Years alive, 3; days in the wild 5
She didn't know how she managed it, but she was now a part of the ninja squad she saved. Not officially of course, she as just there as a means of back up and such.
She talked with the blonde-haired man, that had blue eyes as bright as the sky (They reminded her of Sanshin), even then he had looked wearily at her, but still, he smiled kindly.
He was nice and his name was Minato.
Many looked at her with distrust as she sat at the fire, bowl of stew finished at her side.
Ninja's were paranoid.
Well, Maruchi thought with slight amusement as she glanced at the green wearing boy, that sat beside her by the fire. Most ninjas.
Gai, that was the males name, was prattling on about many things. Filling in the silence between the two.
Kakashi, the silver haired boy, was sitting off to the side, tucked under the shade of a tree. It was late at night and he blended into the shadows, the only thing notable about him being his outline.
Maruchi just stared into the fire, but Gai felt like he had their full attention, it was nice, not like his eternal rival, who would just brood in silence.
Coughing, the boy brought two dilated eyes towards himself. Gai couldn't see their face under the mask but he was unnerved by the way their golden eyes glowed in the dim light.
A small blush made its way onto his cheeks before he brushed off Maruchi's piercing stare and asked the question that was lingering on the tip of his tongue.
"What Ninjutsu did you use?" he asked, a burning curiosity lighting his black eyes.
Blinking, Maruchi was brought to the present, eyes slitting with her reality check.
"I didn't use a Ninjutsu." She stated simply, lips quirking at Gai's indignant splutters.
"If you didn't use a Ninjutsu," The stoic voice of Kakashi broke through the squawking's of Gai. In a swirl of leaves, he appeared on the opposite side of the campfire. "What did you use?" he asked, leaning on his knees, hands clasped together, sort of leisurely.
A tinkling laugh echoed under the hollow wooden covering. Reaching up a pale, delicate hand. Maruchi removed her mask.
Gai swore his heart stopped.
He hadn't seen Maruchi's face before. It was shocking how pale their skin was, the blue veins in their cheeks visible. Their dark brown hair stood out on their ashen complexion, making them look like a procyclin doll.
The orange eyeliner they wore around their eyes made them pop in an unnatural way, like that of a lizards or serpents.
He had never seen something so beautiful yet disturbing in his whole life.
Maruchi didn't notice the green boy's reaction as she placed her mask on her lap.
Giving them a closed eyed smile, she barely heard Gai breathe out in relief, not knowing he did that because her eyes were now closed, and he would not have to look at them.
"It was a special Genjutsu. One that I developed." She informed them as she slipped the wooden mask into her sleeve.
"It took me two years to master." The brunette finished as she stared back into the fire, looking to be a million miles away.
The group trailed off into silence. The girl would've been content with that, but Gai had other ideas.
Snapping his fingers, the boy boomed, in a voice that should not be used by an eight-year-old. "You're a Genjutsu Specialist!" he proclaimed, bringing the attention of half the camp.
Blinking, Maruchi slid her gaze to the exuberant male. "Yes." She simply replied. "Is there a problem with that?"
Realizing how his statement could be taken offensively the black-haired boy quickly backtracked. "I don't mean it in a bad way!" he amended, before looking away, slightly abashed. "It's just…" he muttered. "I heard that Genjutsu specialist are great at telling stories." Eyes gleaming Gai looked up again, a youthful fire burning in his eyes. "In fact, I, Gai Maito, had the privilege of listening to a story from a talented ninja myself!"
Turning a reverent gaze towards the brunette, she swore he had stars in his eyes. "It was the most magical thing I've ever witnessed!" he whispered; awe struck.
Maruchi didn't say anything for a moment before her mind trailed back to the stories Elder Haku told her.
"Yeah," she murmured, a soft look crossing her face. "I guess we are good story tellers."
Gai blinked at Maruchi's expression, stilled into silence at their face.
Maruchi snapped back to attention when a thought crossed her mind. Grinning gently, she dispersed some of her potent chakra into the air.
Kakashi tensed as the air he breathed in subtly crawled down into his spiritual energy. He was all but ready to pounce onto the brunette with a kunai, that is until they spoke.
"Why don't I tell you a story?"
Kakashi gaped under his mask. What? A story? In the middle of war?
This person- you know he was getting sick of not knowing their gender. Taking in a subtle breath, he scented Maruchi, and discovered that she was a female.
Ok now that, that was done.
This girl had a few screws loose, that was for certain. But unsurprisingly Gai went with it.
"Yosh! That would be most youthful Maruchi-sama!" he cried, pumping a fist into the air.
The girl did nothing but smile. Placing her fingers into the tori symbol, she manipulated the thick folds of her chakra and wrapped them around the eyes and nerves of her two acquaintances.
"A long time ago," she murmured, a nostalgic lit taking over her eyes. "Far away, in the lands towards the east."
The fire stilled, before twisting and twirling into the shape of a slumbering beast.
Gai stared at it with awe, while Kakashi had to grudgingly admit that it was impressive to have such fine control over one's chakra.
"There lived a slumbering dragon…"
Days alive, 37
She didn't like this she didn't like this at all.
As she broke her back pulling along a large log, she reflected on all that went wrong.
Maruchi wasn't a dramatic person, in fact she was the opposite, taking things at face value and not blowing them out of proportion. But right now, she questioned her sanity. Why, oh Kami why? Had she asked Haku, a man rumored to be an old ninja sadist, to teach her.
Maruchi was an idiot.
Still, the girl was never one to complain and training like this gave her a sense of reality she hadn't experienced before.
Pain made her focus; exhaustion sharpened her senses and adrenalin kept her heart beating.
I'm alive.
That was something the brunette she needed to remind herself of often. Her detached mind made it easy for her to adjust to new things but in the end, it brought a kind of distant view of reality.
After she pulled the trunk of the tree to the designated place, Haku made her chop the wood up and burn it, though most of it went to the caravan's supply.
She was given a small respite as the wood burned.
In the break, Maruchi asked why he made her do that. What was the point? To test her strength and stamina?
"You need to experience things in order to do the best." Haku told Maruchi, as if that would explain everything.
The brunette felt her face contort into a deadpan. Golden eyes sending an accusatory "Are you kidding me?" look towards the old man.
Haku's dark eyes just stared at the girl, until he let out a long-suffering sigh. "To do Genjutsu," the man began, settling himself onto the ground beside Maruchi. "One must trick, not just the eyes but everything about the body."
"But," he put a finger up, giving her a hard look. "One must be able to experience many things in order to trick a mind. For one cannot half-ass a Genjutsu. To be true master, is to put your experiences on others."
Maruchi stared up at her Sensei. Dabbing the sweat from her brow, the female nodded. It made sense. One could not imagine the pain of breaking a leg, well not truly, until they themselves had broken it. Ranging in severity could mean other things as well. Whether or not it was more affective or not.
Taking a swig from the canteen the brunette witnessed the fires die down into smoldering embers.
Why did she feel like she wasn't realizing something.
"Sensei." The girl nudged the dozing male. Blinking an old eye open, Haku stared at the embers.
"Good their embers." He stated, not moving from his lax position. "Now go stand on them."
Maruchi blinked.
She hated herself.
So, so much.
Days alive 25
Maruchi stared into electric blue eyes. "Huh?" she asked. Quite the intelligent response.
Sanshin smiled. "Yep, I was once a ninja." He confirmed, leaning on the table casually, feet crossed on the cushion bellow him.
The brunette felt something in her snap at this, her attention focused solely on the blonde, she felt her eyes light up in childish wonder.
"No way!" she grinned in a, well Sanshin would never admit, cute manner. "That's, that's—" eyes dilating sharply a million thoughts ran through her head.
Standing up abruptly from her seat on the ground she bowed, waist down. "Please! Teach me all you know!"
Sanshin stared at the young girl. The passionate hymns in her tone convinced the former ninja that maybe this brunette wasn't all air headed smiles and unnerving eyes.
"Ore, Ore, calm down their Maru-san!" he placated, raising both hands up in defense.
Looking up, at least the girl had the decency to look sheepish. "Sorry…" she muttered as she sat back down.
Laughing boisterously Sanshin waved her apology off. "No need to apologies." He amended, taking a swig of water from his cup. "But why don't I just tell you a story first? Hmm, much more interesting that what Old man Haku could do."
Blinking owlishly Maruchi didn't say anything except nod her head. She didn't know how Sanshin would tell a story better than Haku without the use of Genjutsu.
But, staring at glimmering blue eyes and a kind smile.
Maruchi decided she didn't really care.
Years alive 3; days in the wild 12
It was nighttime in her mind. The gentle breeze swished the grass as she stared out at the city.
Its blinking lights dispersed the stars, but she didn't mind. There were people down there, people who were breathing just like her and did things just like her.
But unlike her,
They were alive.
She could remember the suffocating silence,
Then the shouts, the yelling.
The field became unstable and there was a bright flash. She found herself collapsed on her bed, reading a textbook on biology.
"She's not natural 'm telling you! Not natural—" she'd plug herself in with music. Drowning out her mother's drug induced rants.
She could still feel the cold hands wrap around her unresponsive body.
"Why? Why won't you react like a normal child?"
The girl would just sit there, scanning over useless information from the wiki. It often being about books—manga?—that she didn't feel the need to read.
The scrape of nails on her arms.
"Why? Why are you unnatural?"
She wondered what it was like. To be able to read the imagined worlds of others, without fear of being lost completely in the folds of their reality.
She, wondered.
Cold, cold always cold.
Food, days, unresponsive.
She, she wanted.
Not feeling. Not there.
Needed…
Alive, but not breathing.
Dead, yet living.
WHAT AM I?
"MARUCHI!"
Jolting awake, the girl slammed heads with the boy before her.
"Ow!" He yelped, flailing as he fell to the grassy floor.
Wincing at the pain that exploded on her forehead, Maruchi looked down at Gai. Who lay in an unceremonious heap, twitching ever so slightly.
She thought she knocked him unconscious, that is, until he jumped up from the ground fluidly, without using his arms. "Hup!" he grunted.
Maruchi blinked, rubbing the sore spot on her head she turned towards the male.
"Yes…?" her own voice sounded hoarse to her own ears.
Gai straightened as he brushed off the leaves and grass that got caught on his green jumpsuit. "We're required to out on patrol tonight." He stated, a serious glint catching in his dark eyes.
He had very pretty eyes. The girl could admit that to herself. They could look like fine ink, the kind that soaks onto a page, or like a dark night with a million stars in the sky.
Very pretty eyes indeed.
There was a snap of bandaged fingers in her face. "Hey, Maru-sama? Did you hear me?"
Maruchi found herself stareing into the eyes she just complemented. Smiling, slightly bashful, she nodded. "Yes, sorry Gai-kun I was just thinking."
Nodding in acceptance the boy gestured to the other side of the clearing, were the rest of the camp resided.
"We'll be packing up tomorrow." He stated. "Minato-san suggested we scout ahead as well, just to save time."
The brunette nodded. Minato-san was the head of this operation. Apparently, his team had started out as a force of fifty or so ninja, all camped out just in Kiri's borders. They were attacked, for obvious reasons, and Minato's mighty force was left at barely thirty or so ninja remaining.
What Maruchi did was a miracle for them. She saved them from a sound defeat. Sure, they could have won but it would've been with heavy loss and severe injury.
Maruchi was considered an ally in this situation, which she was glad for, still the remaining ninja were weary of her presence, even Minato and Kakashi.
At least she had Gai. He took her massacre of those hundred ninja as a sign that he should hold her in high regard. It had taken her five days to convince him to at least call her Maru-sama. So similar to her old nickname but different all the same.
Slipping out of her sleeping bag, the girl pulled a thick kimono over her head. Strapping her open toed sandals and kunai pouch on she turned towards Gai.
"Ready?" he asked, taking a bite of a ration bar and offering her one.
Nodding in confirmation, Maruchi accepted the bland food. "Ready."
They set off. Jumping from tree to tree with practiced grace.
Gai was going ahead at unnatural speed, even for ninja, still Maruchi could keep up.
Another reason the brunette had been placed as Gai's temporary partner was because she was one of the only people that could keep up with him, physically. Sure, Kakashi or even Minato could as well but neither really wanted to be in his presence for that long.
He was exuberant and funny, but also quite serious when the situation called for it. Kind of like her, except not.
Strange.
Either way they made their way deeper into the forest. Jumping from branch to branch they kept their eyes and ears open as they dashed around.
But the forest suddenly stopped.
Skidding to a stop on the sand, Maruchi felt some of the grains slip in between her toes.
The ocean breeze filled her nose and churned her stomach, the large expanse of dark water tricking her eyes to believe there was nothing past the pale shore.
Golden eyes found black, one holding a blank thoughtfulness and the other a dreading passion.
This is where the island ended, and their most treacherous part of their journey began.