Saturday, September 22nd, 2012.
Hey. Still no more reviews for A Couple Moments on the Road of Life. I'm upset.
It's been, what? 2 weeks? I might have waited another week if I wasn't so unsure if I'd be able to and if it wasn't Shikamaru's birthday today. Tomorrow's is Ino's. No, I'm not doing a double-update. Why? No reviews.
Oh. A week ago, I found a spider crawling up my chest at my friend's pool party (I wasn't swimming, but still). I have really bad arachnophobia. I screamed and jumped up, wiping myself furiously. I grabbed my sister's purse and shook it, trying to reassure myself that it wasn't in there. The adults came up to me and ask what happened, and tried to search for the spider. They said it was dead, but I wouldn't go back under that mini ramada. I didn't for the rest of the party. I put on my shoes and just walked around the pool, ignoring my legs' tired protest. I was walking for like half an hour.
I barely spoke -I was too shaken up. I was shaking literally, too. I kept muttering to myself, "I'm okay. I'm okay. God is with me, I'm okay." But it didn't make me feel better. Every time I thought about the spider, I'd wipe my torso furiously, and every other time I passed my sister I asked her to check my back. (She was laying her legs in the hot tub, since we don't have swimsuits)
Whenever something like, I become very quiet and speak like a small child, trying to keep myself from crying, speaking as little as possible. Sometimes, that happens when I wake up from sleeping, but without the fear factor. It wasn't even a big spider! But it's odd that I couldn't feel it until I saw it on my chest. I'm ultra-sensitive -I feel nearly everything! And I haven't cried more than like 5 tears for years! I only shed a few tears at heart-wrenching songs, or moments like in anime where my favorite characters die or something!
For the next few days, I kept wiping at my chest whenever I thought about it and felt fear. Now, a week later, I still have to look down.
Anyway, as I walked around the pool, trying not to cry, I made a revelation. As much as a hopeless romantic I am, I doubt whether or not I'll find love and marry. I'll wait for it to find me. I'm not going out to search for boys. I don't even think I'll get a boyfriend till college! I'm in my last year of middle school, people!
Moving on. The revelation was: I wanted someone to hold me during times like this. Not someone who'd laugh a little and tell me that I'm being ridiculous but hold me anyway, or my sister, my bro if he was around (he's 27 in Missouri. I'm in Arizona [US]), and my parents aren't an option. I want someone I can cry one, who'll comfort me. I want someone who loves me romantically to do that. A boyfriend. A lover. Something like that. I realized then how much I wanted it. But I knew I'd have to wait. Quite a bit of time might I add. I'm still a 13-year-old, somewhat antisocial and socially awkward, girl, even though I'm pretty mature for my age. I'm not going to let a guy in like that easily. I also don't want to get together with someone and let them in only to break up later, even though that's a guarantee in a first time relationship.
I want someone to love and love me back. That's one of my biggest wishes now, but not one I'm going to go out of my way to fulfill.
Anyhoo. I really needed someplace to let that out. And now you know of my arachnophobia.
Also. To this day, I'm not sure if I was hallucinating the spider or not. I don't remember ever seeing it again, or feeling it when I swiped at my chest. And it had been a while since I last hallucinated. Yeah. I hallucinate. It's usually accompanied by hearing things, schizophrenia. It was more frequent at the end of 5th grade when they started. That's also when my dad banned me from reading about Mythology, "my cartoons", and anything pertaining witches, demons, monsters, or other gods. (I had just read the PJO series 3 times over) He thought that's what caused it and was straying me away from God.
Of course, Scooby-Doo is an exception. I grew up on it, damnit!
My mom doesn't care as long as I'm reading. So I borrowed the Heroes of Olympus Series from my friend. And read the Beautiful Creatures series but didn't let the book near my dad. It was easy since he didn't ask.
And as for my "cartoons"? I kept watching anime. Whatever. He's not as strict anymore, and he's in Los Angeles most of the time, since he got a job there.
TIME FOR DISCLAIMER! STOP RUNNING OFF ON TANGENTS, ME!
Shikamaru: Woah...that was...deep. We now know of your tiny mental instability, your fear of spiders, and your ban on the supernatural, which is basically null now.
Me: Yeah.
Shikamaru: You think that schizophrenia has to do w/ your dreams of the future?
(I have dreams of the future, and they happen, but I don't know that I dreamt about them till it happens. That "moment" can happen many times over. I call it "Deja-vu" (sp?). Example: I'm in class and a teacher says a certain line, I'm sitting in a certain way, dressed in a certain jacket cuz we have uniforms, and say something. The whole moment(s) is familiar. I know it's happened before. That's my "Deja-vu". Sometimes, that moment happens many times over, with a variation of clothing, venue, etc. It baffles me cuz I know it shouldn't have happened before. Like I've only crashed in a Go-kart once. I'm fine, though. No injuries. It's really weird. The last time I went to Kenya, I hit an all-time record cuz I counted it happening over 100 times. And I was there for a month. I barely get that many in a YEAR.)
Me: Probably. I hope I can still get a career in verbal therapy and psychiatry if this happens...
Shika: Anyway. I think the A/N's longer than the chapter. EPC doesn't own Naruto. She only owns the plot and scrolls, really. If she owned it, she'd be an English voice actor as a side job. Is she? No.
HAPPY B-DAY SHIKA!
GET READIN' PEEPS!
REVIEW A COUPLE MOMENTS!
Let's lighten the mood a little, shall we?
And no. This chapter doesn't center around Shika even though it's his b-day. He's mentioned, though.
This=regular
This=thoughts or scroll
This=Ino to Sai while she's a bird and one line of the scroll
This=Sai to Ino while she's a bird
Chapter: 14: Spying. Err…Observing
Tenten POV
I walked out of my apartment, heading to where Neji and I usually train together. I know I told him to find another training partner, but he needs to develop the Kaiten.
When I got there, I found him practicing his Kaiten on his own. It was greatly underdeveloped. Yup. I was right to come.
"You'll never get the hang of it like that, Neji-kun." I said, twirling a kunai on my finger.
His head snapped up, turning to me. "Tenten?"
I walked over to him, pulling more weapons from the scrolls I always carry. "Come on. It's 'an ultimate defense', right? Let's test and harden it, then." I threw 3 shuriken at him. Knowing what I was doing, he quickly spun into the Kaiten; one of the shuriken got through, another spun with the chakra sphere a little bit then fell out, and the last was deflected.
"Needs a lot of work. Let's get started." I said.
"Wait. How do you know about the Kaiten? I thought you said you weren't a part of Team Gai for a while?" He was curious. Duh.
"I've seen some Hyuuga's use it. And I'm not part of Team Gai- I'm just a ninja who wants you to put up an interesting fight in the finals a month from now. Are we going to get started or not?"
"I knew you couldn't resist me for long, Tenten. No woman can't resist my ever-pulling charm." I was stunned for a second. Wait a minute…that was a joke!
I laughed. "Don't flatter yourself, Prince Charming. How about we get back to training, yes?"
In response, he smirked- almost an amused smile- and started Kaiten again.
I sighed. Then smiled. "This is going to be one long month!" And charged at my friend in a blue orb.
Ino POV, A week later
Now this is what I call a birds-eye view.
I had transferred my body into a pigeon's, observing the progress over my friends. My body was with Sai-kun in his apartment. We wanted to check over how everyone was doing in their training.
Tenten-chan and Neji are training as usual. I just saw Shikamaru getting some tips from Asuma-sensei. Hinata's practicing her Jyuuken with Ko. Forehead and Karin are…practicing taijutsu together. Looks like she's giving Karin some tips.
"Ino, check out how Dickless and Cockatoo(1) are doing. Ugly said they might be getting suspicious about us." I heard Sai-kun tell my Inner Self. My Inner had taken over my body as she does when I do this jutsu so that my body isn't vulnerable; I awakened my Inner shortly before Sasuke left before. We developed this technique when I was 15, though she often doesn't take over for the sake of the Ino-Shika-Chou formation. She relays whatever happens to me, and I do the same to her.
"Hai, Sai-kun." She-...we-...I…said.
Hmm…let's swoop down, shall we?
"I think they're hiding something big from us." Sasuke? Shoot! I flew down into a tree a few feet from them. They didn't suspect a thing- I was a bird, after all.
"I think so, too, Teme. I mean, I don't remember any of the girls being so close, and for Ino to so suddenly give up on you…that's a little suspicious." Naruto, too? Were we that obvious?
"Well, I remember Sakura and Hinata talking sometimes, and weren't Ino and Sakura best friends before? The way Ino gave up on Sasuke is a little questionable, but it is possible she really did come to the conclusion to give up. Did anyone else notice a slight change and increase their chakra signature? It's like something was…sealed or something. But I'm glad Sakura has started being more serious on her training."
The 3 of them – Sasuke, Naruto, and Kakashi – were all sitting in a circle in clearing. Naruto must be on a break from Jiraiya and Sasuke the same with Kakashi.
"That Sai-teme, too. He's a jerk and a little too friendly with our Sakura-chan." Of course Naruto would say that.
Kakashi shot him an incredulous look.
"You're just jealous, Usuratonkachi." Sasuke said flatly.
"Am not! If anyone's jealous, you are, with less attention on you and on him instead! I saw the way you looked at them when they went off training together 3 days ago!" Sasuke glared. Sasuke… jealous of Sai-kun? This is good!
"I am not jealous. I'm just suspicious of our teammate being friendly with a suspicious guy." Well, I know he thinks of Sakura as a friend, moreso without her fangirlism recently. So thinking he liked her is too far-fetched. But I didn't think he'd get jealous of Sai. Well… Forehead always said he's the jealous type, even if he never showed it.
"I think all the girls may have something to do with it. That Karin girl -the redhead that healed Lee- she became a Konoha ninja. What happened for her to enlist as a Konoha kunoichi so easily instead of going back to Grass? Why would a Sand kunoichi, and a strong, sort of loyal one, ask us to help her brother, and tell us about what her country was doing with him? And how'd she know you're a Jinchuuriki, Naruto?" Kakashi's infamous book was out of sight, and he was seriously staring at his students.
"Now that I think about it, that Karin girl was about to get mauled by a giant bear in the Forest of Death before I got rid of it. I was passing through. She looked battered, and she was on her own. What about teammates? For that Sand girl, concern for her brother is one thing, but to go so far as practically begging for our help and Naruto's, there's something more to the story she gave us, and her father, the Kazekage, but she isn't going to tell us yet." Damn, we better be more careful from now on.
Naruto crossed his arms and legs and then tilted his head in thought. "How'd she know so much about the Bijuu? Old Man Hokage didn't even seem to know that much, and Iruka-sensei told me that not much is known about Bijuu. The Old Man told him what happened because he trusts him and stuff, but all Sensei knew before was that there were more in different countries, but not much more than that. So how'd she know so much?"
"I think we should stay on our toes, now boys. But no spying on the girls or Sai, here me? Oh, and I have a surprise, too. Tenzo, come on out." Kakshi stood and gestured to the trees. Sai, I've found Yamato.
"When he'd done doing whatever he's doing, lead him to my apartment."
Yamato stepped out, laughing lightly. "It's Yamato, now, Senpai."
Sasuke didn't beat around the bush. "Who're you?"
"My name is Yamato, a member of the ANBU Black Ops, which your sensei was previously a part of. I'm going to be a…how to say, teacher's aid, for your team."
"What for?" Geez, for someone who grew up with a highly-regarded and kinda high-class family, he sure has manners doesn't he?
"Yamato, isn't totally human, or born the way we were. Well, you are human, but you were born an experiment." Kakashi included.
"Experiment? But he looks fine to me!" Naruto was just confused.
"I was an experiment of Orochimaru, born from said experiment," started the kouhai of the gray haired man. "You know, the skinny, pale, snake freak? You've met him, I know. Hard to forget him."
"Back to the experiment." Sasuke said, his hand on his curse mark.
"Right. Anyway, the creep harvested cells from our first Hokage, Hashirama Senju, and used them and other…properties and injected them into infants. However, I was the only one to survive." Yamato explained, sitting down in the circle next to Kakashi and Naruto.
"The First? Why him? I mean, he was the strongest and all, but what would that do for you? I doubt it'd make you the strongest ninja around. Just sayin'." The blonde inquired.
"The First was the only person ever to use and create Wood-Style jutsu, combining Earth and Water style. Chakra Natures, like Water and Wind, can't be combined to create something like ice. That's why such Natures are so rare. Ice is another example."
"But he was the only one for Wood." Sasuke said, understanding the little lesson.
"Yes. So because of those cells, I can use Water, Wood, and Earth style jutsu. But mostly wood. Orochimaru was probably planning to use me [and any other now-grown infants, if they'd lived] as fighter power or something, but when Lord Hokage found out about Orochimaru's experiments, he banished Orochimaru and salvaged what he could from Orochimaru's. I was one of them. I became a Konoha ninja, and here I am."
"But I don't see what that has to do with us." Naruto asked.
"I'm joining the team because, just in case you lose control Naruto, I can stop you. But it'll apply more in the near future." Yamato gave a small, mysterious smirk and looked my way. Sai-kun, we should probably get Hokage-sama to get Tsunade soon. Like, right after the Finals would be great.
"Alright. I'll ask him soon, Beautiful."
I tried not to swoon. You so have a crush on him. No, not a crush. We might be in love!
Shut up, Inner. Pay attention in my body, would you?
"You can?" Naruto asked, snapping me back to the rest of the world.
"Yes."
"How?" Sasuke was curious.
"You'll find out when it happens." It was clear Yamato-tachiou wasn't going to say anything else.
"That's enough, Ino. You can check on somebody else, but return to fetch Yamato-taichou later."
Hai.
I left just as I heard Kakashi-sensei say, "Let's get back to training, boys."
*That sunset, at the clearing where the girls and Sai had met before. It's now their meeting place.*
Temari POV
I was the last to arrive, and I noticed a brown haired man I recognized as Yamato sitting in the circle with us.
I sat down between Karin and Tenten.
"So Yamato's finally here, huh?" I commented.
Ino nodded. "Found him earlier today, actually."
"I see. What can he do now? Didn't Naruto need Tsunade's necklace for Yamato to control Kurama, in the unlikelihood that Naruto loses control? I mean, Kurama might do it every now and then for show, but as far as I know, he remembers everything from the future. And told Naruto nothing."
Sakura spoke up. "He does remember, and yes, Yamato-taichou needs it. Kurama visited me last night in a dream, somehow. It was…creepy to say the least. He told me he remembers."
Yamato spoke, too. "I hope Kurama won't do anything until Naruto gets the necklace. I went with Sai earlier to request for Hokage-sama to send Naruto and Jiraiya-sama to get Tsunade the day after the Chuunin Exams. The sooner, the better. Granted, he'll be dead, but he'll tell Jiraiya the day before the Finals."
"What about Matsuri? How's she doing in Sand all alone?" Tenten asked. Everyone turned to me. I designated myself to keep in contact with Matsuri.
"She's been training with Ittetsu(2) and Sari(3), who'll be her teammates when she becomes a genin. Luckily, for some reason, Gaara already gave her the Johyo(4), so she's training with that, too. She's fighting off any assassins that come to her because she's sort of close to Gaara. Almost can't wait for us to get home." I answered. She must be so bored, not being able to do anything yet.
"What about the guys, Ino-chan? Didn't you and Sai-san observe everyone?" Hinata asked.
"Team 7 is suspicious. Mostly of me and Sakura. But I think we'll be fine." Ino answered. I'm mostly worried about Shikamaru. "Shika's…also suspicious but not enough to take action or anything. You know how lazy he is." Well that answers that.
"Have you checked out everything in your scroll, Yamato-taichou?" Sai asked.
"Yes. According to the…scroll, it may update new things. Have you checked if there was anything new?"
"…No." Sai replied.
"Then let's do it!" exclaims Ino, taking her scroll out of her ninja pouch.
I did the same.
No…no…nothing…oh!
"Shit." Karin mutters. "Apparently I was attacked by Orochimaru before Anko had rescued me. Fan-freaking-tastic!"
"That's not all." Sakura observed.
I nodded.
After the first month or so of time travel, you may experience pain while activating chakra. This is because your body and chakra is trying to suppress your actual strength from the future, which is fitted into your mind due to your memories. Your body can't take that amount of chakra and mental stress that it may have in the future. It must be suppressed completely and you will have to re-learn your jutsus. Some may be very easy to learn again, or your body may remember it, but some you'll have to re-learn from scratch.
If this strength wasn't suppressed, frankly, your body will explode from the overload of chakra. But it won't happen unless you were Naruto and went back to the past and decided to use Sage Mode or Nine-Tails Chakra Mode. But luckily, you don't have that sort of chakra levels or anything, so you'll be fine. You'll just experience pain (rarely extreme), cramps, headaches, and maybe even a fever.
The period of time the suppressing will take isn't long. It should end completely around the Invasion. But you'll still feel pain for the next week or more. Other than that, at random times or when you strain yourself within the next year or pushed yourself past your limits for who-knows-how long.
On a different note, you will often have dreams of memories of the future (it has nothing to do with the issue above) so when you wake up, make sure be able to differentiate btween dreams and reality accordingly. Other dreams may be of the future, but not actual events that happened, or nightmares. So, if you have dreams of marrying somebody, don't worry- it's just a dream.
Hinata may sleep for a longer period of time than normal. No longer than a day or two. This is because of her death and revival in the future. She also may experience times when her heart slows down and her temperature drops to that close of a corpse. However, her heart may actually stop. She's likely to still be conscious, but she's not dead. It isn't possible for her to die like this. So if she happens to be unconscious during these occasions and she was fine before, don't worry. She may take days or hours to return back to normal or wake, though. These will be rare, luckily.
That's all for now, guys.
"Exploding…how delightful." Tenten said dryly.
"At least it won't happen to us, right?" Hinata said, trying to find the bright side. Is there a bright side when you can be clinically dead without being DEAD, Hinata? You surprise me sometimes.
All of us nodded, thankful we weren't someone like Naruto.
"And I sent it!" All heads turned to Sakura at her outburst.
"Sent what, Forehead?" Ino asked. Of course it's Ino. No one else would call her that.
"Well, Pig, I just sent Itachi a message to give me a sample of his blood."
"Why?" We were all wondering. Why does she need his blood? I heard he was ill but…
"I want to find out if I can do anything about his illness. Even prolong his life. In fact, from what I can gather from the memories he scattered among us of our own, Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun, his own, and others, Itachi had been living as long has he did due to medication. That could be the case in maybe a year. The only reason Sasuke-kun won his fight with him is because Itachi was dying in the first place, and Itachi wanted him to win."
"…Well. That's…terrible." Yamato commented.
The pinkette nodded. "That's why I want to do something. If Itachi comes back to Konoha and isn't killed or anything, I want him to live a while with his brother at least. God knows they both need it. I want his last moments to be good ones."
I smiled a little. She's definitely changed from that brat she was beginning to grow out of in this point of time.
"I'm going to head home now, guys. The sun's setting." Ino got up and stretched.
"Me, too. Would you mind if I walked you home, Beautiful? Your place is on the way to mine." Haha…I'm sensing some budding romance in the air!
This is Sai, remember? He probably doesn't even know what he's implying or feeling.
…Right.
Since when were you the romancey type, anyway?
Matsuri's a hopeless romantic and I was hanging out with her a lot before the war started.
…Oh. Right. Forgot.
Ino's blush almost went undetected. Almost.
"Sure. Let's go." Sai held his elbow out like they do in the movies.
Ino was shocked for a minute, and Sai looked confused as to why she hadn't taken it yet. Then, after a moment, she hooked her arm with his and the two headed to their destination(s), while the rest of us were snickering quietly in the background.
"Haha…I have to…hehe…go, too. See you- haha!- tomorrow, Sakura. I'm the assistant team leader. Hehe…" Sakura nodded and bid Yamato farewell, and we watched the tall man disappear among the trees.
I was next to go. "See ya. I gotta make dinner for the guys. I swear those guys can't make a freaking decent meal aside from cereal and toast. And you don't need to cook those! Well, toast you well…toast."
And I left through the trees, hearing my friends' goodbye's behind me.
I miss hanging out with Shika…
I hate to admit it, but hanging out with that lazy ass was entertaining. I still want to beat him in Shogi!
It'll never happen, honey.
I could always make fun of him till I get an opportunity to be friends again. Meaning after the Invasion.
But I don't want that!
Then what do YOU want, then, Inner?
I want to be more than friends! I mean, you felt the chemistry between us?
…Are you smoking pot in my head or something?
No! Ugh…we'll deal with this some other time.
How about never?
You're just as stubborn as Tenten is when she denies doing anything beyond what friends do with Neji.
…Are you saying you think she had sex with him or something?
No! I meant kissing!
Why are you my Inner?
Because you aren't MY Inner.
…Am I the only one that was totally confused by that statement?
To be honest…I didn't get a word I said either.
I sighed. This is going to be a long mission.
The stuff on Yamato's mostly true, if not completely. He WAS an experiment by Orochimaru using Hashirama's cells. I think I researched this when I made the chap. I can't remember.
(1): Cockatoo=Sasuke's nickname. We needed something new after "Chicken-butt" and he can't say "Traitor" without explaining why.
(2): Ittetsu is an Suna ninja. In canon, he's older than Matsuri, and not close to her, but this time, I'm making him friends w/ her and Sari, as well as teammates.
(3): Sari's another Suna ninja. I'm making it so Ittetsu and Sari are 13-14 (a year older than most of the charas, same age as Team Gai) and were a 2-person team until Matsuri completed her Genin training, so she joined them. They're all Genin. If you didn't know, Matsuri was already a year older than Gaara in canon, so I don't need to change her age. I'm going to try to incorporate some IttexSari. If you didn't already know, this is a GaaMatsu.
(4): Matsuri's weapon. In a filler around the end of Part 1, a ninja academy was opened up in Suna, and the Sand Sibs were the first sensei, more or less. Only one person wanted to be Gaara's student and that was Matsuri. She was more scared of weapons than of him. Gaara helped her get over it and gave her the weapon. Gaara was kidnapped, and Naruto and the others were called to help Matsuri get him back. Shukaku was almost pulled out of him. I haven't seen that filler in a while, but that's mainly what happened.
In this story, since you already know how Gaara met Matsuri, Matsuri's parents were killed in a bandit raid with weapons sticking out of them and was on the streets. After she started living w/ the Sand Sibs, she begged to be taught to be a ninja. They trained her privately for a while (meaning, Gaara) and helped her get over her fear of weapons she developed after the death of her parents. Gaara gave her the Johyo and she continued ninja training w/ Baki, til now she's officially a Genin. Now you know the story.
Just ask if you have any questions.
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