Agent Vash- There might be, but I can't tell you because then that would spoil everything. Yes, they do scare you. And you will get nightmares. No, just kidding. Ha ha ha XD
Rikki-Boy- Thanks man! XDD This chapter is for you! Thanks for the review! (Oh my God, that rhymed o.o;)
Kagome13Chan- Yeah, he's one of my favorite characters as well, but that day I wasn't in a big "Sasuke" mood. Ha ha ha, thanks for the review XD
Disclaimer: I own Akiko, and all the characters that are not real in Naruto. And all the made up jutsus.
Welcome to chapter five, sorry for the wait. Well, here it is. Enjoy!
---------------------------------------------------Chapter 5- Passive--------------------------------------------------------------------
The following days, Akiko was homesick. She lived in the sand village all her life; it was hard being in a different country, with different people. People would look at her strangely. As soon as they saw her sand headband, they'd just stare. And stare. And stare. It was very uncomfortable.
Akiko closed her eyes. She was in Naruto's apartment, in his extra bedroom. She was sitting on the bed, facing the window. She opened her eyes, and looked out. It was windy today. The leaves were blowing in every direction; Akiko couldn't really handle the cold because she grew up in a hotter climate. The door opened and Naruto stepped in.
"Akiko-imouto, I'm going training, do you want to come?" he asked. Akiko turned around and looked at him.
"Uh…sure, but what am I supposed to do?" she asked, meekly.
"Train, of course. I'm sure Kakashi-Sensei won't mind," grinned Naruto. Akiko slowly smiled.
They soon reached the number 7 training ground and waited for everyone else. Naruto sat down on the ground and Akiko sat down on a nearby rock.
"So, what are we learning today?" asked Akiko. Naruto shrugged. Akiko sighed. All this was happening fast. She never wanted to leave the Sand. So what if some crazy psycho was after her? But at least she found Naruto…she didn't want to be alone forever. They soon heard a rustling of bushes behind them. They turned around and saw Sakura emerge from the bushes. She waved and ran over.
"Hello Akiko-san," she smiled. "Are you joining us today?"
Akiko smiled. "Yep, Naruto invited me,"
Naruto grinned. Akiko, Sakura and Naruto got talking once again. Sakura kept on making fun of Naruto (a/n ha ha ha). Ten or so minutes later, Sasuke came. When he saw Akiko again, he looked down to the ground. He stood beside Sakura, and waited with the rest of them for Kakashi to come. For some odd reason, he found himself glancing at Akiko from time to time. When she laughed, when she smiled…
Suddenly, they all stopped talking and looked at Kakashi coming into view. He was walking towards them, while holding his book in one hand. He glanced up and noticed Akiko sitting there.
"Hey, sorry I'm late," he said. He put his book away.
"STOP BEING LATE!" Naruto yelled at him. Akiko stared at Naruto.
'Okay…whoa…' she thought to her self. Kakashi looked at Akiko.
"Hmm…I think I know why you're here," he said, putting his hand on his chin, like he was thinking. Akiko stared at Kakashi.
"Yeah, Naruto invited me," Akiko said.
"Good, we always need more people to practice on…" Kakashi trailed off as soon as he saw Akiko's face turn white. "Right, let's get a move on. Today, we're going to learn about hiding in the shadows…"
After Kakashi was done explaining today's practice, he sat down on a rock and pulled out his book from his pocket, and began reading. Sasuke, Sakura, Akiko, and Naruto all stared at him.
"Kakashi-sensei, aren't you going to be practicing with us?" asked Sakura. Kakashi glanced up at them, and said-
"I don't need to, we have Akiko here today, and she'll help you. I know you've already done this right?" he asked Akiko. Akiko nodded slowly, staring strangely at Kakashi. "Right then, go on," he said. Naruto and the others ran off to hide somewhere.
Akiko hid somewhere with lots and lots of trees. She was pretty sure she got herself lost. She sat down behind a tree and looked around. She couldn't see anyone or sense any one coming yet. She pulled out her kunai knives and looked at them. She was so sad. She missed the Sand Village. She thought back to that night when that man came. He was so…scary…she was never this scared before. How dangerous could he be? Who was he? And the big question that was Akiko's mind all the time was- How did Gaara know when that man was coming?
Gaara…She could never forget him. She remembered his face; she remembered when they were kids…
Suddenly, she heard a sound behind her. She quickly did a seal and disappeared in a whirl of sand. She hid in the tree behind her, and looked out. She could see Sasuke running towards her tree. He stopped and looked around. Akiko muttered a seal under her breath, and then held her hand out towards Sasuke. Sasuke couldn't see her hand because his back was facing her. She blow sand onto the ground and waited.
Sasuke stopped and looked at the tree behind him. He couldn't see anything, but Akiko could see him. Sasuke could feel something moving beneath him, and he jumped up on the branches. Big roots dug out of the ground and raced towards him. Sasuke swung onto another branch, but more roots dug out of the ground racing towards him. Finally, the roots left. Sasuke stared at the open space in front of him.
'What the hell was that?' he thought. Suddenly, he could see a web of sand shooting straight towards him. He couldn't escape anywhere, it was everywhere. The sand trapped him to the tree. He could see a shadow moving across the trees.
"Hey! Get me down!" he yelled out. He was becoming angry. Akiko emerged from the trees and looked up at him.
"Hey there. How's the view?" she asked. She smiled at him. She blew more sand towards him, and the web of sand released him. He jumped to the ground, and looked at Akiko.
"Sorry about that," said Akiko, she winked at him. She put her kunai knives away. Sasuke looked around.
"You were pretty good at that," he said. Akiko smiled.
"Yeah, I already learned about this back home," she said. Sasuke looked at her sand headband. "It was fun there, it's so different here. I guess I just miss it," she sighed.
Akiko turned to leave, when she realized that she didn't know where she was. 'Oh crap, I'm lost,' she thought. Yeah, this was just great.
She turned to look at Sasuke again. "Where am I supposed to go?" she asked. Sasuke smirked. "Okay then…I'll just find my own out…" trailed off Akiko. She turned to walk, when she felt Sasuke pull her back. She looked down and saw him holding her hand. "Uh…" she didn't really know what to say.
Sasuke's eyes were closed, and he wasn't smiling. "It's this way," he said. Akiko looked at him strangely. He pulled her hand and they began walking. Before long, Akiko noticed that she and Sasuke were walking side-by-side, and Sasuke was still holding her hand. They stopped to look around, and Akiko pulled her hand away. Sasuke looked her out of the corner of his eye. Akiko was staring at her hand, as if he did something wrong to it.
Sasuke smiled lightly. They began walking again. They found there way back to the ground, and saw that no one was there yet. Kakashi must have gone to look for Naruto and Sakura, because he wasn't there either. Akiko sat on the same rock Kakashi was sitting on earlier. Sasuke stood. They both remained silent, and tried hard not to glance at each other from time to time. Sasuke finally gave up, and began walking away.
"Um…hey! Wh-Where are you going?" called out Akiko from behind him. Sasuke stopped walking and turned around. He smiled at Akiko, and then began walking away again.
'What the…That was weird,' thought Akiko. She looked around. It was so quiet here, so calm. She had nothing like this back home. She got up, dusted herself off and began walking around. She thought back to that day when she imagined Gaara coming into her backyard. She laughed out loud at herself. She was so funny! Like Gaara would do that…Akiko stopped laughing and sat down on the ground. She was so homesick! How would she ever survive?
It was cold today, in the Sand Village. Gaara sat on his porch and looked at the busy street in front of him. He looked across the street to Akiko's house. She was gone. Just gone. Like that.
Inside, Temari was polishing her fan, and Kankuro was fixing his bolts on his puppets. He hated it when they got loose. So much work…
"So, she's gone," sighed Temari. She stopped polishing her fan and looked out the window.
"Well, what are we going to do about it?" asked Kankuro. Temari looked down at her fan again.
"What's Gaara going to do?" she asked. Kankuro looked at her.
That night, Gaara walked into Akiko's yard, and looked through the windows. Akiko forgot to close and lock the windows, but that seemed just like her, stupid and forgetful. Gaara's sand raced out of his gourd and slipped through the window, and opened the lock from the inside (a/n, how it did this, I'm not quite sure). The door swung open and Gaara stepped inside. The inside of the house smelled nice, and every light was switched off. He walked into Akiko's room, and noticed something on her desk. He walked over to it, and it read—
"Thanks for coming, but you're too late. She'll be in our grasp soon," Gaara glared at the note. He turned to leave when something caught his eye. A photograph. There was a photograph on her desk, in a frame. In the photograph was Akiko smiling at the camera. That picture was taken by one of her friends from down the street before she left the sand. Gaara continued staring at the picture, before he disappeared in a whirl of sand. The picture was gone too.
That night, Akiko roamed the streets of the leaf village. She loved window shopping. She hardly ever got the chance to do it, but she still liked it. She walked past Ino's flower shop (who she met a couple of days ago), and bought a couple of flowers. She walked to the ramen stand where Naruto was sitting, and sat down beside him. She could see him talking to some other kid, he had black hair up in a ponytail, and he looked sorta sleepy.
Naruto turned and saw Akiko sitting beside him. "Hey!" he grinned. Akiko smiled. "I want you to meet my friend, this is Shikamaru!"
Akiko looked at Shikamaru and gasped.
"What?" asked Shikamaru.
"YOU ARE SO CUTE!" squealed Akiko. Shikamaru just stared at her in horror, so did Naruto. "What?" she asked, when she noticed them staring at her.
"You just called Shikamaru cute…" trailed off Naruto. Akiko shrugged and ordered more ramen. Naruto and Shikamaru stared at each other, and then went back to talking.
"Naruto…your sister is scary," he whispered. Naruto nodded.
"How could she think you're cute? I mean, look at you," said Naruto. Shikamaru stared at him.
"Thanks a lot," he replied, and then went back to eating. Naruto and Akiko left shortly after, and Akiko gave Shikamaru one last hug and then they left. Shikamaru fainted when she did that of course. Naruto asked her why she thought Shikamaru was cute.
"He looks so adorable, like a puppy," she grinned.
The next day, Akiko decided to not go training with Naruto, so Naruto left without her. Akiko woke up, and just lay in bed for most of the time. She was so exhausted for some reason. She sat up, and looked around her room. It looked so plain. She sighed and got out of bed. An hour later, she walked to her kitchen and opened the fridge.
"Geez…how does he survive with no food in this place?" Akiko asked herself. She closed the fridge door, and looked out the window. It was a rainy day today; dark clouds loomed in the distance. She heard a knock on the door, and she went to open it. But when she did, no one was there. Akiko looked out in the hallway, but no one was there. Suddenly, she felt so cold. She shivered and closed the door. She went to turn the heat up, but she found the heater broken. She stood there, confused. She felt a long, cold hand stroke her hair from behind. She turned around, and gasped. It was the same man from before! Only…he was grinning at her this time.
"Hello, we meet again," he said. Akiko moved to the side, and reached for her kunai knives.
"Get the hell away from me," she muttered. She was terrified. Why was this guy after her?
"I didn't introduce myself; I'm Hiro-" he started.
"I don't care who the hell you are, go away!" Akiko yelled at her.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, didn't anyone tell you to respect your elders?" he asked her. He moved toward her. Akiko dropped her kunai knife, he was so scary looking. "Look…" he whispered.
Akiko couldn't help it. She looked into his eyes, and was completely droned out. She couldn't tell what she was doing. What she saw…she saw Hiro talking to Gaara, she saw the little girl, the clownish jester guy. She saw Hiro sensibly killing hundreds of men at once. But he looked so different back then. He had regular eyes…he had legs. She saw him being tortured. Akiko was so scared by all this. She wanted to break away. Hiro closed his eyes, and Akiko staggered back.
"I…need help. I don't want to…to die like this," he whispered. Then, he faded away into the air. Akiko just stared, wide-eyed, at the apartment.
"Oh….my God…."
She sat down on a chair and took several deep breaths. She remembered…when she was looking at his eyes. Voices whispered to her, they were so cold. One of them kept on telling her something, like…a sacrifice or something. She didn't know, but that voice kept on telling her "You be ready…because you can't save everyone," Perhaps that man was telling her something? Akiko didn't know, and she didn't want to know. She got up, when she noticed something on the table. It was a note. It said-
"He's coming here, this should be fun…"
Akiko stared at the note, and then crumpled it, and threw it away. "Just my luck," she muttered.
Ok, let's explain some things here. No, there is not going to be Akiko and Shikamaru, I just thought I should add that whole "You're so cute!" thing in because he is. Shikamaru is so cute! XD or at least, I think so. Ha ha ha, but seriously, Akiko isn't going with him. She was just joking around, ha ha ha. Also, is "otouto" the Japanese word for "younger sister"? Or like, you know. Because I don't know. Ha ha ha. I've also lost my action writing thing. I think. Ha ha ha. I don't know. If you're wondering why Gaara would be in her house, I don't know either. But let's let it stay at that, I think that's for the best. Yep. R and R.
Ok, I changed "otouto" to "imouto" because man, I was so wrong. I looked at the wrong paper! . ;; I'm such an idiot. Thanks,None of your concern, for pointing out the mistake.
