stretching, and went to work, humming a gleefully cunning tune under her breath.
~~*~~ ~~*~~ That Morning... ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~
Kakashi yawned as he stretched out, though he couldn't suck enough air through his mask, so he finished with a cough instead. Scratching his bushy mane of silver hair, he looked over to where Aki slept. Her futon was empty.
(Probably off in the woods with Naruto and Sasuke. Nothing to worry about.)
He stood up, and saw Tsunami with a grumpy Inari.
"Morning!" Kakashi was in a cheerful mood.
"Oh, morning." She obviously was tired from trying to quiet the brat.
"Um, do you know where Aki is?"
"Umm, well. She didn't go with Naruto and Sasuke to the woods."
(Uh- oh.)
This didn't sound good.
"Sakura and my father went off to the construction site...oh yeah! She went with them into town."
"WHAT?!" Kakashi's eyes went cuckoo, "In her state and condition?! She'd have to protect--"
Kakashi felt for his shuriken holster, but it wasn't there. He felt behind his waist, and found that three of his kunais were missing.
"She couldn't have..."He shook his head in disbelief.
"I...I have to go!" He rushed to put on his sandals.
"Uh, Kakashi?" Tsunami was confused.
Kakashi started to walk off, but for some reason, his feet wouldn't move.
"What the--?!" Kakashi furiously twisted his ankles to loosen his sandals, but to no avail.
He was swearing so much to himself that he didn't notice the Genjutsu message that was left behind for him at first. Looking up, he was surprised. It read:
"I know you're trying to follow me. But no chance!"
Kakashi was yanking on his shins to get his feet to move, but then an additional message floated up to him.
"Numbweed: best sap for stickiness and numbing areas for hours. Sorry, but I had to."
He couldn't believe this! What, did she learn from Naruto to be a prankster or something?! Kakashi growled impatiently as he dragged his now floppy feet down the planked walkway with his glued sandals. Why? Why would she do this?
Kakashi didn't even notice the obvious trap that was set up before him because of his thick thinking. His dead weight foot crashed through the purposely-weakened plank, and he fell right through the wood. He stopped half way, his upper torso caught between the boards. His arms were pinned to his sides, making him unable to wiggle free easily.
A board made of three small nailed wooden planks swung in front of Kakashi's face. He gave up on struggling to get out for the moment, and wished he hadn't read the message that was nailed to the board:
"Sorry."
As soon as he was finished reading that one word, he fell into a deep stupor. Stupid! Idiot! He should have known! That was a hypnotist justu that was written underneath the message! He could be out for hours, days, before he woke up. What about the tide?!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^..^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aki was whistling a gleeful tune as she strolled through the dismal town. Hey, at least it was crowded, kinda like Times Square, but in a neutral mood. Nobody looked remotely cheerful, if not content as they walked through the streets. Her stolen shuriken holster jingled against her thigh as she walked.
(Now, where was it again..?)
It wasn't hard to notice the Academy for the Wave Country after a couple of minutes of walking. Aki stopped and stared at the dome, pulling off her headphones.
(Well, gotta get to it.)
Slyly slipping into the alleyway near the building, Aki set her backpack down, and pulled out a smuggled kunai. Placing it in-between her teeth, she formed a hand seal to create a small amount of chakra.
(Time to put a new move into action.)
"Vanish!" she whispered, getting her words around the kunai hilt.
Her visual image suddenly just swept away like dust in the wind, except the kunai blade.
"Hey! It worked! No time to celebrate though. Now," She turned her head to get a view of the building and who was around it, "They're either kept in the Hokage's office, or a library of some type. Off we go, then."
She took the back route out of the alleyway after hiding her backpack behind a few loose bricks. She noticed, when she checked the entrance, that there were two middle aged Chuunin standing guard, one with a strawberry Pocky stick in his mouth. The other wore dark glasses.
(From the looks of it, these are two guys you don't want to mess with. Especially the Pocky guy. I'm not saying he's physically tough, but I'm not too good with emotional people.) Aki went around to the back.
Looking up to calculate the height, she created some more charka, and performed her Scan technique.
"Okay, now I know where to go." She set her palms on the sandstone concrete of the dome, took a deep breath, and started to crawl up the walls using her chakra.
It wasn't so hard; she almost felt like a gecko. As she climbed higher up, she could see a few acadates, as she called them, trying to perform the Henge no Jutsu, but no luck for them. Stilling using her Scan technique, she was looking for another way into the building.
"Sheesh, haven't they ever thought of windows?!" She had forgotten that this was a 'covert' operation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^..^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The two Chuunin were mildly startled.
"D'ju hear somethin'?' The Pocky guy swerved his treat to the other side of his mouth so he could talk.
The guy with dark glasses shrugged as he shook his head.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^..^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aki let out a silent sigh in relief, and started climbing again. Finally, a window! She went to open the latch, but the window was locked. She tried pulling harder in frustration, but it only created more noise.
"What's that?"
Oh crap! Aki's Vanish technique was starting to wear off. ACK! What should she do?! Well, panicking wasn't a good option for her at this point in time, that was for sure!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^..^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A lady came by to see what was making all of the noise. She walked towards the window and opened it to see down below. Seeing nothing, she shrugged and left the window.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^..^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Underneath the stone sill, Aki was hiding with her palms pressed to the stone above her. Her invisibility was 0% now, which heightened her odds of being caught considerably. She had to get in! Proto!
Ah! Huzzah (she always loved to say that)! The person left the window open! Aki swung up and over the sill, and landed silently into the room.
There wasn't much: a desk with a computer and a couple of pens and books, papers stuffed into odd nooks and crannies, a simple shelf of books and so forth.
(Must be a Chuunin's office.) She crept assassin- like towards the door, careful not to make a sound.
CREAK!!
Crud! She stepped on a wrong floorboard! Her heart jumped in her throat, waiting to see if anyone heard it. A few minutes past, and when Aki convinced herself no one was around, she calmly drew breath, and gingerly turned the doorknob. Seeing a pair of stairs, which she never trusted, she instead silently slid down the banister, and landed softly on the carpeted floor.
"Right, now where to--"
"Hey, who's that over there?!"
In the split second she was given, she saw an acadate point a condemning finger at Aki in curiosity.
Adrenaline instincts took the wheel now. In a swirl of hazel hair, she dashed down the corridor and was now detected within the building. She could hear padded feet rushing above her head, people's voices shouting and questioning. In one corridor, Aki crashed two Jounin clean off their feet. Aki scuttled to get up, and was off again, her heart beating like the engine of a sports car. Three Chuunin blocked her next path, and she whipped out three shuriken, pinning the three to the walls.
"Sorry. I'm in a hurry!" She waved goodbye to them as she whipped around the corner.
She slid short in front of a door with a sign hanging next to it.
"Damn! I can't read Japanese!"
As soon as she said that, the scriptures began to morph into English letters.
"L-I-B-R-A-R--" That was it!
She slid open the panel door, and slammed it behind her as she heard four ninjas rush by. Pressing her back to the door, she stopped to catch her breath. Scratching her head, she now looked through the racks and shelves full of scrolls.
"Poison, no. Curse, no. Earth scroll, oh, where the hell are they?!" It was as if the rolled up paper had heard her wish.
A few larger scrolls fell to the floor, and unraveled a bit. Aki, first shocked then calm, walked over to see what was in them.
"Aha! Here they are!" She kneeled down to read them.
"The summon scrolls!" She pulled out a hairpin, and cut her pointer finger.
"Whale, dolphin, eel, ah! Here it is!" She pulled out a white spotted, blue lined scroll from the small pile, and wrote her name down.
Funny thing was, as she spelt out her name in English, the letters once again morphed into the Japanese runes, and switched her last name with her first.
BANG, BANG, BANG!!!!
Aki drew a sharp breath as she heard a couple of ninjas bang on the door next to them. She had no time; she had to think fast though, or she'd be caught.
(Damn that acadate!) Her eyebrows were lowered in anger as she performed a hand seal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^..^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The door slid open, and three Jounin and one Chuunin stepped in. Nothing was stirring within the library section, but that was an ideal hiding spot for any trespassers. The four of them walked in further, one holding a katana while the others had kunai and shuriken out. They heard a flutter, and all of them wheeled around to that spot, their weapons at the ready.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^..^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aki was silently creeping along the ceiling using her invisible technique and chakra to climb the boards. She was almost to the door; just a couple more steps--!
"Someone's in here!" The Jounin with the sword slammed the door shut.
Aki would have panicked, but she knew what the door was made out of. She swung her torso through the paper of the door, and dashed down the corridor. The four ninjas stopped and stared in bafflement before they called for back up.
She was running for her life, trying to find another window to jump out of while trying not to raise the alarm up any higher. She sharply turned on corridor and froze.
Six water Anbu were blocking her path, their carved masks sending shivers down her spine. But they couldn't see her! She carefully started to weave her way through the six Anbu, feeling a bit like Snake from Metal Gear Solid when she had played covert missions of "Sneak and don't get caught". She was hoping none of the six would show an exclamation mark over their heads. Just two Anbu left, and she was home free (for a moment)! She got careless, and her heart choked her in punishment as she stepped on one of the Anbu's feet. He shouted in pain, and the other five turned to face Aki. All five formed hand seals.
"Cancel!"
The combined usage of chakra revealed Aki instantly.
"Oh crap."
"Kanashibari no Jutsu!" Six of the same spell combined could practically freeze Aki's breathing system.
She slapped her hands together to form a seal.
"Reflect!"
Instead of deflecting her enemies' Ninjutsu, she actually 'reflected' it back to them. Five Anbu froze in their place, unable to move.
Aki was just about to move on when she couldn't feel her legs.
(Oh no!) She tried move, but her body wouldn't respond to her command, (I missed one!)
She closed her journal, and with a giant gulp, she lifted up the Vol. 2 of Naruto and opened to a random page. She could've died from a heart attack if she wanted to.
There she was, on the page, fighting with Naruto.
Her fingers went numb, and she dropped the book mistakenly into the water.
(Oh no!)
She dove in, splashing noisily like a rampant shark, frantically trying to save the book before it was destroyed. She heaved herself back onto the docks, spluttering water as she tossed the soggy book onto the planks. Knowing her book was safe, she collapsed on her back and just gazed at the stars as she caught her breath.
She lifted her torso upright, looking around.
"Well, can't have him following me if he decides against it. Better get going with the plan."
She stood up, stretched, cringed at the pain in her side from stretching, and went to work, humming a gleefully cunning tune under her breath.
~~*~~ ~~*~~ That Morning... ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~
Kakashi yawned as he stretched out, though he couldn't suck enough air through his mask, so he finished with a cough instead. Scratching his bushy mane of silver hair, he looked over to where Aki slept. Her futon was empty.
(Probably off in the woods with Naruto and Sasuke. Nothing to worry about.)
He stood up, and saw Tsunami with a grumpy Inari.
"Morning!" Kakashi was in a cheerful mood.
"Oh, morning." She obviously was tired from trying to quiet the brat.
"Um, do you know where Aki is?"
"Umm, well. She didn't go with Naruto and Sasuke to the woods."
(Uh- oh.)
This didn't sound good.
"Sakura and my father went off to the construction site...oh yeah! She went with them into town."
"WHAT?!" Kakashi's eyes went cuckoo, "In her state and condition?! She'd have to protect--"
Kakashi felt for his shuriken holster, but it wasn't there. He felt behind his waist, and found that three of his kunais were missing.
"She couldn't have..."He shook his head in disbelief.
"I...I have to go!" He rushed to put on his sandals.
"Uh, Kakashi?" Tsunami was confused.
Kakashi started to walk off, but for some reason, his feet wouldn't move.
"What the--?!" Kakashi furiously twisted his ankles to loosen his sandals, but to no avail.
He was swearing so much to himself that he didn't notice the Genjutsu message that was left behind for him at first. Looking up, he was surprised. It read:
"I know you're trying to follow me. But no chance!"
Kakashi was yanking on his shins to get his feet to move, but then an additional message floated up to him.
"Numbweed: best sap for stickiness and numbing areas for hours. Sorry, but I had to."
He couldn't believe this! What, did she learn from Naruto to be a prankster or something?! Kakashi growled impatiently as he dragged his now floppy feet down the planked walkway with his glued sandals. Why? Why would she do this?
Kakashi didn't even notice the obvious trap that was set up before him because of his thick thinking. His dead weight foot crashed through the purposely-weakened plank, and he fell right through the wood. He stopped half way, his upper torso caught between the boards. His arms were pinned to his sides, making him unable to wiggle free easily.
A board made of three small nailed wooden planks swung in front of Kakashi's face. He gave up on struggling to get out for the moment, and wished he hadn't read the message that was nailed to the board:
"Sorry."
As soon as he was finished reading that one word, he fell into a deep stupor. Stupid! Idiot! He should have known! That was a hypnotist justu that was written underneath the message! He could be out for hours, days, before he woke up. What about the tide?!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^..^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aki was whistling a gleeful tune as she strolled through the dismal town. Hey, at least it was crowded, kinda like Times Square, but in a neutral mood. Nobody looked remotely cheerful, if not content as they walked through the streets. Her stolen shuriken holster jingled against her thigh as she walked.
(Now, where was it again..?)
It wasn't hard to notice the Academy for the Wave Country after a couple of minutes of walking. Aki stopped and stared at the dome, pulling off her headphones.
(Well, gotta get to it.)
Slyly slipping into the alleyway near the building, Aki set her backpack down, and pulled out a smuggled kunai. Placing it in-between her teeth, she formed a hand seal to create a small amount of chakra.
(Time to put a new move into action.)
"Vanish!" she whispered, getting her words around the kunai hilt.
Her visual image suddenly just swept away like dust in the wind, except the kunai blade.
"Hey! It worked! No time to celebrate though. Now," She turned her head to get a view of the building and who was around it, "They're either kept in the Hokage's office, or a library of some type. Off we go, then."
She took the back route out of the alleyway after hiding her backpack behind a few loose bricks. She noticed, when she checked the entrance, that there were two middle aged Chuunin standing guard, one with a strawberry Pocky stick in his mouth. The other wore dark glasses.
(From the looks of it, these are two guys you don't want to mess with. Especially the Pocky guy. I'm not saying he's physically tough, but I'm not too good with emotional people.) Aki went around to the back.
Looking up to calculate the height, she created some more charka, and performed her Scan technique.
"Okay, now I know where to go." She set her palms on the sandstone concrete of the dome, took a deep breath, and started to crawl up the walls using her chakra.
It wasn't so hard; she almost felt like a gecko. As she climbed higher up, she could see a few acadates, as she called them, trying to perform the Henge no Jutsu, but no luck for them. Stilling using her Scan technique, she was looking for another way into the building.
"Sheesh, haven't they ever thought of windows?!" She had forgotten that this was a 'covert' operation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^..^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The two Chuunin were mildly startled.
"D'ju hear somethin'?' The Pocky guy swerved his treat to the other side of his mouth so he could talk.
The guy with dark glasses shrugged as he shook his head.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^..^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aki let out a silent sigh in relief, and started climbing again. Finally, a window! She went to open the latch, but the window was locked. She tried pulling harder in frustration, but it only created more noise.
"What's that?"
Oh crap! Aki's Vanish technique was starting to wear off. ACK! What should she do?! Well, panicking wasn't a good option for her at this point in time, that was for sure!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^..^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A lady came by to see what was making all of the noise. She walked towards the window and opened it to see down below. Seeing nothing, she shrugged and left the window.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^..^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Underneath the stone sill, Aki was hiding with her palms pressed to the stone above her. Her invisibility was 0% now, which heightened her odds of being caught considerably. She had to get in! Proto!
Ah! Huzzah (she always loved to say that)! The person left the window open! Aki swung up and over the sill, and landed silently into the room.
There wasn't much: a desk with a computer and a couple of pens and books, papers stuffed into odd nooks and crannies, a simple shelf of books and so forth.
(Must be a Chuunin's office.) She crept assassin- like towards the door, careful not to make a sound.
CREAK!!
Crud! She stepped on a wrong floorboard! Her heart jumped in her throat, waiting to see if anyone heard it. A few minutes past, and when Aki convinced herself no one was around, she calmly drew breath, and gingerly turned the doorknob. Seeing a pair of stairs, which she never trusted, she instead silently slid down the banister, and landed softly on the carpeted floor.
"Right, now where to--"
"Hey, who's that over there?!"
In the split second she was given, she saw an acadate point a condemning finger at Aki in curiosity.
Adrenaline instincts took the wheel now. In a swirl of hazel hair, she dashed down the corridor and was now detected within the building. She could hear padded feet rushing above her head, people's voices shouting and questioning. In one corridor, Aki crashed two Jounin clean off their feet. Aki scuttled to get up, and was off again, her heart beating like the engine of a sports car. Three Chuunin blocked her next path, and she whipped out three shuriken, pinning the three to the walls.
"Sorry. I'm in a hurry!" She waved goodbye to them as she whipped around the corner.
She slid short in front of a door with a sign hanging next to it.
"Damn! I can't read Japanese!"
As soon as she said that, the scriptures began to morph into English letters.
"L-I-B-R-A-R--" That was it!
She slid open the panel door, and slammed it behind her as she heard four ninjas rush by. Pressing her back to the door, she stopped to catch her breath. Scratching her head, she now looked through the racks and shelves full of scrolls.
"Poison, no. Curse, no. Earth scroll, oh, where the hell are they?!" It was as if the rolled up paper had heard her wish.
A few larger scrolls fell to the floor, and unraveled a bit. Aki, first shocked then calm, walked over to see what was in them.
"Aha! Here they are!" She kneeled down to read them.
"The summon scrolls!" She pulled out a hairpin, and cut her pointer finger.
"Whale, dolphin, eel, ah! Here it is!" She pulled out a white spotted, blue lined scroll from the small pile, and wrote her name down.
Funny thing was, as she spelt out her name in English, the letters once again morphed into the Japanese runes, and switched her last name with her first.
BANG, BANG, BANG!!!!
Aki drew a sharp breath as she heard a couple of ninjas bang on the door next to them. She had no time; she had to think fast though, or she'd be caught.
(Damn that acadate!) Her eyebrows were lowered in anger as she performed a hand seal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^..^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The door slid open, and three Jounin and one Chuunin stepped in. Nothing was stirring within the library section, but that was an ideal hiding spot for any trespassers. The four of them walked in further, one holding a katana while the others had kunai and shuriken out. They heard a flutter, and all of them wheeled around to that spot, their weapons at the ready.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^..^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aki was silently creeping along the ceiling using her invisible technique and chakra to climb the boards. She was almost to the door; just a couple more steps--!
"Someone's in here!" The Jounin with the sword slammed the door shut.
Aki would have panicked, but she knew what the door was made out of. She swung her torso through the paper of the door, and dashed down the corridor. The four ninjas stopped and stared in bafflement before they called for back up.
She was running for her life, trying to find another window to jump out of while trying not to raise the alarm up any higher. She sharply turned on corridor and froze.
Six water Anbu were blocking her path, their carved masks sending shivers down her spine. But they couldn't see her! She carefully started to weave her way through the six Anbu, feeling a bit like Snake from Metal Gear Solid when she had played covert missions of "Sneak and don't get caught". She was hoping none of the six would show an exclamation mark over their heads. Just two Anbu left, and she was home free (for a moment)! She got careless, and her heart choked her in punishment as she stepped on one of the Anbu's feet. He shouted in pain, and the other five turned to face Aki. All five formed hand seals.
"Cancel!"
The combined usage of chakra revealed Aki instantly.
"Oh crap."
"Kanashibari no Jutsu!" Six of the same spell combined could practically freeze Aki's breathing system.
She slapped her hands together to form a seal.
"Reflect!"
Instead of deflecting her enemies' Ninjutsu, she actually 'reflected' it back to them. Five Anbu froze in their place, unable to move.
Aki was just about to move on when she couldn't feel her legs.
(Oh no!) She tried move, but her body wouldn't respond to her command, (I missed one!)