Leaves under the Sun
(You know the rules, and so do I. Another chapter coming tomorrow.)
The Village Hidden in the Leaves, a focal point for so many events in shinobi history. The years after their greatest Hokage showed that in the end people can't fully subscribe to the belief of peace, but in their village things don't seem that way. They still see the numbers differently and as such they aren't as intense when it comes down to preparing their next generation. Right now the focus is their academy where the next generation of shinobi are molded and formed into the best they can be, a high standard considering their frequent appearances of great shinobi.
"Right, so who can tell me the best tactic when a mission rank changes upwards in rank?" The instructor said as he pointed to the board, showing a few crudely drawn figures on it. A few of the students raised their hands but most of them just waited for someone else to answer the question. "Nothing to be nervous about since I doubt anyone could get this one wrong." A boy with auburn hair and blue eyes raised his hand. "Inokua, do you have the answer?" Some of the class groaned at his questioning of this boy but the brown haired youth didn't seem to care or notice.
"Um technically, you should proceed with the mission and be careful with everything you do." A few people in the class actually seemed to agree with that idea and nodded with it while their instructor blinked twice with a blank smile on his face.
"Well I agree with that on paper but it has too many variables, no, the correct answer is to fall back and report the change in mission level then wait for instructions. Good try though." Inokua frowned at that and just decided to let it go, his answer was right anyway so what did it matter? He looked around from his spot in the middle row of the second highest rank of seats in the class, everyone was present today to his surprise. There was always someone who just decided they didn't feel like coming to class for whatever reason but not today.
Inokua's wandering eyes landed on his long standing friend who gave him a thumbs up in relevance to his answer to the question from before. 'I got your back!' Jenki was enough of an empath to support his friend when everyone else tried to put him down, that's what friends always do. It wasn't much longer before class was done for the week and the students got to go do whatever they wanted in their free time. Jenki left the class with his notebooks in hand and met Inokua outside, but there were two other familiar faces waiting for the both of them. "Hey isn't that-"
Two boys in their mid teens were waiting outside of the academy and both bore a striking resemblance with either Jenki or Inokua. One of them had pale lilac colored eyes while the other had electric blue irises. "Our brothers!" Inokua ran up to his lookalike with no hesitation despite the odd stares he was getting from his peers, and Jenki took more time in approaching his relative while the other two embraced each other.
"Not every day I can see my younger cousin, eh Jenki?" The adolescent Hyuga said coyly while his hand ruffled Jenki's hair.
"I thought you and Inokyou had to do a mission today?"
At that Inokyou chuckled and released his younger brother. "Turned out to be a dud, it was a ghost town when we got there. Except for some burnt thing that was on the floor." He stood straight up and brushed dust off his sky blue long sleeve. "There wasn't anything there for us so we left."
The elder Hyuga turned his head and saw a group of students walk by, well not as much a group as much as one boy who was flocked by at least eight girls around Jenki's age. The girls were all chattering about something or another while the boy… listened. He had a cool, uncaring expression on his face but someone with the skills for it could see that he was actually paying attention to what was being said. "Whatcha lookin at Neji-nii?" Jenki's voice brought his cousin out of his stupor and he raised an eyebrow.
"Who's the kid with a harem?"
Inokua, Inokyou, and Jenki all looked over with confused expressions and saw the cluster of students walking as one, with a boy being the main focus. Jenki recognized who it was instantly and raised his arm then started waving. "Hey, Suisai!" That entire group stopped and the boy craned his head to see Jenki waving him down, and he split the group like a parting sea to come over. Suisai had near black hair and eyes to match, and a piercing in his left earlobe that hung down with a green yin decoration at the end. His outfit had a loose fitting lilac shirt with long sleeves and crisp black shinobi pants that had sandals cutting them off above the ankle.
"Hey Jenki, what's up?" Suisai extended his hand for a fist bump that Jenki returned in kind and while they greeted one another, Suisai's harem came over to the boys with varying looks on their faces. Some of them stared at Inokua and Inokyou while some kept their attention on Neji and Jenki… with some emotion behind their eyes. They idly chatted while the girls stared at them for a few minutes then Suisai noticed what was happening. "Is something wrong?" His voice was slightly more quiet than before and a girl with bright red hair spoke up.
"Nothing's wrong Suisai-kun~ Just ignore us." The fact that she said that while they were all still staring made it a bit awkward to say the least. Inokua somehow didn't notice the odd atmosphere but his elder brother did.
Neji was looking at Suisai and piecing together parts of a puzzle that only he could properly piece together, his pale eyes tensed and a few veins enlarged around them to stress their enhancement. 'Byakugan!' The eyes that can see through anything. With his eyes he gave Suisai a once over while he and Jenki grew nervous at the girls slowly edging closer with wide eyes and blank expressions. Neji managed to figure out what was up with the kid in front of him but he decided to keep it to himself for now. 'Half Hyuga and half of them? Dishonor! Dishonor on you, dishonor on your cow, dis-'
A girl with dark skin and vibrant yellow eyes was directly in Jenki's face and everyone stopped to stare at her since she managed to approach him unnoticed. She was wearing a light purple turtleneck and black shorts. The odd thing about her was her stark white hair with two feline ears atop her head, and a white tail was coming from her lower back with a tuft of red hair at the tip of it. There was a glint in her eyes for a split second and both the elder brothers noticed it before she decided to speak. "You're really creepy with those eyes y'know?" A mischievous grin was on her face and her eyes showed nothing but glee as Jenki was in awe from her sudden insult. "Using those creepy eyes to look at pure girls like us? You're really gross!" At this point Suisai and the other girls decided to just move along but he made sure to leave with a final wave to Jenki.
The boys were looking at the interaction with surprise and a few people passing by rubbernecked just to see what was going on. Jenki was flustered and trying to come up with some response, his pale eyes going up and down her body while his cheeks tinged red. "O- Oh yeah? W- Well you have cat ears a- and a tail?" His voice tapered off to a whisper as his observation made Neji and Inokyou facepalm.
'That wasn't even an insult… Little bro please help him out.' Inokyou looked to his younger brother and his hopes were put to the test as his sibling decided to object to his friend being taunted.
"Hey leave Jenki alone. You're just having an inflated ego because you're in the Nekoma clan, but he's a Hyuga so ha!" Inokua was brimming with confidence from his statement and Jenki looked appreciative at the attempt made to recover his honor, but the girl who insulted him was without any of the joy she was showing moments ago.
She was almost expressionless, her yellow irises were now somehow black and her eye shape looked even more feline. "You aren't really that smart are you? My clan isn't involved in what I do." Her words were hollow, without any emotion at all. Her body language even went from open and freely moving to closed off and standoffish. "You can just go away, I was talking to weird eye senpai." Before he could even speak Inokua found a hand on his shoulder, courtesy of his brother, and the silence spoke volumes. They walked off after waving goodbye to Neji and Jenki while Neji decided to just walk back home… leaving his cousin alone in the water.
The moment that everyone else was gone a bright smile spread across her face and her eyes gained their emissive yellow color once again. The sheer joy on her face was frightening to Jenki and his embarrassment was obviously displayed. "Can- Can you just leave me alone Nekoma-san?" Her grin somehow got wider and her right eye was starting to close from how hard she was smiling.
"What's with that honorific?! I'm not that much younger than you…" Another mischievous glint appeared in her eyes. "Senpai." And that put Jenki at maximum embarrassment. "See you around Senpai."
"B- But aren't you one of Suisai's friends?" She stopped and turned her head back to him with a normal expression.
Unlike when she was talking to his friend she wasn't entirely emotionless, this time she still had happiness across her face and it was beaming right towards Jenki. "I just hung out with him because of my friends, Senpai, I like you a lot more…" Her grin came back and her cheeks were red. "You're a creepy boy who needs to be bullied!" And with that she ran off leaving a very confused Jenki. The Hyuga had some eyes on him but he didn't even register their strange looks since he finally decided to start his walk home, his brain doing its best to understand the last five minutes of his life and how it was just turned over and kicked in the head.
It took less than five minutes for Jenki to make his way to the compound he lived on, the guards bowing to him as he passed by. He stood in front of his house, although calling it a simple house would be an insult on account of its size and grandeur, and he walked inside where a family member offered to carry his bag but he declined and decided to walk his things to his room himself. His room was large and well decorated; the walls had different drawings and sketches along it, and he had shelves of sketchbooks and books on different art styles. In all his room befit a creative young mind. He started running through a simple set of katas based on what he'd seen around the village and in his own clan but his knowledge was fairly limited.
Eventually a knock on the door brought him back into the present world. Hitomi was there in her usual outfit, a short sleeve light brown shirt and orange pants that stopped below her knees. "It's time for dinner." He looked at his window and saw that the sun was setting over the horizon. Damn he was in the zone this time wasn't he? He followed his older sister through their hallways and into the dining room where their father and mother were waiting.
"Dinner will be served shortly Hitoshi-sama!" Another family member said as he bowed his head.
"Thank you, please take as much time as you all need." Hitoshi kindly responded. "Ah there's my two great children. I was right, Jiyuu, they weren't late for dinner tonight." His wife beside him discreetly slipped him a few notes of ryō with a tensed smile on her face, her silk robe fluttering lightly from the sudden movement.
"How was your day Jenki?" Her smile was more relaxed now and she watched her kids sit down at the table.
"School was pretty boring but I ran into a friend after class…" He remembered what happened after running into Suisai and shook his head to clear the memory, and Hitomi took notice of that action.
"What happened after class? You look nervous thinking about it." Her lilac eyes were on him and he wavered under her gaze. He tried to form some response but his older sister was on the uptake just a bit faster. "You're getting bullied." Her eyes were accented by veins that bulged with fresh blood for them and she lost all emotion. "Who… is… he?" Her tone was cold as ice and even their parents shuddered at the atmospheric shift.
"O- Okay calm down! It's a girl from the Nekoma clan!" Her eyes went back to normal instantly and she blinked twice. She looked to her parents who were wide eyed at that new information regarding what was going on. "Uh, why is everyone staring at me?"
Jiyuu decided to take over, her maternal instinct kicking into overdrive for her son. "You said a girl was bullying you? As in, she harassed you and bothered you?" Jenki's shoulders sank but he nodded. Hitoshi had a small smile on his face, the detail on the gender of his son's bully making him feel much better about the situation. Unfortunately both the women in the family were fuming over the news. "Some little harlot thinks she can- With MY son?!" While Jiyuu lost her composure, dinner was brought out to the family and the ones who did it made themselves scarce once they noticed the angry women of the household.
"A cat bitch trying to- with my little brother? Like hell I'd-"
"Language, both of you!" Hitoshi reminded them that there was a time and place for what they were doing and it wasn't right now. He turned back to his son and folded his hands together. "Jenki, what do you want to do regarding this?"
The boy thought for a moment but he came to a conclusion alarmingly fast. "It's fine, she doesn't actually bother me." The women in his life were still seething from the news but his father nodded slowly.
"A man knows when to act and not to act… I hope this isn't you being spineless and that you have a plan to deal with her."
Hitomi stood up, clearly upset with what she just heard. "Tou-san! He's too dense to understand what's even going on! I can-"
"Hitomi that's enough." Jiyuu was the one to stop her and the woman looked like she was barely containing her anger from before. "You're going to be a Genin in a few months, you don't need to have a bad record that soon." She raised a hand when her daughter tried to interject again. "Even if he doesn't quite understand why, it's better to let him find out." Hitomi huffed and sat back down while Jenki was more lost than a desert snake in the forest.
He decided to let whatever it was go and just eat his dinner so he could go to sleep faster… The craziness of his family always drained him. 'These people are crazy… I hope it doesn't happen to me too.'
It was early in the morning, before the sun had risen. Jenki had woken up before his parents came to get him, out of pure excitement. Today he would start his training in the Juken, the Gentle Fist, the fighting style appropriated by his clan. From what little information he'd managed to gather from his sister and others in his clan, the fighting style consisted of precise strikes to the opponents pressure points or something of the sort. He had watched his elder sister train to try and understand but every time he managed to catch glimpses of her he was quickly swept away and sheltered, but today was different. Jenki would finally get to test his merit. He was dressed in a tan shirt that had buckles to close it and a pair of loose navy blue pants.
"Jenki!" The boy turned around to face his father who was dressed in his regular robes. "Are you ready? I can tell you're excited." Jenki jumped out of his seat and nodded furiously, his body filled with enthusiasm.
"I couldn't sleep! Today I'll make you proud Tou-san!" Hitoshi didn't show it, but he was already extremely proud of his son's ambition.
"Very well. Your cousin Neji is waiting at the training grounds with your sister. He'll be teaching you both for today." Hitoshi replied. Jenki ran past his father straight to said training grounds.
'Training is one thing, but now I get to hang out with Neji-nii?' The boy was about to burst, but he held it in until he got to his destination.
"Jenki-chan! There you are. Come, join us." Neji called out to the youngest Hyuga. Neji's dark brown hair was tied into a ponytail at his shoulders. He wore a white long sleeved top with grey pants. He motioned for Hitomi to work on the training dummies. "Since it's your first day you can work with me. Now I want you to strike my hands." Jenki complied but stopped short of his cousin's hands. He looked puzzled, leading Neji to question his actions. "Something wrong?" He asked.
"Um… How am I supposed to do that exactly?" The young boy asked. He'd only seen very little of the actual technique due to being sheltered so using it exclusively to practice was a bit out of his hand. The older male nearly fell over from shock, thinking something serious was wrong. "I haven't really been able to practice much of the Gentle Fist."
"Allow me to demonstrate. I'll use this dummy." He pointed toward a pole with a big round pad around it. He took a stance with his arms in front of him. He performed a series of blows on the dummy. Jenki had to squint to see the finer points but he could feel the pressure coming from the strikes, almost like a whip. He attacked predominantly with his palms while adding strikes with his index and middle finger into the mix. Jenki sat in awe and his eyes widened as the strikes grew faster and more pressure was being emitted from Neji's hands. He finished the display with a double palm strike to the chest area of the dummy. Consequently, the dummy was nearly shattered and sent flying a few yards after the attack. Neji rubbed the back of his head. "Seems like I overdid it a bit, but that should help you grasp the form." Jenki was still staring wide-eyed and amazed. The only way he could describe the movement was like a river flowing through a forest.
Jenki repositioned himself after glancing at his sister, who was moving with all the grace of a professional dancer on a stage. She was the prodigy so of course she'd be perfect at what she was doing. He cleared his mind and placed his open palms in front of himself, Neji extended his hands again and waited patiently. Jenki lashed out with decent form and struck his cousin's hands as well as he could until Neji caught his wrists and smiled. "Was that good?" He got a slightly wider smile for his question.
"That was pretty good, and I'm surprised you already managed to put out chakra in your hits." Jenki was surprised at that since he was just using normal strikes as far as he knew. Neji released his hands and walked him over to a training dummy. "Alright now I'll get you familiar with the tenketsu, you see the Gentle Fist focuses on more internal damage so we attack these points to put the hurt on whoever's unlucky enough to fight one of us." Somehow his younger cousin managed to whip out a notepad and pencil to jot down this information. "Our Byakugan lets us see the chakra system of a person when it's active, so I'll need you to activate yours."
Jenki put away the notepad and focused his mind only to realize something very important. He raised his hand like he was in a classroom. "Neji-sensei!"
"Jenki-kun!" Neji pointed a finger at his cousin and called on him to speak his mind.
"I've never used my Byakugan." And that was what made him fall over comedically, his legs twitching as his blank eyes were unfocused and his mind lost in confusion. Jenki nudged him with a foot to try and bring him back but Neji stayed down.
"What's going on with him?" Hitomi decided to cut in on the commotion and check on her younger brother and… comatose cousin… "What happened here?"
Jenki shrugged and folded his arms. "I just told him that I never used my Byakugan before and he ended up like this." Hitomi shook her head and then her hands to get her younger brother's attention.
"Just repeat these after me." Jenki primed his hands and followed the hand seals that his sister was using. He felt his chakra molding in his body and his eyes started to strain but he powered through it and landed on the last seal. His eyes strained and he felt veins expand around them, but the real notice he took was to his vision. He never realized it before then but his normal sight was… lacking. He never questioned it and figured it was a downside of being a Hyuga but now he could see that his normal vision was blurry compared to this, and he was awestruck. Really it wasn't just that his vision was more clear, he could see behind himself and to his sides without turning his head. He took in the world around him as he saw it without even moving his head. "Now your Byakugan is active."
"Thanks Hitomi-chan. Now Jenki, we're gonna run through the basics of the Gentle Fist. Just follow my lead." They went through the motions and practiced their techniques for a few hours, after some time Jenki managed to return his eyes to normal and was disappointed at the obvious difference in his sight but he held his tongue. "Now just like before, hit my palms." Again, Neji extended his open hands and Jenki exhaled while preparing his stance. He struck fast and, to Neji's pleasure, hard. The elder Hyuga could feel a numbness spread through his hands and he quickly grabbed his cousin's wrists before he could go too far.
Hitomi watched what happened and was surprised to say the least. "Neji, you saw that too right?"
"Yeah… he might outdo you Hitomi-chan!" Neji was rubbing his palms to at least feel some pain in them while Jenki was not only confused over what happened but also wondering why his hands hurt.
"What happened? And why did it hurt?!" Neji decided to let his hands be numb and started trying to ease his younger cousin's pain by pressing into his palms.
"You might be just as much of a prodigy as your sister Jenki. I already knew you had more chakra than a normal Hyuga but it looks like you can already use it in the Gentle Fist. Hm…"
The sudden coughing from behind them caused them to all look around and see Hitoshi standing there with his arms crossed. "Jenki, Hitomi… Spar with each other." The siblings looked at each other oddly then back to their father who was stoic in his expression. They separated and took up their stances.
Hitomi moved first and rushed her brother with a thin layer of chakra around her hands but Jenki didn't just stand there like a dead fish, he rushed ahead and threw his own strikes at her before she could attack him. Hitomi showed her grace by dodging every blow aimed at her with grace befitting a stream flowing around a boulder, and her evasion paid off with two hits to Jenki's thighs. The boy felt his muscles tighten and lose some control to the point where standing was a struggle but he toughed through it and landed a blow on his sister's shoulder. Hitomi stepped back and saw that where his hit landed was singed, that and her entire arm was numb. Jenki was feeling the pain in his thighs and hand but he was tougher than that girl made him seem.
Brother and sister lunged with their own attacks at the ready but they didn't land on what they aimed at. Hitoshi was between the two of them, and with only his thumb and smallest finger did he stop both of their attacks entirely. "It seems that I was wrong, Hitomi that match was yours." She smiled despite her numb arm while Jenki rubbed his sore thighs. "Jenki, you have to refine your technique and control." He nodded and sat down to ease his legs. 'I suppose his mother is to blame for his low chakra control. Well at least he isn't a jinchūriki, his control would be terrible if he were… I wonder how he's doing, I should check in with him soon.'
"I don't think I'll be able to make it tomorrow Hitoshi-sama, but I'll try my best to." Neji was rubbing the back of his head hoping that his superior didn't pry on the matter but his luck was even worse than just asking questions.
"Be sure to give Nakajima-san my regards." Neji's face reddened just a touch as Hitoshi and his brood went back into their estate. "Once you're better, Jenki, you can do as you wish for today." Jenki retreated to his room slowly, the feeling in his legs starting to return to normal.
Jenki was alone in his room and massaging his less sore thighs. "I should get a D-rank done today, who should I ask for help though?" He ran out of his room and left his house in a hurry. The streets of Konoha were calm as usual with the occasional person or group being out and about. If only Jenki could tell that an ominous presence was slowly approaching him from behind, one that was as dangerous as a predator ready to pounce. A hand connected with the back of his head and he covered the area instantly, but when he turned he saw a familiar face pulling her eyelids further apart.
"Weird eyes~" She was mocking his eyes once more. This girl was relentless in her taunting and Jenki nervously scratched his temple with just one finger. "Creepy creepy~" She was twirling around him but he just kept walking to the mission center without paying too much mind to her antics. Jenki brightened up when he saw some of his friends in line to get a mission, the graduation requirement being three definitely inspired kids their age to knock them out.
"Hey guys, can I tag along with you?" The group of boys looked at Jenki with doubtful expressions until one of them stepped out of line.
"Sorry man, we don't really need you now." Hold up, wait a minute, something wasn't right. Did he just say they didn't need him?
"What- What do you mean you don't need me? We're friends." He knew these guys for a while so hearing that they didn't need him was equally confusing and shocking. The cat girl behind him was watching with dark eyes and an expression devoid of emotion.
"We really just needed your help getting some harder D-ranks out of the way but you didn't have the Byakugan so you were pretty useless. Momo was way more helpful." Another kid in a thick gray jacket with a hood that somehow kept the top half of their face dark looked at Jenki and nodded before returning their attention forward. "Sorry, but you just suck."
Jenki was dejected beyond comparison. Not only did some people who he saw as friends find him useless, but they only needed him because of something he just learned how to do. He hung out with these guys in his spare time and even practiced every now and again. On a normal day he would've just walked away to contemplate his life but today was different… he had a guardian angel.
"Hey!" His bully spoke up and the way her hair was standing up made her resemble an agitated feline. "You're going too far with blank eyes. He doesn't deserve people like you acting like friends."
The individual in the jacket took a step back and spoke with a hushed voice. "I don't associate with them, why? I needed their help because I'm not made for heavy work." Oh how the turns tabled on them, their manipulation ended with them being manipulated.
"Well we didn't want you with us anyway, we can-" He was stopped by something hitting him in the side and knocking him to the feet of his lackeys. Whatever hit him left a giant stain of ink on his red shirt and when he looked to where it came from he saw a boy standing with a red scroll in one hand and an ink brush with light green ink on its bristles in the other.
Suisai was visibly irritated and slowly getting embarrassed by the attention being shifted his way. He made direct eye contact with the boy on the ground and in a wordless exchange he got up and left with his lackeys. "Thanks Suisai." Jenki said as people started to mind their own business and go back to living their lives.
The dark eyed artist gave a charming smile that seemed to act as a summoning technique for the flock of girls that was with him the day prior, because they were all present with hearts in their eyes and giving their own opinions on Suisai's display of friendship. Their adoration was taken positively by Suisai who acknowledged each of their compliments even as he started moving them along to not clutter the street. That left Jenki alone with the girl who came to his defense just moments ago. "Uh, thank you Nekoma-san… You didn't have to say anything just then but you did." Awkward of a thanks as it was, her hair returned to normal in its ponytail and her eyes went back to their yellow coloration.
"Rya."
Jenki looked back at her with sheer confusion. "My name is Rya…" Her devious smirk appeared and her hair spiked up in its ponytail again. "Don't be so creepy with knowing my first name, Senpai~" She was circling him while wiggling her arms like a sidewinder and taunting him by repeating 'creepy' as she did so. Jenki just smiled while she circled him which made her stop and look at him for a moment, and she could almost see someone standing behind him with the same grin… he was wearing something bright white and his hair was tied-
"Is something on my face, Rya?" Jenki was checking his face for any stray objects and that made the cat girl blush then turn around. "Well do you… wanna do a D-rank together?"
Rya turned around with a smile, not like her usual manic grin that precedes her taunts but a normal smile someone would have when addressing something that made them happy. "Maybe your eyes aren't that weird. Let's do this!" She pumped a fist in the air energetically but the outlier known as Momo had to object.
"We're in the back of the line, we have to wait at least five minutes to get a mission." Rya deflated while Jenki just grinned again, and once more the cat girl saw that same ethereal figure behind him. She thought to get herself checked out for insanity later.
An alleyway during the day… that's where we find a group of kids surrounding someone a bit younger than them, kicking her while she was down at that. "This is what you get!"
"Maybe she's a demon herself? Come on do something!" Her skin was starting to bruise from the impacts against her body but she managed to hold in her yelps of pain and her attackers were not happy at that.
"A demon wouldn't yell when they got hurt, and I don't hear anything. Guess we know huh?" One last kick to the chest and she was crying. "Aww she's crying, I guess her water style is gonna stop us." The five of them laughed at that point. "This is what you get for being friends with that self loving demon."
Another one of them looked at him confused. "Isn't it offensive to call him the same thing as the Fifth's name?" His friends were lost and he facepalmed at their ignorance. "The fifth Kazekage's name was Gaara, self loving demon." Their collective 'Oh's' made him rethink his choices in friends.
"Not our fault that the Fifth had a dumb name." They turned around when they heard the sound of the girl they beat down coughing. "Do you need some more or something?" She started to stand up on wobbly legs.
"Someone I love- He told me that anyone who hurts an ally- They don't have a good death." The ringleader came back and pushed her back against the wall of the alley, he didn't stop there and he slapped her across the face.
"You think that just cause you're smart you can just pretend that you're not related to him, but guess what Ichika? You're just as much a demon to us as him." Ichika looked at him then darted her eyes just above him and let the corners of her mouth turn slightly upwards.
"I hope you're giving that a capital 'H' for him." The cockiness in her voice was about to make him strike again but the feeling of approaching pain froze him. He and his gang backed up slowly and looked up to see a figure standing on the roof of the building ahead. A light purple long- sleeve with a Sunagakure headband around the right bicep, a darker shade of purple for the pants and wrapping right above his sandals, a ninjatō on his back, and to bring it all together… stark white hair.
Zeko stood there with a stoic face but the murderous intent leaking into the air showed that he was not as composed as he looked. "Maybe I am a self loving demon… and she's my sister, so she's another part of me." His statement was obvious in saying that by messing with Ichika, they were messing with him. They turned tail and ran once he jumped down and they exited the alleyway and drew attention with their pleas for help, but anyone who wanted to help them stopped once they saw the many tendrils of sand reach out and drag each of them back into the narrow passageway.
"Help please!"
"Don't let him take us!"
"I didn't want to do it!"
"I ate the last slice, it was good!"
"Sabaku sōsō!" (Desert Funeral). Yep nobody was going to help them even if they wanted to at that point. A few moments later they saw Zeko walk out of the alleyway with Ichika on his back, unconscious and injured. Some people looked at her with some sympathy but most just tried to avert their eyes so they wouldn't be next.
"Zeko-nii…" His heart fluttered for a moment but he made sure to keep that from showing visibly… just barely. He casually walked along the streets and people made sure to not let their attention linger on him for long, whether it was fear or respect was up for debate in some of those cases. He decided to take her back to his apartment and treat her injuries there. The staring from the woman at the desk made him feel uneasy.
'I hope I don't get kicked out over this.' He walked into his room and set his cousin down on his loveseat carefully, then he walked into his bedroom where Chomusuke was waiting patiently. The panther didn't say anything to Zeko but his eyes told his feelings at the moment. He saw how the boy was after his retrieval mission went awry and he could tell something was wrong with him.
"How is everything today? I smell someone else outside." Zeko sat at his desk and read over a scroll that was left for him, whether he was ignoring Chomusuke or just didn't hear him over what he was doing at that moment. He pulled out his ninjatō and started looking at it then the scroll. "Isn't that the reflection? I'm not sure you're ready for something like that just yet."
"I'm sorry, did you say something?" Zeko half glanced at the panther but his attention was clearly focused on the blade in his right hand and the scroll on his desk.
Chomusuke shook his head and relented on trying to engage in conversation with the boy, he clearly wasn't interested in doing so himself. He watched the weapon he had and paid close attention to its metal surface, noting that it was made of almost pure silver. "Akira made that himself." Zeko's head snapped over to Chomusuke and his attention was on the big cat instantly. "I helped him make the base out of wood from a sacred tree, but I don't know when he decided to coat it in silver." With that Zeko looked over the scroll with renewed vigor, trying his best to figure out how this was meant to work.
An hour went by and the boy was making slow progress on figuring out the secret the scroll was trying its best to hide from him, but his efforts were haunted when Chomusuke spoke up and broke the silence. "You should find a summon of your own, just use the technique now and you should teleport to wherever you align with." For a second he saw the ninjatō glow then return to normal before Zeko sheathed it. "A word of warning before you go-" Zeko stopped his hands in their tracks to listen to the warning. "You will have to go through a test from whatever summon so be ready for what they throw at you."
"What happens if I fail the test? I know I won't but I'm curious." He started the hand seals and finished when Chomusuke responded.
"They'll kill you…"
With a poof of smoke Zeko was gone but he heard the last part of Chomusuke's warning right as he left. Zeko appeared on the ground of a marsh-like area and in front of him was a cave entrance with a light layer of fog coming from inside. "I don't wanna die, so failure isn't happening." He stood up and walked into the cave with his left hand in his pocket, his guard seeming down but his body prepared to spring at the nearest sign of a threat.
He walked into an elegant room with a long table to the side of it and a gorgeous woman was standing in front of it, and the banquet of food that it had, spread across the entire table. "Hello and welcome to Ryuchi Cave, my name is Tagorihime and I am here to welcome you with this delicious meal." She stepped aside to showcase the food that actually made Zeko contemplate eating it.
'Something doesn't feel right brat, I wouldn't eat anything she's offering.' Shukaku was skeptical of what was going on and his host felt the same, a quick activation of his sharingan let him see that everything was an articulately crafted illusion meant to put him in a false sense of security. The food that looked so appetizing just moments ago was now rotten and inedible, it was almost moldy and disgusting to look at. Zeko had to resist the urge to retch from the repulsive food, if it could even be called that, and he shook his head in denial.
"Sorry but I'm not very hungry." Zeko wasn't easy to creep out but the sudden laughter from the beautiful woman definitely alarmed him and he was even more concerned with the fact that the room he was in started to melt and disappear. He looked at Tagorihime and saw that she looked more serpentine, pale skin and slitted eyes were greeting him during her fit of laughter.
"I'm surprised that you managed to resist, you passed this trial. A shame I can't eat your chakra!" She floated off the ground and sped away while cackling maniacally.
Zeko was silently absorbing what just happened and he was breaking it down piece by piece as he advanced through the fog that appeared over the area. 'Hey Shukaku, she said something about eating my chakra… I think that's what'll happen if I mess up here.'
Shukaku was thinking about what clan could be putting his host through this but he was drawing a blank. He never paid much mind to summons so he couldn't give any advice here, plus this didn't look like a desert so he definitely wouldn't know much about what could be here. 'I ain't sure about what clan this is but don't let your guard down, if you die without finding a new mate it'd be a waste.'
Nope nope and more nope. He decided to just keep walking by the stalagmites. He stopped when he saw a figure pass between the rock formations, and the occasional giggle let him know that there was another trial coming. A wall that had different slots with different shapes appeared, and on the floor there were colorful stones that matched the shapes in the wall. He turned and was stunned at the girl who was casually floating in the air behind him, she looked like she was around his age "Hello, I'm Ichikishimahime. To pass my trial you have to fill every hole in the wall with the corresponding shape." She gave that term as she floated through the air, free as a bird. Zeko watched and thought that she was… She was…
"You're really cute." Well at least he was honest.
Ichikishimahime was surprised that he managed to work a compliment in before starting his trial. "Uh- Well- Thank you, but because I'm honest I have to warn you that if you fail this trial…" Her visage changed just like Tagorihime and became serpentine, and her teeth were displayed to intimidate him. "I'll have to eat your chakra!" She went back to normal while Zeko just turned around clutching his right pectoral.
"You were already really cute… Why'd you have to make yourself hot?" He started fitting the colorful stones into the wall while his proctor sat in the air shocked at his lack of disgust towards her real appearance.
As Zeko put more and more stones into their slots he found himself finding more that didn't fit into any of them and less that did. "Give up yet?" His watcher was concerned at how he wasn't showing any signs of being tired yet but his resolve was greater than she would have guessed. Black sand came from beneath his sleeves and filled the remaining holes in the wall, and he turned with a smirk on his face.
"They're all full." He crossed his arms and Ichikishimahime let herself touch the ground before resting her chin on her palms. She giggled and her serpentine appearance appeared again.
"And why should I let this count as you passing?"
Zeko turned around to hide his nervousness at her appearance before he decided to respond. "Well you didn't actually say I had to use the colorful rocks, just that I had to fill the holes with the right shape. And I couldn't find the right shapes so I just made them… Sometimes a solution won't be there for you to just pick up so I guess I made one." The room started melting away and his second trial was over.
"I guess that works for me. You pass my trial." She floated back into the air and waved him off with a smile on her face. Zeko waved back with the same smile and started walking into the fog again.
"That wasn't that hard, these tests are really eas-" In an instant Zeko turned and slashed the threat that would've had his neck right in half. He saw another serpentine looking woman sail through the air, missing her lower body. His sharingan activated right as her mouth opened and she regurgitated… herself… completely healed.
"My name is Tagitsuhime, and that isn't how this was supposed to work." Zeko didn't bother asking but he assumed he was supposed to get bitten, of course he'd be damned if he'd just let that happen. "Your trial has changed, if you survive me then your conviction is strong enough." She rushed him and he did the same. Her hands lashed out like vipers and her nails were like daggers that tried to pierce the boy's skin, but he was quick like a cat with the reflexes to match and he deflected her jabs with his blade. He started his own attacks and slashed at her body but she contorted herself inhumanly to dodge his assault. Tagitsuhime lunged and opened her mouth but got a ninjatō in her jaw for the effort.
Zeko managed to jump back and start his hand signs to send this lady flying. "Hm?!" A snake broke out of the ground and coiled around his body, interrupting his jutsu while Tagitsuhime pulled the offending object out of her jaw.
"It looks like you failed after all, and here we thought you'd make it all the way." The snake wrapped around him proceeded to open its mouth to reveal its fangs that dripped with venom. "You have plenty of chakra to eat!" His eyes pierced the fog with a menacing red glow.
"If I were you I'd take a look at myself first." He didn't have the space to give recommendations when he was about to be condemned, but she decided to humor him and look down at herself.
Tagitsuhime's eyes widened. "H- How?" She was the one that had a snake coiled around her ready to strike. It was coming out of her own sleeve and had sharingan in its eyes that matched Zeko's, showing that it thought it had him just as much as she did. The boy picked up his weapon as his last two testers made themselves known and appeared beside the bound Tagitsuhime. With a bop against the head, courtesy of Ichikishimahime, the snake snapped out of the illusion it was in and released Tagitsuhime. "Well I suppose this means you passed every trial." The fog cleared some and the trio gestured past them towards a walkway, Zeko nodded and followed them through the cave and his sense of smell was telling him a story about what summoning clan he just got his alliance with.
They walked into a large chamber with a- "Is that a really big chair?" Zeko crudely asked. His guides floated up and he looked around before leaping up after them. He was kind of right in saying it was a really big chair since there was an elderly woman resting on a chair attached to the giant platform, but the fact that the three women who tested him were standing to her sides with their transformed faces made him think there was going to be another reveal of faces. As he approached he felt a massive amount of chakra coming from the old woman and his instincts warned him that there was more to her than meets the eye.
The old woman puffed from her elegant cigarette holder and sized the boy up. "So you not only made your own solution to a trial, you forced one to change and proceeded to win against Tagitsuhime?" He nodded, not because he didn't want to speak but because he wanted to watch what he said since he was out of his element. "You're interesting enough… It'd be a waste to have you join another clan now!" The old woman blurred and… grew… no really, she grew like bamboo in the rainy season. She went from being a four foot elderly woman to being a colossal albino snake. She was so massive that her coils went beyond the chair she was in, which also grew, and her body was coiled in different spots around the platform because of her size. "I am the Great White Snake Sage."
"I'm Zeko… my family name is debatable."
She chuckled and puffed her cigarette, it and the holder also grew, and she produced a scroll that didn't have many names on it. "I know those eyes, you're an Uchiha through and through. Sign the contract and we'll start your provisional training." Zeko was obviously confused as he pulled a pen from his pocket, he signed his name and used his canines to draw blood from his thumb and press it against the paper. "Well, did you think you'd be able to continue using the panther fighting style?" Suddenly his name started to glow and he couldn't pull his thumb away, his very name on the paper made an imitation and snaked onto his arm. His forearm now had a simple tattoo of a white snake on it.
"Is that supposed to happen?" He rubbed at the marking as if it was normal ink and would fade away in time.
Ichikishimahime was chuckling at him but she decided to answer his question. "That's a sign of your contract with the snake clan, we can add more detail to it later."
"Oh, that's pretty cool then." He looked at the name just above his and squinted in thought. "Goji… Hey I knew that guy. Yuuji killed him last month, they're doing the autopsy today last I checked." The four serpent women went from being respectfully happy at their newest contract holder to mildly concerned. "Did I say something bad? Because I didn't kill him myself, it was my friend and- There's an explanation for what happened." He raised his hands in his effort to explain but the Great Snake Sage shook her head.
"There's nothing wrong with killing other contract holders if I deem it necessary. But that isn't the problem." Zeko listened attentively. "Other clans I can't speak for, but in the Snake clan we remove names from the contract once I no longer detect any signs of life from a summoner. That isn't your concern for now since you have training to conduct."
The boy heard the last part and was about to stretch his arms to limber up but then his young mind clicked and realized the first half of what she said, and it was a very important piece of information now that he thought about it.
"Wait a minute…"
A/N: This is an appetizer for the next 3 chapters coming in the next ten days, you heard that right. See ya next time.
