Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters…* Lip trembles then burst into waterfalls of tears.* IT'S NOT FAIR!! Oh, the Tojo Blade idea comes from Van Helsing, UBER AWESOME movie, but this fanfic. isn't about him. It's about…well, YOU KNOW!! * Slumps down in a corner, blue haze surrounding her. *
Disclaimer dude: Umm, yeah…She doesn't own Naruto.
Kaiyuga: O THEY KNOW THAT!! * Strangles the Disclaimer dude. * DON'T RUB SALT IN THE WOUND, MORON!!!!! * Chucks Disclaimer dude out the window. * Hehehe, learned that from Minority Report, the game. FUN!
* Remembers chucking people out the windows that are sixty stories high from the ground. * Mwahahaha…this is what'll happen to those unlucky flamers. Boy, will the rag doll effects be funny! Ehem, but back to the fanfic…
KAKASHI!!!
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"Aw crap! How could I forget?! The Chuunin Exam! Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!" Aki was racing around her apartment, picking up rice papers with concept drawings and empty scrolls.
"If I'm going to protect myself, there are two errands I need to do." She headed for the door, rolling up the concept papers.
Karma cheerfully followed her to the door.
"No; I can't take you with me on this. I can't get you killed." Karma sat in front of her, a look on her face saying, "I can take heat."
Aki stared at her, contemplating what she should do.
"Oh, alright, but don't come crying to me when you're set on fire. Heaven forbid, though." Karma's sonar ears perked up, and skipped alongside Aki as she made her way out of the apartment and into the smithing section of Konoha.
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An elderly man with a wispy white beard was hard at work folding his masterpiece sword over for the two hundredth time when a teenage girl approached him offing a rice paper to him.
"Do you think you can make these?" The elderly man scratched what little hair was on the back of his scalp.
"They look complicated. And costly."
"Well, I understand." Aki pulled up the paper and slowly walked away, "Smithing can be tricky."
This frosted the old man.
"Hmph! Tricky?!" He snatched the paper from Aki, looking at the different parts, "I could get this done in, oh, say…three hours tops. But it'll be worth…" He stopped talking to himself to see a wad of bills between Aki's thumb and pointer finger.
"Lady, you've got yourself a deal!" He went to the back of his wooden workshop, and began constructing the genesis of a new weapons era.
Aki smiled as she bowed respectfully, and ran off to the Anbu library for her last errand. Well, she had three hours, and maybe it wouldn't take so long to make a Summon scroll.
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Through her running, she didn't notice who she had bumped into.
"Umph!" The ninja fell back onto the dirt and slate pavement.
Aki lifted her torso from the ground, and stood up, brushing dust of her vest.
"Oh, geez. I'm so sorry; I didn't see where I was-" She gasped.
"POCKY DUDE?!?!" Indeed, it was the Water Chuunin that Aki had encountered back at Nami no Kuni.
"Huh? Have we met?" He shakily stood up, a hand to his abdomen where Aki had hurtled into him.
"Uh- oh." Aki slowly back away, remembering what ties she had with this guy.
She knew she shouldn't've made eye contact, but it was too late. Before she gave him a chance, she darted past him, spinning the confused Chuunin in circles. What the hell was he doing here?!
"Hey!"
"AIIIEEE!" She didn't know where she was going, as long as she got way from him.
Left and right she went, leaping over lowered carts and ducking low signs like she would never believe.
(But I sucked at track!) Didn't matter; her adrenaline rush got her.
She checked her back every few seconds to see where the Pocky dude was. Man, he was fast! She looked like she was home free! He was getting smaller…!
@#!*^! WHAM !^*!#@
The bridge of Aki's nose collided with a low hanging bamboo pole that held a heavy sign. She fell back, motionless as blood dripped from her right nostril. She clasped a hand to her head and nose, trying to stop the bleeding, but too late. Pocky dude had caught up with her.
His hand gripped Aki's vest, pulling her up from the ground. She curled up in self- defense, pinching her nose.
"Okay, go on! Pummel the shit out of me!" Through her shielding fingers, Aki saw the scar marks from the barbs Aoihoshi had slapped into his left temple when she was escaping from the Academy of the Wave Country.
Five, unevenly placed spots that made a semi- diamond marked where the barbs had sunken in and poisoned him badly. She thought, at the time, that she had killed him. Death was a horrific crime in her mind, but it didn't seem so here. You killed when you had to, shrugged it off and went on, except…
"What are you talking about?! I just wanted to say sorry to you, and you ran like you saw a ghost." Aki pulled her fingers away, stilling hanging from her vest.
"Uhh, huh?" Aki didn't get it; he didn't recognize her?!
"Uh, don't you know me?" The Pocky dude shook his head.
"Nope. 'Fraid not." He slipped a Strawberry Pocky into his mouth like a long pink cigarette.
"Oh. Um, what's that scar?" Did she really want him to know?
"This? Don't know. I'm knocked unconscious and the next thing I know, I'm in the hospital with a wrapped up head and my friend telling me I was struck and poisoned by a HUGE stingray, but who knows? What's your name?" His Pocky treat bent down as he moved his jaws to talk.
Uh- oh. Aki knew it would come to this; she had to think fast.
"Uh, umm." She started to back away.
"Wait, don't I know you…?" The Pocky Chuunin bent down with squinted eyes, the memories slowly receding back.
"Uh, I gotta go!" Aki sped off, already wasting a half- an- hour meeting up with this guy.
He stared on, scratching his sun blond hair as he nibbled on his treat.
"Strange genin."
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Aki stood in front of the Anbu HQ, her backpack slung over her shoulder. Since she had collected so many jounin- ranked bounties, they allowed her to enter, but only in certain parts. The library was one of them, luckily. Taking a deep breath, she strode into the gray dome. It wasn't quiet, but it wasn't as active as a business building in Times Square at 8 in the morning.
Anbu lounged around the place, some wearing their masks while others had them tied to the side of their heads. A few Anbu secretaries sat a single long white washed desk, typing and jotting down notes and mission assignments for the Anbu "off- duty". Aki approached a feminine Anbu wearing her white Cat mask.
"Excuse me? Can you tell me where the Anbu library is?" Aki couldn't tell the woman's expression from behind the mask.
"Down that hall, two flights down and second door on your right." She went back to typing.
"Thank you." Aki bowed her head, and made her way to the endless ocean of scrolls otherwise known as the Anbu library.
She stood in the threshold, gaping at the heightless shelves stacked with scrolls of old and new. She saw one male Anbu with a dog mask reading one rather large scroll, writing in it as he went.
(Maybe he knows how it's done.) Aki took her chances and walked up to the silent Anbu.
The dog mask looked up.
"That's odd." His voice was muffled by it.
"What is?"
"A child like yourself in the Anbu headquarters." He stopped writing kanjis in the scroll and leaned back in his chair.
Aki's forehead twitched to the sound of "child". It made her fell inferior to the one who has spoken it; like they knew more or better than her.
"Can I ask for your help on something?" She tried to give her adult posture to persuade him.
"Like what?"
"Do you know how to write a Summon scroll?" The Anbu jumped in his seat.
"Why do you want to know?!"
"I'd like to make one."
"What for?"
"For fighting." She said this as though it were obvious, "and plus, I have some great ideas for ones, too."
"Like what?"
"Well, it's a secret."
"Can't help ya then."
"Alright! Fine; you win. Here's my idea…" Aki said everything in a low hush.
When she was finished, the vibes coming from this guy was stunned and amazed.
"Alright." He voice sounded amused, "I'll teach you how to make one…"
Aki sat across from the Dog Anbu, scribbling down English letters that transformed into kanjis while to Tom Craft's "Happiness". The Anbu stared at her, fixated on her elbow. What was with her skin?
As Aki listened to her CD player, she didn't notice a small spiral of blue chakra curl up the headphone wire. It soon enveloped her headphones, lighting her head up.
"Uh, are you okay?" The Anbu had never seen anything like it before.
"Mmm? Oh, fine! Why?" Aki didn't notice her head ablaze in blue chakra.
"Your head's glowing." He pointed a finger at her head.
"Huh? Oh!" She took off the headphones, and like a lightbulb, her head went out.
"What is that?"
"Uhh, this is a … music player… that can be carried with you wherever you go." Well, that was its purpose.
Aki could feel the Anbu staring at her with a blank expression on his face, so she bent her head down, and finished writing up her Summon scroll.
"There; now to write my name." She jabbed her finger with a pencil she had brought along. Geez, she hated poking herself over and OVER again!
Her slender fingers traced out her name, and the letters swapped places and became kanjis. Instantly, Aki's arm began to burn. But this kind of burn wasn't the boiling- water type kind of burn. This was melting- steel- in- a- volcano burning. Aki gripped her wrist with the bleeding finger, gritting her teeth. The Anbu just watched, his arms crossed.
After a couple of grueling seconds past, Aki brought her hand up, and gasped at the sight. A great rainbow colored dragon spiraled up her forearm, tongue flailing and fire streaming out of its powerful jaws. The colors always changed, probably to her mood. It was gleaming blue and gold right now, tinges of red here and there.
"I guess the scroll's worked. A first timer I've seen. Usually it took a couple of tries to get it in motion." The Anbu scratched behind his head.
"Well, thanks for your help!" Aki left the library, elated at the tattoo.
Seeing that no one else was in the library, the Anbu took off his mask, his wild silvery mane coming undone from the cloth that held it back.
"Good work, Aki." He grinned his special grin.
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"Wow! You're quick!" Aki picked up the parcel that had been reserved for her.
"Well, yes. But you see," The old man looked at his nails nonchalantly, "The concept wasn't hard for me to grasp at first, but I added a little extra something to the blades." Aki looked surprised.
"You didn't have to do that." She smiled gleefully.
"I was in a good mood." He shrugged as he said it, thinking of the pay he had been given by the girl. Oh, he was in a good mood, alright!
"Thank you SOOO much!" Aki ran back to her apartment as fast as she could so she could marvel at her materialized creation.
She yanked the front door open, ran up the stairs, unlocked and closed her apartment door behind her, and placed the parcel on the table. She slowly pulled off the twine, and the paper unfolded itself to reveal at creation she would only have imagined in her dreams.
Sitting on the paper was a set of Tojo blades, sleek and glimmering in the afternoon sunlight. She gingerly took up one, and realized what the old man did. In each of the five curved blades was a written kanji. They marked:
Honor
Adventure
Spirit
Bravery
Dream
And in the epicenter of where the blades met, was the kanji: Destiny. She slipped on the leather harness around her hand, and noticed that it fit perfectly. She felt the shield boss of the Tojo blade in her palm, and saw a small reel resting against her wrist. She pulled out some of the cord from where the blades were attached to, and was amazed at how the man had wrapped up threads of steel and silver into a flawless twine to control the movement of the weapon. Then again, she could manipulate the twine to direct the blade anywhere she wanted.
She slowly let the Tojo blade roll to the ground, watching how it spun as it ran down the wire. With a sharp jerk of her hand, the blade zipped right back up the twine and went back into place.
"Wow…"
She was now armed to take on the Chuunin exam, but there as one last thing to do before she went to meet up with Team 7.
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"Where's Ryu?" Junshi was holding his bunny doll again.
"She said she wouldn't be late." Another started to whimper.
"Betcha she was lying to us!" Junshi looked up at the boy.
"She'd never! She said she was goi-"
"LOOK!"
Everyone looked up to see what looked to be giant bat wings circling the rock. The children didn't run, but instead were mesmerized by who was coming down. The wings landed short of Story Rock, perched on the ground like a dragonfly. And coming from underneath the wings was…
"Howdy! Sorry I'm late." Aki jauntily waved a hand.
"RYU!" All of the kids ran up to her, making a waist high fence around Aki.
"Where were you?"
"What is that?"
"What story are you going to tell us today?"
"Is that a tattoo?"
"Whoa, calm down! I haven't fallen off the face of the earth; I'm still here. Well, I had been absent for a while from an accident, but I hate to break it to you guys…"
"What?" Junshi didn't like her tone of voice.
"I've been enrolled into the Chuunin Exam." Groans and aw-s were heard.
"Oh, why couldn't you wait until next year?!"
"We'll miss your stories!"
"You'll never miss them, because they're right here." She pointed at a kid's forehead and heart.
"The story I'll tell you about is one I'm creating. I'll tell you what I have created, and you tell me how it's going, hmm?" Aki had squatted down to the kid's heights.
They eagerly took their spots, and were tuned in onto Aki.
"Well, where should I begin? At the beginning, I suppose. There was once a small girl, not much older than yourselves, whose life was very troubled. As the years went by, she had…"
It was a story never to be finished.
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I'm sorry it took so long to get the next chapter out! Partially it was writer's block (CURSE THEM) but I've also been working on my novel, as HokugenShadowWolf knows all too well. If you want to read it, you'll have to wait two years + another two for those damn publishers take FOR- EVER to make up their minds! * Sighes * Oh, well. Can't be helped.
To all warring e- mailers:
WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS?!?!?!?
* Panting heavily * Grrrr….Lilim, how's the report coming?
* Furry creature with long ears and feet and BIG eyes, scuttle over to Kaiyuga, wearing a pair of scientific spectacles and a comically large pencil behind one ear. *
Lilim: @*$*&^#!&%&#^*&@^$*@&^#*@#*#&^%$#&%^*!^!*&#^%*&^%*@&$.
Kaiyuga: Okay, keep at it. We must find those other blueprints, but where could Lakohta be keeping them..?
Orochimaru: Do you have any purple eyeshadow?
Kaiyuga: * Blinks* Uhhhh, Orochimaru? Why do you have an……………AFRO?!
Orochimaru: * Patting his HUGE afro * Don't you think it looks lovely? * Kaiyuga cringes at how Orochimaru said that word * Now, do you have any purple eyeshadow?
Kaiyuga: *Sighes and puts a hand to her head, pinching her eyelids * She's got him too…
Orochimaru: Maybe I should dye the afro purple. * cackles evilly, lightning streaking behind him *
* Kaiyuga finally gets an idea, and hides something behind her back.*
Kaiyuga: * In a sing- song voice * Oh, Orochimaaaaaaaruuuuuuu. I have some eyeshadow, come here. * Orochimaru approaches her hungrily for the eyeshadow *
Oro.: Where?! WHERE?! Gimme!
Kaiyuga: * Parental voice* Only if you say "please".
Oro.: Please? Please!? PLEASE!
Kaiyuga: Okay. * Slams PCICIFP onto his head, knocking him out cold * Well, I do need a test subject for my creation. * Drags dazed Orochimaru off into the darkness. * Lilim, let's get that machine finished! Ahora!