Kurama in Narutoland
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Chapter Twenty:
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Gai and Midoki came out of the foliage with smirks on their faces. "So you found us out," Midoki said with a smirk. "Impressive."
Kurama smirked back and stood from his sitting position. "What are we going to do now?" he asked curiously.
"We're going back to Hidden Stone. Then we're going to complete a few more missions and acquaint you with the surroundings. After that you're on your own, and we will be getting back to more boring missions," Midoki explained nonchalantly.
Nodding his head, Kurama asked, "What are we going to do about Kyo, Kaji, and Aya?"
Midoki smirked, "I'm going to teach them a lesson..."
With that said, Midoki disappeared in a poof of smoke.
"Gai-sensei! When will we begin our training again?" Lee asked, smiling his million dollar smile.
"Soon, Lee, soon!" was all Gai said, patting Lee on the head.
Neji resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
The genin team made their way through the forest after Kyo and his group, and rushed forward when they heard a scream of terror. They reached a small clearing and saw (to their amusement) that all three of them had passed out due to a genjutsu Midoki had most likely cast on them.
Neji smirked at the site.
Kurama only shook his head. "I DID warn them... In my own freakish little way..." he muttered to himself, smiling in amusement at the sight of Aya with a foaming mouth. 'Must have been pretty nasty...'
After the three genin regained consciousness, the two teams stopped by the village to tell the head that they had completed the mission. They went 'home' after that, Kyo back-talking to Kaji the WHOLE way.
"How was the mission?" Akachi asked when they arrived at the manor.
Kurama sighed and rubbed his temples. Kyo's bickering was worse than KUWABARA'S and THAT was saying a LOT!
"KAJI WAS BEING AN ASS THE WHOLE WAY BACK-"Kyo started before suddenly being punched in the stomach.
Kurama had finally lost it. "Shut the hell up already!!" he yelled angrily, his eyes flashing gold to the shock of everyone who saw. "I am sick of your blabbering mouth!! Do you want me to stitch the accursed thing shut?" he asked dangerously, an evil little smirk on his face, gold lacing through his irises.
Kyo held his stomach, extremely pale as he shook his head in the negative.
"Good," Kurama said, before walking away, anger coming off him in waves.
That was the first time Kurama had spazzed in a while, and DAMN it felt good. Sighing, he reprimanded himself. That was NOT a good way to handle the situation. He should have done better. Once arriving in his room, Kurama pulled out a seed of an herb from the makai. Growing it instantly, he plucked off the bud of the flower and sucked out the nectar. Afterwards, he ungrew the plant and put the seed back in his hair. His headache was disappearing instantly.
Sighing in content, he lay back on his bed and prepared to sleep nice and long.
When Kurama awoke next, the sun was setting, and he had yet to do any training that evening. Sighing, he dragged himself off his futon and stretched. His cat-like movements played shadows against the walls. After he was done, he made his way into the woods surrounding the compound.
Moving quickly through the shadows, Kurama searched for a clearing he had found while on one of his runs a few days back. Finding it quickly, he started practicing the taijutsu that Gai had taught them. Closing his eyes, Kurama focused solely on his movements, forgetting the world around him. His body moved like liquid, finally getting used to the heavy weights Kurama had burdened it with. He failed to notice a set of watching eyes.
The moon was high in the sky, and Kurama found himself laying on the ground staring at it. He was exhausted from his training, and had decided to rest after he had walked a bit to cool down. The stars twinkled out in space, and Kurama found his eyes closing slowly. They snapped open again when he heard a twig snap. Spreading out his senses, Kurama immediately detected a dangerous shinobi aura very close by. Pretending that nothing happened, Kurama sat up, rubbing a hand over his eyes. He stretched and walked in the direction of the Akachi's residence. The aura followed him the whole way, but Kurama pretended to be oblivious. He was a master thief and actor.
Once arriving at the Akachi's, Kurama sensed the powerful aura settle down a little ways away to watch. Kurama went straight to his room and rested his body, though his mind stayed alert for any attacks. Luckily, no attacks came, and the sun rose within a few hours. The presence left swiftly before the rose, vanishing from Kurama's incredible range.
Sighing softly, Kurama sat up and gathered his stuff together for a bath... then he remembered he had yet to do his laundry. Sighing, he quickly washed his clothes in the bathroom by hand. He set them to dry in his room along with his weights and brought only a towel with him to the baths. Kurama washed the mud and grit out of his hair and off his body beneath a shower. Feeling quite refreshed, he hopped into the warm bath to relax his muscles. After a short soak, he got back out and wrapped his towel around his waist again.
Relaxed, Kurama made his way down the hall at a walk, instead of dashing like he did last time. That reminded him of Shinrin, and Kurama mentally hit himself for forgetting about the fox.
-MASTER!!- Shinrin squealed when Kurama entered his room. -WHERE HAS MASTER BEEN??-
Kurama sighed. "I'm sorry, Shinrin. I had to go on a mission. I'm sorry I didn't take you with me."
-Mission?- Shinrin asked curiously.
Kurama nodded his head and dried off. Afterwards, he put on his weights and pulled on his slightly damp clothes. Using his chakra, he dried his clothes and then snagged Shinrin off the ground. He put the fox on his shoulder, since it was too wet in his hair. Kurama brushed it quickly before leaving his room for breakfast.
For once, he was the first to arrive, and smiled slightly. One of the servants walked by, and Kurama requested some food for his 'pet'. "Excuse me, miss. Do you have any fresh meat for my pet here? He hasn't eaten in a while..."
The servant smiled and nodded her head. "I will be right back with some food," she said politely.
Kurama smiled, "Thank you."
The servant quickly returned with a small plate with a chunk of rabbit on it. "Thank you very much," Kurama said again, causing the servant to blush slightly.
"Y-you're w-welcome," she stuttered out, and hurried from the room with a small bow.
Kurama chuckled and watched as Shinrin dug into his meat. Akachi chose at that moment to come in, and saw the tiny silver fox for the first time.
Blinking, Akachi asked, "What is a fox doing in the manor?"
Kurama smiled and explained, "Shinrin is my pet. He hasn't eaten in a while."
Akachi nodded his head and paid no further attention to the small animal.
Soon everyone arrived, and Shinrin was hidden in Kurama's hair again.
-Master smells pretty- Shinrin commented during the meal, causing Kurama to smile slightly.
/Thank you./
After eating breakfast, Gai pulled his team off to the side to tell them what they were going to do today.
"First we are going to train in taijutsu. I want to see if you have improved. At 3 in the afternoon we are going to be led on a huge tour of the land surrounding Stone. It will be late when we return," Gai explained.
The three genin nodded their heads and followed Gai to one of the many training areas on the land of Akachi.
They practiced taijutsu the whole time (except for Neji, who was doing his own taijutsu), and Gai gave them pointers now and then.
"You've improved a lot, Kurama," Gai said, rather surprised. Kurama's control had been getting better and better by leaps and bounds. His grasp of taijutsu was excellent, and almost up to Lee's level. If he kept on improving like this, then he would soon surpass Lee in skill, if not in speed. However, Gai had no idea that Kurama was wearing such heavy weights... and without them, could easily surpass Lee in both skill and speed.
'I haven't practiced any martial arts in a while, only Gai's taijutsu. I should practice it again to make sure I have not lost my touch,' Kurama thought absently to himself.
They trained like that for the rest of the day, and Gai taught them a new move that was rather hard to execute. To his surprise, Kurama was the one who was able to do it on the first try, although he wasn't fast enough for the move to be at its full potential.
Gai was quite impressed by his students. Even Neji was improving (Gai spied on him to see how he was doing now and then).
Soon it was 3, and Midoki and his team arrived to show them around the area. They were shown through the whole village again, and then the tour expanded to the outer reaches of forest. Soon they were being shown around the land outside the hidden village.
It was late at night when they finally got back, and all of them promptly collapsed on their futons. They had been running a lot to cover all the land they needed to know in one day. Midoki's students had long since gone home in the middle of the run, unable to keep up. THIS finally convinced Midoki that he needed to up his student's stamina and speed.
-Master is tired. Master should get some sleep- Shinrin said as Kurama changed into his pajamas.
"I agree with you entirely," Kurama muttered under his breath and fell asleep instantly, Shinrin curled up beside him.
The days passed by rather uneventfully with boring D-rank missions and constant training. Although the Leaf genin team still stayed with the Akachis, they were completing their own missions for the Tsuchikage.
"Gai-sensei! What should I wear?!" exclaimed a traumatic Lee.
"We shall buy you a yukata!" (I think that's what they're called. Those outfits men wear in the feudal ages? [mumbles])
"YES GAI-SENSEI!" Lee yelled, both him and Gai hugging like idiots, tears streaming down their faces.
Kurama and Neji only watched this exchange with identical sweatdrops sliding down the backs of their heads. Shaking his head, Kurama dragged Neji off.
"Where are we going?" Neji asked as they walked down the village streets, Kurama obviously looking for something.
"We're going to buy you a yukata for tonight's festival," Kurama said, smiling slyly.
Neji stopped walking immediately and made to turn around and run in the opposite direction.
Kurama, however, snagged his shirt. "You ARE coming with me to the festival, Neji-chan, and there's NOTHING you can do about it."
Neji paled (if possible, his skin's so white) as he was dragged down the street. Glaring at Kurama, he started walking on his own to spare his honor. (coughegocough)
"Ah, this shall do nicely," Kurama commented as they stopped by a shop with a rather nice display of yukata.
Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Neji followed Kurama into the store.
Kurama walked along the rows of clothing, looking for something nice, but not extravagant. Finding a black yukata with white flames licking the bottoms of the sleeves and at the ankles, Kurama smiled. 'This'll look nice on him,' he thought devilishly to himself. 'The ladies will be after him all night... if he doesn't scare them off that is...' Kurama sweatdropped at that thought. 'He's hopeless. Oh well, its not like I WANT women going after MY Neji...' Kurama grinned again to himself.
"Neji! This is the one," Kurama called to Neji, who was sulking by the door.
Neji looked at it and was pleasantly surprised that it actually looked 'good'. 'I should get Kurama to pick clothes out for me more often. He has good taste...' Neji took the yukata from Kurama and paid for it. They left afterwards to head back 'home' and train some more.
It was late at night when the festival started, and Kurama and Neji had quick baths and got ready. Kurama dressed in his Chinese blue outfit that had a nice design on it. It was fancy and delicate-looking; perfect for that night.
Lee had dressed up in a green yukata with a black diamond pattern here and there on it. He looked rather nice, to the surprise of Kurama, although those creepy eyes and big eyebrows still steered off the consideration of rational women.
"Where will we go first?" Neji asked, ignoring the looks that women sent their way.
Kurama looked thoughtful for a moment before saying, "Why don't we get something to eat first? Then we can go do some games."
Nodding his head, Neji followed Kurama to a nice looking sushi restaurant.
Kurama ordered a large plate with a little of everything for the both of them, and they talked while waiting for their order to arrive. It took a while, but it eventually did, and the two of them were pleasantly surprised at the wonderful taste of their food.
When done, they each paid half of the bill (both were too stubborn to let one of them pay the whole thing) and went in search of some fun activities to do.
Kurama spotted a game that you had to throw balls at a stack of bottles and knock them all over. When you did, you got a prize.
"Mommy! I want that big teddy bear!" a little boy said, pointing at a large bear almost as tall as him.
A woman (presumably his mother) smiled gently and said, "I'm sorry sweety, but daddy isn't here tonight to get it for you, and mommy's aim isn't very good. I'll get you something else, okay sweety?"
The child looked crestfallen. "Okay mommy..."
Kurama looked thoughtful, before disappearing from Neji's side and slipping through the crowd to the booth. "How much to play this game, sir?" Kurama asked, catching the attention of the mother and her child.
The man behind the booth grinned and said, "It's 300 yen. You get three balls to try with."
Kurama paid immediately and examined the distance and weight of the balls he carried. To his surprise and annoyance, he found that the balls had uneven weight, and that one side of them would be heavier than the other, therefore making the ball curve. Frowning, he quickly calculated the force he would have to throw and where he would have to aim. Once done, he picked up the first ball and threw it with perfect aim to the left of the first stack of bottles. He hit a base bottle, causing the pyramid to collapse.
The man behind the counter was surprised, and watched with wide eyes as his customer knocked down the three pyramids of bottles with the defective balls that prevented anyone from winning.
Grinning, Kurama said, "For my prize, I would like that big brown teddy bear, please."
The man glared at Kurama and pulled the bear down from its hanger. "Here," he mumbled, shoving the bear at Kurama.
Kurama only smiled and knelt down beside the little boy. "You wanted this?" he asked with a genuine smile at the happy child.
"Thank you so much onii-san!" the boy said cutely, hugging the bear to him.
The boy's mother smiled at Kurama and mouthed at 'thank you' to Kurama.
"Kurama! Where have you been?" Neji asked, appearing beside them all of a sudden. He stared with cool white eyes at the woman and child, who were slightly freaked out.
"Ah Neji, no reason to be worried about me," Kurama said, nudging Neji in the ribs.
The white-eyed boy only glared at him and dragged him off.
Kurama turned back to the stunned woman and her happy child. He sent a wink at them over his shoulder and a smile, before disappearing into the crowd.
"That was fun," Kurama said smiling. "Did you know that that man behind the counter had actually changed the weight of the balls so that they spun out of control? Rather masterfully done, I might say, because only a very keen eye could have picked it up."
Neji raised an eyebrow. "And you still managed to knock down all the bottles?" he asked, surprised.
"Of course, what shinobi couldn't?" Kurama asked with a smile.
"Only a genius or someone incredibly good at math could have pulled that off, Kurama," Neji said, eyeing the redhead beside him. "I'd say you fall into both categories. What ELSE can you do?" he asked curiously.
Kurama only smiled mysteriously and said, "Many, many things..."
TYPO ERROR:
Gomen ne, everybody! I said Aug 10ish in my last chapter, and that is incorrect. I meant SEPT 10ish, don't kill me! [runs away from rabid fans]
At the moment I am in Vancouver, and will be flying home soon, and so in a little while I will be completely cut off from computers. At the moment, as you can see, I am able to update. I will update once more before I leave and tell you that no more updates will be coming until after school starts again. When that update comes, I'm very sorry. I will try to update as much as possible right now before I go on my road trip. GOMEN NASAI!
I love you all!
Toki Mirage