Hey all.
Well, I'm still tranglin here, writing to the best of my abilities. This chapter wasn't so great, it merely served to talk a little bit about Reiko's powers and his abilities. We pretty much know about the other characters, but not him. Let me also tell you that if you think you know about Reiko and his powers, you haven't even scratched the surface of what he can do or the history of his power, which becomes very important later.
I don't own Naruto
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura snuck their way through the woods in search of their target. This was a delicate mission that involved careful planning. Somewhere along the line, Reiko had gotten lost, but it was loss. They would keep the money and he would miss out. They knew Reiko could be anywhere, however, because out of the four of them, he was the best at sneaking up on people.
Soon their target was in sight, just in front of them. With extreme caution, they hid behind trees so as not to be spotted. It was now or never. They all lunged from their respective hiding places at the target, who was only now catching on to them. Just before they reached the target however, a dart flew from the trees and struck the target squarely in the leg. Everybody stopped to see where it came from as the target simply fell over.
"Who did that?" Sakura asked worriedly. She didn't know what had really went on, but was afraid that the mission was in jeopardy.
"I did." A familiar voice said, dropping from the trees silently. "I'm getting sick and tired of doing this. I decided to do something more creative."
"Reiko!" Sakura yelled at him "You can't just go around hitting our mission objective with darts! Why in the world did he fall over like that?"
"Look." Reiko said, picking up a cat with a dart in it's leg by the scruff of it's neck and held it in front of her face "In the past week, we have found this cat seven times and I have had to endure numerous scratches and bites from him. Now, he's just sedated so he'll be fine. If any of you would rather get scratched to death rather than sedate an animal, raise your hand."
"Ummm…Why don't you just wear a shirt?" Naruto asked, confusion written all over his face.
"I don't wear a shirt because I like to feel the wind on my skin. Besides, it makes me a total chick magnet." Reiko replied as he started to trudge off with the cat in tow "Call up Kakashi sensei on the radio and tell him we completed the mission."
Upon reaching headquarters, Reiko took the dart out of the cat's leg and handed him back to the woman who had requested they find him…again. She looked a little worried that he was asleep, but Reiko politely assured her that he would be just fine.
"Reiko, from now on, don't go around sedating cats without orders from us." Kakashi said to him with a sigh.
"That cat should be grateful I didn't come after him with one of these." Reiko replied, pulling out what looked like a thicker version of a senbon. It resembled a railroad spike more than anything.
"What the hell is that?" Naruto asked him, staring the weapon up and down suspiciously. He wasn't sure he liked Reiko having such devices at his disposal.
"This is a weapon that my clan uses exclusively. We invented it actually. It does a lot more damage then a regular senbon but still requires more finesse than a regular kunai or shuriken." Reiko replied with a smile "Yep, that's my clan. Pluggin' holes in people and seeing demons since the freakin stone ages man. We're the best around if you need something done half-assed or in a drunken manner."
"Wow, you have a whole clan, and some 'impressive' family history." Naruto said in awe.
"Actually it's just my dad and my uncle's families. We're still technically a clan though." Reiko said offhandedly "And I'm also the only one since my great-great-grandfather to be able to employ the special family jutsus."
"Wow, you must feel pretty lucky." Naruto said as he scratched the back of his head "Your family is mostly genjutsu users, but you have extra genjutsu abilities, you have your own special weapons, and you have a clan."
"I am pretty lucky to end up with our "bloodline". It only appears in men every few generations. It's never appeared in a woman before." Reiko said with a shrug.
"And why don't the women in your family get the bloodline." Sakura said defensively. She was a woman after all.
"Because it's a curse more than a bloodline, and the one who created it didn't want it to burden the females in our family." Reiko explained gravely, causing Sakura to look at him confusedly.
"A curse? What do you mean by that?" Sakura asked "I thought you just saw things because you had something wrong with you."
"Nope…I don't go a day without losing a limb or even my life to these hallucinations." Reiko said, his features suddenly becoming tired "Sure, I'm immune to almost all genjutsu, but at what cost? If I knew that's all it did however, I'd have gladly given it up long ago. The thing is, I think I can do something else with it, but nobody in my family knows. My great-great-grandfather didn't leave any clues as to what it was."
"So you know nothing about your powers, and you're constantly under attack by things nobody else sees…" Naruto said quietly "How do you deal with it all the time?"
"I just learned to." Reiko said as he shrugged his shoulders "If I hadn't, I would have been locked up a long time ago. That's part of the reason we're a four man team. They didn't expect me to stay sane long enough to become a genin."
"All right you four, we have to go and get another mission from the hokage that we'll start tomorrow." Kakashi said, leading them over to where the hokage sat.
"Greetings team seven, let's see what kind of mission we have today." The old man said as he looked through his stack of papers "We have babysitting the lord's children, digging up potatoes, painting a recently finished house…"
"Enough of these crappy missions old man! Give us something challenging! Something were we get to fight other shinobi!" Naruto yelled at the hokage in frustration.
"Well, apparently you don't understand how it works do you?" The old hokage said, preparing to explain the whole system to him.
"We understand just fine gramps, don't go into a long explanation or anything." Reiko interjected more polite than one could think possible "What my exuberant teammate means is, that he wants to test his skills, or at least do something a little less mundane."
"Well, since you put it that way…I think I could give you a nice C-ranked mission." The hokage said slyly "You'll be escorting one Tazuna, to the wave country. As a matter of fact, he's here right now. I think you should meet him."
The members of team seven turned around to face an old man with a bottle of alcohol and a slightly angry expression on his face. Judging by team seven's luck, they all accurately assessed that this was Tazuna.
"What's all this? I'm going to be protected by a bunch of kids?" Tazuna asked, "They look pretty weak to me, especially the short orange one and the tall shirtless one. They look like complete morons."
"If you don't shut your trap old man, I'm going to drink whatever you have in that bottle, break it over your head, and shove the broken shards so far up your ass you'll have to pick glass out of your teeth!" Reiko yelled at him as he attempted to carry out his threat.
Neither insulted parties got very far because Sakura beat Naruto into submission and Kakashi caught Reiko by one of his belt loops. It seems they got off to a real nice start.
"Not to worry Tazuna san, I'm a highly qualified jounin and my team is more capable than they look." Kakashi said politely with a smile "We'll meet tomorrow morning by the gate."
Reiko wandered home after they all had dispersed. He didn't have to go to his other job today, so he was ready to relax. Upon walking into the door however, he was greeted by both of his parents standing next to each other and staring at him silently.
His father was a man of average build with messy black hair. His posture and mannerisms were almost exactly like Reiko's though, despite their physical differences. His mother was a rather short woman with sandy blonde hair. They stood there smiling at him while he just hoped they weren't about to kill him.
"Um…why were the both of you standing here waiting for me?" Reiko asked suspiciously, thinking he had done something wrong.
"Son, your mother and I have talked about it, and we think it's time to give you something." Reiko's father said, using more proper grammar in that sentence than he had used in the last month.
"Is it forty hacks with a meat cleaver? If it is, I can always come back another time…" Reiko said, not really trusting them both.
"No son, it's a gift from my great grandfather and your great-great-grandfather. Think of it as an early birthday present." Reiko's father said, coming forward and handing his son a dusty box.
Reiko opened the box suspiciously. Inside it seemed to be nothing at first, due to all the dust, but upon closer inspection he found what looked like a mask. It was a strange mask different from the ones the Anbu wore. It was an oval shape and had no eyes or nose, or mouth on it. It was completely white, except for the red markings painted on it. The markings themselves were in the shape of bleeding eyes, in the exact spot where the wearer's eyes would be.
Reiko then pulled out a dusty and tattered piece of paper from the bottom of the box. There was only one sentence on it, which he read aloud to his family.
"It says…'Use with fear'…" Reiko said slowly, confusion dominating his features "What is this thing?"
"We have no clue, but we think it's a link to some sort of hidden powers." Reiko's father explained. "From now on, I want you to carry that with you. I have no clue what it does, but I'm sure you'll figure it out and be able to use it. It will keep you safe on missions where you need to protect yourself or others."
"Wow…thanks guys…I don't really know what to say…" Reiko said, his tone completely genuine. This was the only clue he had as to how his powers worked. If he was lucky, it might just make the hallucinations end.
Reiko went to bed, or at least used pressure points to knock himself out,that night with a smile on his face. He had hope that his nightmares would be over and he could see the world like everybody else. He acted like it wasn't a big deal, but the delusions really bother him. Sometimes he had to root himself to the ground in order not to run. But now, he might not have to ever run again.
Shang: Ahh, my good Shang, Reiko definately has flaws, which are very evident due to his skill set. Now, and especially later, his taijutsu is very, very slow. Using his genjutsu he is able to make up for it. The tattoo is very important as well though, and you should learn a bit about it later.
Xeno: Glad you and I have the same opinion!