Difference
HUGE AUTHOR'S NOTE
Well, here's the deal. I've decided to post the rest of the chapters that I was working on for some time. I was going to finish the story and then post the first chapter but I was way to anxious to see how it would do. I found out that my character is a Mary-Sueish girl. Thus, I have decided to edit and make adjustments. So basically I'm going to take down the story in a week or so. This is your LAST chance to read the original. So after a week, you'll be able to read the hopefully IMPROVED version of Difference. The storyline will change a bit and character traits may change as well. I really can't go into detail. The title will also stay the same. So I have to say, thank-you to all that helped me along this journey. I hope that I shall give readers more enjoyment than this story. Well, thank-you so much!
HUGE AUTHOR'S NOTE
"We're Genins!" Derno screamed loudly after the induction was finished.
The setting was on a dusty road that led away from the Academy and towards the village. Toro had a finger in his ear to block the loud noise coming from loud-mouthed Derno.
"Gosh, you're noisy," Toro muttered after taking his finger out of his ear, "A village a hundred miles away from here could hear you."
"Well, better loud than… than… well it's just better to be loud," Derno weakly argued, growling at Toro.
"Sure…" Toro reassured and began staring at Derno with squinted eyes.
"Boys are stupid," Sierra muttered under her breath, within earshot of Derno and Toro.
"How about girls are stupid?" Derno responded, smiling by this insult.
Sierra gave a death glare at Derno and smiled. She disappeared from her spot and reappeared behind Derno. With a quick motion, she grabbed his hand and moved it to a painful position behind his back. Speaking threw her teeth, Sierra argued, "Take it back."
"NO!" Derno yelled, partly due to pain and partly because he hated to lose.
"Yo," Orikawa appeared in a tree, "Bringing pain to your teammates isn't the best way to practice teamwork."
Sierra let go of Derno's arm and crossed her arms over her chest, growling loudly.
"We have a new mission coming up," Orikawa stated, apparently uninterested due to him paying more attention to the partly clouded sky than his subordinates.
"Ooh, are we going to have an exciting mission today- like escorting a princess, guarding a treasured item away from ninjas?" Derno asked excitedly.
"You'll see," Orikawa responded and sighed, "Nothing extremely difficult as what you suggested though, Derno."
A disappointed sound was heard.
"WHAT!" Derno's voice yelled obnoxiously, "Can't we do something better than that?"
'He does have a point. It's just cleaning a person's house. Lazy villagers,' Toro thought while looking at the wall, seeing as there was nothing else to do.
"We've just been promoted to Genins, idiot," Sierra answered with both her hands pressed tightly against her ears, "Gosh, you're loud. Tone it down a bit, will you?"
Derno was twiddling his thumbs by this answer and began growling, muttering words that were too muffled to hear.
"Well, Derno, if you want a harder mission…" the official began, "I'll move you to a C-classed mission, but only if you behave."
"YEAH!" Derno yelled.
"You're still loud," Sierra scoffed, however, with a smile on his face- apparently as excited.
"So what are we doing?" Derno asked repeatedly, giving slight hops as well due to excitement.
"You'll be guarding my precious gift and me," a stifled voice was heard behind a door. The door opened to reveal a man in his mid-life years. He was holding a box wrapped around a cloth.
"This is Mr. Shunnin Muuyo," the official introduced, "He's one of the village's traders. Your mission is to guard him while traveling to the Hidden Village of the Leaf."
"But…but he's old!" Derno yelled with disgust, pointing to the trader.
"What a rude boy…" Mr. Muuyo muttered, "Well, let's go."
Orikawa sighed, who was standing in the back of the room leaning back on the wall with disinterest. He began walking with his subordinates.
"This is stupid," Derno commented once the walked outside the building.
"At least we're not doing a D-classed mission, Derno," Toro reassured, hoping to stifle down the noise.
"So, Orikawa-sensei, what types of enemies usually come during C-classed missions?" Sierra asked, trying to sum up the level of difficulty for the mission.
"The worst types of enemies we may face are low-classed shinobi. The likelihood of finding a shinobi is very slim to none," Orikawa answered, reading a book while answering.
The trip was tedious and hot. The sandy earth cracked beneath the sandals. Few shrubs ornamented the never-changing environment.
"It's hot!" Derno yelled again.
"You don't need to state it. We're all miserable, kid," Mr. Muuyo groaned, due to annoyance and heat--not a great combination.
Sierra looked at the ground around her. It had rained only a few days ago… She picked up a flower and smelled it.
"Sierra, move!" Toro commanded and shot his shuriken at the same spot as the flower.
Several bodies leaped before the shuriken hit the ground and moved into a fighting stance.
"Looks like we have unwanted guests," Sierra stated and grinned with delight.
Orikawa merely looked up from his book and lowered his head again.
"Show some more interest to your death!" a shinobi ordered and raced towards Orikawa. With a quick slice using a sword-like weapon, the shinobi sliced through Orikawa. Particles blew everywhere.
"Orikawa-sensei!" Derno yelled, shocked at the image.
"You're like your stupid sensei," another shinobi appeared behind Derno and flipped a shuriken towards his hands.
With a swift movement, Sierra ran and kicked the shinobi upwards, "Guard yourself, Derno."
"Ri—right," Derno stuttered, shocked from the immediate danger he placed upon himself.
"At least get—" Sierra began, but began preoccupied with another enemy.
A shinobi appeared before Derno. With a quick movement, a shuriken was placed into the enemy's hands.
"DERNO!" Sierra yelled and turned around, directing her attention towards him. With an easy opening, her own enemy sliced her shoulder. However, at the last moment, Sierra moved to the side so her arm wouldn't cut off.
A hand with a guard came in front of Derno. The hand linked to a man that was holding another shinobi- Orikawa to be exact.
With a smile, Sierra gave a solid kick to her enemy's stomach which sent him flying and dropping with a loud thud on the ground. However, with that movement, Sierra clutched her shoulder tightly, cringing from the pain and blood oozing out of the damaged shoulder.
Orikawa sighed and looked at Toro. Unlike his teammates, he was not wounded and standing between a pile of wounded bodies. Orikawa turned around and spotted Derno looking at his hands with disgust. Turning his head in another direction, he spotted Sierra and frowned.
"Well, I'm sorry I didn't come sooner," Orikawa began saying, "I was trying to test your individual levels when fighting an enemy. I'm very sorry I couldn't come sooner though Derno. I was hoping that you could move. Sierra and Toro, you did well. However, Sierra, it is important to pay attention to your enemy. Luckily he did not aim for vital organs."
Sierra blushed at this and fell in an Indian-styled position. She sighed and relieved herself of all her stress. Then, her hands began to glow a greenish-color. Momentarily, her hands pointed to the wounded part of her shoulder. In a few minutes, her wound instantaneously healed.
"How'd you do that?" Derno asked curiously, bending down and observing at Sierra's shoulder.
"Practice and a good…teacher," Sierra said with a tone of sadness.
"Well, we should be heading off again," Orikawa changed the subject and began walking to Konoha.
Like a pair of chicks, the Genins and Mr. Muuyo began walking again.
"Mr. Shunnin, I must ask you for the sake of our safety what is in the package," Orikawa interrogated, still walking on the path.
"That is my business and not yours. It is your job to protect me," Mr. Muuyo said rather hurriedly.
"However, to protect you, I must ask what it is that you are carrying," Orikawa insisted, still keeping his voice in the same tone as before.
Mr. Muuyo sighed and stopped in the middle of the trail between the forest, "If you insist, I was hoping that I wouldn't have to show this beauty in front of all this."
Grabbing hold of the wrapped up packaged that was in a bag that he was carrying, Mr. Muuyo unwrapped a metal case with a lock. After a few more seconds, Mr. Muuyo moved the dial to reveal the lock opened. Inside was lined with soft tissue in the midst of a large precious gem.
"This is the pride of my family," Mr. Muuyo said, taking out the gem and placing it in his hand.
Toro gave the most interest, allowing his face to gleam from the light reflected from the gem. He then gave a whistle that signified that he approved of its beauty, "It must be worth much more than I could ever imagine."
"It is worth more than all of our village- as I said, the pride of my family," Mr. Muuyo stated with a smile.
"However, I believe those recent shinobi were hired for personal reasons. If my reasoning is correct, you don't publicize what you sell, am I correct?" Orikawa asked.
"No, I don't publicize what I sell due to unnecessary thieves. Those shinobi were hired by my brother," Mr. Muuyo clarified.
"I see. However, some things are not yet clear. Is there some feud between the family due to this gem?" Orikawa asked.
Mr. Muuyo sighed and took his glasses and wiped an invisible smudge from his glasses. With that being done, he presumed his ordinary stance and stated, "My brother and I have always disagreed upon the heir of this precious stone. You see, we are twins. I was born a minute before my brother and allowed me to become the heir. He argues though that since we are twins, it is unfair that I should have the stone. This is merely out of greed and scorn since I am older by a mere few minutes. He sees me as an inferior individual to his hunger for power. To complete his greed, he feels that I should give the gem to him. If I do, his mind will become dysfunctional and completely delusional over money. That is why I am going to solve our problems over the family heirloom and sell it to a friend to the family for years in Konoha. He will treasure the jewel and become a treasure to not only him but all of Konoha."
A few moments were in silence until Orikawa spoke up, "Well, in that case, your brother must have hired more shinobi along this path. This will become increasingly difficult. However, to insure your safety, we must not use the trail but go into the forest. From there, we will seek out Konoha using map skills."
"What a nuisance," Sierra muttered and began walking toward the trees. Within a second, a shuriken slid by her face and hit a nearby tree. Her eyes widened and looked behind her. There behind her was a man with five shuriken between his hand facing Orikawa. He seemed to carry very few weapons with him except the several kunai and shuriken wrapped around his legs and arms. He was no taller than Orikawa and stood with erect class.
'I didn't even sense he was near me,' Sierra thought, shaking from the near death experience.
"I presume you are Shunnin Muuyo. I have been instructed to take the prized gem of the Muuyo family. I have no intention of hurting anyone. If you give me the gem peacefully, I will leave peacefully… However, if you use force, I will unfortunately use force as well," the shinobi replied with no emotion, except with the intense hunger of death surrounding him.
"I will not give my brother this gem if it costs me my life!" Shunnin Muuyo replied.
"Very well," the shinobi shrugged and replied, "Then I must take your possession by force. I'm sorry, I never introduced myself. My name is simply Tamara. I am a missing-nin born in the Country of the Wave."
"Tamara of the Country of the Wave, an assassin that uses extreme taijutsu and weapons," Orikawa stated, shadowing his face with his unkempt hair.
"I have heard of you as well. Orikawa the Prodigy, you are shinobi who became a jounin at a very young age –only matched by Kakashi, the Sharingan user. This will be a treat to go against one of the three talented jounins. It is a pleasure to meet you; please do not disappoint me," Tamara spoke, giving a smile to Orikawa who placed a frown on his face.
Within a blink of an eye, Tamara disappeared from his spot and moved behind Orikawa. Assuming his position, Orikawa lunged himself forward and gave a kick backwards. Responding to the awkward movement, Tamara jumped upwards and kicked at his opponent, using the gravity to his advantage. Quickly thinking, Orikawa grabbed Tamara's ankle and threw him towards the forest, careful not to provide any harm to his subordinates.
"Sierra, Derno, Toro, quick, protect Mr. Muuyo by using the defensive stance!" Orikawa ushered and sped towards the pile of trees where Tamara was thrown. Loud cracks of punches and kicks could be heard. This went on for quite some time.
"Sierra, can you tell what's happening?" Toro asked, breaking the silence.
"All I can see is quick movement and nothing else. What about you?" Sierra asked.
"About the same thing," Toro replied regretfully.
"You can actually see something in there?" Derno asked, confused.
"Your eyes are powerful tools. If you look carefully, you can see rustling of leaves and hitting of bark. Bodies can be distinguished in the dark as well due to clothing and movement," Sierra explained and slapped her forehead.
However, after the discussion, a body stepped out of the mass of trees and shrubbery. Using their reflexes, the team went into a defensive stance.
"Yo," Orikawa greeted, "Good job team. I took care of Tamara. Let's get back onto the trail."
With those words being said, the team followed Orikawa.
"You defeated Tamara single handedly? That's incredible. I would think my brother would hire a very accomplished jounin to take the jewel," Mr. Muuyo congratulated.
"Thank-you, Mr. Muuyo. I believe I should carry the case since we still will probably experience more shinobi," Orikawa instructed.
"Very well, I think it best if you would carry it anyways," Mr. Muuyo agreed and started walking towards the jounin.
Within a second, Toro threw a kunai at Orikawa. With a certain ease, Orikawa moved to the left—dodging the kunai.
"What are you doing?" Orikawa asked, frowning at the sudden weapon.
"Where is our sensei, Tamara?" Toro demanded.
With a grin on his face, Orikawa's bodied was swallowed by smoke. The smoke quickly disappeared to form Tamara's body, "How did you know child? You're quite a shinobi," Tamara spoke.
"It was simple. When you said that we used the trail, it immediately caught my attention. Then you replied that you should hold the package in case of shinobi. It would have been much safer if we traveled through the forest like before. Also, Orikawa never offered to hold the packaged even after being ambushed. Thus, the only reason why we traveled using the trail and you offering to carry the packaged is because we would meet another army of shinobi," Toro explained.
"What an intelligent child," Tamara commented and took one shuriken from his pants. "Now, I'll show you how I defeated your incompetent teacher."
