Narutopolis
Chapter 03: Afternoon Sundries – Part 1
Rating: T
Pairing: Kiba Inuzuka and Naruto Uzumaki
Notes: Thanks for the reviews. Also, thanks, goM, for proofreading the first two chapters. I put some more notes at the very end of this document. You needn't read 'em.
Disclaimer: I'm on my way to perfecting this 'steal the Naruto' jutsu. Till then, Naruto isn't mine.
It was surprising, Kiba thought, how the village which seemed very quiet and sparse in the morning had come to be so hectic and full of strident sounds which bored into his ears—the sound of the heavy tread of busy feet; of objects of various sorts brushing, hitting one another; and of people talking—on the whole, of people walking the talk. Behind him was Naruto, bouncing cheerfully by pressing his shoulders with the hands—walking the talk as well, he mockingly supposed; and he knew that Kisame was somewhere round following them.
Seeing no signs of pursuit from the Hidden Leaf, Kisame had given the both of them two hours to have a stroll about the village before leaving—given his presence to oversee them. Naruto had asked for Hinata's company; but Kiba, firmly refusing the presence of a rival in what he admitted to himself had become a love competition—as it were—in which the blond bloke was the prize, insisted that she wanted time to resolve the task which Itachi had assigned her. Hinata might not even know about it; and he felt guilty for treating Naruto as an object of possession, but he wanted to be as selfish as possible as regards him on his birthday. Also, he had left Akamaru at the lodging in her care.
What a lark it was, however; for, how much effort he put to retain him notwithstanding, he had to retain all those thoughts to himself as well, too inertial and credulous to expect any sort of new experience—no, he was merely too credulous he firmly believed that Naruto would never reciprocate him if he had confessed. It reminded him of a song which he often heard at seaside of the Fire country when travelling; and it probably was imported from another country, as the title suggested a place's name rather nonstandard according to the local naming convention—its title was Scarborough Fair. And so he glanced upwards as he tried to recall its lyrics, crooning, "Are you going to Scarborough Fair? Parsley, sage, rosemary, and... turnip?"—was that it?—"No—parsley, sage, rosemary, and... thyme,"—more like it,—"Remember me to the one who lives there... he once was a true love of mine."
Sweet symbolism, he thought, smirking inwardly about the existence of somebody else with a plight similar to his, as the words' meaning suggested similarity, in a way, to his passions for Naruto—full of hope but at once pessimistic to the extent of almost being delusional?—well, he preferred to think it similar in the way it was moody, yet joyous; for it reminded him of time, of seasons, of something unceasing—as was his adoration for Naruto, he fathomed. "Tell him to make me a cambric shirt. Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Without no seams nor needle work, then he'll be a true love of mine."
"That's surprising. You've got a nice voice," exclaimed Naruto, interrupting Kiba's inner spate of melancholy, renouncing pestering his shoulders. "And what's that song? It's nice—kinda unusual."
"Oh—um—it's Scarborough Fair," said Kiba, rather hesitantly. "I guess such a revelation coming from a fellow shinobi tends to infallibly surprise others, eh? I don't think my voice is that nice, but I do like to sing sometimes. Maybe if I sing that song repeatedly, you'll... understand."
"Huh? What of it?" Naruto wondered. "You know—I'm not really good at making out the meaning of songs."
"Nevermind then."
"You're acting rather poncey lately," said Naruto, averting his look upwards. "You're like a mix of Sasuke and Sakura,—I know being the chalk and cheese that they are, it's hard to even put them in the same sentence—but, you know."
"Really?" choked Kiba, immediately feeling awkward then. "I guess I've just got heaps in mind lately."
Naruto was about to say, "I thought you're the same type as me—the witless kind," but he reconsidered his words and instead said, "So I noticed."
And then they turned round into an even more congested street, in which commercial activities flocked.
"Do you have any money about you?" asked Naruto, looking over the crowd for a brief moment, then at Kiba.
"Just a little. You?"
"Just enough to buy a few packs of ramen I guess." Naruto gave a slight pout and crossed his arms. And then, recalling his chest-thumping competition with the kunoichi of the sannin, he held the pendant of his necklace up and said, "Actually—who was it who told me?—Ero-sennin?—anyway, he said I could buy three mounts with this necklace that Tsunade gave me."
"Seriously?" asked Kiba, rather stunned.
"Hopefully," answered Naruto as he slipped the pendant back underneath his ginger tee, beneath which his headband was also placed, as had Kiba's been, so as to not reveal his identity. "But I guess I shouldn't sell it. So, what are we gonna do now?"
"I say we spend it on gear," said Kiba, glancing about the street among the structures. "I'm short of throwing blades myself. Let's see—over there."
They walked towards a building atop which a board saying 'The Fagure Ninja Arsenal' was attached; and a wooden building of noteworthy size it was, if its exterior rather bleak in the way the pair of adjoining sliding doors at entrance were shut (notwithstanding the small signboard, which was hung by the right-hand door, said open) and the outward windows screened by small, perpendicular partitions,—little did shine get through,—not in the slightest could they see the inside.
Even though the store was located in so busy a street, once Kiba was in front of it, he felt as if he were in a completely different world; for, like a shot it was, the store seemed to have swollen in size, while everything else round shrunk, slackened, and shamefully conceded to it. Or was he just being unusually sensitive? he wondered. Rather, he remembered feeling such languors when visiting other places on many different occasions; except his mind could rarely become so tortuous as it was then—with Naruto. At any rate, he felt deviant—poncey as Naruto had put it,—and was it not something bad?
Kiba opened the door and stepped into the building first as he scanned the vast arrays of ninja weapons and armour; and Naruto followed from behind. Another room with a board saying 'The Gagure Information Shop' above its door, which was back of the room in which they were, however, immediately gained their attention.
"Welcome to Fagure!" greeted a man who approached them with the cutest of smile, his looks prominent and spoke more than needed as outlines of his defiant, boastful fashion. He displayed a fairly innovative ninja ensemble whose design challenged the well-established ones; the plate, which typically was attached to a headband (as was the case with other ninjas'), was by the left chest, attached upright to the black, suede braces, which was worn over the shoulder, slided through the chutes round the 'waist' of the plain, charcoal-grey, suede, fly-less hip-huggers, and tied firmly at the back, its wastes falling to round the knee; his rib-length, thick, black, flannelly, polo-necked, sleeveless shirt with a silver imprint of a cloud on the back zipped up to the neckline, contouring the upper part of his trim torso, leaving the svelte abdomen and waist bare; his elbows decorated with randomly-tied, charcoal-grey ribbons, which seemed to serve as underlines for the black, symmetrical streaks of tattoo on either upper arms; a titanium chain round his neck; a tattoo of black, interconnected curves on his left cheek down to the jawline; a black, silken headband; a short, hilt-less sword—which looked more like a dirk—inside its titanium scabbard across a holder back of the shirt, near its lower edge; and a pair of suede balmorals of darker hues of grey,—all the colours silhouetted against his pale skin. "So much's I hate to do this, I hafta see your ninja credentials first—your ninja plate, for instance—prior to sellin' ya anything."
Kiba was not sure if it would be safe to show the man his headband's plate, which was scratched—for how much of a gagster the man was, what with his vernacularism inadvertently belittled what points being well-groomed had, not in the slightest did he look weak, Kiba measured; moreover, he did not bring anything else to prove that he was genuinely a ninja. Looking at the man's plate, he noticed the engraved Mist symbol that was as well scratched, which in turn caused him to wonder how the man, as a missing-nin, had had his store—and himself for that matter—intact without concealing that very identity of his. Puckering brows slightly, he alertly took from underneath his fishnet tee his headband out and said, "There are circumstances behind this."
"Of all the shady arsenals in all the villages in this country, you walk into mine! Aren't I lucky? You're the Inuzuka heir that Itachi and Kisame took, Kiba Inuzuka," said the man cheerfully. "And you must be Uzumaki Naruto, the nine-tailed jinchuuriki."
Of all the reactions to expect, Kiba came across the most surprising one, if at all expected. How could the information spread so quickly? he wondered. "H-how did you know?"
"Ah well, it's 'cause I'm the famous information hunter, Takehiro Kunieda," he said, gripping either sides of his hip and thrusting his face up. "Who's also a de facto member of Akatsuki."
"You don't want to be a sanctioned member, and yet you talk as though you're proud of it," said a white-haired figure who suddenly appeared behind Takehiro.
Although the room was poorly lit, both Kiba and Naruto could see the white eyes that the young man behind Takehiro possessed, much like the Byakugan of the Hyuuga clan. He was only wearing a simple, white yukata and his hair looked damp from bath, but he emanated a great deal of charisma and air of authority.
There were many remarkable figures that Kiba had come across throughout his life; his father for being both a fully-fledged leader of the Inuzuka clan and a great, erudite father; the third Hokage for his kindness and determination to protect the Hidden Leaf village; the fifth Hokage for her medical skills, notable efforts to rejuvenate the village, and perpetual support for Naruto; Itachi for his beyond-measure skills and austerity; and so forth. None of them, however, had showed as much dignity as the man behind Takehiro. Invincible would be the precise word to describe him, Kiba inferred.
"Seiji," said Takehiro, seemingly losing his glee for a moment. He quickly put his jovial self on, however, and said, "Hey, you've woken up! You've even cleaned up!—or maybe something's just spattered on your head? Um well, anyway, Akatsuki's so cool, so naturally I love to be part of it. But I don't wanna have the responsibilities—that's all—oh, and I'm not interested in the power of those bijuus. By the way, quit poppin' up in that startling way—my customers gone scared."
"Right on—Come to think about it... I don't know what the world has come into: a jester in love with a group of pariahs and pariahs in love with a group of fiends," slandered Seiji with a sneer, which seemed to Kiba very natural in his face. Sighing, reviving his dignity, he turned his attention to Kiba and Naruto, who was chuckling. "Hello to you, Naruto-kun, Kiba-kun."
Fiends ate jesters; jesters annoyed pariahs; pariahs swayed fiends,—and so the hero knew not whom to save? Kiba inwardly added. No—the hero knew that he wanted to save one special fiend.
"Who are you?" asked Naruto, looking Seiji in the eye, automatically engraving the image of his sharp, incandescent, colourless eyes onto his mind.
"He's the leader of said group of pariahs," said Takehiro in bare excitement. "The almighty Seiji Hyuuga!"
"Neji, use your Byakugan to look for Naruto," said Kakashi as they stopped their track right by the sparse, wooden gate of the village.
Neji did so; and once he had found Naruto and Kiba, he said, "He's together with Kiba and a... Hyuuga in a weapon store in the middle of this village. Itachi isn't with them, nor are Kisame and Hinata."
"A Hyuuga?" asked Kurenai, who stood next to Kakashi. "Wouldn't you know him then?"
"I don't know. He doesn't have a curse mark, meaning he's—" Neji stopped promptly as he recalled the story of a white-haired boy from an outcast branch house of Hyuuga who died straightaway after he was born. "If I'm not mistaken—no, there's no mistake—he's Seiji Hyuuga. He's long since considered dead."
He was able to recognise Seiji for he was the only Hyuuga to have white hair; and the story about his immediate death was rife for quite a while, especially among the clan's members.
"I've never heard of that name before," said Kurenai. "Could it be that he saved Naruto and Kiba?"
"I don't know," answered Neji.
"We meet again, Kakashi-san, Kurenai-san," said Itachi as he appeared in front of them in his usual Akatsuki cloak. "And you are Neji-kun and Sakura-kun, I believe."
"Where is Naruto, Kiba, and Hinata?" asked Kurenai. "And tell us what you intend to do to Kiba and Hinata."
"I have no intention to hurt them," Itachi assured her. "Rather, it's their own will to come along us."
"Report from Anbu has it that you hypnotised them. Which one is true?" asked Kakashi.
"It is yours to choose, as the instructors in charge of them, whether to reveal this intelligence to your village," Itachi answered.
"They must be here to save Naruto," Sakura inferred.
"Anyhow, we're here to bring all of them back to the village," said Kakashi, uncovering his headband from his Sharingan, looking over Itachi in the eye.
Kiba promptly found it hard to look Seiji in the eye as he realised that the gravity of the situation had suddenly increased greatly. Would he ever be able to save Naruto? he skeptically wondered, for he recognised straightaway how powerful and dangerous the man was—quite possibly more so than Itachi was.
"Y-you're... insanely strong already," spoke Naruto as he gesticulated anxiously, able to feel throughout his whole tingling body Seiji's strength. "Why—why do you still need the bijuus' power?"
Naruto was right, Kiba thought.
Seiji gave Naruto a brief intense look before saying, "With that brain of yours, I don't think you would understand why even if I told you."
"What the—at least I have the right to know, being your target!" cried Naruto prior to forcefully settling himself down, accustoming himself to what seemed like constant radiation of Seiji's power.
Takehiro cleared his throat and said, "Basically, he wanna be super powerful. Well, it wouldn't be that easy now that five of the nine have died and that many elite shinobis from different villages have been sent to eradicate the organisation."
"Kunieda!" yelled Seiji.
"Seiji!" retorted Takehiro playfully. Upon seeing Seiji's glower, however, he retreated and said, "I'll fetch some tea. By the way, why don't you all have a seat there?"
Having had measured their strengths and weaknesses and decided on roles and formations beforehand, Kakashi and Neji stood frontmost next to each other opposite Itachi, forming a sort of triangle; Sakura positioned herself several steps behind perpendicular to Itachi; and Kurenai at the extreme end, still in the formation's median. Sakura took the cue from Kakashi's self-duplication and hit the ground in front with her right forefinger, violently creating a long fissure in it that passed through Kakashi and Neji towards Itachi. Kakashi, having created three clones, relying on the ground knockdown as a distraction for Itachi, positioned one about two metres rightwards in front of him, one at the same distance rightwards behind him after tree, and one at the rear end covertly while Neji was using his 'Jyuukenshou: Hakke Kuushou' technique to draw the opponent towards himself. In an instant, Kakashi's rearmost clone transfigured into Kurenai while the real her transfigured into Kakashi and swiftly jumped towards Kakashi's clone which was back of a tree.
While the rearmost clone only used the common transfiguration, Kurenai used an advanced one that involved the concept of genjutsu and, simply put, was able to seem to others what they would expect to notice by senses from a clone of the real person into which she transfigured—even the demeanour. Its purpose was, of course, to deceive Itachi into thinking that she was staying away from the battle to prepare a genjutsu or to observe and wait for the right moment to cast it, thus, hopefully, could drive Itachi's attention to stay primarily to Kurenai and Kakashi's real self (for he could tell which the real one was). That in itself was so that she would have a better chance to cast an unexpected genjutsu unnoticedly.
Itachi, naturally having his Sharingan activated, sensing a trick but was not able to figure it out, created two clones and sent them towards Kakashi and his nearest clone while he sprang forwards over the fissure to attack Sakura—whom he thought had a role worth concerning, what with her outrightly attacking him—hopeful that he could unravel—or even spoil and exploit—the trick; although before he could reach Sakura, Neji, pleased that Itachi had fallen into their trick scheme, and confident that he could resist Itachi's genjutsu in any event, had started to assault him with his 'Jyuukenshou: Hakke Rokujyuu Yonshou' technique while she backed away. The assault, however, was cut short after its second hit by a series of kunais which one of Itachi's clones threw and thereby forced Neji to dodge several steps away from his target. Soon after, Itachi used 'Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu' and emitted a huge fireball from his mouth that went in the direction of Neji and Sakura.
At the moment the fireball was nigh on to hit Neji, he released a good deal of chakra from all his anterior chakra openings to instantly stop it; and then he focused a great deal of chakra into his right palm and hit the fireball sideways, propelling it back towards Itachi.
Kakashi, seeing Itachi dodging it, and taking account of the buildings in which people might live behind Itachi, used his Mangekyou Sharingan to expunge the fireball. It was then when the clone of Itachi which had been facing Kakashi jumped to behind him and attempted to stab him with a kunai. It was, however, stopped by two kunais that Kurenai (who was still in Kakashi's form) threw—one hit the kunai in the hand of Itachi's clone, the other pierced the clone itself in the neck, causing it to vanish.
All of them quickly stopped their track and backed away for a bit as Itachi ceased his clone and said, "I have never seen anyone use Sharingan like so. All of you came into me as good teamwork."
"Is that true?" asked Kiba with reference to the mayhem within Akatsuki, sitting on the left chair in front of a desk as Naruto sat on the right one and Seiji walked towards the one back of the desk.
"Very much so," said Seiji as he gracefully, noiselessly sat. "There have been many shinobis offering themselves to fill the vacant positions; they all are unqualified, however. It looks like we've failed to spot many cruces while calculating our moves. The complete jutsu requires all the bijuus to be captured; and the extraction of one requires the participation of at least eight experts. In conclusion, you are to remain unharmed for the time being. It seems to me that instead of waiting for prospective candidates, Itachi and Kisame have taken the liberty to advance further by training you."
"In other words, you're staying human for the time being," jested Naruto, rather more to himself.
"You can say that again," said Takehiro, coming from behind with a tray carrying a teapot and four cups.
"Do they—Itachi and Kisame—know about... you being in this place?" asked Kiba.
"Why do you ask?" replied Takehiro.
"Well, Kisame's supposed to be overseeing us. If he knew you're here, seeing that we're also here, shouldn't he stop by this place?"
"They probably don't know that Sei's here. I'd think they know I'm here though," said Takehiro, pouring the tea into all the cups. "This is my store after all."
"Would that you could address me less indecently," snapped Seiji.
"Sei Sei Sei Sei!" nattered Takehiro. "That's exactly the main reason why I don't wanna join Akatsuki, otherwise I'll have to call you—what?—Hyuuga-sama?"
Poor Seiji, Kiba thought on the subject of him being constantly inveigled by Takehiro into losing his dignity; although, in spite of his retorts and the tone in which he expressed them, he did not seem to mind it much as he feigned. It probably was for his good as well that Takehiro was not a real member of Akatsuki—how would he command his subordinates with a gagster to pester him round through and through? Moreover, had he been Seiji, he would naturally be constantly absorbed by the gagster's raw, boyish physical attractiveness he would never have anything of priority done,—as described earlier, the gagster was very svelte and none of his muscles looked developed—and he seemed to purposely keep them just fit in that direction; his skin pale and radiant, contrasting to the black tattoos on either upper arms and on the left cheek; his raven, straight hair falling freely, seemingly unbound by the silken headband of the same colour; and his captivating, honest smile seemed to convey a great deal of drama,—there was none of that sense of femininity which could be so repulsive in men in his looks, however. Had he been Seiji, he would... be seeing him!—in a sexual context at least—with force if necessary, as such was his silly, supplementary thought. He was not that poor after all, Kiba concluded.
"I wonder what those brats are doing with that do-gooder though," muttered Kisame as he made his way back to the lodging, intent on taking Hinata to Fagure and helping Itachi beat the pursuers up.
Once he was in the lodging, he found Hinata practising her Byakugan.
"Come along," he said, his hand motioning her to come with him. "Bring the dog as well."
She turned her Byakugan off and went on to pick Akamaru up, albeit rather reluctantly, slightly worrying about what was to happen to her thereafter, for she was rather tired after fixing all the chores and training.
Disregarding the skit, Kiba asked again, "Then... knowing there's not enough people to do the extraction, why did Itachi and Kisame have to bring Naruto this—"
"It doesn't change the fact that we are still adamant to perform it; and so we ought to secure all the jinchuurikis beforehand—especially from Orochimaru. He has been trying to kill them. In the past, we used to always neglect him—we never saw him as a threat," said Seiji, holding close his cup of tea. "Lately word has it that he supplied information to many villages of our strengths and weaknesses, which is very likely why many of our foremost echelons had been defeated so easily. And so, now our main priority is to exterminate Orochimaru."
"That bastard Orochimaru!" yelled Naruto.
"Yes, that bastard Orochimaru," echoed Kiba. "Hah, wouldn't you know it. Your life's also in danger now that you're in Akatsuki's hands. In a way, it's thanks to Orochimaru that you're still alive now."
"Oh... I almost forgot," said Naruto. "Gah!—I'm so confused I don't know anymore whether it's the villain tried to rescue me or my saviour tried to kill me, but I know I hate Orochimaru."
Takehiro only chuckled at that as he sat on the leftmost of the desk in front of Seiji and towed his pants by the braces. Seiji, however, remained poised as he took a sip of his tea.
Ceasing his smirk, Kiba asked further, "It's a dangerous move though, isn't it? 'Cause as far as I've heard, a jinchuuriki can collaborate with the bijuu to have unimaginable power. Granted, Naruto's a dork, so even if there were nine of him combined, they would never be a threat for you. But if you held all the jinchuurikis at once, and some of them proved to be skilled—taking account of the number of strong members left in the organisation—wouldn't it be dangerous if they joined forces to oppose you?"
"I'm not a dork!" exclaimed Naruto.
"Equationally, three bijuus have been extracted, leaving six remaining; there are four remaining members of the organisation—five with Kunieda,—we'd still hold the upper hand if it happened," said Seiji. "At any rate, once we've killed Orochimaru, we could perhaps discontinue that move."
"Is there no way to extract the demon without causing the jinchuuriki to die?" asked Naruto.
"Technically, there is. But it requires even more people to perform," said Seiji. "It's far more complicated. About fifteen people at Itachi's level will be needed. Why, are you afraid of death?"
Naruto glanced at Kiba; and then, grinning whimsically, he looked back at Seiji and said, "My dream is to become a Hokage! So—yes—I don't wanna die just yet."
"Well, that's a formidable dream, but I don't see any other way for you but to surpass our skills if you don't want to die," said Seiji firmly as he smiled slightly. "I'll make it easier—you needn't defeat us all—if you could defeat Itachi in a one-to-one combat within six months, I'll let you go."
"I so will defeat Itachi then!" said Naruto, although he certainly felt doubtful if he could ever do so.
"I'll make it even easier," said Seiji. "I'll train you."
"What?" asked Naruto.
"As I said, I'll let you be my apprentice and you'll train starting tomorrow."
Naruto was about to shout something when Kisame, as well as Hinata and Akamaru, suddenly barged in.
"Seiji-san," spoke Kisame in surprise. And then turning his look to Naruto, he said, "Anyhow, surprise, surprise, some nosey parkers from your village have come and now are fighting Itachi."
Hinata was as well surprised to see Seiji, whom she quickly recognised as the leader of Akatsuki, for she had seen the man once before when Itachi showed her his battle against him. He had become much taller than when she saw her before, however; and he looked much more dignified, she thought. Just as encountering a God would make one feel wholly nervous and inferior, so too did her encountering Seiji. Furthermore, while God was supposed to be fair, Seiji seemed more to her to lean towards evil, for he after all was the leader of Akatsuki. Such dread, she thought.
"Who are they?" asked Kiba, patting Akamaru on the head.
"I saw Kakashi, Kurenai, a pink-haired girl, and another Hyuuga," said Kisame. "Seiji-san, I'll head off to Itachi now and help him do over them. I'm leaving this girl and the dog here, Takehiro."
"No need," said Seiji. "Naruto-kun, I'd like to see you help Itachi fight them so I could see if you're worth it."
"I don't want to," said Naruto firmly, crossing his arms. "Kakashi and Sakura are my teammates, Neji is my chum, and Kurenai-sensei is Kiba's and Hinata's teacher."
"You needn't injure them badly,—in fact, it won't even matter if you win or lose," said Seiji, rather unyieldingly. "If you intend to have the power whereby you would survive us, you're obliged to do this much. Is it not a terrific bargain?—such a little amount of imprest, considering how much I'll teach you and how little you're required to do."
Naruto frowned; he stamped his foot. He had to do it, since it was no longer solely about his well-being, and his inaction could possibly result in the death of his friends then, he thought. He had to put all unnecessary thoughts aside for the time being and fight Kakashi, Kurenai, Neji, and Sakura—or maybe only Neji and Sakura specifically and let Itachi handle the remaining two—the more difficult two.
"I don't suppose you would let me help Naruto?" Kiba asked Seiji, suddenly feeling very cognisant of how hope—for it was no longer viability—could show a scenery and lead people to sheer and do what otherwise would be considered reasonable; however, he felt it natural to help Naruto, despite the consequences. Alternatives where most possibly existent, but he could think of no other way but help him fight them then.
"Seeing his maximum potential concerns me; so it will be better if you stay still until you see him in a pinch," said Seiji.
"Despite however you put it, I still think you're kinda twisted," muttered Takehiro as he followed them walk out the store.
Passing through the crowd effortlessly, they quickly arrived near the village's gate, at which Kakashi, Kurenai, Neji, and Sakura were still fighting Itachi. Although none of them were injured, it was noticable that Neji and Sakura were starting to lose confidence that they could win the battle, Kiba observed.
"Naruto!" shouted Sakura as she backed away from a clone of Itachi, surprised to see Naruto in the company of so many strong figures. Although she had heard that Gaara himself and his siblings would reach and backstop them later, she still felt rather skeptical whether even with their help they could defeat them, for she found Itachi alone nearly untouchable even by means of combining her strength with three other upstanding shinobis.
On the other hand, Neji's entire attention was fixed upon Seiji. He, as well as Kakashi, Kurenai, and Sakura, felt some overwhelming air of superiority leaking from him; and while it was fearsome, it also caused him to be eager to fight him and witness just how far a Hyuuga could develop, how great their hereditary, superior blood could be. And so he smirked in excitement.
"Sakura-chan! Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto was excited to see them, though he could not resist to feel awkward soon after once he remembered the reason why he had arrived there in the first place. "Neji, Kurenai-sensei."
"Naruto, Kiba, Hinata," spoke Kurenai gently.
"Kurenai-sensei," spoke the both of Kiba and of Hinata. And then Kiba said, "We're fine here, Kurenai-sensei. You needn't worry about us."
Was he insinuating that she should leave? Kurenai pondered. It probably was true that she should; for they were surrounded by figures most probably at Itachi's level.
"So you are Kurenai-sensei," spoke Takehiro, walking a few steps ahead towards Kurenai past the others.
"Yes I am. Who are you?"
"Just an information hunter. My name's Takehiro," he said, smiling amicably. And then he looked her in the eye. "Well, I'm just interested in your eyes. When I was exploring advanced bloods, I came across this intelligence about a family of extraordinary eyes whose origins extend back to the Hyuuga clan's research—the only ones that have been known to survive till today being Sharingan and Byakugan, while the others were sealed away. But after tracing further down lineages of those involved in the research and inspecting the research itself, I found out there's another one that's somehow survived; and you're the only one now to possess them, the Kokutengan. Well, too bad that's the extent of my knowledge of your eyes. I couldn't find any data on what your eyes can do or how to activate them; though, as the owner, you could probably figure out the way and develop techniques to support them! Also, Byakugan could probably see some sort of slight distinction in the way chakra regulates around your eyes."
Everyone looked at Kurenai with curiosity; and Neji and Hinata immediately activated their Byakugan to see into her eyes. They could see chakra points located oddly, but, as the eyes' ability was still inactive, such was the extent of exposure to those eyes that they could perceive.
Curiously, Kurenai looked at Neji. "What did you see?"
"Just unusual chakra points around your eyes."
"Well, that's all I've got to tell you. I look forward to discovering more about your eyes!" Waving his right hand, he walked back towards the space in-between Seiji and Naruto, who kept looking at him intently in wonder.
Silence dawned upon them for a while as they sank into their own trains of thought. Kiba thought it impossible for them to flee then that they had an owner of Byakugan to oversee them; Kurenai was very eager to discover more about her eyes, although she knew that it had to wait; Hinata wanting to cheer for Naruto and tell him that everything would eventually fall into place, but she was nonetheless also concerned about the notion of fighting his own friends; Kakashi planning to put a defensive fight if Seiji, Kisame, and Takehiro attacked till Gaara and his siblings came; Neji determining with Byakugan Seiji's, Kisame's, and Takehiro's attitudes as not taking any interest in fighting them; and Naruto, after forcefully disregarding his feelings, was simply waiting for some sort of signal to begin the fight.
Notes: I went on a business trip to several cities with my boif, thus couldn't update for so long. And it felt like I was a young executive or something, and writing a fanfiction would just ruin the image (;p), so I decided to suspend it until I got back, which was two days ago. Oh and since there were only several music albums in my boif's car, and they were all punk rock, I got to listen to them all the time and became used to that genre. The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Kaiser Chiefs (not really punk, not sure), and Blink 182 (I despise this one). I like The Clash most. I just don't pass a day without listening to The Clash nowadays. It's weird though. Cause my eclectic music taste previously leant mainly towards jazz, classical, and techno, and now I'm more into rock while my boyfriend has started abandoning rock in favour of classical and techno.
Oh great, this is starting to sound like a blog instead of a note now. Be that as it may, because I don't have a blog. This is a one-off anyway—the next chapters won't have notes anywhere this long.
I hadn't used Microsoft Office for over a year till several days ago when I was forced to use it to make a Powerpoint presentation and unluckily found a copy of its installer. So I had a whim to see how similar a Word export from OpenOffice would look on M$ Word to the original ODT format would be. Well, as regards outlook, it looked fairly similar, except Verdana Ref 9 looked different on Word—looked like Arial. What shocked me was the downpour of jagged green lines through the entire document. I was like, woah, I suck at grammar, yeah (OOo Write doesn't have a grammar checker, btw). But then after I checked all of them out, I found out that most of them were considered wrong basically for being long. I find it easier to put a collection of thoughts into one sentence than to structurally separate them. Well, I got to find some minor sensible errors on my part too (for instance: politically-correct vs politically correct). Yar, I just suck at English, full stop—I still live in Indonesia after all! Anyway, the funniest part was when I right-clicked on the names, namely Kiba and Sasuke, M$ Word suggested Kebab and Sauce respectively—o how delightful, Kebab with Sauce! Isn't anyone gonna make a delicious KebabXSauce fic now?
Another thing to concern is Kiba's intense love for Naruto, which isn't reciprocated. Will there ever come a day when it stops being a one-sided thing? Maybe. I like Kiba, and it's not reciprocated either. No hard feelings now, Mr Inuzuka!
One proof-reader of this story's chapter 1 and 2 told me that while being descriptive was nice, my writing tended to more often than not only confuse her. And I suppose some of you feel the same as well? I don't really try to be descriptive for the sake of being descriptive. It's actually something to do with stream of consciousness. And while this fic is mostly centered round Kiba, I try my best to not cross the limits as a third person who only narrates, thus confining myself from ever commenting on anything within the story (that's why even a simple remark could get long; for instance, I usually prefer "Kiba thought Naruto was stupid" to just "Naruto was stupid"). I suppose you must've noticed it. Don't be surprised if you find Kiba talking about pastries in a chapter about Naruto being in hell later—nah, there won't be anything like that. I know it sounds boastful to talk about elements of style, considering my English is barely adequate to write anything, but I do try to conform to many writing rules listed on whatevawebsiteitwas. I have this natural sense of aesthetics that primarily causes me to dislike redundancy and inconsistency too (I guess it came from my study on good programming). Sometimes I feel rather cooped up, what with all these restrictions. Duh. But I honestly enjoy writing this fic very much.
Um, what's Kokutengan? It literally means 'black point eye'. Why Fagure, Gagure, and Masashiro? Fagure Froogle, Gagure Google, and Masashiro Maschile (penguin in Spanish). They sound similar! Who's Seiji for me? My Toushiro Hitsugaya (from Bleach) for this fic. Who's Takehiro for me? My Tenka Kou (from Hoshinengi) with the personality of Rangiku Matsumoto (from Bleach) for this fic. Thus ends my lengthy note.