Betrothal
A Naruto fanfiction.
Chapter 7 - Anger.
Naruto dodged, ducked and jumped in a mad rush of movement. As he moved fists, feet or worse slammed through the space in which he had, mere moments ago, stood. Many of the blows came so close to hitting that the young ninja could feel them just barely brush against the very edges of his form.
The fight had, after a few tense moments just inside the front hall of Naruto's home, spilled out into the street after Naruto had quite luckily managed to vault over his first opponent.
Most would ask why Naruto didn't fight back. That, in and of itself, was a simple question, with a simpler answer. To be brutally honest, Naruto did not fight back simply because he could not.
His two opponents were working in tandem, keeping their attacks so syncronised that it was all the blonde-haired boy could do just to avoid them. Eventually the teamwork of his opponents paid off as one swung a low sweeping kick at his legs, forcing him to jump up - and right into the path of a second, much higher, kick that came from his other opponent.
"Ugh!" Naruto grunted as he swung one arm up to block, or at least cushion, the kick. Even though he managed it - barely - the blow felt like he had just been slammed around with an iron tetsubo mace. Needless to say, the orange clad youth was sent flying backwards from the blow.
"Ha!" One of his opponents, a wild-looking black-haired youth who went by the name of Inuzuka Kiba, shouted at Naruto's other opponent, the much more reserved and calm Aburame Shino. The bug-using ninja lowered his leg from the high kick position it had been in when it had struck Naruto.
Not waiting for Naruto to get back up, Kiba leapt at the boy - his hands stretched out like claws. In fact, they were claws - another little side benefit he gained from using the Inuzuka clan's main jutsu - the Quadruped no Jutsu.
"NINPOU... KAMAITACHI!"
Kiba had the barest fraction of a second to glance in the direction the yell had come from before he was slammed - mid leaf - into the ground by an enormous blast of high air pressure. In a way it was lucky, as the user had quite nicely let her chakra be somewhat diffused, leading towards a solid blast rather than a focused blade of air.
Temari landed a few moments after Kiba's body bounced upon the ground. She stood with her legs slightly spread apart and with one hand resting on her hips. Her fan stood, folded, next to her being held up with her free hand. In all truth, Temari's pose oozed an air of smug superiority and confidence.
"Just what," she began, "Is the reason for this?"
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Hinata had stopped crying.
Well, no. Actually she was still crying but at least now she didn't feel so bad about it. About Naruto. About her shattered dream of him and her and maybe a few kids when they got older and...
Hinata had started crying again.
Last night her team-mates Kiba and Shino had quite nicely taken her back - not to her home, for that would have been even worse for her, but instead to the meeting room that their team had. Fortunately the meeting room was intended to be used as emergency shelter, so the two boys had found no trouble in setting up a bed for her to sleep in.
Granted, she was fairly sure that Kiba had probably taken an opportunity to get a free peek - or a quick feel, but then that was Kiba all over. He may be somewhat lecherous at times, and sometimes he could be annoyingly stupid with his crazy boasting but none of that really mattered. After all, when the chips were down Kiba was everything a girl could ask for in a friend - loyal, trustworthy, a guy who didn't give up.
"But he isn't Naruto..." Murmured Hinata, not really paying attention to her surroundings. Since the, admittedly rather early, time she had woken up she had been aimlessly wandering around the village. About the only location she was trying to avoid was Naruto's home - she just felt that she couldn't bear to see him again yet.
"Who isn't Naruto?" Asked a rather sunny and, to be honest, overly cheery female voice. Raising her gaze from the floor she had been staring at, Hinata came face to face with the villages self proclaimed most beautiful shinobi.
Yamanaka Ino.
"Oh..." Whispered the Hyuuga girl, "It's just you." For the most part Hinata had never really spoken with Ino before. Granted there were the odd pleasantries which were murmured on the few times the two ran across each other. Then again, Hinata tended to murmur such things to everyone, something that had earned her a rather nice reputation of being one of the most well mannered Genin in the village.
"Hey! What do you mean by 'It's just you'?" Ino frowned as she spoke, feeling slightly insulted. A moment passed, as did her feeling of annoyance - which was replaced with a rather concerned look. "Hinata? Have you been crying?"
Hinata bit her lower lip and looked away. She didn't want anyone to get involved in her problems, it just wouldn't be nice to burden others with her worries and tears. The Hyuuga girl moved to turn and walk away when a hand was placed on her shoulder.
"Hey," Stated Ino, as she gripped Hinata's shoulder just enough to prevent her from leaving. "Don't run off, at least come inside and wipe those tear- stains off of your face." The blonde haired Genin smiled widely, "You look prettier without them you know."
Hinata blushed slight at the compliment - it wasn't everyday that anyone, guy or girl, said she looked pretty. Heck, most people just ignored her or passed her off as the 'failed' Hyuuga. Granted, her reputation had changed slightly since the chuunin exams, but she was still considered the 'failed' member of her family. "Uhm..." She hesitated, "O-okay..."
"Great!" Ino grabbed hold of Hinata's arm and half led, half dragged her into the Yamanaka family flower shop. "So," The more cheerful girl began as she pulled Hinata inside, "Just why were you crying so much to have such awful tear-stains like that anyway?"
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Temari glared at the two Genin, though she did have to try really hard not to screw her face up in revulsion at the sight of a bug-covered Shino. Still, this was her combat mask - the thick mental and emotional shell she built around herself when she needed it. In fact, it was this shell between her and her emotions which meant that she occasionally came off looking like a bit of a psycho.
Then again, years of living with a younger brother who had a nasty tendency to crush people he didn't like also brought forth some rather disturbing qualities. In fact, most of her mental shell had been erected so that she didn't throw up each time Gaara used his 'Desert graveyard' technique.
In short, when her combat persona was up, Temari often ended up acting like quite the cheerful little psychopath.
"So, are you going to tell me?" She asked, her voice sweet - though her expression was not, "Or will I have to cut your heads open to get the answer straight from your minds?"
Kiba paled slightly. Given that all his knowledge of Temari had been gained from the Chuunin exam - and more than one rather disturbing story from Shikamaru's team - he was undeniably worried. After all, as far as he knew, Temari didn't act like a cheerful psychopath - she was a cheerful psychopath!
Shino, on the other hand, merely raised a questioning eyebrow.
Finally, Naruto who stood on the other side of Temari, freaked out - not realising that Temari's act was just that, an act.
"GAAH!" He half-screamed, "You can't cut their heads open!" His face was one of shock mixed with horror. Temari glanced back and Naruto and sighed - trust that idiot to not notice a ruse.
"You're bluffing." Stated Shino from where he stood opposite Temari. "Your body is releasing pheromones that indicate a mix of fear and panicked thought - in other words, it smells like you're lying." The boy held up one hand, which was covered in crawling bugs. "I note that as I raised the insects, your fear pheromone production increased." He grinned, not that anyone could see it, hidden by his overly large collar as it was. "You wouldn't be afraid of insects would you?"
Temari gulped, her skin paling slightly. Damn it! She'd heard from Kankuro that the insect-using boy was overly smart and, in particular, very good at what he did, but still... For him to pick all that up in a few moments... "N-no..." She stuttered, then caught herself. "No!" She repeated, this time yelling so as to avoid stuttering. "Why would I be afraid of some useless little bugs!?"
Shino nodded in the direction of the ground near Temari's feet. "Really?" he asked.
Temari knew what was going to be there even before she looked down. "No, nonononono..." She looked down, her eyes half closed. Bugs. Hundreds of them, thousands of them. Hundreds of thousands of them even. Now Temari was torn, on the one hand she wanted to scream and scram and scream, but on the other hand she didn't want to show any more weakness to her opponents - or to Naruto.
"K-KAMAITACHI!" She screamed, hopping backwards and snapping open her fan whipping it through a large arc in front of her. This time however, she concentrated her chakra a bit more, causing the wind blast to be somewhat more solid as well as somewhat smaller. The blast tore into the ground, ripping up both the bugs and the dirt floor. Kiba yelled as he and his companion were showered with bugs, dirt and various other things that had been in the path of Temari's kamaitachi technique.
Shino, however, merely nodded his head once. Almost immediately Temari felt something wrong with her fan. It felt like it was moving slightly - as if there were something inside... Her eyes widened in shock as she dropped the fan, the first of many small insects beginning to squirm out from under the wood that made up the frame of the fan.
"Sawtooth bugs," Murmured Shino, "A distant relation of the Destruction bug, their favourite food is dry, dead wood. A single nest of them can eat through almost a ton of wood in a matter of hours." Shino looked up and glanced at Temari with an evil little smirk. "Something like your fan was merely a light snack to them."
Temari's eye twitched.
It twitched again.
Temari had always done her best to control her emotions, to keep them under lock and key as long as she possibly could. Recently, however, she'd been letting a few things slip - especially since she had come to the Leaf village. Mostly, she felt she could get away with it a lot more here because she wasn't pressured each day to be 'the best of the ninja world' like she was back at the Sand village.
Here eye twitched somewhat more as she turned away from her fan to glare at Shino. Her glare was, amazingly, strong enough to cause even the unflappable Shino to falter a little.
"You." She stated, in a voice as cold as death, and twice as unfriendly.
"Destroyed." Naruto was worried now, Temari seemed so, so... so scary. Like a flash of insight, the blonde-haired boy realised what could have made Temari so mad.
"My fan." Temari advanced on Shino and Kiba, her chakra - due to her anger - being leaked out as a pure killing intent, one that would rival even her younger brother Gaara's own killing intent.
"That fan," she whispered, "Was the last thing my mother gave me."
"Oh shit..." Kiba squeaked, since he was still under the influence of his Quadruped no Jutsu, he could feel Temari's killing intent much, much more strongly than Shino could. It felt sort of like how a mouse felt, moments before being snatched up by a hawk or a cat.
Behind Temari, Naruto was planning on instinct - as he usually did. His hands moved in a blur as he performed his signature Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and created three clones of himself. The four Naruto bodies all began running towards Temari, with three of them picking up the fourth as they did so.
"I'll kill you!" Screamed Temari, Raising her hands as if to strike with a weapon - in her rage she had momentarily forgotten that her fan was gone.
"Advanced Henge no Jutsu!" Yelled the fourth Naruto clone, as the other three hurled him towards Temari. In mid air his form blurred slightly, then vanished I na cloud of smoke - allmost immediately something big, buzzing and black whirled out of the smoke-cloud like some kind of giant shuriken.
Temari spun on one foot, saw what Naruto had done and grinned evilly. Her arms swept up and caught the transformed Naruto clone.
It was black, with a pattern of red and orange spirals that, in fact, Temari quite liked the look of. It was also slightly lighter, but that wasn't a problem.
"Now then," she growled, twirling the giant fan that the clone had turned into around. "Let's play... Wind style taijutsu! Sabaku Juuji!" Temari spun, and as she spun she slashed her open Naruto-fan lengthways in a downward diagonal blow that ripped along Shino's attempt at a block. Then as she spun back to her original position, she slashed upwards with a similar diagonal blow - which completely ripped through Shino's block, slashing his shirt open and leaving a light scratch along his chest. Effectively, it looked like she had used her fan to carve a giant 'X' shape through the air.
Kiba jumped out of the way of the partially crazed blonde-haired girl, cursing to himself as he did so. Unfortunately for the dog-boy, he never landed - as his jump was quite neatly interrupted by the remaining three Narutos. "Going somewhere?" They asked, before beginning to beat upon the wild animalistic boy.
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"That sand-nin girl huh?" Ino's voice was sweet - like sugar, yet filled with obvious concern for Hinata. The two weren't exactly friends, but Ino knew enough about Hinata to take pity on the white-eyed girl... Just like she had taken pity on a certain girl with a large forehead all those years ago.
"Didn't you hear the rumours?" She continued, "That there was going to be a political marriage arranged between our village and the sand village? You know, the whole 'we're in trouble, so take her whilst we try to cover ourselves' thing?"
Hinata blinked and sat silent for a few moments before nodding. "Oh." She said, several things coming together in her mind in one go. "I didn't know about that." She whispered, her voice barely heard over the sounds of life passing by outside.
"Sooo..." Continued Ino, "It's not like Naruto was intentionally getting himself engaged to this girl, right?"
"I... I guess..." Mumbled the Hyuuga girl, which cause Ino to roll her eyes and slap her hand against her forehead.
"Has anyone ever told you," She began, "That you really need to get some self confidence?" her question was asked innocently and with the hinting that, perhaps if Hinata agreed, she might help her do just that.
Blushing slightly, Hinata bowed her head in embarrassment. "Y... yes..."
Laughing, Ino scooted over to sit next to Hinata and slapped the slightly shorter girl on the back. "Stick with me! Once I'm done with you, you'll be the most sought after girl in all the village!" Then she grinned, the evil grin that only women were capable of - the grin that meant certain males would be in for it sooner or later. "And then, you'll show Naruto just exactly what he's missing out on..."
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Kiba ducked and dodged around blows that came at him from three separate directions. Atop his head, Akamaru kept his eye on one of the Naruto clones and barked in a special way to warn the Inuzuka boy about incoming blows. In effect, Kiba did have eyes in the back of his head.
Well, somewhat above the back of his head at least.
"Hyaaaaa!" One Naruto clone, or possibly the original - it was rather hard to tell, leapt into the air before coming down with one leg out - hoping to smash Kiba with what was effectively an aerial axe kick. As he did this, a second Naruto lucked out and managed to grab hold of Kiba's jacket - a minor thing, but it held him still long enough for the third Naruto to wrap his arms around the boy from behind. All this merely served to make Kiba a sitting target for the first Naruto's attack.
Kiba, realising he wasn't going to dodge the kick tried something drastic. Ducking down, despite Naruto's hold, he pulled forwards and lifted the boy who held him off his feet and into the air. Naruto only guessed what this meant when he heard the scream of 'look out!' from the kicking Naruto above.
You see, Kiba had managed to place his captor between himself and the axe kick coming from the first Naruto. When the attack hit, it would hurt them both - but it would hurt Naruto a lot more than it would hurt him.
The axe kick landed, with a rather sickening crunch, on the back of the third Naruto - who promptly vanished in a puff of smoke as the real Naruto lost control over the clone long enough for it to lose cohesion. Kiba, on the other hand, had been forced to his knees by the sheer power of the kick and, although he wasn't directly injured, he could still feel pain in the area where the kick had landed.
"Heh," The animal-like boy sneered, "Was that the best you could d-" He never got the chance to finish his boast, as the second Naruto quite neatly kicked him in the stomach - driving the air out of his lungs and leaving him winded.
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"Woah, that must have hurt something awful!" exclaimed a male ninja as he watched the fight from a distance. A rather incredible distance in fact, one that few nin could possibly see from. Luckily for him, he had been trained in the art of observation - and his chakra enhanced sight was better than any telescope.
His companion, a female, lay nearby. She didn't have the benefit of enhanced sight, and so could not possibly see the fight in progress. "So," she asked, "Do you see anything that could be an advantage to us?"
The man lifted one hand and waved it uncomfortably. "Well..." He began, "We already know that the rest of the village doesn't like her, or him, but he has found acceptance with a few of the Genin - along with that Jounin instructor of his."
"Don't forget those rumours we heard about the Sennin either." Pointed of the female, her voice somewhat irritated.
"Yeah," agreed the male, as he watched the fight progress - wincing when Naruto went and sued his 'lifetime of agony' technique. "I bet he won't be walking straight for a while after that..." He mumbled, before raising his voice so that his companion could hear. "I reckon we could have a problem if she stays too long - It'll be hard enough with a Jounin around, but if the others start rushing to her aid we could have trouble."
"Well, I for one don't want to fight that Naruto boy if I can get away with it." Stated the girl, "You heard what happened in his fight with Hyuuga right?" She shuddered slightly, the man echoing her movements - and her fear.
"Nine-tails." He whispered, then made a little warding sign over his chest with one hand. "No way in hell I wanna risk that thing coming out when we're nearby."
"I guess we just have to watch, and wait a while longer then." Stated the girl in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. "I just hope the reward will be worth all this waiting."
"Eh, calm down, you know what he promised - we do the job, we get what we want and he gets what he wants. No problems." The guy leant back as he spoke and sighed. "Still, this is a lot of hassle. Wanna go grab something to eat? We're not allowed to do anything for a while yet, and it's not like anyone even suspects what's going on..." He paused, then cocked his head slightly - "My treat?"
The girl sighed and pulled herself to her feet. "We might as well, there's nothing better for us to do right now anyway."
There was a slight blurring in the air, followed by two clouds of dust which hid the exit of the two mystery ninja.
Unfortunately, neither of them noticed the single solitary figure who sat, hidden in plain sight, at the base of the building they had been situated upon. Brushing back his masses of spiky white hair, Jiraiya - the toad Sennin himself - closed his eyes in thought.
"Well now," He whispered, "Looks like things will be getting a little more interesting in the future."
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Temari attacked like a woman possessed.
That said, she was a woman possessed - or at least Shino believed so. Whilst, normally, he would have little difficulty In a fight, Temari was proving to be quite to opponent.
On one hand, she had an intellect and a skill of foresight and planning that was only eclipsed by the genius Shikamaru. On the other, she had that incredibly annoying Kamataichi technique - which had repeatedly proved to be more than effective at scattering any bugs he sent her way.
The two combined were definitely a difficult opponent for him, as she seemed to know exactly when he would try to ambush or trick her with his bugs. Of course, then she would take the appropriate steps and force him even further onto the defensive.
In fact, the only real advantage that Shino had, was that Temari was afraid of bugs. On the other hand, she was too angry to be afraid, so that more or less left that advantage a moot point anyway.
Finally Shino decided to pull out one of his trump cards - one of his real trump cards. The kind that usually left opponents in great pain - or worse. Brining his hands together, he executed a short sequence of seals, one that Temari had never seen before in her life. Thus, it was either a family jutsu, or one unique to the leaf village as a whole.
"Doudou Sutingu no Jutsu!" From within one sleeve extended a short spike of metal - like a needle, though somewhat thinner. Unlike normal metal spikes, this one was made out of a bronze-like material which seemed to pulse with a sickly purple energy. If Kakashi or Sasuke had been watching, they would have instantly seen the strange twisting chakra that curled and oozed around the spike like some kind of slime.
With a quick stabbing motion Shino made as if to stab Temari with the spike. Unfortunately, Temari had anticipated the move as soon as she had seen the spike appear, and so had leaned to one side in order to let the thing pass by. Her quick thinking and action saved her from having her arm impaled upon the spike, instead all she received was the tiniest of scratches.
Shino hopped back and bowed his head, leaving Temari more than a little confused.
"It is over." He stated. "You have lost."
Chapter 7 - Ended. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Authors notes: Whee... I apologise most profusely for taking so long with this chapter x.x but really, I constantly re-wrote some parts of it so many times because I wasn't happy with them.
Anyway, expect the chapters to be a bit slower x.x I've got so much free time on my hands I'm just wallowing in boredom - and boredom-inspired writing generally isn't as good (well, I feel it isn't at least). Of course, since I dun' wanna ruin this by giving you a rushed or lacking chapter, I'll keep working at my own pace and trying to keep the quality up ^.^
I'm gonna thank everyone who's said they've liked this fic ^^;; as well as all those who have e-mailed me saying they wish to see more.
When I started this I never in a million years expected people to like it x.x and I still don't =P Reviews are good, but I'm not going to abandon everything just to go out of my way in getting lots of them - that's just not my style. (yeah... I'd probably die of terror or something if I tried that ^^;; some of you people who like this scare me ^^;;)
Anyway. Two original techniques in this chapter - if you disagree with the naming, tell me o.o;; I do wanna try and get things to at least sound right ^^;;
Lackey H - Meditating upon Temari of the Sand.
TECHNIQUE GLOSSARY -
Sabaku Juuji - Desert Crossing (Kudos if you understand the pun there...)
Doudou Sutingu - Magnificent Sting.
A Naruto fanfiction.
Chapter 7 - Anger.
Naruto dodged, ducked and jumped in a mad rush of movement. As he moved fists, feet or worse slammed through the space in which he had, mere moments ago, stood. Many of the blows came so close to hitting that the young ninja could feel them just barely brush against the very edges of his form.
The fight had, after a few tense moments just inside the front hall of Naruto's home, spilled out into the street after Naruto had quite luckily managed to vault over his first opponent.
Most would ask why Naruto didn't fight back. That, in and of itself, was a simple question, with a simpler answer. To be brutally honest, Naruto did not fight back simply because he could not.
His two opponents were working in tandem, keeping their attacks so syncronised that it was all the blonde-haired boy could do just to avoid them. Eventually the teamwork of his opponents paid off as one swung a low sweeping kick at his legs, forcing him to jump up - and right into the path of a second, much higher, kick that came from his other opponent.
"Ugh!" Naruto grunted as he swung one arm up to block, or at least cushion, the kick. Even though he managed it - barely - the blow felt like he had just been slammed around with an iron tetsubo mace. Needless to say, the orange clad youth was sent flying backwards from the blow.
"Ha!" One of his opponents, a wild-looking black-haired youth who went by the name of Inuzuka Kiba, shouted at Naruto's other opponent, the much more reserved and calm Aburame Shino. The bug-using ninja lowered his leg from the high kick position it had been in when it had struck Naruto.
Not waiting for Naruto to get back up, Kiba leapt at the boy - his hands stretched out like claws. In fact, they were claws - another little side benefit he gained from using the Inuzuka clan's main jutsu - the Quadruped no Jutsu.
"NINPOU... KAMAITACHI!"
Kiba had the barest fraction of a second to glance in the direction the yell had come from before he was slammed - mid leaf - into the ground by an enormous blast of high air pressure. In a way it was lucky, as the user had quite nicely let her chakra be somewhat diffused, leading towards a solid blast rather than a focused blade of air.
Temari landed a few moments after Kiba's body bounced upon the ground. She stood with her legs slightly spread apart and with one hand resting on her hips. Her fan stood, folded, next to her being held up with her free hand. In all truth, Temari's pose oozed an air of smug superiority and confidence.
"Just what," she began, "Is the reason for this?"
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Hinata had stopped crying.
Well, no. Actually she was still crying but at least now she didn't feel so bad about it. About Naruto. About her shattered dream of him and her and maybe a few kids when they got older and...
Hinata had started crying again.
Last night her team-mates Kiba and Shino had quite nicely taken her back - not to her home, for that would have been even worse for her, but instead to the meeting room that their team had. Fortunately the meeting room was intended to be used as emergency shelter, so the two boys had found no trouble in setting up a bed for her to sleep in.
Granted, she was fairly sure that Kiba had probably taken an opportunity to get a free peek - or a quick feel, but then that was Kiba all over. He may be somewhat lecherous at times, and sometimes he could be annoyingly stupid with his crazy boasting but none of that really mattered. After all, when the chips were down Kiba was everything a girl could ask for in a friend - loyal, trustworthy, a guy who didn't give up.
"But he isn't Naruto..." Murmured Hinata, not really paying attention to her surroundings. Since the, admittedly rather early, time she had woken up she had been aimlessly wandering around the village. About the only location she was trying to avoid was Naruto's home - she just felt that she couldn't bear to see him again yet.
"Who isn't Naruto?" Asked a rather sunny and, to be honest, overly cheery female voice. Raising her gaze from the floor she had been staring at, Hinata came face to face with the villages self proclaimed most beautiful shinobi.
Yamanaka Ino.
"Oh..." Whispered the Hyuuga girl, "It's just you." For the most part Hinata had never really spoken with Ino before. Granted there were the odd pleasantries which were murmured on the few times the two ran across each other. Then again, Hinata tended to murmur such things to everyone, something that had earned her a rather nice reputation of being one of the most well mannered Genin in the village.
"Hey! What do you mean by 'It's just you'?" Ino frowned as she spoke, feeling slightly insulted. A moment passed, as did her feeling of annoyance - which was replaced with a rather concerned look. "Hinata? Have you been crying?"
Hinata bit her lower lip and looked away. She didn't want anyone to get involved in her problems, it just wouldn't be nice to burden others with her worries and tears. The Hyuuga girl moved to turn and walk away when a hand was placed on her shoulder.
"Hey," Stated Ino, as she gripped Hinata's shoulder just enough to prevent her from leaving. "Don't run off, at least come inside and wipe those tear- stains off of your face." The blonde haired Genin smiled widely, "You look prettier without them you know."
Hinata blushed slight at the compliment - it wasn't everyday that anyone, guy or girl, said she looked pretty. Heck, most people just ignored her or passed her off as the 'failed' Hyuuga. Granted, her reputation had changed slightly since the chuunin exams, but she was still considered the 'failed' member of her family. "Uhm..." She hesitated, "O-okay..."
"Great!" Ino grabbed hold of Hinata's arm and half led, half dragged her into the Yamanaka family flower shop. "So," The more cheerful girl began as she pulled Hinata inside, "Just why were you crying so much to have such awful tear-stains like that anyway?"
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Temari glared at the two Genin, though she did have to try really hard not to screw her face up in revulsion at the sight of a bug-covered Shino. Still, this was her combat mask - the thick mental and emotional shell she built around herself when she needed it. In fact, it was this shell between her and her emotions which meant that she occasionally came off looking like a bit of a psycho.
Then again, years of living with a younger brother who had a nasty tendency to crush people he didn't like also brought forth some rather disturbing qualities. In fact, most of her mental shell had been erected so that she didn't throw up each time Gaara used his 'Desert graveyard' technique.
In short, when her combat persona was up, Temari often ended up acting like quite the cheerful little psychopath.
"So, are you going to tell me?" She asked, her voice sweet - though her expression was not, "Or will I have to cut your heads open to get the answer straight from your minds?"
Kiba paled slightly. Given that all his knowledge of Temari had been gained from the Chuunin exam - and more than one rather disturbing story from Shikamaru's team - he was undeniably worried. After all, as far as he knew, Temari didn't act like a cheerful psychopath - she was a cheerful psychopath!
Shino, on the other hand, merely raised a questioning eyebrow.
Finally, Naruto who stood on the other side of Temari, freaked out - not realising that Temari's act was just that, an act.
"GAAH!" He half-screamed, "You can't cut their heads open!" His face was one of shock mixed with horror. Temari glanced back and Naruto and sighed - trust that idiot to not notice a ruse.
"You're bluffing." Stated Shino from where he stood opposite Temari. "Your body is releasing pheromones that indicate a mix of fear and panicked thought - in other words, it smells like you're lying." The boy held up one hand, which was covered in crawling bugs. "I note that as I raised the insects, your fear pheromone production increased." He grinned, not that anyone could see it, hidden by his overly large collar as it was. "You wouldn't be afraid of insects would you?"
Temari gulped, her skin paling slightly. Damn it! She'd heard from Kankuro that the insect-using boy was overly smart and, in particular, very good at what he did, but still... For him to pick all that up in a few moments... "N-no..." She stuttered, then caught herself. "No!" She repeated, this time yelling so as to avoid stuttering. "Why would I be afraid of some useless little bugs!?"
Shino nodded in the direction of the ground near Temari's feet. "Really?" he asked.
Temari knew what was going to be there even before she looked down. "No, nonononono..." She looked down, her eyes half closed. Bugs. Hundreds of them, thousands of them. Hundreds of thousands of them even. Now Temari was torn, on the one hand she wanted to scream and scram and scream, but on the other hand she didn't want to show any more weakness to her opponents - or to Naruto.
"K-KAMAITACHI!" She screamed, hopping backwards and snapping open her fan whipping it through a large arc in front of her. This time however, she concentrated her chakra a bit more, causing the wind blast to be somewhat more solid as well as somewhat smaller. The blast tore into the ground, ripping up both the bugs and the dirt floor. Kiba yelled as he and his companion were showered with bugs, dirt and various other things that had been in the path of Temari's kamaitachi technique.
Shino, however, merely nodded his head once. Almost immediately Temari felt something wrong with her fan. It felt like it was moving slightly - as if there were something inside... Her eyes widened in shock as she dropped the fan, the first of many small insects beginning to squirm out from under the wood that made up the frame of the fan.
"Sawtooth bugs," Murmured Shino, "A distant relation of the Destruction bug, their favourite food is dry, dead wood. A single nest of them can eat through almost a ton of wood in a matter of hours." Shino looked up and glanced at Temari with an evil little smirk. "Something like your fan was merely a light snack to them."
Temari's eye twitched.
It twitched again.
Temari had always done her best to control her emotions, to keep them under lock and key as long as she possibly could. Recently, however, she'd been letting a few things slip - especially since she had come to the Leaf village. Mostly, she felt she could get away with it a lot more here because she wasn't pressured each day to be 'the best of the ninja world' like she was back at the Sand village.
Here eye twitched somewhat more as she turned away from her fan to glare at Shino. Her glare was, amazingly, strong enough to cause even the unflappable Shino to falter a little.
"You." She stated, in a voice as cold as death, and twice as unfriendly.
"Destroyed." Naruto was worried now, Temari seemed so, so... so scary. Like a flash of insight, the blonde-haired boy realised what could have made Temari so mad.
"My fan." Temari advanced on Shino and Kiba, her chakra - due to her anger - being leaked out as a pure killing intent, one that would rival even her younger brother Gaara's own killing intent.
"That fan," she whispered, "Was the last thing my mother gave me."
"Oh shit..." Kiba squeaked, since he was still under the influence of his Quadruped no Jutsu, he could feel Temari's killing intent much, much more strongly than Shino could. It felt sort of like how a mouse felt, moments before being snatched up by a hawk or a cat.
Behind Temari, Naruto was planning on instinct - as he usually did. His hands moved in a blur as he performed his signature Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and created three clones of himself. The four Naruto bodies all began running towards Temari, with three of them picking up the fourth as they did so.
"I'll kill you!" Screamed Temari, Raising her hands as if to strike with a weapon - in her rage she had momentarily forgotten that her fan was gone.
"Advanced Henge no Jutsu!" Yelled the fourth Naruto clone, as the other three hurled him towards Temari. In mid air his form blurred slightly, then vanished I na cloud of smoke - allmost immediately something big, buzzing and black whirled out of the smoke-cloud like some kind of giant shuriken.
Temari spun on one foot, saw what Naruto had done and grinned evilly. Her arms swept up and caught the transformed Naruto clone.
It was black, with a pattern of red and orange spirals that, in fact, Temari quite liked the look of. It was also slightly lighter, but that wasn't a problem.
"Now then," she growled, twirling the giant fan that the clone had turned into around. "Let's play... Wind style taijutsu! Sabaku Juuji!" Temari spun, and as she spun she slashed her open Naruto-fan lengthways in a downward diagonal blow that ripped along Shino's attempt at a block. Then as she spun back to her original position, she slashed upwards with a similar diagonal blow - which completely ripped through Shino's block, slashing his shirt open and leaving a light scratch along his chest. Effectively, it looked like she had used her fan to carve a giant 'X' shape through the air.
Kiba jumped out of the way of the partially crazed blonde-haired girl, cursing to himself as he did so. Unfortunately for the dog-boy, he never landed - as his jump was quite neatly interrupted by the remaining three Narutos. "Going somewhere?" They asked, before beginning to beat upon the wild animalistic boy.
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"That sand-nin girl huh?" Ino's voice was sweet - like sugar, yet filled with obvious concern for Hinata. The two weren't exactly friends, but Ino knew enough about Hinata to take pity on the white-eyed girl... Just like she had taken pity on a certain girl with a large forehead all those years ago.
"Didn't you hear the rumours?" She continued, "That there was going to be a political marriage arranged between our village and the sand village? You know, the whole 'we're in trouble, so take her whilst we try to cover ourselves' thing?"
Hinata blinked and sat silent for a few moments before nodding. "Oh." She said, several things coming together in her mind in one go. "I didn't know about that." She whispered, her voice barely heard over the sounds of life passing by outside.
"Sooo..." Continued Ino, "It's not like Naruto was intentionally getting himself engaged to this girl, right?"
"I... I guess..." Mumbled the Hyuuga girl, which cause Ino to roll her eyes and slap her hand against her forehead.
"Has anyone ever told you," She began, "That you really need to get some self confidence?" her question was asked innocently and with the hinting that, perhaps if Hinata agreed, she might help her do just that.
Blushing slightly, Hinata bowed her head in embarrassment. "Y... yes..."
Laughing, Ino scooted over to sit next to Hinata and slapped the slightly shorter girl on the back. "Stick with me! Once I'm done with you, you'll be the most sought after girl in all the village!" Then she grinned, the evil grin that only women were capable of - the grin that meant certain males would be in for it sooner or later. "And then, you'll show Naruto just exactly what he's missing out on..."
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Kiba ducked and dodged around blows that came at him from three separate directions. Atop his head, Akamaru kept his eye on one of the Naruto clones and barked in a special way to warn the Inuzuka boy about incoming blows. In effect, Kiba did have eyes in the back of his head.
Well, somewhat above the back of his head at least.
"Hyaaaaa!" One Naruto clone, or possibly the original - it was rather hard to tell, leapt into the air before coming down with one leg out - hoping to smash Kiba with what was effectively an aerial axe kick. As he did this, a second Naruto lucked out and managed to grab hold of Kiba's jacket - a minor thing, but it held him still long enough for the third Naruto to wrap his arms around the boy from behind. All this merely served to make Kiba a sitting target for the first Naruto's attack.
Kiba, realising he wasn't going to dodge the kick tried something drastic. Ducking down, despite Naruto's hold, he pulled forwards and lifted the boy who held him off his feet and into the air. Naruto only guessed what this meant when he heard the scream of 'look out!' from the kicking Naruto above.
You see, Kiba had managed to place his captor between himself and the axe kick coming from the first Naruto. When the attack hit, it would hurt them both - but it would hurt Naruto a lot more than it would hurt him.
The axe kick landed, with a rather sickening crunch, on the back of the third Naruto - who promptly vanished in a puff of smoke as the real Naruto lost control over the clone long enough for it to lose cohesion. Kiba, on the other hand, had been forced to his knees by the sheer power of the kick and, although he wasn't directly injured, he could still feel pain in the area where the kick had landed.
"Heh," The animal-like boy sneered, "Was that the best you could d-" He never got the chance to finish his boast, as the second Naruto quite neatly kicked him in the stomach - driving the air out of his lungs and leaving him winded.
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"Woah, that must have hurt something awful!" exclaimed a male ninja as he watched the fight from a distance. A rather incredible distance in fact, one that few nin could possibly see from. Luckily for him, he had been trained in the art of observation - and his chakra enhanced sight was better than any telescope.
His companion, a female, lay nearby. She didn't have the benefit of enhanced sight, and so could not possibly see the fight in progress. "So," she asked, "Do you see anything that could be an advantage to us?"
The man lifted one hand and waved it uncomfortably. "Well..." He began, "We already know that the rest of the village doesn't like her, or him, but he has found acceptance with a few of the Genin - along with that Jounin instructor of his."
"Don't forget those rumours we heard about the Sennin either." Pointed of the female, her voice somewhat irritated.
"Yeah," agreed the male, as he watched the fight progress - wincing when Naruto went and sued his 'lifetime of agony' technique. "I bet he won't be walking straight for a while after that..." He mumbled, before raising his voice so that his companion could hear. "I reckon we could have a problem if she stays too long - It'll be hard enough with a Jounin around, but if the others start rushing to her aid we could have trouble."
"Well, I for one don't want to fight that Naruto boy if I can get away with it." Stated the girl, "You heard what happened in his fight with Hyuuga right?" She shuddered slightly, the man echoing her movements - and her fear.
"Nine-tails." He whispered, then made a little warding sign over his chest with one hand. "No way in hell I wanna risk that thing coming out when we're nearby."
"I guess we just have to watch, and wait a while longer then." Stated the girl in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. "I just hope the reward will be worth all this waiting."
"Eh, calm down, you know what he promised - we do the job, we get what we want and he gets what he wants. No problems." The guy leant back as he spoke and sighed. "Still, this is a lot of hassle. Wanna go grab something to eat? We're not allowed to do anything for a while yet, and it's not like anyone even suspects what's going on..." He paused, then cocked his head slightly - "My treat?"
The girl sighed and pulled herself to her feet. "We might as well, there's nothing better for us to do right now anyway."
There was a slight blurring in the air, followed by two clouds of dust which hid the exit of the two mystery ninja.
Unfortunately, neither of them noticed the single solitary figure who sat, hidden in plain sight, at the base of the building they had been situated upon. Brushing back his masses of spiky white hair, Jiraiya - the toad Sennin himself - closed his eyes in thought.
"Well now," He whispered, "Looks like things will be getting a little more interesting in the future."
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Temari attacked like a woman possessed.
That said, she was a woman possessed - or at least Shino believed so. Whilst, normally, he would have little difficulty In a fight, Temari was proving to be quite to opponent.
On one hand, she had an intellect and a skill of foresight and planning that was only eclipsed by the genius Shikamaru. On the other, she had that incredibly annoying Kamataichi technique - which had repeatedly proved to be more than effective at scattering any bugs he sent her way.
The two combined were definitely a difficult opponent for him, as she seemed to know exactly when he would try to ambush or trick her with his bugs. Of course, then she would take the appropriate steps and force him even further onto the defensive.
In fact, the only real advantage that Shino had, was that Temari was afraid of bugs. On the other hand, she was too angry to be afraid, so that more or less left that advantage a moot point anyway.
Finally Shino decided to pull out one of his trump cards - one of his real trump cards. The kind that usually left opponents in great pain - or worse. Brining his hands together, he executed a short sequence of seals, one that Temari had never seen before in her life. Thus, it was either a family jutsu, or one unique to the leaf village as a whole.
"Doudou Sutingu no Jutsu!" From within one sleeve extended a short spike of metal - like a needle, though somewhat thinner. Unlike normal metal spikes, this one was made out of a bronze-like material which seemed to pulse with a sickly purple energy. If Kakashi or Sasuke had been watching, they would have instantly seen the strange twisting chakra that curled and oozed around the spike like some kind of slime.
With a quick stabbing motion Shino made as if to stab Temari with the spike. Unfortunately, Temari had anticipated the move as soon as she had seen the spike appear, and so had leaned to one side in order to let the thing pass by. Her quick thinking and action saved her from having her arm impaled upon the spike, instead all she received was the tiniest of scratches.
Shino hopped back and bowed his head, leaving Temari more than a little confused.
"It is over." He stated. "You have lost."
Chapter 7 - Ended. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Authors notes: Whee... I apologise most profusely for taking so long with this chapter x.x but really, I constantly re-wrote some parts of it so many times because I wasn't happy with them.
Anyway, expect the chapters to be a bit slower x.x I've got so much free time on my hands I'm just wallowing in boredom - and boredom-inspired writing generally isn't as good (well, I feel it isn't at least). Of course, since I dun' wanna ruin this by giving you a rushed or lacking chapter, I'll keep working at my own pace and trying to keep the quality up ^.^
I'm gonna thank everyone who's said they've liked this fic ^^;; as well as all those who have e-mailed me saying they wish to see more.
When I started this I never in a million years expected people to like it x.x and I still don't =P Reviews are good, but I'm not going to abandon everything just to go out of my way in getting lots of them - that's just not my style. (yeah... I'd probably die of terror or something if I tried that ^^;; some of you people who like this scare me ^^;;)
Anyway. Two original techniques in this chapter - if you disagree with the naming, tell me o.o;; I do wanna try and get things to at least sound right ^^;;
Lackey H - Meditating upon Temari of the Sand.
TECHNIQUE GLOSSARY -
Sabaku Juuji - Desert Crossing (Kudos if you understand the pun there...)
Doudou Sutingu - Magnificent Sting.