Canadian Tom-Boy: Whoo! I am back to fanfiction writing For those of you who are familiar with my stories, I'll be updating Inuyasha Know Your Stars and Camping Basket! as soon as I can get some jokes written and some plots working. It's been a busy summer. So welcome to my newest fict! Before we start, I'd like to alert you that most of the characters of mine, since this IS an OC infested fanfict, will not appear until the next chapter. Enjoy!
Setting: A bit after the whole take-over-Konoha incident.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters but I do own a helluva lot of characters in this fanfiction.
New Meetings with New…Friends?
The evening sun burned bright on the village despite the light clouds that threatened to shade it. The leaves on the trees glow with the sun's light, an occasional leaf floating down into the soft grass.
But today was no ordinary day.
Questions were whispered among the adults as most of the villagers had gathered around the gates of Konoha. Why this sudden gathering? Well, the giant group of fourteen Genin and about three Jounin could explain it. Though this was no ordinary assortment; all of them wore different forehead protectors, signifying each from a different country.
"Move aside! Coming through!" A large man with bushy white hair pushed his way through the people, carrying a large scroll. With him, was a young boy with blonde hair that seemed to explode from his head.
The white-haired man looked down at a woman with flame-orange hair that was tied back, though the tips of her hair was black, adding to the strange ness that her hair tied back stuck out only an inch from her head. The woman's nose wrinkled a bit with her freckles as she smiled up at the man with her orange-brown eyes.
"Jiraya! I didn't think you'd ever become Hokage" The woman smiled.
The white-haired man identified now as Jiraya shook his head. "No; I'm just filling in for a while."
The woman tilted her head. "Oh? What happened to Sarutobi?"
Jiraya went silent. He looked around a bit, before leaning forward and speaking quietly into her ear. "Orochimaru."
The woman suddenly looked concerned. "Oh, I'm so sorry!"
"Perverted Hermit, who is this hooker?" The blonde kid whined boredly.
Jiraya gritted his teeth, bopping Naruto on the head with his fist. "I've told you not to call me that! And she isn't a hooker! You can be such an idiot sometimes, Naruto!"
The woman chuckled, looking down at Naruto as he rubbed his head where he was punished. "Uzumaki Naruto?"
Naruto tilted his head, looking up at her. "Hn? Yeah, I'm Naruto…"
The woman smiled, leaning down a bit. "I am Nikkou Jihi; I'm a friend of Jiraya-sama."
Naruto looked up at her. "You're too young to be his friend. You must be a hooker."
Jihi laughed even harder. Jiraya was greatly annoyed. "Naruto! Show more respect to the greatest fire-dancer Konoha's ever known!"
Naruto looked at Jiraya. "Fire-dancing? What's that?"
Jihi silenced Jiraya before he could talk. "You'll see for yourself soon enough Why don't you meet with our Genin while I talk to Jiraya-sama?" And with that, the woman grabbed the old man's arm and whisked him away.
Naruto folded his arms behind his head, tilting it in confusion.
"That's the great Jiraya-sama?"
"Hn?" Naruto turned his head and looked at a dark-skinned Genin.
"I thought he'd be younger!" A blue-haired girl spoke next.
"Way too old to be Jihi-sama's friend!" Another agreed.
"You don't know the half of it…" Naruto mumbled.
"Jihi-sama is just turn twenty-eight! How could she even know him?"
Naruto's jaw froze, he looked at the blue-haired Genin that spoke. "Twenty-four?" That would mean that Jiha…whatever her name was, had about a twenty-six-year age gap between herself and Jirarya. Which meant that if they had met a long time ago, she would've been Naruto's age! "Peverted Hermit is somewhere around fifty-years old! How could they be friends?"
Naruto had the same confused expression on his face when hours later at night, one street was festively decorated and the villagers crowding the street. Shops were open, making much more sales than usual. Paper lanterns lit the bustling streets, leading the way to a stage at a wider place in the street. Why the stage was there, no one knew yet. Naruto figured it had something to do with that woman…Jiha…Jahi…he couldn't remember her name.
He walked around through the crowds, looking at the shops. In his hand he had a bulging green frog wallet, and he planned on using some of the money in it. He stopped once he reached a certain familiar shop with aromas that had him instantly mesmerized. He walked towards the smell and onto one of the stools of the welcoming ramen shop.
"Ah! Naruto! Lovely night, isn't it?" The ramen man greeted him, already getting a large bowl of steaming noodles ready for him.
"It's too crowded." Naruto said simply, pulling out some bills to pay for the bowl when the man placed it in front of him with chopsticks.
The old man blinked, standing up straight. "Well why wouldn't it be crowded when the great Jihi fire-dancer has returned after twelve years?"
"What the hell is fire-dancing, anyways?" The blonde boys asked, clearly annoyed that all the adults seemed to know what it was.
The man just chuckled. "Oh, you'll see soon enough!"
With his blue eyes Naruto eyed him, his eyes narrowing. That's what that hooker-lady told him. He sighed, knowing at the moment he wasn't going to get his way, so he grabbed his eating utensils, plopping the ends of the noodles in his mouth and slurping them up with the help of the tools.
When his stomach was filled, he pushed the empty bowl away from him, the chopsticks leaning on the rim of the bowl. He pat his bulging belly, putting his wallet away. "I'll see you later!" He told the ramen man, hopping off the stool, waving briefly, and continuing on the busy streets.
He headed towards the stage area and, for the heck of it, bought a straw hat, putting it on his head, grinning like the idiot he was. He moved towards the tables.
He was surprised that he found the other rookie Genin there, sitting down at a large table. Their Jounin teacher as well as Jiraya sat at a smaller table right next to the Genins. And there was one more empty seat at the large table.
Naruto thought about it a moment, before wandering over and sitting down at the table between Shikamaru and Kiba. Kiba glanced at Naruto, Akamaru on his lap.
He looked at them. "Does anyone know what is going on?"
Shikamaru sighed. "Probably something troublesome."
"Fire-dancing isn't troublesome for us!" Ino hissed.
"What IS fire-dancing?" Naruto asked, greatly annoyed. He folded his arms behind his head boredly.
Ino opened her mouth to explain, but then closed it with a frown. Kiba grinned, whiping the side of his finger against the tip of his nose. "You don't know, do you?" Akamaru yipped from atop of his lap.
"Shut-up! It's starting!" Ino shushed them from across the table, a half-cover-up for the fact none of them knew what fire-dancing was. Except for maybe Neji or Sasuke, but they never said anything, so how would they know if they knew what they didn't know?
Blinks came from the three boys before they looked over at the stage, tilting their heads. Akamaru barked once from Kiba's lap as one of the elder advisors of Konoha The elder man cleared his throat into the microphone, getting everyone's attention. Though the brilliant floral décor on the stage around him was pretty distracting.
"As some of you may know…" He looked mostly at Jiraya, "We received some visitors earlier today. At first we thought they might be foe, but they have explained to us why they are here. But first let us welcome them, for tonight they give us some entertainment to watch. Please give a hand for the return of the great Jihi the Fire-dancer!"
Everyone clapped except for the confused boys, until Sakura nudged Shikamaru to tell them that they should clap, so they clapped their hands together slowly.
The red curtains slowly drew back, and there was only enough light to see the outline of two people and drummers on the stage. Slowly the drummers beat the drums, the sound starting out as a low rumble. Then six little balls of flames lit around the two people as the torches at the edged of the stage lit, the two people jumping to their feet. Jihi had a rope in each hand with a hard ball on the end that was currently set alight by flames. A girl beside her who looked almost like a mini-version of her, had a stick in each hand with flames on each ends of it. Both wore matching red tops, tight green pants, and green and blue bracelets.
Shino rose a brow, the boys exchanging confused expressions.
They moved to the beat of the drum as the muscular men raised their arms and brang them down when pounding on the drum, Jihi twirling the ropes and the girl twirling the sticks. The light from the torches made ghastly shadows play across their faces at certain moments, their hair seeming as lively as the flame. They did many tricks with their instruments, such as throwing the sticks with fire on the ends up into the air and catching them horizontal on the top of their foot. When finally their act came to a close when they switched fire instruments, blowing them out and blowing out huge orange flames from their mouths. The crowd cheered and clapped loudly as the curtain drew in.
Naruto looked over at Jiraya at the other table. "Perverted Hermit? Is that what fire dancing is?"
Jiraya simply smiled and nodded.
"What did the advisor mean the return of the great Jihu?" Kiba asked, picking Akamaru up and placing him on his head.
"It's Jihi, and she left Konoha twelve years ago to this day to be a travelling performer instead of a ninja like everyone else." Jiraya explained.
"Wasn't that neat, Sasuke?" Sakura asked the emo Uchiha survivor sitting next to her as she clapped.
Sasuke just made a noise in reply. It didn't really interest him because he was able to do fire jutsus. So how was fire-dancing any more difficult?
Shikamaru sighed. "I personally think that was boring. I knew it would be troublesome coming here…"
"It would have been interesting if the older woman's hair caught on fire!" Kiba snickered.
"It already had." Neji said, arms folded across his chest.
Everyone blinked, turning their heads and looking at Neji. Even Choji, who had not been paying much attention until now. "I didn't see her hair catch on fire…"
"Yeah; what are you talking about?" Kiba asked.
"He means, that her hair has caught on fire in a past performance." Rock Lee took over. "If you had cared to notice, you would've saw that Jihi's hair was tied back. Not only that, but it was a jagged stub like Ino's."
Ino slammed her hands on the table as she stood up. "WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL MY HAIR?"
Lee ignored her, continuing on. "As I was saying, the tips of her hair were black, and the length of the hair varied from edge to edge, meaning that she had already had her hair caught fire and burned off in the past."
Sakura and Ino blinked, feeling their own hair. They had cut theirs, but yet somehow Jihi's hair was still seeming nicer than theirs.
"Speaking of the devil…" Tenten pointed and everyone looked.
Jihi and the girl came out from behind the stage, moving around the tables until they reached Jiraya, who greeted them with a smile. "Jihi! You're still as good as you were when you left Konoha to travel!"
Jihi grinned broadly, punching him in the shoulder lightly. "I had help from my friend here, Kanzen Inochi." She pat the girl on the head. Even up close she seemed to be a mini-version of the woman, only with less freckles and brighter hair with no burnt tips.
Jiraya smiled again, laughing a bit. "So do you think the program will work?"
The Leaf Genins's eyes were on Jiraya. "Program?" Tenten asked.
Jihi chuckled, Inochi smiling. "You'll see soon enough, my dears"
Sakura and Ino twitched at her choice of words. Dears?
"I'm sure it'll be a pleasant surprise!" Jiraya commented, just as the curtain lifted again.
Not many paid attention as a girl with black hair covering her eyes and in a colourful blue and red inverted costumes sung beautifully on the stage. Shikamaru looked at Kiba. "What do you think he means by a program?"
"If they're putting us on more missions then I'm sending in a complaint." Kiba nodded, stroking Akamaru.
"I'm sure it has nothing to do with missions." Sakura spoke.
"M-maybe…a-ano…we have to d-do something with the v-visitors…" The Hyuuga heir suggested quietly from her seat, poking her index fingers together.
"You mean the freaks?" Naruto asked, arms folded behind his head again.
That earned him a whomp on the head from Sakura. "Naruto! One of those 'freaks' is standing right there!" She exclaimed, pointing at Inochi, who was listening in on them.
Naruto rubbed his head. "Sorry…" he mumbled.
A/N: I know it's not much of a chapter, but bear with me, since you the audience will get to pick certain outcomes of the story Such as later you'll get to suggest pairings, even though there's only probably going to be one Kishimoto pairing, since this is OC infested. Review so I know you people exist, please