'I said I love you,
you said goodbye.
Everything changes,
in the blink of an eye.'
~Stardust
Mika ft. Chiara
"You told me it'd be fine." Narumi said, tears running down her face. Her eyes were glowing with a deep red colour, and her pupils were slitted. Her whisker marks were thick and prominent on her face and there was a splatter of blood on her cheek.
"You lied."
"This is stupid." Narumi, disguised as Himitsu, deadpanned.
"It'll be fine, Missy. Stop workin' yourself up into a worried fit." Daisuke said.
In front of them was the town's tavern. At that moment, the two of them were feeling two very different emotions. Narumi would much rather be meditating or working on her project... in the cabin. Away from people. Daisuke was looking forward to trying the alcohol and getting drunk. And getting Narumi out of the cabin. She's still young, she needs social interaction.
Narumi's been inside a couple of taverns before, mostly for mission information. She very rarely met any decent people. Most people always tried to get in her pants, and those that weren't either wanted to fight her or relentlessly teased her because she didn't look like she belonged in a bar. And Narumi's not even gonna recall the memory of the one time she did get into a bar fight... that didn't end well.
So yeah, she hasn't had the best experiences with taverns and alcohol.
"I am not going in there and you can't make me." Narumi said, pumping chakra into her feet to help her stick to the ground.
"Aw, c'mon! I'll be with ya the whole time, Missy. Nothing's gonna happen." Daisuke said, trying to pry Narumi from her spot and failing miserably.
"You don't know that." Narumi shot back, still refusing to move.
"Please?" Daisuke pleaded, still tugging her arm. "We don' even have to stay tha' long. Only a couple of hours?"
Narumi sighed and, with great regret, stopped pumping chakra into her feet. Daisuke nearly fell on his face when Narumi suddenly started moving with his pull, but Narumi's Shinobi instincts saved him. Again.
"No more than 3 hours." Narumi said, mournfully following her guardian into the tavern.
"Ya have my word, Missy. In 3 hours ya can drag me outta here an' back to the cabin." Daisuke said, immediately heading towards the bartender. Thankfully he let go of Narumi's wrist, allowing her time to take in the tavern's interior.
It was... actually a pretty nice tavern. It had a magical feel to it, and the patrons gave it an overall positive aura. The tension in Narumi's shoulders drained out, only to very quickly snap back when she spotted a group of young, drunk men in the far corner of the tavern.
One of them clapped his friend on the back, causing said friend to lurch forward and face plant into the table. The other guys around him just laughed and made no move to help him up. Very drunk then.
Narumi adopted the blank look she wore when she first met Daisuke, steeled herself, and strode straight towards said man, who was already heartedly chugging a pint of beer.
Narumi silently slid onto the barstool near Daisuke and opted to only observe the patrons for now.
"Can I get you anything, Miss?"
Turning in the direction of the voice, Narumi came face-to-face with the bartender. A young man, close to her age by the look of it.
Narumi ignored the way his cheeks flushed slightly when she turned around. It must be the heat from the candles nearby. "One pint of beer, please." She said.
The bartender nodded, quickly turning to get her the drink.
He returned as quickly as he left, a mug of frothy beer in his grasp.
"Arigatō." Narumi said, taking the beer from him. Narumi raised a brow when his cheeks flushed again, 'He must a new bartender if the heat from the candles bothers him that much.' She thought, taking a small sip of the beer. She hummed appreciatively. It was good beer.
Narumi spun on her seat so that her back was to the bar. She propped an elbow onto the counter and let her eyes sweep over the room as she took another sip of beer.
The sound of laughter next to her made her turn her head. She saw Daisuke chatting with some of the other patrons, his face flushed.
'Well he certainly didn't wait long before he got drunk.' Narumi thought, deciding to tune in to his conversation.
"-never gets drunk! It's insane! I'm kinda jealous to be honest."
Oh. He was talking about her. Since Narumi's attention was already on the man, she clearly saw the exact moment he spotted her. His eyes light up and he wildly swung an arm in her direction.
"There she is. Himitsu! Over here. Come an' help me prove these guys wrong!"
Immediately 5 sets of eyes were trained on her, including those of the bartender who had been listening to Daisuke's story with half an ear. Sighing, Narumi clonked her head back and chugged her remaining beer before heading towards her guardian. She let her face slide back into her now customary blank look and gave each of the men a once over, before turning to Daisuke.
"Yes, Ojī-chan?"
One of the men whistled and said, "Damn, old man! Who'd you knock up to get a granddaughter like that?!"
Narumi carefully kept her face blank. Not even half an hour has gone by since they've arrived and she's already encountered a douchébag. She really hated bars. Or taverns, since this place is a lot older than where she's originally from.
Daisuke, to Narumi's slight dismay and relief (since it's bad to aggravate a drunk person), merely laughed and said, "Nah. I'm too much of a commoner to have contributed to any of that. I never married. She's adopted."
For some reason that was completely beyond Narumi's comprehension, the man laughed, excitement swirling in his eyes. The small gasp the bartender let out was something Narumi understood well. She did not need pity.
Narumi craned her head back, made eye contact with the bartender, and said, "My parents died when I was born. I never knew them. There's no need for me to be sad about it." The bartender smiled, but his eyes still looked sad.
Turning back to Daisuke, Narumi asked, "What did you need me for, Ojī-chan? I was enjoying a nice pint of beer." Narumi turned back to the bartender, "This place really has remarkable alcohol."
The bartender's face flushed and he stammered, hiding behind his tray.
"Yer old man claims that you can drink anybody under the table." Narumi turned. It was the same man from earlier, the one who asked if she and Daisuke were related. "Issat true?" He asked.
"Indeed." Narumi said, nodding her head. She kept her expression blank when she noticed that the man wasn't even making eye contact with her. He was looking at her chest. Narumi hand clenched, and her blank expression became minutely more difficult to hold.
She turned to address the bartender, "Nine pints of beer please, bartender-san. This man and I are going to have a drink-off."
Momentarily stunned, it took the bartender a bit before he reacted. "R-right. I'll do that right away ma'am. And my name is Denki. No last name."
Narumi blinked at him, face still blank. Understanding flashed in her eyes, but she showed no outward reaction. "Himitsu. Also no last name." Denki smiled. Said smile was immediately wiped off of his face when a hand slammed down on the bar between the two of them.
Narumi gave the offending person a blank side stare. 'Him again.' She thought, taking in the man's alcohol-flushed and scowling face.
"Nine pints of beer. And make it snappy, runt." The man ordered, before turning to Narumi and giving her a "dazzling" smile. Narumi didn't allow even a brief flash of disgust to show on her face as she took in his yellow, crooked teeth.
"Shall we?" He asked, "dazzling" smile now becoming a little more mocking.
Narumi wordlessly slid onto a barstool, the man doing the same. Narumi held up a single finger and said, "Nine pints of beer. Four each with one in the middle. We each have to completely empty our four pints before grabbing the fifth one in the middle. That one must then be finished as well. Do you agree?"
The man nodded. Daisuke suddenly appeared next to Narumi, a smirk on his face. "If Himi wins we get 50 gold coins." He said.
'Himi? That's new.' Narumi thought. 'However, 50 gold coins isn't nearly enough for my tastes. That parchment paper I saw was at least 80.'
"An' if I win," that man started, snapping Narumi out of her musings. He was oozing confidence and, quite obviously, eyeing her up and down. Narumi's face remained blank, but she mentally stuck her tongue out at the man whilst flashing him double middle fingers.
"If I win, I get to spend the rest of the evening with lovely Himi-chan here. At my place."
'Oh fuck no! I'd rather wear that funny Konoha man's green jumpsuit than come anywhere near you! I'm only sitting this close to you because we can't have a drink off if we're on separate sides of the bar.' Was what Narumi's internal thoughts were raging. Externally her face remained unchanged, but one of her brows were slightly quirked upwards. Denki, who had arrived with the beer, stumbled and nearly fell at the man's wager.
Beside Narumi, she could see Daisuke getting ready to pounce the man. So Narumi stuck out a single arm, blocking Daisuke's path. He looked down at her inquisitively while she gazed at the man. 'He looks like a rat. I'm now going to call him Rat-man.' She declared, mentally of course, externally she was the pinnacle of perfect unresponsiveness.
"That's fine with me." Narumi said, the man gave a wide grin and moved to pump his fist in the air. "However," he paused, looking at her again. "that amount of coins is far too low. Raise it to 200, and then if you win we'll leave immediately. For the entire weekend."
The man's expression made it appear as if he was the one who was about to win 200 gold coins. He agreed immediately, tossing four bags of coins onto the space between them. Narumi could tell they were filled with coins, so she didn't bother to check them.
"Denki-san." Narumi said, snapping the stock still man out of his turmoil. He clearly didn't like the wagers. "The beer please. I'd like to win my earnings as soon as possible. There's a sheet of parchment paper and a pot of ink calling my name."
"R-right." He mumbled, placing the beer in between the two competitors: 4 on each side with one single pint on the middle.
Rat-man's "lackeys" have by then somehow managed to inform the entire tavern of their competition and the stakes, so there was quite a crowd starting to gather around the two.
Daisuke placed a hand on Narumi's shoulder, looking far more sober than he ought to be, "Ya don' have to do this, Missy." He said, leaning close to her ear to avoid being heard by the other patrons.
Narumi broke her blank look for a few precious moments to snort at Daisuke's suggestion, who pouted at her but still looked mildly worried. She put her blank look back on and softly asked, "Weren't you the one who said we were going to use my resistance to alcohol to win some money? That's what I'm doing right now, so why the long face?"
Daisuke's grip on her shoulder tightened slightly and he ground out, "If I knew we'd be bettin' against sleaze bags I wouldn't have suggested it."
Narumi gently placed one of her hands on Daisuke's, a soft look entering her eyes, "I'll be fine."
A small, teasing smirk made its way onto Narumi's face long enough for Daisuke to see before disappearing. "Besides, if by some miracle I end up losing we can just kill Rat-man and skip town."
Daisuke snorted at Narumi's nickname before finally relinquishing his hold and stepping back.
...only to cup his hands around his mouth and yell a moment later. "Kick his ass, Himi!"
...which spurred the other patrons surrounding them to shout out their own cheers as well. Most of them were for Rat-man, since they didn't believe that a woman would be able to out-drink a man. Ah, the misogyny of the past.
Internally Narumi gave a wicked grin, excitedly waiting for the reaction they'd inevitably give when she won. Externally, determination shone in her eyes, the rest of her face still blank.
"I'll be the judge, i-if that's alright." Denki said, moving to stand to the side of the two of them, but still in the middle.
"Fine by me, Runt." Rat-man said.
"I'm fine with it as well." Narumi said, nodding once.
"O-ok. Please place both of your hands on your laps."
The two proceeded to do so, greed and list shining in Rat-man's eyes with every move he made. Narumi internally promised to make his defeat swift and humiliating.
"On my mark, you may lift your hands and begin. Ready?" Denki asked, nervously glancing between the two. They both nodded. 'I hope Himitsu-san wins.' Denki thought. 'No woman deserves to be treated how this man clearly intends to treat her. She doesn't look stupid though, so she probably has some sort of plan.'
"On your mark," Denki began. Narumi and Rat-man were unmoving, but below the table Rat-man's fingers flexed constantly while Narumi remained unmoving. Her intelligent eyes were trained on Rat-man, picking him apart piece by piece. Internally she smirked, she is so winning this.
"get set," Denki continued, glancing between the two of them on final time, before sighing. He silently prayed for 'Himitsu' to win.
"Go!"
Immediately both competitors' hands darted towards the mugs of beer on the counter. Rat-man grabbed one mug in each hand and began chugging. It didn't matter if this would make him incredibly hungover afterwards, he'd get to sleep with a pretty little girl! For free! And with no resistance!
His cheeks flushed at the perverted thoughts entering his mind, and he began to drink faster. He couldn't wait! Victory was in hi-
Clink.
"Done."
Rat-man finally took his focus off of his perverted thoughts, and looked across the counter. Himitsu sat there, in the same position she was in before they started. Her face was blank, devoid of emotion. In front of her were five empty mugs. She reached up to her mouth and carefully used her sleeve to wipe a small bit of foam away.
There was absolute silence in the tavern. Rat-man's jaw dropped. How?!
The silence was broken by Himitsu leaning forward and grabbing the bags of coins. "I do believe these belong to me now." She said, putting them into the sleeves of her kimono.
Suddenly a loud whoop came from next to them. Daisuke was standing there, a large grin on his face and a fist poised in the air. "Way to go, Himitsu!"
Daisuke was a catalyst. Immediately after his exclamation Denki piped up, claiming Himitsu the winner, and the crowd erupted into disbelieving cheers.
Daisuke rushed forward, enveloping Narumi in a tight hug. "Good job, Missy."
Narumi gave him a one-armed hug in return, "Was there ever any doubt?"
Rat-man however, was still in disbelief, and hadn't moved from his seat. A rough shove made him fall off his chair, not that it helped him pull himself together.
"Outta the way, slowpoke. Lemme show ya how a real man drinks his beer."
Narumi and Daisuke both gazed at Narumi's next opponent, silently sizing him up. He was a beefy dude, nearly twice as big as Rat-man. There was also a cloth covering the lower part of his face, which he removed to address her. Narumi silently named him Han-wannabe and let go of Daisuke, giving the new man her full attention.
"Name's Riki. I challenge you to a drink-off." Han-wannabe said, and yeah, she's still gonna call him that.
"What are your terms?" Narumi asked, keeping the blank face but seamlessly shifting back into her Himitsu persona.
"We each drink one cup of sake at a time, first one to collapse loses. If I win you leave this place with me, and if you win I'll give you 200 gold coins. Same terms as before. Oh, and the loser has to pay for the drinks." Han-wannabe said, crossing his arms.
"I accept." Himitsu said, no hesitation in her voice. She paused and then leaned towards Rat-man, who was laying down on the floor. "Since you lost, I'm pretty sure that means you have to pay for the nine pints of beer." A whimper was her only response.
Han-wannabe turned towards Denki, who had been staring at Himitsu in blatant awe, and asked him to start getting the sake ready. Denki snapped out of his hero-worship and quickly scurried off to the bar, eager to see Himitsu perform again.
"Himitsu-san is the winner!" Denki exclaimed, nearly being drowned out by the cheers of the other patrons in the tavern.
Han-wannabe went down easily. Since Narumi's corrosive chakra burns through alcohol and most poisons with relative ease, every cup of sake she consumed was burned away before it even reached her stomach. As a result, it only took Han-wannabe drinking a dozen cups to pass out. Turns out he was banking on her already being relatively intoxicated from the beer. Sucks for him.
After Han-wannabe came another 4 competitors, each giving the same terms as the previous competitors. Like said previous competitors, they all lost.
After that, Narumi decided that she had had her fill. She grabbed a drunk Daisuke's arm, waved to the disappointed patrons, and headed home.
Daisuke was drunk as a skunk. He was sprouting nonsense and gibberish the entire way home. He even went as far as to ask Narumi where she stored the money, which she knew he knew.
"I have seals on my forearms, Ojī-chan. You know this." Narumi said, finally getting the man into his bed. He could change and shower in the morning. No way in hell was Narumi doing that for him.
"Oh ~yeah. Cuz yer a ~ninja." Daisuke said, before giggling and cuddling his pillow.
Narumi finally broke her blank look and a fond smile found its way onto her face. She reached forward and made sure Daisuke was tucked in properly.
"Sleep well, Ojī-chan." Narumi whispered before heading towards her own room.
After depositing the money into their finance seal, of course.
Crash!
Narumi woke up in an instant, immediately recognising the sound as someone breaking into their cabin.
She remained immobile though, and kept her eyes shut. Instead, she spread out her senses. Residing in a place with such a large amount of inactive chakra made Narumi's sensing abilities skyrocket. It made it nearly ten times easier for her to sense active chakra, or living beings.
There were 5 presences in the living room. 'Those are the guys that I had the drink-offs with.' She thought, frowning slightly. They probably tried to come and steal their money back. Well, no matter. The money was in the finance seal, and that thing was fireproof and waterproof. So long as they don't steal anything of real value it really doesn't ma-
Daisuke.
The 6th person she drank against, which just so happens to be the first, Rat-man, was in Daisuke's room.
Daisuke's chakra was fading.
Narumi felt Kurama's chakra, the chakra he had given to her to make sure she'd live, which technically now made it herchakra, flare to life. She allowed it to coat her being completely, feeling rather than seeing her blue eyes turn red while her pupils slitted.
Narumi used a Shunshin to flash out of her room in puff of smoke. If there were a mirror for her to look into, she would've noticed how her whisker marks had thickened dramatically.
"There's nothing here, Riki. Let's just grab the bitch and go." One of the men said, looking at Riki, the Han-wannabe.
*DESCRIPTIVE GORE. READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.*
Riki opened his mouth to reply, but whatever he was going to say was cut off by the shriek that came from Daisuke's room. The men turned just in time to see Rat-man's body flying out of the room. It hit the opposite wall and slid to the floor. Rat-man was covered in scratches and was bleeding profusely. Still, he looked the stunned men with wide, terrified eyes and yelled, "Demon!"
But he wasn't looking at the men. No. He was looking behind them, at Narumi. Narumi stalked out of Daisuke's room, eyes blazing. Her nails had turned into claws and her already sharp incisors tripled in sharpness, gleaming in the light her eyes gave off.
She stretched a single clawed hand forward. Immediately a small Bijūdama formed in front of it. As soon as it was formed, she fired it at the petrified man.
Upon contact, his body exploded, covering the wall he was leaning against as well as his buddies in red blood. Rat-man was unrecognisable. All that remained of him was his guts and blood that were splattered on the wall and his friends.
As one the men turned and made eye-contact with Narumi. They took in her glowing, demonic eyes, whiskers, claws and fangs, and as one sprinted towards the door.
The first man to reach the door hit a barrier. But before he could move away the barrier electrocuted him. Badly. The other men stopped, horrified, and watched as he was fried until all that was left was a charred, black silhouette of a man.
A whoosh of wind flew past the men and suddenly Narumi was next to the electrocuted man. She giggled and swiped at him with her clawed hand. He crumbled and became a pile of ash on the floor.
Narumi turned towards the horrified men and asked, "Who's next?"
The position Narumi was in effectively blocked off their only exit, since her electrocution barrier seal only had one use, but they didn't need to know that.
They had hurt Daisuke. Narumi's precious person. And for that they'd die.
Narumi disappeared and reappeared in front of one of the men a moment later. She gleefully slashed his stomach with her claws. He never stood a chance.
Immediately blood gushed from the wound she had made. Blood and organs. The man fell to the floor, mouth wide open in a silent scream. Narumi took mercy on him and placed her foot on his neck, slowly applying pressure.
She and the other 3 men could hear the bones in the dying man's neck fracturing. Oh so slowly. Finally, Narumi grew impatient and stomped down, effectively breaking the man's neck.
And severing his head from his body. Oopsie.
She turned to the remaining three men, smiling gleefully at their petrified forms. She raised her hands and flashed through hand signs that were familiar to her, but completely foreign to the men.
Snake. Ram. Monkey. Boar. Bird. Tiger.
Ten fireballs appeared in front of her. The men quivered in fear. Narumi gleefully undid her tiger sign and pointed a single finger forward.
"Katon: Kitsunebi."
The ten fireballs split into two groups of five and headed straight for the two men standing on opposite sides of the one in the middle. One seemed to accept death, and closed his eyes with tears streaming down his face. The other tried to run, but the fire was faster.
Narumi relished in their screams of pain, in the smell of burning flesh, in the pretty colour of the fire. The last man, Han-wannabe, looked sick. Sick and terrified and alone.
"This was your idea, wasn't it Riki?" Narumi asked, not expecting an answer. All Riki did was whimper pathetically. Narumi sniffed in disdain. Is this really what was considered a powerful man these days?
No matter. Narumi gave Riki one final, feral grin, crouched down onto all fours, and pounced.
Narumi's hands collided with Riki's shoulders, claws immediately digging into his flesh. Riki cried out, tears freely running down his face. Her feet collided with his knees, making him stumble and fall onto his back.
Narumi glared down at him, eyes burning with hatred, a snarl ripping through her lips. "You hurt my precious person." She growled. Riki whimpered, mumbling apologies under his breath that Narumi ignored.
"I think that you deserve the same fate that the last person who hurt my precious people got." Narumi said.
Not a moment later, she bit down onto his neck, and ripped half of his throat out. Narumi grimaced at the taste and spat the offending piece of flesh out. It landed with a wet thump on the floor in front of the foot in her doorway.
Foot in her doorway?
Narumi looked up, and made eye contact with a petrified Denki. His face was impossibly pale, and his eyes were as wide as saucers as he took in the scene in front of him.
Narumi opened her mouth, but before she could even make a sound, Denki turned on his heel and sprinted towards the village, yelling Fox Demon at the top of his lungs.
His cries stirred something in Narumi, and she moved to close Riki's blank eyes. Narumi stood up, and headed towards Daisuke's room.
The man was peacefully laying on his bed, eyes closed. If one didn't think too much, you'd think he was sleeping. But his skin was clammy and pale, there was a trail of blood staining the side of his mouth, and there was a dagger protruding out of the left side of his chest, directly over his heart.
*GORE OVER. YOU CAN NOW READ SAFELY AGAIN.*
Narumi slowly approached, eyes welling up with tears. She reached and grabbed one of his hands.
"You told me it'd be fine." Narumi said, tears running down her face. Her eyes were glowing with a deep red colour, and her pupils were slitted. Her whisker marks were thick and prominent on her face and there was a splatter of blood on her cheek.
On top of her head, unbeknownst to her, was a pair of fox ears the same shade of Kurama's fur. The fluff on the inside of the ears was white. Said ears were folded against Narumi's head. Protruding from her buttocks were 9 fox tails, curling around each other. Their fur was also the same shade as Kurama's, with the tips being coloured white.
"You lied." She sobbed, gripping his hand like a lifeline.
So lost in her grief, Narumi barely noticed one of her tails brushing against her leg. Startled, she let go of Daisuke's hand and grabbed the offending appendage.
She immediately yelped in pain and let go. Narumi froze. Yelped in pain?
Narumi inspected the appendage more closely, and discovered that it was a fox tail. And that she had nine of them. Narumi cautiously raised a hand to her head and found her new fox ears.
"What?" Narumi whispered, confusion shining in her eyes alongside the grief.
Before she had time to ponder however, a cacophony of shouts assaulted her ears. Narumi sensed a large group of people hastily approaching her cabin.
The Shinobi part of her brain kicked in, and Narumi quickly gathered her scrolls, which were all in her room, and leapt out of the window. She landed on a thick tree branch a small distance away and watched as half of the village charged into her cabin, led by Denki and all armed with torches and pitchforks.
Her heart broke.
"Sayōnara, Ojī-chan."
With that, Narumi's face shifted back into her customary blank look and she disappeared into the forest.
Shinobi = Ninja
Arigatō = Thank You
Ojī-chan = Grandpa
Shunshin = Body Flicker/Teleport
Bijūdama = Tailed Beast Bomb
Katon: Kitsunebi = Fire Release: Fox Fire
Sayōnara = Goodbye