"Three children, a woman and a merchant traveling through our forest. How convenient. Let's see what to do. Torture then kill, or just kill on the spot... Choices choices." The cruel voice said and others began to murmur. "We aren't surrounded. It's just an illusion... I would have expected better from people who've actually battled one of these ninja before." Ginaki said tossing a kunai into a tree. blood dripped from a branch onto the grass staining it red. "Next one is going for your head Echo." She said twirling a kunai on her index finger by the loop. "You bitch." A man fell from the tree and landed in a slumped mess.
Kurenai smiled, "You're good." she said to Ginaki and then glaring at her students. "Why aren't you like her?" particularly aiming this comment at Kiba. "Bleh, gimme a break. All she does is train all day... She's the exact opposite of Shikamaru. A workaholic with an attitude: the worst personality." He shut up as he looked over at Ginaki who was furiously glaring at him shaking a fist. "That's not how I saw it last night. Kiba, you dog." Shino's expression eased up and he actually joked. "Sh-shut the hell up!" Kiba yelled back. "ARGH! You were spying!" Ginaki said clutching her head angrily. She straightened up and made a fist "If you tell anyone I swear to God..." "Don't threaten Shino-kun, Ginaki-chan!" Hinata had joined in.
((A/N: Cue up the 'It's the training' theme for that paragraph!))
"Anyone want to pay attention to the enemy?" Kurenai yelled looking at the man who was just as dumb founded as her. "So much for the bad ass approach." He stated and rolled over on his back. "What are you doing here anyway? And who are you?" Kurenai said being kinder than usual as her students and Ginaki bickered. "I am Koumori and I'm here," he sat up and shot his hand to her neck gripping it in an attempt to choke her to death. "to kill you." Ginaki wheeled around and threw a kunai. He deflected it and stood up with Kurenai. He took Ginaki's kunai and held it to Kurenai's neck. "Bad move on your part." He said.
Everyone stopped moving and stared.
'Will she do something? Or stand there dumb-founded and let that woman be killed? If she does attack she'll kill him for sure. That monster is completely under her control I'm sure'
Ginaki moved her hands in the hand symbols that Kiba hadn't seen before.
"Kanashibari no"
"Yamete!" A loud deep voice from the depths of the forest shouted. "Don't go killing any my ninja. I doubt he could withstand any of your attacks."
Kurenai's eyes widened. "O-Orochi"
Out of the shadows he walked looking quite intimidating to everyone...except Ginaki. He smiled a strange threatening smirk, "Hello, my little niece"
Ginaki's eyes lit up like a child's did on their birthday as they gazed over the gifts.
She bowed and she had a smile a mile wide on. "Otokage-sama, excuse me for causing so much trouble."
Kiba frowned. "WHAT THE HELL? Ginaki what are you doing?" Ginaki turned to him with a surprised and angry face, "Greeting my uncle what do you think I'm doing"
"Well first of all he's NOT a kage; he just dubbed himself one and two, he killed Sarutobi Hokage! He's our enemy!" The intense anger in his voice and his expressions scared Ginaki.
Everyone looked on and waited for her response.
'What will you do, little niece? Who are your allies and who are you enemies?'
"I'm sorry...Kiba"
'Giving into guilt? Weakness from her father'
"Orochimaru"
'No honorifics'
"This is my fiance, Inuzuka Kiba"
'WHAT'
-
"WHAT!" Orochimaru looked paler than usual. Ginaki smirked, "By arranged marriage but nonetheless"
"I'll kill him!" Orochimaru lunged at Kiba.
"Oh, no you won't." Ginaki stepped in front of Kiba. She looked back at him and laughed. He looked so terrified and it was pretty funny.
"I'm taking no one's side but my own." She said, and frowned. "I was blamed for the death of the Hokage in the Village. No one talked to me for a week and that was the week I was denied any genin to look after. It was because I was your niece, Orochimaru"
"You're a jounin?" He asked a little surprised
"I have been for a while"
Kiba stared at her. "A jounin!" he said raising an eyebrow. "Yeah, you didn't know?" She replied "Uh, no. I thought you were a chunin..." He was embarrassed to be a rank lower than her, she looked to weak to be a jounin.
"Are you coming back to the the Village Hidden in the Sound or not?" Orochimaru interrupted their confused fighting.
"Well, no. When did I say I was going to do that"
"Hurry up and say goodbye." he stated and began to walk back into the shadows.
"Hey! Stop! I'm not going with you. I have to get this guy to his destination and then go home. I haven't got the"
Orochimaru glanced at Kurenai, "You'll come with me or she'll die. You won't have time to react. Don't call Konoha your home. Oto no Kuni is your home." She looked at Kiba with a worried expression. "I'm sorry Kiba. I have to go." She said sadly. He grabbed her hand and pulled her back when she began to walk away. "Don't. You give up to easily." She smiled weakly, "I know." She winked at him and walked with Orochimaru away from him. Kurenai was let go and the ninja disappeared with them.
-
After they returned to Konoha he found himself avoiding places. That patch of woods, the memorial, the road her house was on... Everywhere he had memories of her. It was depressing when they had walked through the woods. Even though he tried to stay away from the places, August first rolled around and he realized while walking with Akamaru that he was on the street where her apartment was. He expected it to be lonely and abandoned. He passed it he saw nothing, just a dark window.
KLACK.
"Ow, shit. What the hell was that?" He gripped the back of his head, someone had thrown a piece of gravel at him. He turned around and saw.
"GINAKI"
She stood there with her right hand of her hip and she was tossing a piece of gravel up and catching it in her left hand. She smiled "Hey, dog boy. Wassup?"
'Am I dreaming?' "You're back"
"I have been for a while now. Orochimaru doesn't know yet though. I left a clone behind but he'll figure out soon so I can't stay too long." She dropped the piece of gravel and looked at the ground her hair covered both her eyes now. "I-I-" The sky that had been gray to begin with opened up and rain poured. It fitted the mood pretty well, the rain slid down her face...or was it tears? She looked up at him, her eyes were red and puffy, they were tears. She ran to him and hugged him. It'd been 2 weeks since they had seen each other and in both their minds they had thought they'd never see each other again. They stood there in the rain for a while, just letting it fall on them and soak them to the bone. It was an atonement with the situation, it was their way of dealing with it.
"I need to leave. He'll come after me, and he might end up killing a lot of people"
"I'll go with you. We may as well suffer together rather than apart"
She laughed through her tears "This is so stupid. It's been two weeks and we act like it was two years"
"Let me get my stuff and we'll go"
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((A/N Kyoko: Whoa who knew it'd go like that? The monster inside Ginaki? What are you SAYING Orochimaru? You're hinting too much to the readers! punt))