Disclaimer- I wonder how this started...Well, as you know I do not own Naruto nor anything related to it...I don't even have plushies or wait...okay, I have one Naruto poster. Needless to say, I don't have enough money to own Naruto.
As always, important stuff is bolded.
La/=/er- Hum...I don't think I have much to say...except, I met my deadline! Whee! I actually could've been done a couple of days ago, but inspiration only came when I rode the train...
Seito- She writes a lot on the train now. I wanna ride on a train.
La/=/er- As I already told you, riding at rush hours are horrible though. =shudder=
Seito- True, I've heard the horror stories.
La/=/er- Yeah, anyways, so I could've been done on like Saturday, but I never got the urge to actually type up what I had, thus, the chapter came only today. And even though I met my self-imposed deadline, I might still be writing one of the Neji/Lee fics I said I was going to write in chapter two within the next couple of days. I got distracted today, so I couldn't write on the train...
There will be a little tiny mini-poll concerning the pairing Ino/Sakura at the end, so remember to check it out.
Review Responses:
Kutsu- Okay, so it wasn't that soon, but it's here. Enjoy!
Yum- From what we gathered, the chapter was bizarre because Seito had no inspiration...and we were bizarre people in the first place. About Hotaru, you'll have to wait, she doesn't play that big a role for another couple of chapters. And what about chapter 4?! =sniff= Yum doesn't like The La/=/er, she only likes Seito...
ghostninja85- Yes, that's right, Shin's sister will be explained. And lookie that! It's the next chapter! And I wanted to tell you that a lot of this chapter was written from the reviews you gave, it also matched with izumi's so I combined the two and you've got this chapter. And Seito said I was going to answer it anyway, although at that time, she didn't realize I was really going to...I didn't realize either =sweatdrop=
Lostlily- I'm sure Seito would've had something brilliant to say to that, but you're stuck with me. And you'll find that I did relax and let the words come...on the train. So there's bound to be something weird. So I finished my chapter - and Seito should be starting hers, right? Seito- Erm...of course! - when are you going to update yours? Zelda and bottles...huh, I think I need to play more games. And I think Seito found the bottle comment to be funny, so don't apologize.
Night-Owl123- Yes, I think it's well-written too, lol. Again, not so soon, but it's here...
Yasai-chan- Ooo, that was a good review. Don't you think so Seito? Seito- Definitely a good one, say the opposite to make the compliment even better. Anyway, as you will see, this doesn't start immediately after the last chapter, but Seito should be doing something about it...
izumi- I laugh! You don't get to understand! ... =silence= Alright, alright, I'm sorry, but I couldn't do much on Hotaru, Seito will. And you'll be happy to know that your last review inspired half of this chapter, along with a couple of other people.
There is a section that starts with a bolded sentence. The note connected to it is the really condensed version pf the things in between the first and last bolded sentence. This is because what I wrote in there was sorta dragged out. So if you want to speed up, refer to note (1) when you see the bold.
I don't think there's anything else...so what are you waiting for? There's no more bolded words. Scroll!
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Without Life
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Chapter IV- The Missing Essentials
A bark, whine, a growl, a whimper, a grumble, and a yelp. These were the sounds that Shin heard while passing by the Inuzuka house.
A few days had passed since Lee's encounter of Hotaru. Thankfully, Lee refrained from speaking of her to Shin; although the looks he received were enough to say it all. The last few days were nerve-wracking, he had to make sure not to blank out and speak to Hotaru as he normally did. Of course that was quite hard. It's not every morning that you wake up to find a girl floating in midair in your kitchen.
Watching his actions had become second nature for him the past years, but with the feeling of comfort this village pressed into him, he had relaxed. However, after a while, even the looks stopped and he continued to search for the man in the city. The man that took away his memories and the man that was the enemy of Hotaru- she who was th...
Before he could finish his thought, a door was slammed open. Shin looked up, only to realize that he had stalled in front of the Inuzuka house. And coming out of the house, running at top speed towards him, was Akamaru and following closely behind, Kiba.
"Akamaru! Where are you going?" were the words that came out of Kiba's mouth before...
BAM!!
Shin flailed his arms in attempt to stay upright, but eventually gave up and lost the fight to fall on the ground with Akamaru on top of him. With just as much ferocity as he had when he slammed into him, Akamaru began to sniff him. He started around his hair, pushing the cloak's cover away from Shin's head. Frantically, Shin moved his arms and stilled the cover. By that time, Akamaru had moved lower, now sniffing at his neck, down that long expanse of slightly tanned skin. He continued, sniffing over the broad shoulders, moving down to a chest that was well defined, even with the clothes.
Seeming to be searching for something and still being unable to find it, Akamaru continued sniffing a downward path. Meanwhile, Kiba was watching this with, at first, bewildered eyes, but soon after, he became amused and simply watched the show that was playing out in front of him.
With Akamaru continuing to shuffle down, Shin's eyes widened as he looked and found Akamaru sniffing his crotch. At this time, there were two options, three if you think hard enough. One option was to quickly shove the dog away; after all, a dog sniffing your crotch is not the most comfortable experience. But Shin knew that in his panic, or rather embarrassment, he would shove Akamaru too hard and bring down the wrath of a mad dog-owner- Kiba. The other option was to simply lie there and wait for it to end. And of course, to blush furiously while he waited. Poor Shin did not realize that years of growing up with Kiba would allow Akamaru to gain the reflexes that would be fast enough to protect himself should he be shoved. He had many years of experience play-fighting and even real fighting to handle a shove- thank you very much.
/2nd POV, your POV, be prepared, be afraid./-/insane and evil cackle/
There's most likely a number of people looking slightly amused, yet, not really, because it's not really that funny. But now, to fill up some space in this chapter, imagine yourself in Shin's shoes. No! Not actually in Shin's shoes, silly! Imagine you were an innocent boy merely peacefully walking to the training field to...well, to train. Distracted by the thoughts of the events, which occurred several days ago, you stop, unknowingly, in front of the house where the youngest dog had been acting weird for, coincidently, several days.
Suddenly, there's a loud noise of a door opening and most likely slamming into the wall behind. Out comes a rapidly running, rather ferocious looking dog followed by what appeared to be its owner. You look up, because that's what people do when they hear loud noises, and see the said dog running straight at you.
At this point, it would've been a smart idea to move out of the way. Most of you, I'm sure, wouldn't be able to, seeing such a fast dog running towards you causes you to pause...for a long time. However, while you still having the ability to move, you don't. Why? A person may ask. Simple, you've had a few years of plain (as in no jutsus involved) martial arts training under your belt and you've gotten yourself out of situations worse than this. So you think, what can a dog like that do?
You find the answer a moment later when you find yourself falling as a result of the moving mass that ran straight towards you. And you fall hard, 'shock running throughout your whole system' hard. As soon as the shock wears off, you concentrate only to realize that your hood was falling off, the cover that is the only thing keeping everyone from seeing your face, because you know you have to hide it. The only thing that is protecting you from the man you are looking for from recognition. (AN-Did anyone else just get confused?) Well, that and your scarf.
Thankfully, you regain enough of your senses to raise your arms and keep it from falling off and revealing the top part of your head to the owner of the dog. The only person around and the person that doesn't seem to want to help you. Sighing with relief, in your head, you just barely notice that the same dog that's been on you for the past few minutes, had moved away from your head and continued to sniff down your body. First, he sniffs around your scarf, nudging it away to sniff your neck. Tickles a bit, no?
With added strength, he moves down to your shoulders, all around your chest and reaches your stomach. Here, he seems to rest a bit, sniffing around slightly slower, but with more intensity. Now you're getting breathless. Let's face it; whether or not you're ticklish, something sniffing around that area is bound to do something to you.
Then, horror upon horrors, you find the dog moving past your stomach and reaching your most private parts (although that can be debated). Your crotch. As we all know, as a male, your crotch is just about the most sensitive part of your body. You can feel the cold nose and the hot breath. You can hear the slight panting from the dog that came as a result from too much intake and not enough outtake of air. You can smell that musky scent that just about every dog has on you.
Worst of all, when you look down...er, across your body, you can see the dog stuffing it's nose into your crotch. At this point, it's safe to say that most of you are traumatized. But of course, we're not here to talk about you; we're here to read about Shin. And so end's the interlude, which took up the space of about a page. But before we really end, before you think, thank god, 'I only felt it with my sense of touch, sound, smell and sight', the dog decides to fill all five physical senses a person has with his presence and gives you a nice long lick right across your parted lips.
/insane grin/-/insane chuckle/-/Aren't you traumatized now? Unless you've got a crappy imagination...in which case, read more things will ya?/
Still furiously blushing - and silently reprimanding himself for being 17 and blushing in a situation like this - Shin was caught unaware when Akamaru finished sniffing his crotch and slowly crawled up his body. Apparently, he was still so traumatized that when Akamaru had somehow patted away his scarf, he shrieked like a girl as Akamaru swiped his tongue across Shin's mouth. Not a good idea. Since Akamaru had already been panting, there was a copious amount of saliva. And when Shin fully parted his lips to shriek-- drip, drop, drip. Shin was introduced to the taste of a dog's kiss.
Suddenly, bursts of laughter were heard from the house. Swiveling his head sharply - in actuality, rather slowly since he was still on the ground - he glared at the laughing teenager. Desperately spitting out all the liquid in his mouth, he spoke, or for the lack of a better verb, barked,
"Inuzuka Kiba! Why didn't you help me? This isn't the way you treat all your guest of Konoha, is it?"
Caught between being amused and feeling indignant, Kiba merely rose an eyebrow and said haughtily "I though that since you didn't push Akamaru away, you didn't mind," he paused, smiling "Besides, with all your blushing, you seem like you enjoyed it." Here, Kiba couldn't resist and snickered before walking over to Shin and picking Akamaru up.
As Kiba bent down, his eyes widened. Shin looked at him curiously before his own eyes grew and he silently cursed. Quickly pushing Akamaru off, he fumbled to replace his scarf over his face, As he did so, Kiba knelt down and quietly spoke to Akamaru. Shin looked over to them, puzzled. Kiba was speaking to Akamaru normally as if he understood what Akamaru said. It seemed that Akamaru understood Kiba as well. Several times, they looked over to Shin and several times, Shin looked down and continued to fasten his scarf. It didn't seem to be working.
Abruptly, Kiba stood up with Akamaru by his side. "Follow me, you can clean up in our bathroom."
Wondering why he would need to clean himself, Shin looked down - or rather across, since for some reason, he was still lying down - and grimaced. With all that was happening, he never realized that Akamaru had tread mud all over him.
"I was going to give him a bath before he ran out." Kiba explained.
Shin stood up and tried to brush himself off. It was rather foolish of him; how do you brush off mud? Realizing what he did only got himself dirtier, he gave a frustrated sigh and glanced at Kiba. "Was that the reason for all those noises I heard when I was erm...not passing by?"
Kiba seemed to grow distracted by his words and merely gave an offhanded reply.
"No, he's been like that since he met you."
Startled, Shin jerked before calming. "Oh" was the only reply he had.
"Come on, let's go get you cleaned up."
Shin followed Kiba into the house, through the rooms, up the stair and into the bathroom. While in the bathroom, trying to clean the mud off his clothes, numerous questions ran through his mind. None of them were answered when he exited the bathroom. He wandered over the house, trying to find the living room. As he walked around, the smell of dogs assaulted his senses. Pictures of various couples, a human and a dog, appeared every once in a while. In most of the pictures, the human usually had some type of marking on their face, similar to Kiba's red triangular markings.
After some time, he arrived at the living room to find Kiba drying Akamaru. Clearing his throat to catch Kiba's attention, he said, "Thanks for letting me use to bathroom. Sorry to intrude. I'll leave now."
Kiba looked at him with the same distracted glance as before when he shook his head and replied, "If it's alright with you, can you stay here for a bit. There are...a few questions I want to ask you."
Hesitantly, Shin nodded and carefully sat on one of the many armchairs in the room.
Laughing, Kiba said, "You don't have to worry. Nether neither the furniture nor I will bite. I don't think Akamaru will either." He reached down to Akamaru, ruffling his fur. Shin smiled back. "I know. It's just...you seemed weird a moment before. I wasn't sure how to react."
"Speaking of that, do you know about a boy named Naruto?"
"The boy that everyone keeps comparing to me?" Shin said bitterly, "Sure, I know of him, but I don't know anything about him."
(1)"Naruto-kun grew up shunned by the village. Only a few people were even willing to look at him neutrally, much less speak to him kindly. He never knew why the village treated him so coldly until he was twelve and just before he was able to graduate from the Academy. Those that were not present 12 years ago at that time never even knew why the was shunned. Those who did not live at the time of the Kyuubi's rampage did not know that it was sealed within a newborn babe- Naruto-kun. Most of the kids called him a monster simply because their parents thought he was one. Despite this, he persevered. He worked his damned hardest and along with his strength, he grew. The shinobi that watched him grow those few short months saw him as he was, saw him as Uzumaki Naruto, the twelve year-old genin who want all the way in the Chuunin exams. Most of the village did not see him grow..." Here, Kiba paused, looking out the window, but with a sigh, he continued his narration.
"They didn't see him grow, but they felt him growing. Naruto-kun was a boy whose presence was everywhere. His constant cheer - whether it was real or not, no one knew - permeated the whole village. So while no one actively thought of Naruto-kun, he was a part of everyone's lives. The lives that he touched up close were never the same. The amazing thing is that he never truly realized what he was doing. He saw something he didn't like, or didn't think was right and he sought to change it. And many times, he succeeded. Even when he was faced with the most difficult of problems, he hung in there and prevailed."
"The most difficult of problems?"
"As you know, in ninja villages, those of the rookie rank, the genin, start out in groups of three and a teacher. Naruto-kun's team consisted of Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura and their teacher, Hatake Kakashi."
Shin had a stunned look on his face as the names came. Kiba continued.
"The dynamics of their relationship were always very weird. Sakura-chan had a crush on Sasuke. Sasuke didn't care and Naruto-kun had a crush on Sakura- chan. With Sakura-chan always trying to get Sasuke's attention and ignoring Naruto-kun, Naruto-kun and Sasuke's relationship was nor always the best. But Sakura was never really important in the big picture. It was always about their rivalry, one wanting to beat the other any way they can. Those of us who were friends with their team saw the effect Naruto-kun had on Sasuke. It was about the only time he reacted to anything. Staying on the same team did wonders for their relationship." Kiba laughed, thinking of all the things he had heard.
"Their rivalry was as fierce as ever, but since they spent day after day together, their teamwork was magnificent. There were numerous times where one saved the other. Although Sasuke saved Naruto-kun more times than the other way around, bragging rights were always passed back and forth."
"Not that this isn't very exciting," Shin said sarcastically, "But why are you telling me a..."
Kiba held up a hand, "Let me finish. You need to know this and I need to get this out of my system."
Shin nodded, "Go on then."
"Where was I...ah, yes. They had a fierce rivalry and a strong friendship, but one thing that was always a wedge between them was Sasuke's need for revenge. A few years before they met, the Uchiha family was massacred. The only one left with the Uchiha blood was Sasuke and the one who killed them all, Uchiha Itachi, Sasuke's older brother. Itachi left him alive with an ultimatum, to hate him and to someday have revenge. He followed Itachi's words. He went through life in search of the power to overcome Itachi. But the time he spent with Naruto-kun caused it to take a backseat. Unfortunately, it was still always there. A few months after the Chuunin Exams, he finally left to catch his dreams. He listened to Orochimaru's promises."
"Orochimaru? The founder of the sound village?"
"Yes, I'm assuming you've heard of him?"
"I have, I definitely have." Shin took on a contemplating expression before he looked to Kiba, "Continue."
"When Tsunade heard that Sasuke had left, she sent five of us to bring him back. Shikamaru, the only new Chuunin, Neji, Chouji, Naruto and me. The four of us dropped back in order to fight the four escorts. Naruto followed Kimimaro, who had Sasuke in a barrel. During their fight, Sasuke broke out. When Lee arrived to fight Kimimaro, Naruto left to chase after Sasuke. Lee had gotten injured in the Exams, his arm and leg broke, but with Tsunade's help, he healed. But it was not enough, in the end the sand siblings had to help the three of us that were still fighting."
Kiba took a deep breath, "We were able to get back to Konoha, carrying Neji and Chouji. All of us were injured at some point, except for the sand siblings. Naruto and Sasuke returned a few days later. But we were unable to get anything out of them. The only thing Naruto would say about it was, 'I think it's time for Sasuke to place his dream in the future and to release his past.' Sasuke stayed in the village after that, but you could always tell that he was still bitter. And then, suddenly, one day Naruto disappeared. Nobody knew what happened, there was no sight of a fight, there was no sign of Naruto running away. He just vanished.
When Sasuke heard what happened, he flew into a rage. The more destruction he caused in the village, the more the fact that Naruto was gone was driven in. Thankfully, Tsunade ordered Kakashi to take Sasuke out into the forest. When he was gone, the shinobi of the village started their search. They came up empty. Soon, the secret of the Kyuubi was told to those who were looking. By the time Sasuke returned as a different boy, our hopes were dwindling and we had to rely on each other to be able to get through the days with our full selves intact.
At first, Naruto-kun leaving did quite a number on us. But as time passed, we moved on. We still missed him, but he started to become merely a memory. The village never fully recovered though, it went on with life, but since it didn't know or admit what it was missing, it couldn't move on to completely get over Naruto's disappearance. I think that's what you were referring to yesterday when you spoke to Lee, there was a gloom over the village." (1)
Seeing Shin's bewildered glance, he answered the unspoken question, "I spoke with Lee yesterday."
"Can I ask my question now?"
"Why am I telling you this? I'm telling you this because when you came, the village changed. It was relaxed. It found what it was missing. I didn't completely realize for some time. Ever since he met you, Akamaru seemed confused and anxious. When I finally spoke to him today and saw your face, I knew why. He said that you were missing an essential part of your smell. Because Akamaru grew up in a shinobi house, the Inuzuka house, he is somewhat different from normal dogs. From being able to understand my family and me, he understood things a dog was not supposed to understand. He saw that you were missing something and for some reason, he felt sad for you. He didn't understand it himself, he only knew he wanted to help.
And today, I finally know why."
Shin looked at him (yet again) and said, "Don't tell me, I'm Naruto."
"Yes and no."
Shin looked at him curiously, "Well...that's different. Would you mind explaining?"
"Actually, I would mind. It's not something I can tell you, you'll have to figure it out yourself. You have to know, even I barely understand it myself and I am an outsider listening to my dog. A smart dog, but nevertheless, one that still can't fully understand how the human world works. And now I have to say explaining it to you will probably confuse you more."
The two sat in contemplative silence before Kiba cried out, "Damn! I totally forgot to visit Hinata! Sorry Shin for taking up your time, but I need to go and I think its time for you to go too. Thanks for listening me ramble, I needed to get my thoughts out."
"No problem, I learned a lot today."
They walked out the house with Akamaru following. With cheerful farewells, the two parted. An hour after the episode with Shin, Akamaru and the hard unforgiving ground, Shin returned on his path to the training field and Kiba went to see his girlfriend.
Shin began to walk slowly towards the training field. Turning, he waved good-bye to Kiba before returning to his original position. As he continued to walk, his thoughts began to wander.
The story Kiba told him was interesting if nothing else. But it was also gratifying to finally learn of the boy everyone thought he seemed like. Still, Kiba's cryptic answer seemed unlike him and he wondered if there was a deeper mystery to it all.
When he arrived at the field, he looked up only to find a dark haired boy training alone. Shin cocked his head in curiosity; the boy seemed familiar somehow. He walked up near the boy, taking sure to remain a safe distance away and called out.
"Excuse me. I was coming here looking to train. And I see you've got the same idea, so I was wondering if you wanted to spar?"
All remained quiet at the field. Except for the sounds of nature, there was only the noise of the boy hitting against the tree. Saddened, Shin's shoulders slumped before he stood straight again and plastered a smile on his face.
Raising his hand to scratch his head in a manner, which anybody in Konoha would've recognized, Shin began to speak, "Well, I guess you don't want to spar. That's okay! I'll just leave now..."
Turning slowly, the boy in front of him finally replied, "I never said I didn't want to spar."
"But you didn't say you did either...aah! It's you!"
With a chuckle, the boy in front of him said, "Were you expecting somebody else?"
"No...I just didn't expect you."
"You haven't been here long, so I guess you wouldn't know that I train here a few times a week at this time."
Shin just shrugged, "So you haven't answered my question, do you want spar?"
"Sure." The boy shrugged as well and Shin got the distinct feeling that he only started doing that recently.
The two teenagers walked to the center of the training field and fell easily into their stances. If one was to look at them at that moment, one would immediately have their interests peaked. The two stood several feet apart, facing each other with loosely held fists.
The cloaked boy stood with a relaxed stance, left foot slightly in front and right arm behind. The left hand was held in front with a flat palm. The dark haired boy merely stood with the normal martial arts stance, with arms up and fisted; legs spread diagonally.
Suddenly, with a whoosh of air, the two shot towards each other, leaving dust in their wake. For a moment, there was only the sound of flesh hitting flesh and a quiet thud before the two separated once again, leaving the small dust storm in the center.
Falling into a slightly tighter stance than before, the cloaked boy shot towards the other, right arm and leg stretched. The dark haired boy swerved his left arm up to block and swung his right leg towards his attacker. With a twist of his body, Shin barely avoided the kick. Hopping, he prepared to jump. As he tensed his legs, the other swiped at his legs.
THUD
Shin fell hard, only to back-flip and fall once again into another stance. The other boy finally took the initiative and rushed at Shin. He moved his arms to block the apparent punch before he felt the displacement of air and turned only to get kicked in his stomach.
He slid back a couple of feet and said, "Good job, you got the first hit. But I'll give the last."
With that, he moved into the trees and immediately disappeared. The remaining boy scanned the surrounding forest with his eyes. With a slight feeling of shock running through his system, he realized he was unable to see even a speck of chakra. An unnatural rustle indicated that Shin was up above, but that would require at least a minimal amount of chakra.
He moved closer to the trees, leaving the center yards away. He scanned the trees again and moved his hands to release his bloodline.
Before he could do so, his sharp ears detected a tiny whomp and he swerved and ran towards the noise. Immediately, Shin fell from the branch he stood upon and lashed out. A right punch, a block with a high kick. The two parried and sparred to their hearts' content. With a final kick, Shin shot way to the edge of the clearing, then to the center.
Soon, the dust from their movements settled and harsh breathing was heard. Within moments, the breaths calmed an Shin sprinted forward again. He took a jump and flipped over the other boy, only to have his ankle caught. The other kept a firm grip and slammed him into the ground. He pulled back to hit Shin, but was stopped by their entangled legs. Losing his balance, he landed heavily onto Shin.
For long moments, the two only looked deep into each other's eyes before there was a flurry of activity.
Shin locked his arms behind the other boy and squeezed. As he did this, he freed his legs and slammed his right leg to the boy's side. With a slight oomph, the boy freed himself and rolled over. Wondering how Shin was able to bend his kegs that way, the two instantly moved up and fell into another stance.
Slightly favoring his left side, he shot forward and aimed a chop at Shin's shoulder. Shin moved, but just barely and the power behind the chop caused the tip of his shoulder to throb even when it had just barely brushed by.
Moving his left shoulder slightly, Shin jumped and kicked while in mid-air. Almost moments too late, two hands shot up and absorbed the kick. The two simultaneously moved apart and looked at each other with calculating eyes. Seeming to arrive at similar conclusions, both boys moved their arms to bring their hands together. The dark haired boy moved and manipulated his arms to release his bloodline. They moved in the familiar hand motions of the Chinese zodiac signs.
Meanwhile, Shin moved his hands in a completely different way, distorting the space around them.
There was a sudden cry of surprise and Shin stopped his hands to take in the sight in front of him. He saw nothing peculiar and wondered at what caused the other boy to become startled. Looking at the other's silver eyes, he saw the surrounding exerted veins. (2) But having known that it was part of the boy's bloodline, he was not surprised. With concern in his voice, he spoke.
"Neji-kun, what's wrong?"
Rushing over to the other boy and silently declaring that the spar was over, he reached out his hand to rest on Neji's shoulder. There was a slight flinch before it became tense. As quickly as it happened, the shoulder Shin held on to relaxed again.
Nevertheless, Shin took away his hand. With a nervous tone he spoke, "Neji- kun, are--are you okay?"
Neji glanced at him steadily before replying, "Let's go over there," he jerked his head over to the trees, "I need to ask you something."
Nodding cautiously -and wondering why he was asked so many questions today- Shin followed before starting at Neji's following words.
"You can take off your cloak and scarf too. I know what you look like because of my Byakugan and there's no one else around for a long way to go. Besides, you must be getting hot."
With a grimace, Shin realized it was true. Bitterly, he thought to himself, 'This is all Hotaru's fault. She just had to leave again this morning.'
Glad that he had spent time with Lee - the ahem, boyfriend of the boy in front of him - he knew that what he said was true. It was too hot to wear his outfit anymore anyways. He reached around his head to unfasten his scarf and then released the hidden clasp on his cloak.
Taking it off and shaking it away from him, he paused to stare at all the dust that came off. Shaking his head, he turned to Neji to find him already sitting against a tree and drinking from a bottle of water. He then noticed that he was getting thirsty and walked, with a little bounce, up to him. "Neji-kun! Can I have some water?"
Hiding an amused smile, Neji tossed the bottle up to him. Grinning happily, Shin drank most of the water before sitting down and passing the bottle back. "So, what did you want to ask me?"
Deciding to go on the direct route, Neji bluntly said, "Did you know that you don't have any chakra?"
"Chakra? What's that?"
Neji stared at him in shock before schooling his face to a slightly less revealing expression. "Chakra is something that everything has. To not have it, is like missing a vital organ. Or rather, like missing both your kidneys. You could survive, but it makes life extremely difficult, leading to death sooner or later."
"How would you know that I don't have any? Wait...does this have to do with your Gentle Fist technique?"
"Yes. In order to use it successfully I need to be able to see the places where the chakra is exerted and the chakra itself. When I looked at you with my Byakugan activated...I didn't see any chakra at all. Do you know anything about it?"
"Well..." Shin began to speak, but trailed off as he realized that it would not be good to reveal everything related, "My onee-chan told me that when my memories were lost, some parts of me were sealed off. But she never told me anything else."
"Do you know what happened to your memories? Do you know how it was taken away?"
"No..." at this point Shin decided to tell the truth, "When I first woke up, I was in the middle of a forest, I didn't remembered anything. And moments after, I blanked out again and when I woke up, I woke in onee-chan's house. She's been with me ever since."
"Really?" Neji held a curious look, that didn't seem to be all that natural on his face, "then where is she now?"
"She um...didn't come to the village. She said she wanted to rest a bit. We've been doing a bit of traveling." Shin chuckled nervously, "Anyway! Um...you're not going to tell anybody about the whole no chakra thing are you?"
"If you don't want me too. I won't tell anyone. For now anyway. If you start feeling sick though, I want you to immediately look for me. I might be able to help if something happens."
"Aw...alright, I will. Come on, let's spar again!"
Neji raised an eyebrow, "Aren't you supposed to be meeting Lee and I in three minutes?"
"Oh yeah! I forgot! Hey, what are you doing here then?"
"I can get there in 30 seconds flat, you however, will probably need at least four minutes. It normally takes half an hour to walk from the training field to Lee's house."
"Well what are we standing here talking for? I'm have to run! I'll see you in a few minutes! Wait a minute...how did you know it would only take me four minutes to get there?"
In an uncharacteristic mood - not so much recently, he seemed to be a lot different the past few months - Neji said, "That's for me to know and for you to...not find out." Laughing, Neji waved goodbye and disappeared with slight move of the air and a lot of dust.
With a content smile on his face, Shin laughed slightly before running and disappearing within seconds himself.
To Be Continued in Chapter 5
(1) I realize that the stuff in between the bolded letters are somewhat repetitive to some people. Condensed version is that Kiba was telling Shin about Naruto, how he grew up shunned, but he never gave up, even when Sasuke left. And then I went on to describe a lot of stuff that isn't too important. In the end Kiba just told Shin what happened after Naruto brought back Sasuke and some months, maybe weeks later, disappeared and then the whole thing of everyone trying to get back to normal. Yeah, that's about it...
(2) Haha! I bet you all thought it was Sasuke!
Seito: I did at first but Sasuke does NOT shrug when ask to spar. Itachi: Have you considered the fact that he changed over the what 5 years? Seito: Even so. Changed or not, I really doubt Sasuke would just shrug. It's like him saying 'maybe' to training. La/=/er: What? You didn't notice that I said it seemed like something he just started doing? Tut tut Seito, I thought you read better than this. But then again...I suppose Sasuke doesn't shrug too much...And since when was Itachi here? Isn't here supposed to stay in our AIM conversations? Seito: He decided to visit.
La/=/er- Some of you may be able to tell that I'm going to slip a little side plot in here. Wonder who can figure it out...? I cackle. Of course if you do figure it out and you don't like it =twiddles fingers= I suppose I could take it out. But if you don't know, tough, nyah!
Since neither Seito nor I can do Ino/Sakura very well, we are asking our readers to help us in our decision.
There are several choices.
1) Kick 'em out completely and have different pairings. I'll tell you the ones I like that has Ino and Sakura, not including the people already in a relationship. Although I do like Shikamaru/Ino...
2) Leave 'em in there, it's cool with me.
3) I don't really care as long as there's SasuNaru. That would be me.
If you're one of the brilliant people in here and have another choice, you're welcome to tell us. But please, please, tell us something. If not, we're going to deprive you of SasuNaru. =shakes finger at you=
Seito- What?! I'm not going to do that!
La/=/er- Yes you will, I make you. Or better yet, I'll sic Seika on you, or maybe Sai, or maybe Hotaru...all the choices!
Seito- Alright...maybe.
La/=/er- Humph, anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. And the only thing I have to say about the interlude is that I was feeling really, really sadistic that day...
Tell us how it was! Review! It's very simple, just click that Go button that's an inch away. And tell us about the Ino/Sakura thing. And yes, I do accept harsh criticisms of my chapters as long as they make sense and isn't prejudiced.
Written: 7/13/04-7/19/04 (I wrote like 2 pages then 3 then 1 and then like 6. All on the train. There's a day in between posting and finished because I passed it to Seito and then I edited a teensy...alright, I didn't read over it. So there's probably something wrong. Seito's good, but she's not that good. I'm not that good and I'm her beta!)
