DISCLAIMER: I do not or will ever own Naruto...but I do have rights to this FANFIC, buwahahahah! But yeah, I don't own shiz, I wish though. ;
(Author's Notes: Back again and thank you all for the wonderful reviews, I love updating this fic because I can't seem to really stop ya know? Once I get going I just immediately start up on the next chapter. Unfortunately due to my classes this year its going to be hard to update at certain periods. But I'll make sure to tell you when and if that actually happens. Thanks for all your suggestions; I will take them all into consideration and such. Remember; suggest what you like and depending on a few things I might just use it. PLZ SUGGEST A PAIRING!! I DON'T KNOW WHOM TO USE!! NOW ON WITH THE FIC!)
TRAVELS AND JOURNEYSAfter a great nights rest I awoke stretching openly. I scratched my stomach through a spare black shirt that I had in my bag. I wasn't one to see use in trying to repair a shirt that had no chance whatever to survive.
I cleaned up faster than I usual had and got dressed in my regular clothing that included: my weighted orange jacket, weighted pants, weighted legs braces, weighted sandals, and weighted wristbands. Yeah, I thought it was a lot too. It is actually a lot when it came to get dressed but I was actually used to the enormous weight I put on everyday. Most of the time I didn't really bother changing out of it, but since my massive training to strengthen my body was through I had just worn it to keep myself accustomed to it.
I walked out the door and locked it behind me. Ero-sennin was of course already gone by the time I woke up. I mean I didn't wake up that late, but I didn't wake up extremely early either. Eight o' clock isn't that bad!
I bounced down the stairs and walked towards the palace. There was supposed to be a team of three genin and a Jounin there to welcome me. Well, I wasn't expecting a welcome really after the stunts I pulled in the fight but it had to be done. I sighed silently and picked up the pace finally reaching the palace within a couple of minutes.
I looked around and was greeted by the whistling and rustling of the wind pass me by, as sand merely passing by was the only thing in sight. My shoulders sagged and I sweatdropped lightly.
"Figures..."
I had said out loud to no one in particular. I rested my hands on the back of my head and leaned back, gazing up at the blue sky with the endearing and ever persistent sun beating down on the land, including myself effortlessly. I closed my eyes and listened to the beauty of the sand blowing by.
Somehow, my mind snapped at me in an indescribable way that I still can't figure out. I don't even know how I did it and when I did but I remember catching a kunai and as I opened my eyes I was greeted by the pointy face of a kunai only several inches from my face.
I took a look in the general direction from where it came from, the woman clapped several times and stood upright from leaning against the tall. I could already tell she was shorter than myself by a few inches maybe even a foot or more. I didn't let my mind runaway with the idea that I could take her instantly. Learning the hard way had helped straighten my narrow views on that premises.
She stepped out of the shadow of the large pillar where she had been leaning. The sunlight bounced off her indigo colored that seemed to have a natural shimmer to it. Her eyes matched her hair perfectly as did her clothing. I'm not sure if she was going for the whole ensemble look but it worked for her I guess. She was stunning nonetheless but I didn't want to put a finger on her age quite yet. She brushed the two horizontal indigo bar tattoos on her left cheek briefly before taking another few steps forward.
(Author's Notes: Think of her hairstyle to be like Neji's...only on a female. )
"So, you're the kid from where was it again?"
I only continued to stare at her, placing my hands back behind my head again. I cocked my left eyebrow up and looked her over only momentarily. She gave me a muffled 'heh' and turned to the side.
"Well, if you impressed the Kazekage to actually allow someone in from outside the village. I guess that grants you to join my group for now."
"Right."
I didn't directly look at her any longer, gazing back up thoughtfully at the sky above. I yawned openly and out of the corner of my eye could see her grit her teeth. She definitely looked like she was seething something personal or perhaps she just didn't want another nin learning their village's jutsu. Looking back at everything I had learned, I thought I learned enough but there definitely wasn't anything bad in learning more jutsu.
"Where are they?"
I guess I caught her off guard since she turned to me with a rather odd look on her face, which only lasted there for a second and a half before returning to her haughty demeanor. She placed her hands on her hips and merely stared at me.
"They're training. I came to pick you up and take you two them."
"Alright, let's get going."
I could hear her growl lowly, okay, now I was really pissing her off. I knew I had to back off a bit more or things could get ugly quickly. I didn't know what level she was on totally other than her rank as Jounin. As we were traveling, we stayed in silence until about six and a half minutes later when I broke the ice.
"What's your name?"
"Shei." (Shee-ai)
She hadn't bothered to look at me or even respond again after she had told me her name. Yep, I pissed her off. Hell maybe she was dead set against me in the first place but I had to push a bit further.
"What do you do...? You know, jutsu wise...?"
This actually caught her attention; she turned her head towards me and smirked something rather small. She turned her head back to where it had been facing.
"If you must know, I specialize in ninjutsu."
"Cool. But what can you do with sand?"
Now this was going to get good, I could see her clench her fist for only a moment before she relaxed and tried to hide a deep intake of air.
"More than you can ever fathom. I may have to show you a thing or two that we sand Nins are famous for."
My mind instantly placed the 'in' in front of infamous; as I had recalled several stories that Jiraiya had told me of. I heard many of them were actually quite ruthless at times and killed out of the sheer pleasure of it. Though I didn't want to convict them just yet, I held my doubts firmly in the back of mind.
Not too long afterwards provoking her, we ended up at the area where they had been supposedly training. It looked like some type of abandoned ruin. It wasn't a large ruin by any matter but large enough to have possibly been a gathering place or amphitheatre since several large pillars still stood, somewhat.
I was about to ask where they were when I suddenly saw two of them dash out at one another. I heard the sounds of metal clash loudly and bounce of the desolate pillars and half-destroyed walls. I watched silently as two male shinobi fought against one another with all they had. The one on the left had an almost glowing blonde hair that spiked a few inches above his head. His blue eyes were fierce and lit with determination that I could clearly see from here, his outfit had consisted of the meager and standard Nin outfit but he had tan vest that was outlined in red.
The one on the right had vibrant orange hair that was tied up to look like a spiky attachment of his head that nearly half a foot. He wore a simple brown tanned jacket with no sleeves as well but wore that weird netting across his chest. He wore standard black pants and black sandals.
The one of the left began forming seals before he even hit the ground, while the one on the right had made a late start and started when his feet hit the ground.
"Tentacles of sand ninjutsu!"
Nearly a dozen of tentacles formed from sand slowly arose then shot forward, he dodged the first eight while the last four finally caught their mark. The first rapped him hard across his stomach while the second grabbed his leg and flung him towards the other two, which quickly wrapped their grainy appendages around each of his upper arms. He struggled effortlessly as the other boy walked over towards him with a large smile on his face.
The other appendages wavered in front of him until the blonde-haired boy finally made it over to the fiery orange-haired boy. He shook his index finger tauntingly.
"You should've started your seals while you were still in the air."
"Hey! I tried, I'm still not good at doing it in the air."
"If you don't get better at it soon, or you'll die and if you're lucky it wont be at my hands."
I could hear the frigid tone the blonde boy had, since I could feel my spine tingle from here. I frowned slightly, I didn't know they were that harsh but I guess some people were. Shei walked forward a few steps and whistled loudly. The two boys instantly snapped their heads in this direction, the boy released his jutsu and the boy fell to the group with a thud. He winced and rubbed his arms tenderly, gradually making his way over.
I looked around for the last member as did Shei who immediately shook her head.
"Is that girl out playing with them again?"
The boy with orange hair shrugged and shook his head, either obviously not knowing anything or knowing too much and not wanting to get in trouble for it. The blonde-haired immediately nodded and gestured his head towards the left direction. She growled and formed a small string of six or seven seals before she held the horse seal and then spoke softly.
"Sori...where are you?"
It sounded like her voice was traveling across the wind that was casually breezing by us with its gentle form.
"I'm away...""Stop whatever you are doing and report here immediately."
"Yes ma'am."
Half a minute rolled by and a surge of wind came in, dust and very small debris ripped through. I squinted my eyes as the sand began to burn my eyes. I girl suddenly appeared from the tormenting winds as they had gradually spun in the opposite direction. Shei put her hands on her hips and glared at the younger girl. I took a look at her and was stunned that she appeared to be older than me. She had short blue-hinted hair that was mixed between blue and indigo. Her blue eyes shimmered in the sunlight or perhaps that was just my mind playing tricks as it loved to do lately.
She was standing at nearly 5'7'', which was tall for a female shinobi, and it encroached on me in an uncomfortable fashion. I was still satisfied to have a few inches on but it was still only a few, which didn't agree with me. Her outfit was out of the norm somewhat as she wore a white Nin outfit with tan outlines on her uniform. A blue-hue colored garb was tied neatly in the back that covered right above the next and down to a little below her waist and sewn into it was a gigantic symbol for wind. She took a small glance at me before looking back into the eyes of the beast or rather their sensei.
"You've been out there rustling the dust devils again haven't you?"
The girl slowly nodded her from side to side.
"Why would you think that? I was merely practicing my ninjutsu and genjutsu."
"Out all by yourself with no one to see and no one to practice it on."
She meagerly nodded and winced as Shei began yelling a string of words that I didn't really hear all to clearly and the parts I did hear, I'd never repeat. What shocked me is that she lasted nearly a minute and a half on one breath. She stopped and took in a couple breaths as well as a great big sigh.
"What am I going to do with you all? You guys definitely won't be ready for the Chuunin exam if you keep this shit up."
I could tell that the blonde-haired boy flinched, even in the slightest; which definitely reminded me of someone back home. The orange-haired boy's jaw fell open and he managed to yell something unrecognizable before he just hung his head and shoulders. The girl shook her head rapidly and stood back into line with the others.
The Jounin groaned openly and rubbed the temples on her forehead.
"You guys are going to kill me, and not in the way I'm training you to do...you'll kill me from a damned migraine! That is Sori, Kaji, and Pon."
She had introduced them without turning. She then turned and gestured at me.
"This is Naruto, he will be joining us until time for the Chuunin exam is upon us."
"Why until just then?"
I looked over at the orange haired boy that was about the same height as the girl on the other side of the kid in the middle. Shei shook her head and crossed her arms in front of her body.
"Unlike you three,
he is qualified for the Chuunin exams and will most likely exceed
from what Kazekage tells me. He will be training with us until that
time, perhaps you could all learn from him."
She said that
with a smirk. This was bad, I knew it especially since the
blonde-haired boy, Kaji, took this chance to lift his gaze and glare
poisoned daggers at me. Well at least they'd have a motive to kill
me now other than being ordered to, I tried to think humorously. I
placed my hands on the back of my head and looked over the three.
Shei looked over at me, which eventually caught my attention. Her smirk widened into a grin as she turned her head back towards the three genin. My body tweaked and almost commanded me to jump. I disobeyed my body only seldom and the times I did was when it came to giving up or pushing myself past my physical limit.
I leaped into the air and watched as those same tentacles made of sand erupted from the sand. I grinned, already skipping to the fighting. I might just like this, I thought happily to myself. Without notice Pon was up in the air next to me, a kunai in each hand and he tried feverishly to strike me. His fight amidst the air abruptly ended when I delivered a swift kick to his that sent him flying in the other direction.
I looked down and noticed that the Sori girl was no longer standing where she had. I looked around, scanning the desolate sand dune that surrounded us. There was virtually no cover, but to my dismay there was also no Sori either. I began to build up momentum as gravity finally caught up with me. I formed a string of seals, eight and landed on bird.
I felt myself gradually come to a halt as I felt my feet slowly land on solid air, yet nothing had appeared. Kaji gritted his teeth as he watched me 'stand' in the air nearly 25 feet above him. He drew three kunai and threw them up at me with blinding speed. I stepped to the side easily allowing them to fly up above for another 30 to 40 feet before tumbling back down to earth.
He formed a string of seals, seven long and clenched his fists. He pulled them back to his sides and yelled a battle cry, so to speak. The sand around him began to whip around chaotically and it spread like wild fire. A literal sand storm forming around us, the sand was again getting into my eyes causing them to burn.
I had no problem fighting blindly as I had been taught to do so better than I had fought with my eyes open. I closed my eyes and listened to the wind whistle and whip around us. I felt several lashes across my arms and legs that were nothing since my clothing was rather thick. I felt one quickly whip across my face and blood was drawn. This was a problem.
I jumped off my perch in the sky and fell back to the ground just in time to see the tentacles pounce up from the sand and try to wrap their sandy bodies around me. I flipped several times and made it away from them only to see Pon waiting for me, his hands locked in a dog seal. I felt a surge of chakra and a large head of a snake appeared out of the sand in front of me and took a lunge at me.
Fortunately for me, my reflexes were far advanced most others and I was able to leap over the aberration made by the boy. Unfortunately I plowed over the boy and tumbled over several times before I was able to flip up and take to running again. The tumbling had allowed the boy to get his jutsu sand tentacles around one leg and my waist.
I formed three seals and began spinning on my right leg, while my left leg struggled to push. Yet with only three successful pushes, my chakra around my legs had already begun to spin an incredibly fast rate and the sand around me blew away with the cyclone that was forming around me. I continued to spin, my body now free of the sand tentacles I continued to kick the open air.
(Author's Notes: I believe there's a Russian dance that if you kick and swing your leg, you can do spins rather easily. ;)
If someone were to look at me, I probably looked like I was dancing in a craze. Yet I pushed on, continuing to spin wildly. I managed to move forward towards the other two, my momentum building as well as the strength of the wind. Pon threw a rain of kunai into the spiral of wind. My tornado spin not only caught the kunai but also added to its danger effect. He quickly jumped back and barely caught himself before the wind had actually caught and carried him towards me.
He struggled to fight away from the twister of sand before I felt a gigantic rocking sensation and the wind around me was instantly dispelled. I looked around in my daze and saw the girl Sori standing atop one of the ruined beams of stone. I smiled at her and jumped back as she pulled out a red staff. She twirled it faster than I could actually see and watched as a vortex began to form at the base a few inches away from the twirling weapon.
I stopped and turned around as the vortex was gradually pulling me no matter how hard I ran against it. I swallowed hard and leaped forward, allowing the wind to carry me hard in her general direction. I put my hands in a cross seal and focused my chakra and eight of me appeared from forms of smoke that was quickly swept into the wind. I managed to straighten myself in the suction of wind and used one of my Bunshin as a stepping board and erupted from the vacuum just before I hit her staff that was turned into a blunt blade.
I grinned as I flew through the air; my eyes focused my surroundings slowed to a crawl as I approached her. The staff she was still spinning as fast as I could spin a staff at my normal speed. I chose do dodge her body entirely but instead touched base at her side and whipped myself around as she stopped her staff from spinning and brought it about to me. I easily dodged the spinning motion as she flung it around her in a complete circle that left her back open again for a few moments. I struck her several times before leaping away and my surroundings catching back up with me.
I dug my hand deep into the sand to stop my momentum. She girl fell forward but managed to catch herself with her staff vertical. I peered to my side to see the quickly approaching Kaji as he dashed at me with a katana wielded openly in his right hand and a kunai in the other.
I dodged his attacks rather easily as I could tell he was far from help since I had been showing him up this entire time and I guess it finally got to him. Unless he was becoming protective of Sori but I didn't know or cared at the moment. He almost caught me with his blade a few times, which told me that there was enough playing to do in the next few months. I crouched down and felt the world around me slow again, the fight with Kaji ended painfully with the Hisame Dageki combo.
Fortunate enough for him, I didn't hit his joints like the attack usually included and he fell back clutching his chest with one arm and the other his stomach. I quickly turned to see Pon fly at me with a kunai, I kunai first, I squeezed firmly. I could feel the blade cut into me but I felt like a little dramatics would straighten him up perhaps. I used his present momentum and tossed him hard into the ground in front of me and while doing so, disarmed the kunai from his hand. I held it to his throat as he heaved a few big breaths and opened his eyes.
His eyes went from barely open to as large as dinner plates, he slowly held his hands up in defeat and I stood upright tossing the kunai into the sand to the right of his face an inch or so. I walked away and rubbed my left side, stretching a bit as I walked up to Shei. I wiped the blood from my cheek with my thumb and tasted it. The battle wasn't terribly disappointing; I had actually felt that I let myself down by being cut by the tip of his katana slightly.
I took a step to her side and promptly fell on my rear, folding my legs close to me in an Indian-style. I leaned forward on both of my knees and just stared at the three. Sorus was the first to step back into line, still leaning on her staff slightly. Pon was moving with a slight limp. I looked around to see the other boy still laying flat on the ground, clutching his wounds. She looked down at me then over towards Kaji.
"He'll be okay, I didn't break anything. I think I hurt his pride worse than anything."
She nodded and turned her attention back to the other two.
"They didn't do as badly as you thought. Really."
She held her tongue and didn't turn to look at me, I think she was seething silently but I didn't say anything. I stood up and walked over towards the two, I pulled the two small jars of medical ointment from a side pouch and began work on the two first hurt shinobi.
"You guys are pretty good."
The orange-haired boy tried to smile but failed as it fell back into a frown. The blue-haired girl, Sori managed to smile weakly as she allowed me to rub some of the ointments into the bruises on her back.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to hit you so hard. You just got me going so fast I couldn't slow my momentum without giving you an attack on me."
I whispered as I tended to her wounds. I felt her tense up slightly with each small rubbing motion that I did as I rubbed it in thoroughly.
"You'll have to teach me how you to do those cool wind tricks."
She didn't say anything at first, I sighed inwardly.
"You teach me some of your tricks and I'll teach you mine."
She turned her head towards me and I winked. I wasn't sure if she was blushing but she definitely turned her head away from me. I just shrugged and with a smile on my face I continued to rub the medicines in until the cream was totally dissolved. She straightened up and turned to me.
"Better?"
She nodded and smiled. I turned and walked over towards Pon and was about to treat some of his wounds when he just took the jar from me and rubbed some on the wounds himself. I chuckled lightly and nodded.
"Alright, I won't rub it on you then."
I looked over towards Kaji who had stopped moving completely but from what I could tell, he was just staring at the sky with a blank look on his face. Yeah, I definitely hurt his pride and nothing more than him defeating me could win it back. I wasn't about to just let someone have a victory of me either. I turned back towards Sori, who were amazingly close behind me. I took a surprised step back and sighed.
"Like sneaking up on people too?"
She smiled and blushed again; I just shook my head from side to side. Girls, I doubt I'd ever understand them.
"Well, umm how about you show me around town...if that's alright with you Shei-san."
She looked at me and raised her eyebrow, her arms still crossed in front of her body.
"I guess so, I think you've had enough exercise for the day."
"You'd think."
I smiled and she shook her head and walked over towards the two other shinobi. Sori ended up showing me through the village and she had almost instantaneously lost her barrier when we were out of range of Shei-san. The village was a nice place, but it was just really...sandy. I felt like I was at a beach without the water and the nice water smell and...well it had the sand. Time ended up evading us and the sun was already setting by the time our tour had ended.
My stomach promptly alerted me of the current time and I smiled innocently and blushed softly as she suppressed a giggle."Hungry?"
I nodded quickly and she only giggled aloud this time and nodded. She lead me along to a small food stand, which unfortunately had no ramen. I instantly thought I was going to die but the owner reassured me that he would get ramen, he was just unable to get an order in from another village. I frowned immensely and gave in; I looked through the menu and really hadn't found anything to my liking. Sori found it upon herself to order for me; managed to order a meal that I took one bite of and within seconds afterwards devoured the gigantic bowl of weird looking meats and spaghetti like noodles.
We ended up walking around the twilight lit village for nearly another two hours talking about each other's personal adventures. Mine somehow managed to outweigh hers although I didn't care to share what village I was from. Eventually she lead me to nice secluded spot that actually had a spring. She had told me this was where most of their water came from after they had boiled it and left it to cool. I laid back on the sand and gazed up at the beautiful stars overhead, the moon sat peacefully and lovely in the night sky above.
I stole a small glance of the girl next to me as she had been gazing up at the sky as I had been. I had suddenly felt a wave of memories wash over me and found myself looking at her in a new light. She strangely and in an almost identical way resembled Tatsumaki. I could feel my heart skip ahead a few beats and my face heat up. She turned to look at me and smiled so cheerfully.
I had managed to fight the urge to kiss her as her resemblance almost drew me in as her vacuum attack had done earlier. I turned my head away from her.
"Did I do something?"
I heard her ask, I shook my head as best as I could lying down.
"No, its just...it's nothing."
I didn't want to tell her about Tatsumaki...I didn't want to tell anyone about her. For several reasons but mainly because I didn't want to bring it up and be forcefully reminded of those memories and feelings every day or week.
I looked at her, here she was staring at me again and I couldn't deny the appearance more than I could deny the moon being there. I grunted softly in frustration.
"I...I just think you're really beautiful."
I slapped myself mentally, what the hell did I just say? I think I was digging myself another hole that I couldn't myself out of again...a hole within a hole within a hole within a hole. This was getting pathetic now. I watched her somewhat sad disposition instantly fade into a bright smiling one that was crimson flushed. She turned her head and slowly stood up and dusted herself off. She turned to me and bent over slightly.
"I think you're cute too."
I felt a hot blush sweep across my face as well and what didn't help matters much more was that her rather large bust didn't hold hide well in her Nin outfit after she took off the blue piece that was hiding her bust earlier. No, don't think bad thoughts! Dammit, I've been hanging with Ero-sennin way too long! I'm not a hentai!! I turned away and she only smiled and held her hands at her back.
"Thank you for staying with me."
I was about to say 'thank you' to her for her showing me around when she had merely continued on without me.
"I really enjoyed spending time with you Naruto-kun. You've showed me more attention than anyone else has. I'll see you in the morning!"
She quickly bounced away and fast. I merely watched her with a strange fascination, which I quickly shook from my head.
"Dammit. I hate myself."
I wasn't like Ero-sennin. I already had a girl for me, or so I had thought already. Maybe...dammit what was I going to do? I've only met this girl too! I sighed and arose to my feet, dusting myself off before I headed down the hill. This was going to be an interesting few months.
QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ
END OF CHAPTER 5
((Author's Notes- yawnsCrikey I'm tired. Sorry to end it on such a weird note, but I'm tired and I wont be able to update for at least a day in between this time. Sorries. REMEMBER, WHEN YOU REVIEW POST YOUR THINKINGS OF COUPLES. I'm sorta stuck. I've been watching all the intros and endings and stuff over and over again. The 3rd opening just makes all the Konoha girls seem so awesome for him. But Tatsumaki is also awesome for him. Or maybe the new girl, or even...Temari? Well I don't know about that yet. But gimme you're a opinion on that, it would help greatly. Next chapter will be up by late night Saturday, 28th. Until then, have fun and REVIEW!
