Koumei listened from the opposite side of the door as a male's voice conversed with the Hokage. He sounds almost like Hayate. It was a simple thought, but it hadn't prepared her for what came next.
"Arigato. You understand the danger in watching over a ninja from another village, don't you? The last time I got someone to watch another ended up with Gekkou Hayate being slaughtered. And he was not as frail as he looked......"
She almost cried out in suprise. Dead? It was almost impossible. He had been singled out to be trained by her. He had been the most promising cantidate as well, and she had known him for a long time. He was actually more powerful then that Kakashi, one of her Anbu had found this out when they were spying on him training. The way he would manipulate his techniques. It was not possible for him to be defeated like that.
Whoever did this will pay...
He had been her closest friend, not close in that sense, but he was someone who she could talk to. Even if they had to do it in secret, outside of the village. She would visit him every weekend, if he wasn't on a mission. Before meeting him, she had never let anyone close to her, she had never trusted even in her father. But then she met him, and had felt sorry for him.
The next meeting, she had snuck into the village itself, where he was sleeping in the hospital. She brought him a rare type of medicine from one of her more friendly 'aquintances' to stop him coughing up blood. But when he refused it, saying he'd die soon anyways and that she shouldn't waste her energy on him, she stayed late and encouraged him not to give up. She ended up leaving him the medicine, which he eventually accepted.
She had instantly befriended the young man, and ended up telling him her life story, which she had never done before. She had known him for five years. To hear of his death was devastating. But she would show no emotion. Ninjas don't cry over dead people. But I wish I could...
She stood up and walked over to her clean outfit. It must have been washed while she was unconcious. She slipped out of her provided robes, they were deep red and reached down to her ankles. Underneath she wore white pants and a loose white shirt, which she also slipped off.
She traded these in for her usual comfortable outfit. It consisted of loose black pants that reached down almost to her ankles, and a simple black and red tanktop. On her left shoulder was a clearly visible Anbu tatoo, but it was interrupted with a small scar. On top of her tanktop, she slipped on a sleeveless black vest, which had eight scroll holders along the bottom edge. She adjusted a Kakashi-like facemask over the lower half of her face. After buttoning up her vest with some difficulty due to her broken fingers, she picked up her mask and put it on.
Before heading out, she decided to bring at least a few of her weapons. She fixed on her weapons pouch, full of six-inch needles and shuriken, along with some tetsubishi, and put on two kakutes, one on her index and one on her middle fingers. He left hand was utterly useless, though. As an afterthought, she packed a nekote in her other weapons pouch, and grabbed a shobo to hide in one of her scroll pouches.
She opened her window and jumped up onto the sill, using her armoured right hand for balance, and cradling her left hand. Just for a little while.... I'll pay my respects to him.... and perhaps train for awhile... this place has to have training fields.
She steadied herself before launching herself into the daylight. A shadow followed far behind, unknown to her, and too far away for her to sense it's chakra.
Koumei searched around the town for almost an hour, before she came across the Stone Memorial. At first she didn't know what it was, but upon closer examination, it revealed a list of names. The newest name, at the bottom of the list, read 'Gekkou Hayate.'
She took a step forward and crouched down, tracing the fingers of her right hand over the name of her fallen friend. She sat there for a long while, just staring at the coal-black stone, before she dropped her head and stood. She remained for another few minutes, until a little after lunch, before she moved again. She returned to the rooftops and looked back at the memorial, with the white flag flapping weakly in an cold breeze. Koumei shivered and turned to go to the training field she had passed while exploring. She decided she would train there for awhile before heading back or getting dinner.
"Gomen, Hayate. I was late again, as I was for Haku..." She slipped off towards the outskirts of the village, toward the fields. And all the while the shadow followed her.
Luckily, when she arrived, there were no other ninjas there. She began training her taijutsu, using only her right hand and grunting in pain every once and a while because of an earlier wound to her side. She pushed her body to an amazing pace, her movements became blurred. But she couldn't keep up for that long, and ended up doing some target practice with her needles.
When she ran out of stamina, she decided to work on chakra control. The sun was low in the sky now and the air was growing steadily colder. She shivered and made her way to the edge of the field, watched all the time by a pair of curious grey eyes. She looked around for awhile before locating a half-frozen puddle. Using her chakra, she melted off the top ice to make it easier.
Koumei kneeled down and closed her eyes behind the mask. Her dark bangs fell forward and she shivered once more before relaxing. She held both of her hands out and sat perfectly still. A moment later, a small ball of water floated towards her. Grey eyes widened in the shadows as they took this in.
The small sphere of liquid moved slowly around her, as she changed its shape. Traingle, square, cube, needle. She then separated it into four spheres and formed them into letters. H. A. K. U. They moved slowly up and down in front of her, before she released it and the fell to the ground, breaking form.
"Gomen, Haku," she whispered. She stood and began to shiver again. She coughed and started to leave.
"You can come out now, Leaf-nin. I know you've been following me for awhile." she said as she continued walking.
Kasei's breath caught. How could she have known about me? She must have very good senses. He stood, brushing light brown hair from his eyes for the hundredth time today, and caught up with the Moon Ninja. They walked in silence until they reached the village. Koumei spoke finally, as the sun set.
"What is your name, Leaf-nin?" she asked, barely loud enough for him to hear.
"Kasei. Kitsune Kasei," he replied.
"The Fox clan?" she stopped and examined him for a moment, looking into his alert grey eyes. He calmly looked back at her through the mask, although he could not see her eyes. She turned back and resumed walking. She cast a longing glance at the unusually empty ramen bar. The only people she could see were an chuunin with his hair tied up talking with a very loud blonde boy in a completely orange outfit. It's that demon boy, Naruto. The one who... She considered just walking away, but her hunger got the best of her. She walked over to the bar and sat as far away as possible from the other two customers.
As soon as she sat, their conversation stopped and they both stared rudely at her. Kasei joined her at the bar. She dug in her pockets, looking for loose change, but finding none. "Shit" she whispered. She was about to go without food again when Kasei held out a handful of money.
"Here. If I'm gonna be following you around for awhile, I might as well be on good terms." She looked at him for a moment before accepting it. She was truly hungry, and needed anything she could get. They placed their orders and a bowl of steaming ramen was placed before each of them. The other customers were still staring, but the chuunin finally turned back to his bowl. She removed her Hunter-nin mask and placed it face down beside her, pulling down her face mask also.
Kasei was eating already, and another person arrived at the stand, placing an order and waiting patiently. He glanced at her as she began to eat and she was startled to see two pupil-less eyes glaring almost angrily at her. Hyuuga, she thought. He also seemed to be avoiding the loud blonde. Who is still staring at me, she thought.
She was doing a good job of ignoring him and concentrating on her ramen, until he made a big mistake. She heard him mutter something to the chuunin, which wasn't actually a 'mutter' in her opinion, and she caught the words 'like that boy....Haku .' That was it.
Is this village against me or something!? she screamed inwardly. Her body stiffened as she fought an inner war. She concentrated on her food, but ended up breaking her chopsticks. The sharp wood dug into her armoured hand, causing blood to spill over onto the table and splinters to enter, almost piercing through. She cast them aside and swore under her breath. Kasei stopped eating. He had also heard the remark and remembered her past reaction. Uh-oh.
She stood up suddenly as four heads turned towards her. She charged at the boy, but Kasei grabbed her broken left hand and twisted it painfully, and with a few sickening cracks, it began to bleed again. She cried out and fell to the ground, biting the inside of her lip until it bled. The chuunin was standing in front of the demon boy with his arms thrown out protectively. The Hyuuga was also standing by now, and the bar owners looked on nervously. Silence.
"Kasei, why is that Hunter-nin out? She should be kept locked up!" The chuunin was clearly agitated as he adressed the special jounin.
Kasei said nothing but watched as Koumei stood shakily. Blood ran down from the corner of her mouth, and both of her hands were covered in it. Once again her eyes took on the same dangerous flare. She grabbed her mask and threw money on the counter, before stepping back and pointing a bloodied finger at the blonde.
"Watch your words, Demon boy, they might get you killed," she hissed dangerously. Naruto was utterly confused, but he knew one thing at least. He did not want to fight this kunoichi, who looked so much like the icy boy, Haku, either alone, or with a hundred other ninja.
"Enough!" Kasei drew one of his katanas and held it poised before him. "Your personal life does not give you reason to harm anyone from this village, Moon-nin." He glared at her angrily with his cold grey eyes.
"You know nothing!" she actually yelled this time. It did ot suit her quiet appearence to see her face contorted in pain and anger. She stepped back and flipped up onto the roof behind her, before running off in the opposite direction.
Kasei turned calmly to the ramen bar owners and apologized, paying for his half-finished ramen. He turned to the chuunin, who was still defending the blonde, tonelessly adressing him.
"Iruka, I suggest you and Naruto avoid her at all costs. She is growing very unpredictable. I will have to take this up with the Hokage. If she somehow manages to confront you, I suggest you run. No ninja in this village is a match for her. Perhaps not even the Hokage herself. Gomen," He then flipped onto the same roof that Koumei had run off on, and began to follow her. This damn kunoichi....
Koumei ran until she was out of breath, which wasn't very long. That damn shinobi... He re-broke half my fingers, she thought angrily. She could not hold it in any longer. She crouched down on the rooftop, and looked up at the dusk sky. She brought her legs up to her chest and buried her face in her arms. She thought of Haku and Hayate and everyone else whose deaths she blamed on herself.
Kasei stood a few meters away and looked on. The kunoichi's shoulders were shaking, although she made no sound. Her bangs fell loosely over her arms and knees, but she didn't care anymore. She was doing something she hadn't done, or been able to do, since she was a child. The kunoichi was crying.