Disclaimer: I own none of the characters or locations in this fic………if I did I can assure you I would definitely not be here writing about it.
Well hey there everyone, this is my second fanfic. The first one kinda flopped so um………never read it.……..ever. Well unless you want to develop serious mental issues. Um this chapter is basically to fill in all the background information on the story. The later chapters to come will be the actual thing
" " – someone is talking
' ' –someone is thinking
Ame -means "rain"
. Soooo without and more ado here it goes!
Familiar Faces:BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
"Oh, come on!" The groggy girl groans as she opens one eye to peer at the luminescent clock on her bedside table, 5:30 A.M. She can hear the other companions of her room slowly retreat from their warm bed confines and stretch onto the cold wooden floor. After a few minutes of shuffling, she hears someone addressing her.
"Ame, come on! You're the only one attempting not to get up!"
'Too true.' Ame slowly opens the other eye to squint across the dark room at her fellow pink hair konoichi. 'She's too cheerful for this early in the morning.'
"Yes, I'm talking to you!" Sakura said in reply to seeing Ame's sight fixed in her direction. "Don't think I'm going to let you sleep more than I got to. Besides we have to go meet our new teams and get our assignments."
'That's right,' Ame remembers. She steals a quick glance at the newest member of their room, Temari. 'Since the sand ninjas arrived everyone would be regrouped to further establish foreign ties or, so the lady hokage had said. She gives another more annoyed look at Temari. They were the reason why she was already in such a foul mood this morning.
Flashback
"But Tsunade sama!" Ame jumped from the seated position she had taken when first called to the office. "I've done welcome two nights in a row now, can't anyone else do it?"
Welcome involved waiting for visiting ninjas to arrive in Konoha, usually late in the evening, and check the papers filled out by the foreigners for boarder traveling. Had it just been one contract needing to be check Ame would not have been so angry, but the fact of the matter was that each ninja crossing a boarder had around thirty pages of registration required for record books. It was also not uncommon for people to forget to fill out their paperwork and leave all responsibility with the present welcomer. In Shikamaru's words, Ame had to agree. It was very troublesome.
Tsunade gave a sympathetic look, "everyone else has a mission that won't let them return to Konoha until well after the allies are due to arrive tonight. Besides, your partner is in the hospital and I can't give you any missions until he's be………"
"He has a stomach ache!" Ame interrupted. "So unless the medicine they are giving him is more food, he should be fine! It's been three days!"
It was bad enough she had been partnered with Chougi last month, but now he was putting on an act to stay out of work. 'A bad habit picked up from an old teammate.'
"I'm sorry Ame, but you are on welcome tonight and I don't want anymore arguments. Understood?" She was trying hard to suppress a grin. If there was one thing she loved most about the youth of the village it would be their spirit. If there had honestly been any other one-man missions, she would have gladly given it to her, but anything else was just too dangerous for an individual person.
"I understand Tsunade sama." She turned to leave, trying to exit with as much dignity as she could muster. She opened the door and closed it behind her, heaving a heavy sigh as it shut. 'Damn it Chougi! When you get out of that hospital, I'll give you a legitimate reason to go back.' She shoved her hands in her pockets and proceeded down into Konoha's busy morning streets. The day complimented her mood, dark clouds obscured the sun's light and an annoying drizzle had started. She sighed again.
When she had become a Jounin two years ago, she had expected her life to get considerably more exciting with challenging missions everyday and life or death situations around every corner. Sadly though, life had stayed about the same as when she'd left the ninja academy.
The smell of breakfast being cooked from inside the houses and restaurants on either side of the street reminded her of how she had forgotten to eat before coming to the Hokage's office that morning. She turned a corner and walked into the closest building. Warm fragrances greeted her as she proceeded to the interior of the building scanning the room for an empty seat.
"Ame! Look, over here!"
Her eyes fell upon Sakura and Hinata motioning for her to join them. She walked over to them, amazed she had missed Sakura's hair when she first walked in since her bright bubble gum pink hair was hard to miss in a crowd.
"Good morning Ame-san," Hinata smiled when Ame finally got settled in a seat.
"Morning Hinata, Sakura," she could see her morning become slightly better, getting to eat with two of her old teammates and close friends though both were a year older.
Ame had been a special case ninja when graduating from the academy since she was the only one from her class to achieve that level. The year following the Chuunin exam, Ame had taken the regular graduating test and passed, but strangely enough, she had been the only one. Her position had caused a bit of a problem with putting her on a team. So the decision was made to allow her to become a member of the already existing teams and switch off between them. Thus she was on pretty good terms with most of the original nine rookies. She had even gotten to go on a short-term assignment with Gai's team. In this fashion, she continued to do missions until she achieved the Chuunin level at twelve. She was seventeen now.
"Where are you two off to today?" Ame cursed them silently for getting each other as partners.
"Nothing too difficult, just border patrol," Hinata's voice was still as quiet as ever.
"Yeah, it's boring, but at least it's not as bad as welcome!" Sakura laughed while beginning to eat the food brought to them. With her head down she missed Ame's dismal look, but Hinata didn't.
"Oh, you're not on welcome again tonight are you?" Hinata saw her look of conformation. "I'm sorry………"
Sakura raised her head. "Not again! That'll be three nights this week."
All old news to Ame, but it felt nice to know that someone other than herself thought it extremely unfair.
There was silence in the group after that outbreak broken only by the light murmur of conversations taking place at other tables.
"So, Shino-kin and Sasuke-kun returned from their mission last night." Hinata's attempt to change the subject was successful and the three spent the rest of breakfast discussing the details.
Sasuke was one of the people that she didn't know as well. The other was Naruto. When she was first placed on the teams, they were off training with their sannin counterparts. It was only after three years of getting used to everyone that Naruto had returned, gone out on another mission, and returned with Sasuke. The details of what had happened had never been discussed with her, though it really was none of her business all the same.
Sakura suddenly stared at the clock. "Oh shit! We should have been at our first check point half an hour ago!" She quickly jumps from her seat heading for the door, Hinata closely following behind. "Bye Ame!" They call from over their shoulders.
Ame sighed, 'well, that was fun while it lasted.' She sunk farther into her chair. A cheery waitress approaches the table with her palm outstretched. Ame pulled a moneybag from one of her pockets and pays the woman the amount due for her order, but as she stands to leave the woman stands in her way.
"Excuse me, but this isn't enough." The waitress stretches her hand out again.
"What are you talking about? Of course that's………" Ame glances back at her table to see that her comrades had left no money to pay for their meals. Quite perturbed, she turned back. "How much do I owe you?"
Walking out of the building with considerably less money than when entering, Ame trudged through the streets sticking her hands back in her pockets. 'Some day this is turning out to be,' she cast her head down to look at the ground as she continued walking, slightly dragging her feet as she went. Deciding she needed to vent off some anger that she'd built up since waking up that morning, she started heading for the training grounds.
She was suddenly stopped when a black cat streaked across her path almost tripping her in the process and causing her to rebalance after jumping to the side, but not before her jump knocked into a man carrying a mirror who promptly dropped it causing a little girl to lunge back in alarm going under and hitting a ladder as she went which resulted in it falling onto a table placed outside for dining customers to sit at, spilling all the salt and pepper.
Now,
Ame wasn't much for superstition, but had she not just involuntarily caused that strange stroke of bad luck? The idea of spending the afternoon around others and her throwing sharp pointy objects at targets suddenly did not sound quite as appealing. She quickly retreated from the scene of the accident and headed home. She turned on her street and was surprised to see the dormitories unscathed, she had half expected it to be burning down or blown up.
'Everyone should be out on his or her assignments by now,' Ame thought as she proceeded indoors. 'Maybe I can sleep the day by.' She continued until she reached the room she shared with the four Konoha girls. A row of three beds was mirrored on both sides of the room. Sakura, Hinata, and Ten Ten shared one row, while Ino and Ame had the other. The extra bed stayed for any female guest visiting the village. Ame walked over to her bed where all inclinations of cleanliness ended and the hurricane began. She and Ino had no guilt about leaving clothes, books, and such on the floor. Precisely the reason they had been put on the same side, opposite all the clean freaks. Quite frankly, she had something against total cleanliness. One glance at the opposite side of the room was enough to send shivers down her spine. It was just too………clean.
Ame flopped down on her unmade bed and stared at the ceiling a moment before closing her eyes. She sighed deeply, slowly falling into a state of slumber. That's when she heard it. The faint dripping noise coming from the adjacent bathroom, one of those sounds that you can't hear when moving around, yet as soon as it gets quiet, turns into a constant hammering. She threw the blanket over her head serving to muffle the sound. She was just settling down again when the cracking humming of a motor jolted her out of relaxation. 'Someone just had to mow their lawn now, didn't they?' She grabbed a pillow and stuffed it over her ears, just waiting for the next interruption to occur. Sure enough within seconds, Ino's alarm clock came out of snooze.
With sleep far from her grasp, she jumped out of bed and grabbed the offending object, flinging it to the opposite side of the room. Destroying the perfect cleanliness as well as the alarm.
"SCREW THIS!"
Later
The clock had moved slowly that day, and when the time finally came for Ame to leave for Welcome, she could almost feel herself relieved to remove herself from the boring dullness that was her house. She reached the academy building, which was being used for multiple purposes these days, at fifteen minutes past eleven. The information on the new arrivals would be on Iruka sensei's desk. Sure enough they were there. There were three expected tonight. Each of them had their own card and on those cards where such information like name, blood type, ninja level, things like that.
Name: Temari
Name: Kankurou
Name: Gaara
She inhaled sharply. She had heard of these three before, but had missed out on actually coming in contact with any of them. Known for being extremely strong and not the easiest people to get along with, Ame suddenly felt like this was a little more than a one-man job. She laid out their pictures next. 'My, what a happy bunch.' The three faces scowled up at her with identical frowns.
Three hours later, Ame was still waiting. Staring at the clock in blatant outrage.
'If they're not here in thirty minutes, I'm leaving.' She made a mental note to herself. 'This is bull shit!' She begins searching through Iruka's drawers to find something to occupy the time. Her hand grasps a toy at the bottom of the drawer and pulls out a magic eight ball, which he must have confiscated during one of his classes.
"Why not," she mutters to herself shaking the black sphere and thinking of a question. She motions to the people staring out of the pictures, "will these people be here soon?" She stops shaking and looks at the answer: ask again later.
Ame gives the orb a two second break, and then furiously shakes the ball again. "Will they be here soon?" she asks a little for forcefully. Ask again later, it answers again.
"Ah hell, who needs you?" She aims the ball toward an empty trashcan by the door and shoots. The ball crashes into the can knocking it over and creating a deafening clang. Ame's heart jumps as she hears footsteps outside the door, but her spirit soon drops as Genma opens the door. "Oh, it's just you." She sinks back in her seat.
"Thanks for the warm welcome," he smirks slightly at his pun. "I come over here to check on you 'cause Tsunade-sama said you'd be alone here tonight and that's the greeting I get?" He turns to leave.
"No, no wait. Sorry. I didn't mean it like that." Brother or not, any company was better than none at all.
"You don't look too good kiddo," he points to the dark circles forming around her eyes as he settles himself, sitting on the edge of the desk.
"Yeah, well, can't say I've been sleeping much lately." Ame decided to let the kiddo comment slide.
"It's good training for when you join ANBU, right?" he flashed her a good-natured grin. "Which reminds me, why haven't you applied yet?"
"I'm getting' around to it………I just thought, you know, I should wait a little while longer."
"Okay," he gives some time for though, "here's what I'll do for you," Genma steps away from the desk and leans his hands on it instead. "I'll request that you get a few days off for a little R&R, if you promise you'll apply soon."
'What's all the rush about? But rest sounds too good to pass up in my condition.' "Fine," she said out loud.
"Great, well, I'm suppose to meet some others for a little get together." He smirked. His get togethers usually included a massive amount of drinking and the usual random female companion at the end of the night.
But that wasn't the thing Ame caught on to. "Wait, you said others are back from their missions already?"
"Yeah, most everyone dispatched today have already returned." With a slight chuckle and a nonchalant wave from over his shoulder he left with a parting, "g'night."
She watched him leave looking as smug as he could. 'The nerve of him!' One of the things that had made her feel better about carrying out welcome tonight was that she was sure that at least she would be able to finished before anyone else could finish their missions. Now the sand were three hours late and if you counted Genma's visit, six minutes.
Unable to sit still any longer, Ame stood from behind the desk to retrieve the eight ball. It had rolled out of the trashcan, over to the door where it stayed motionless.
'Stupid………can't even answer a simple question.' She reaches down to pick it up. "No………can't even tell me if the people will be coming soo………"
crash
darkness
"Hey………doesn't she look"
"Shhhh!"
"………is she dead?"
"Of course not, she's breathing isn't she?"
'Who were these people?' Ame didn't recognize their voices. She slowly opened one eyelid, then the other. It was like the pictures had suddenly let loose their scowling inhabitants. She felt the eight ball still grasped in her hand: my sources say yes it reads.
'Ouch,' her head throbbed angrily. She felt where the door had hit her, 'yep definite bruise forming'. Looking back up at the three, she saw them all staring back at her as if she had sprouted an extra limb.
"Well don't everyone rush to help me up." She rose to her feet and walked back to the desk muttering under her breath.
"Acting like I was the late one………ram their heads into a door………my sources say yes………stupid sources." She motioned for the three to step further into the room, seeing as they were still in the doorway.
The two older sand took a small step forward, stealing a tentative glance at the youngest, while he stood his ground, piercing blue eyes fixed mercilessly at Ame. 'Wow, kind and cooperative, what more could one ask for?' She sunk back into her chair. "Right," she said skipping her usual cheery intro, "you three have been here before, but never for such an elongated time like now. You will be staying in dormitories with everyone else, no special apartment to yourselves this time. At six tomorrow, you are to meet with everyone else, here, to receive new teammates." Now the part she was dreading. "You guys have your filled-out paperwork, right?"
Temari took a thick packet of papers from her pack and held them out.
'Is she really expecting me to get up and get them?" Ame looked bemused, apparently so because Temari did not budge. Ame again rose from her seat and closed the distance between them. She grasped the papers and brought them to her side without looking at them. She instead stared at the three again. The two closest to her had paled considerably since entering the room and the third………well, he was already pale to begin with. They stood there staring, unblinkingly.
"You guys okay?" she wondered out loud. "You look like you've just seen a ghost."
"Tired, we're just tired." Temari nudged her brother who finally blinked.
"Right, well," she tried to muster up some amount of enthusiasm. "As soon as I file you papers, you'll be registered in Konoha." 'And I can finally sleep.'
With a slight nod, Kankurou and Temari turned to leave.
"Name?"
"………Excuse me?" Ame blinked over to Gaara.
"What's your name?" He looked like the type who didn't like to have to repeat himself.
"Oh, right. Ame."
Did she imagine it, or did all of them visibly twitch upon hearing her name? She had never had someone not like her name before. 'Strange………'
"Well, if you guys are tired, you can go."
An awkward silence had filled the room, but was soon broken when again Temari and Kankurou attempted to leave, this time, accompanied by Gaara.
As the door shut behind them Ame could barely make out Kankurou's voice, "did you know we were suppose to fill those out?"
Ame's heart froze. She slowly brought the papers to her face. Blank. Every last damn page was blank. Fighting back a cry of despair, she slammed the papers on the desk and began to search for a pen.
Finally finished, she dropped her pen with difficulty, her left hand seemed permanently stuck in that position. She got up from her chair and slowly shuffled out of the room. Outside, the early morning air felt wonderful on her face as she numbly jumped from rooftop to rooftop.
She looked at the sky. Signs of morning had already started to show, pink and orange in the distant horizon. Having trouble keeping her eyes open, she glares up at the fading moon, hoping to concentrate on something other than her own fatigue. A couple of rooftops along though, she realized she was losing her battle as she felt her eyelids grow heavy. As her eyes began to close, her body went into auto-mode. She had taken this route home so many times, her feet knew the paces by heart.
Realizing she was reaching her destination, she jerked her eyes open. Not quickly enough, she tried to stop herself from colliding with someone on the roof of the boys' dormitories. A wall of sand manifested itself in the air in front of her. Moments from impact she threw her hands out in front of her to soften the blow on the majority of her body. She crashed into the wall and felt it propel her backwards. Back first, Ame began falling to the distant ground below.
'Okay, falling………it's okay………just stay calm now.'
She concentrated all of her thoughts toward her chakra, but was finding it difficult to use her powers and save herself since she couldn't clear her mind. Levitating objects took much more concentration than she could muster in her fatigued state. All she could manage was to slightly slow her falls momentum, and hope for the best. Seconds from impact, she felt a pair of strong arms catch her, the owner of which she noticed, also had the stale stench of alcohol on them. Weary of being assaulted by a drunkard, she timidly glances up. As she looks, a familiar face greets her gaze.
"Wha'd'ya know, it's rainin' Ame." He gave her a lopsided smile, his usual sebon replaced by a regular stirring stick.
"Genma!" Ame was relieved at his appearance. "What're you doing here?"
"When I heard that my lil' sis still hadn't gotten safely home, I first checked the academy building, then came straight here. And good thing I did by the look of things." He flashed her another of those infectious grins.
Ame couldn't help but smile back. Around her brother, you just couldn't help feeling happy.
He set her down, but found that she was having trouble standing. "Whoa," he said, steadying her again. "I'll have whatever you had." He chuckled to himself. "You sure you weren't drinkin' with us tonight?"
"Let's just say, I am very much looking forward to that R&R you promised you'd get for me." She allowed him to guide her to the door leading to the dormitories that she had conveniently almost fallen right in front of.
"Oh, about that." He looked down on her, smiling sheepishly. "It seem that starting tomorrow you're gonna have your hands full and I couldn't really get you out of it………sorry."
She should have seen it coming, what with the new team arriving and all, but that didn't stop the lump from dropping in her stomach.
"Yeah, well, them's the breaks kid." He slapped her back, probably a little harder than necessary in his drunken condition. "I'm not too sure what time it is now, but you really should go try to catch a couple winks before tomorrow."
She nodded, "night Genma."
"Night Ame," he turned to leave, but remembered something. "Oh, hey," he tried to voice his thoughts in the best way, "don't be………you tomorrow."
"And what is that suppose to mean?" Ame started smiling, thinking this was just another one of her older brothers many jokes.
"No, really," his face taking an uncharacteristic form, "be careful tomorrow." He left without another word, leaving Ame with a serious feeling of foreboding.
Miraculously, a few minutes later she hobbled to her side of the room and flopped face first on her bed, not bothering to change clothes. She pulled the covers up to her neck, eyes finally getting to close, head resting on her pillow when………
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
End of Flashback
Wow, I do believe that was the longest flashback I have ever written. To think all those pages only took place in the span of about five seconds in Ame's mind. Well anyway, what do you think of Ame? This chapter was basically to introduce you to her, so you can kinda get a feel for what she's like. Next chapter! We get to see the new teams and they'll find out what their assignment is. Review please!