A/N: Finally updated! Gosh! It's been a little more than two weeks since I updated! Ah! ... Well, here's chapter 4! Mei's past! Remember, I do not own this OC. HyuugaVSUchiha does... And let's hope she doesn't change her pen name... If Jishin and HyuugaVSUchiha change their pen names... I dunno. Just look for them by reading the reviews of this story. They always... usually talk about their OC's...
I didn't update because my cousins were, like, here at my house. They stayed for a week and kept using my computer since it was the only one out of three computers (My two younger brothers and I have one each since we- rolls eyes my brothers kept on arguing on one computer. My parents decided it would be best if we had one each) that had connections to the internet... But soon my younger brothers' computers will have connections to the internet, too (Yes! I'll be left alone! XD)... And my father also had to reformat my computer for faster connections... So I couldn't use the computer in a long while...
And another reason why I didn't update is because someone (referring to HyuugaVSUchiha) didn't give me all the information at once. Ugh... It's a joke only! I'm not mad, HyuugaVSUchiha! XD Besides, I had to think a lot and I had to understand so many things about Mei's past. And you can see that this is a long chapter.I am definitely sure it's longer than chapter 3... Anyway... Here's chapter 4 once again and I hope you'll enjoy.
O-O-O
"Shikamaru!" two female voices were heard calling as a lazy, yet intelligent, Leaf ninja lay on the grass of the fields outside Konoha and watched the clouds slide across the sky slowly like an old lady wiping a glass window really, really slowly. Shikamaru sat up and looked to his left. Mei and her cousin, none other than TenTen, were going toward him, riding on a cow.
As the cow finally arrived beside Shikamaru, on the shinobi's right just to be exact, Mei and TenTen got off their ride. Shikamaru lay back down on the grass as Mei walked to his left. Mei lay beside Shikamaru, on his left, and cuddled on his side.
"I'll leave you two alone." TenTen said, teasingly. She walked to the tree not so far behind Shikamaru and Mei. "C'mon, Miko."
"Who's Miko?" Shikamaru asked, not keeping his eyes off the clouds.
"Miko's the cow." TenTen replied.
A cow bell was heard and Shikamaru knew the cow, Miko rather, started walking to TenTen who jumped up to the tree's branch. Miko rested near the tree, under the shade.
"Mei, remind me of something."
"What is it, Shika-kun?"
"Why do you like your cousin so much?"
"I'll tell you again, Shika-kun?"
"I just felt like starting a conversation." Shikamaru shrugged.
"Okay! Let's go back to the beginning!" Mei said cheerfully, standing up, "When I was a little kid, I was so quiet! Just like Ri- Ritsuko? What's up with them? It's been a week since Yumiko and Ritsuko left! We haven't heard from them! I know Ritsuko wouldn't dare write to me... There's no way that she would..." Mei grumbled a little but went back to yelling, "But what about Yumiko? Why isn't she writing to me? Is she... busy? She and her cousin are in charge of their village but... Still! I need to hear from them! I am so going to send them a note!" Mei was furious, seemingly...
Shikamaru chuckled. It's really hard to believe that Mei used to act like Ritsuko when she was young; serious, quiet and all of Ritsuko's traits... They were the opposite of Mei! But then Mei stopped yelling. She looked back at Shikamaru who was simply looking back at her. A flush of pink was seen spreading across the girl's face.
"S- sorry, Shika-kun."
Shikamaru simply showed a puzzled look.
"I'm... well... I'm not really like this."
"You're not?" Shikamaru, smiling, raised an eyebrow.
The slightly pink blush on Mei's cheeks turned from slight pink to red. "I meant with you... You... You know what I mean!"
"Okay, okay. I know." Shikamaru said, nodding.
Mei slowly and quietly lay back down beside Shikamaru, on his left still, and rested her head on his chest while her left arm on his abdomen and her right one on her own stomach. Sooner or later the brown-haired kunoichi dozed off while the black-haired shinobi, still smiling, continued to watch the clouds float freely in the sky...
O-O-O
"Freaky!"
"I know! She doesn't talk at all!"
"How can she live like that?"
"Yeah! I can't believe we're related to her!"
"Siblings even! We're her siblings!"
"How can mom and dad keep her here?"
"There's something wrong with her."
"Yeah..."
Whispers and glares always were because of the youngest child in the Agurashi family. Despised and not minded, ignored rather, by six of her seven older siblings, and causing some of the worries of her parents, young Agurashi Mei sits alone in her family's garden, watching the wonderful looking butterflies fly around their garden's fragrant flowers.
She watched with her dark, brown eyes as one butterfly flew toward her and landed on her silky, brown hair. The butterfly had glittering sea blue wings which had nice, black patterns.
Mei felt somehow happy, but she still did not smile. The butterfly was beautiful. It seemed to want to make friends with Mei, but Mei felt that there was something missing.
"Mei! Your cousin came to visit! Come inside and meet her!" called the eldest daughter and child of the family, Nao, the only one among Mei's brothers and sisters that actually respected her.
Mei silently stood up as the butterfly flew back to its fellow butterflies and back to the flowers.
Inside, Mei saw her dark brown-haired cousin sitting on one of the wooden chairs in the living room as her mother, Mei's aunt, talked to Mei's mother. The others, Mei's brothers and sisters have already introduced themselves to their cousin. The girl looked around the room and saw Mei. Curious, she walked to the quiet girl and smiled, waving to her cousin. "Hi. I'm TenTen. What's your name?"
For the first time, Mei smiled and spoke.
"I'm Mei."
Both brunettes played all day long. They rested a little recently and talked to each other, getting to know more about one another. That's what Mei wanted. She wanted someone nice to talk to. She wanted someone who understood her.
From then on, Mei started being happy-go-lucky. Her siblings seemed to treat her a lot better and her parents couldn't be a little bit happier.
But Mei could never wait for her cousin to go and visit her and her family in Rain again. But she didn't treat TenTen as a cousin anymore. She treated her as a bestfriend, or as a sister, almost.
Mei had better chances of making friends, too. She made a lot of friends at school. She made friends with those who she accidentally bumped into at the streets. She even made friends with the Mizukage's son!
The Mizukage's son, Hwoarang, had messy blue hair and golden-brown eyes. He and Mei always sat beside each other during classes at the ninja academy. They trained and studied together, they ate their snacks together, they played with each other during break time, they waited for their parents after school, they hang out, and they did so many things the typical group of friends... best friends would do. And they've been the best of friends even for the few years together...
That was... until that night that the tragic incident happened.
The eight brothers and sisters were standing near a set of stairs in the living room floor of the house of the Agurashi family for they have heard unusual noises from the second floor. The wallpaper was torn in many parts of the room. Wooden furniture such as tables and chairs were broken. Everything made out of glass or anything fragile was broken as well. The windows' curtains were torn just like the wallpaper. No matter how anyone would describe it, one word may put all the descriptions simple... It was a disaster. Blood was everywhere, too. Blood was on the walls, on the furniture and on the floor... The floor... was where Mei's parents lay... They were dead.
Mei's mother was right beside the door, probably when she tried to get out of the house. Mei's father was near a corner with a kunai knife near his hand, probably when he tried to defend and protect himself from who had killed them. Yes, the parents of the eight siblings were murdered. The children knew who killed their parents because there they stood, the murderers, the anbu group of five...
Once the brothers and sisters saw this, they became frightened.
"Run! Go! Up the stairs! NOW!" Nao yelled and her seven younger siblings followed. They ran up the set of stairs, going up to the second floor. The eldest son named Kurei brought Sumirei, the second to the eldest daughter, to a window. Sumirei knew that Kurei was telling her to jump out of the window which leads to the back of the house. "Once you jump out, the others will, too. You catch them, okay?" Kurei instructed and Sumirei quickly followed.
The other five jumped out as quickly as Sumirei did. Sumirei was only one person, and it was probably hard to catch her other siblings at the same time, so once Natsumei, the second to the eldest son, jumped out, he didn't let Sumirei catch him but instead landed on his feet and caught Satsurei, his twin sister. Satsurei gracefully got to her feet after being caught by her brother. She caught Mei who jumped after her while Sumirei caught Kodome, the youngest son. Natsumei caught Kasumi, the second to the youngest daughter and child, so then it was only Kurei left in the second floor of their house.
"C'mon Kurei! Jump!" called Kasumi.
Kurei leaned on the window pane but then paused. He's eyes widened... He heard a scream, a few thuds and then silence which meant that Nao was killed. He knew the group of masked people would run up the stairs so he quickly placed both his feet on the window pane, standing on it, ready to jump.
But it was too late...
"Aargh!" he shouted as he was in pain. He fell out of the window and landed on the ground, blood dripping on his body and with a kunai knife pierced on the back of his head.
"Run!" the twins yelled as they witnessed the death of the eldest son of the Agurashi family. They all ran, fortunately. Sumirei, being the eldest of the remaining, felt responsible and decided to protect her brothers and sisters, so she ran behind the group of Agurashi siblings. Eventually, she got hit by who-knows-what and who-knows-where and collapsed to the ground. The five other children didn't dare to look back and figure out how their sister died because they knew that if they stopped to look at a horrible sight, they may die as well...
A dark night, it was, as Natsumei and Satsurei guided the others in the streets of the Hidden Village of Rain. They were all panting, yes, but they were not stupid enough to stop and rest then die afterwards. It was a sad fact, horrible actually, but it is true. They did not stop running for their lives. They just couldn't lose the anbu group, for they were just so young. They probably ran around a quarter of the whole village by then! It was really hard to get rid of those masked people...
Mei tripped and landed on her belly all of a sudden, being tired of running. She looked up at her remaining four siblings and saw them taking a halt in front of her then turning to face her. "Guys!" Mei called.
"Mei!" Natsumei exclaimed and ran back to his youngest sister.
Whoosh!
A kunai knife appeared just right in front of Mei's face. Kasumi screamed, frightened. She took a few steps back. Kodome turned ninety degrees to look at Kasumi.
Whoosh!
Kasumi screamed again, surprised. She turned to look behind her and saw a masked man. The man quickly brought out a kunai knife behind him and moved his right hand, the one with the knife, across the little girl's neck, attempting if to chop her head off, just as rapid. And he succeeded. Kasumi's head was torn out from her body and she was beheaded. Her body simply dropped to the ground and her head rolled over to Kodome who would've fainted at the sight.
"No! Kasumi!" Satsurei screamed as she watched the terrible death of another member of the Agurashi family. She sobbed out loud and so did the others.
The other four masked murderers arrived in mere seconds. The one who had sliced Kasumi's head off looked at the four last children.
"These were the orders of the Mizukage. We let four of the pests live. We don't kill them anytime. We won't kill especially the youngest... The next Mizukage's best... friend..." he informed the other anbu, looking down at Mei.
He walked to Mei, kicking Kasumi's body aside and kicking the head of the poor, little sister of the remaining siblings like a simple kickball. Mei was still on the ground, tears stinging her once happy, glittering, brown eyes. The man took hold of her hair and pulled her up to her feet. Mei whimpered like an injured puppy as she was pulled away from her three siblings. She never knew things like these would happen.
"What are you going to do with Mei?" Natsumei yelled, sounding like he was demanding the masked man to give his sister back. Mei just cried. She did not know what to do. She was clueless, helpless even.
The man keeping Mei away from the others probably ignored the question. "The three other pests stay locked up in the dungeons. This one will be under the care of a jounin..." The other anbu understood and took hold of Mei's sister and brothers. The four anbu started to walk away, with Mei's last siblings...
"No! Let me go!" Mei yelled when her family was out of sight, tears flowing freely down her cheeks, "Why? I can't stay all by myself! Why can't I stay- No! Why can't they stay with me? I... I need them! I... Natsumei! Satsurei! Kodome! I... No... Why...?"
"The Mizukage has his reasons. He only ordered us to do this."
Mei sobbed, still, and looked up at the masked man.
"You graduate from ninja academy first. Take your training seriously, as well as your studies, and then graduate. When the time comes, your siblings will be returned to you, once you do a little something the Mizukage wants you to do."
Mei didn't understand. What was she supposed to do? What did the Mizukage want her to do? Why did the Mizukage want her to do this? Why did any of this happen in the first place?
The man pulled her, by the hair still, through the dark night that swallowed the village. Mei could only cry. They arrived, after a few minutes, in front of an empty apartment. The anbu brought Mei into the apartment and left her there. Mei crawled to a corner and sat there. She bent her knees up and leaned on them. Dawn had arrived moments later and light lit up the room of darkness. The whole incident, Mei knew, would change many things.
Since then, Mei did not speak to any of her classmates and... friends... if she still had any. She avoided talking to almost anyone. She only trained and studied hard like the anbu told her to do so. And she avoided Hwoarang, he being the Mizukage's son.
"Would we be friends forever, Hwoarang?"
"No matter what!" both kids said. They laughed. Mei and Hwoarang had made their word.
"But we never kept that word..." Mei thought when Hwoarang had sat behind her, both of them still ignoring the other, "Why...?"
In a few years, Mei graduated. She continued to train to get better. She was determined to save her siblings. Many years after, being around thirteen years old, Mei took time to make herself ready. The jounin that had watched over her for the whole time brought her to a river bank outside the village where she would meet the Mizukage. Then the jounin left once the Mizukage arrived.
"Kill me..."
"Wha- what...?"
"You heard me little girl. If you could kill me, the Mizukage, then your brothers and sister will be returned to you..."
Mei could not believe it. How was she supposed to kill the Mizukage? How was anyone supposed to kill the Mizukage?
"Of course, I don't expect you to kill me now... You're just another child lower than I am."
With that, Mei got offended and immediately took out three kunai knives and threw it at the Mizukage. The Mizukage caught the knives by the handles and threw it back at Mei. It seemed easy for him to do so as if it was just a trick. Mei jumped at once to avoid the knives. From there, the battle started.
Mei landed on some tree's branch. She hid in the leaves for a while and thought of a way to get close to the Mizukage and strike. She heard a few thuds and figured that the Mizukage threw kunai knives which hit some part of the tree Mei was on. She jumped up, just above the tree, and looked down to see that the Mizukage barely moved from his spot. Mei landed on the ground, in front of the Mizukage. She instantly attempted to kick him, using her left foot, which didn't work since the Mizukage took hold of her ankle with his left hand. Just as fast, she lifted her right leg into the air and also attempted to kick the Mizukage. Just like the first attempt, the Mizukage had taken hold of the ankle with his other hand. (A/N: If you're a World Wrestling Entertainment fan, you could tell I got Mei's move from Rob Van Dam, Rey Mysterio and Jeff Hardy. I sort of mixed Round House Kick and Jump Spin Back Kick.)
Mei's upper body fell to the ground, her ankles still being held by the Mizukage. She was now upside down, facing the Mizukage. With all her might, Mei tried to pull the Mizukage to the ground. Unlike any of the other two attempts, she succeeded and got to pull the Mizukage and he fell forward, letting go of Mei's ankles so he would stop himself from falling on his face by using his hands. Before the Mizukage would fall on top of her, Mei got out of the way, to the Mizukage's side. She stood up at once and jumped up to a different tree's branch before the Mizukage turned to see where she had gone.
"Little girl, you know that you cannot hide from me all the time. It won't get your brothers and sister back." the Mizukage said, getting up to his feet. He heard rustling from behind; making him turn to see what was going on behind his back, like it would make anyone do. He saw Mei, her brown hair being blown to the direction from where she came from which was to her left, where the river would be close by. She had three kunai knives' handles between four of her fingers of her right hand which she placed close to her neck. The Mizukage closed his hand to form a fist and punched Mei right in the face. But the girl he saw turned into water and soaked the Mizukage's right arm. Mei had only made a clone out of the water from the river. That would explain why the clone had come from the direction to where the river was.
The clone, the Mizukage thought, was probably a distraction so he hurriedly turned around, thinking Mei would attack from behind.
Whoosh!
The Mizukage turned around a second time and saw a shuriken moving toward him. He quickly moved aside and dodged the sharp object. So it was clear. Mei had tricked him. After the clone had disappeared, the Mizukage would turn, expecting something to come from behind. But Mei threw a shuriken from where the Mizukage was facing before he turned around the first time. "She's a clever girl..." the Mizukage thought.
"Take this, you bastard!"
The Mizukage turned for the last time and saw Mei coming from another tree yet again. Mei had formed a fist, too. Once she was around a foot close to the Mizukage, she pulled her arm back and got ready to punch the Mizukage. The Mizukage did the same and punched Mei first, before Mei could punch him. Mei went flying to the river and fell into the water.
"Damn it... I need to do something... I need to do something so I can get Natsumei, Satsurei and Kodome back..." Mei thought as she did some hand gestures underwater.
"She's a clever, clever girl. I didn't think that she could actually pull of all those stunts." the Mizukage thought, watching the river's water, expecting something from Mei. Then something did come from Mei. She jumped out of the water and landed on the ground. The Mizukage got ready to attack. But then something else shot up from the water. It was another water clone. One by one, clones came. So around ten clones were now surrounding the Mizukage.
One clone charged at him, two jumped from behind, two came from both sides. The Mizukage quickly jumped forward making the first five clones hit each other and turn into water. Two clones jumped as well, one clone was a few feet away from him in front, and the other was behind him. The one behind the Mizukage threw two kunai knives at him, the other threw a shuriken. The Mizukage moved aside just as the clones threw the sharp objects, making those objects hit the clones instead. The Mizukage landed and water splashed to the ground just as he did. Three clones were left. Which one was the real Mei?
The last three clones ran to the Mizukage. The Mizukage simply got ready to punch them once more and hopefully hit the real Mei. But when the three clones were around two or three feet away, they turned into water which fell to the ground. The Mizukage then felt a burning pain in his chest. He looked down to see blood dripping down his body. He saw a kunai knife pierced through his chest, close to where his heart was. "I guess I didn't take you seriously. Isn't that right, little girl?"
Mei, coming from under the ground, had attacked while the clones were only distracting. "You underestimated me. You see, while the clones did an act, I, coming from the river, dug through the ground and simply went under to where I expected you to stand. Now, if you would, please give me my family back."
The Mizukage coughed, letting out a mouthful of blood. Mei didn't mind at all, already seeing so many blood when most of her family was murdered. "Indeed."
Mei removed the kunai knife from the Mizukage's chest and moved aside, this time just slowly and quietly, as the Mizukage dropped to the ground. But then, Mei realized, she forgot to ask why all this had happened.
Eventually, her sister and brothers were returned to her and the lived in a simple apartment. The villagers heard of the death of the Mizukage, most of them wondered why. Nobody, except Mei, her siblings, and a few jounins and anbu, knew why the Mizukage died. Nobody knew, not even the Mizukage's son, Hwoarang who was to be the next Mizukage in a few years time.
Months later, Mei, still not getting to talk to Hwoarang, bumped into the boy one day in an empty alley way.
"Mei."
"Hwoarang."
"My father... Do... Do you know what happened?"
"I... I... You see, Hwoarang, I-"
"What? What happened to him?" Hwoarang yelled, desperate to know what happened to his father, the Mizukage.
"Hwoarang! I," Mei looked down, "I killed your father..."
"Wha... Why?"
Mei shot her head back up. "I did because he took my family away, okay!"
"What? Now why would my father do that? He knows that we're best friends!"
Mei stayed silent, thinking of what to say to that. And then it came out, an everyday answer.
"I don't know... Why, indeed...?"
Hwoarang became angry at this. "Mei, I thought I knew you..."
"But I killed your father for a reason, Hwoarang! Please listen to me!"
Hwoarang started to walk past her. "I listened to you long enough..."
In a few weeks, Mei did not see any sign of Hwoarang. Not anywhere in the village, did she find the boy. But then, on another ordinary day, he came out of nowhere when Mei was wandering around the fields. They fought. Mei was unarmed but she managed to fight back. Being able to face the Mizukage before, Hwoarang would probably be no match. But then first thoughts could be wrong.
It took long, the fight. It took a lot longer than when Mei had faced the Mizukage because whatever moves both Mei and Hwoarang pulled off, the results were equal.
And it ended, later on. All it took was a final punch from each other and they were both unconscious. Noone saw it...
Well, except for one black-haired shinobi...
O-O-O
"And that's where we met..." Shikamaru whispered in his sleep. It sounded like it was the end of a story, though with a new beginning...
"Aww! How sweet!" came a teasing voice.
Shikamaru jerked his eyes open and looked to his left, seeing a blonde kunoichi standing there, smirking. Mei opened her eyes slowly and looked up at Shikamaru. Her eyes widened and she immediately sat up, turning bright red. She blushed a lot more, if humanly possible, when she looked up, seeing Ino standing near by. "N- nothing hapened..."
"I can see that, Mei... Oh! We were supposed to be hanging out today, right?"
"Uh, yeah. Wait for a moment."
Mei looked back at Shikamaru who was looking away, still lying on the grassy ground. She turned to face the 17-year-old and leaned close to his face, placing her hands on his chest. Shikamaru looked at her, wide eyed. Mei, hesitated at first but leaned closer. She gave Shikamaru a light kiss in the lips for one second and broke it. She stood up, avoiding eye contact with Shikmaru and Ino. She walked to the blonde and the two best friends walked back to the village.
Shikamaru sat up. He looked over his shoulder and saw that TenTen had left with Miko. He looked back at the two kunoichis who were still seen a bit. But he focused on Mei and smiled. The kiss was sweet. Mei had done it by heart.
And Shikamaru, of course, he knew...
He knew why...
O-O-O
A/N: Is it too long? It's, like, more than four thousand and five hundred words! Can you believe I typed this? I'm sure that I can't! Well, hope you liked it! Especially you, HyuugaVSUchiha. Heehee.
Oh and remember my summary? 'And when the scars are showing once more?' That was from chapter 2 until chapter 4... What has become of the three kunoichis and the three shinobis will come in the next chapter!
That's all for now! Bye! Don't forget your reviews...