Unsung Story of the Inconspicuous
A/N: I'm as yet still establishing characters and their relationships with Raiku (or lack thereof), so this chapter brings in canon characters slightly more than those previous. Ah yes- I need a beta, so feel free to volunteer. Enjoy.
I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, storylines or affiliates.
Truly, if anything could be said for Yamada, it was that he was thorough. But this… this seemed a little excessive.
The dog's head alone was bigger than she was. While the dog itself wasn't as tall, it had to weigh at least twice as much as she did.
"This, ladies, is your very first D-ranked mission!" Yamada informed them jovially, holding the leash the monstrous canine was attached to, leather wrapped thrice around his fist.
It drooled menace.
Raiku stared back at it with a mixture of fascination and complete and utter terror. Terror sucker-punched fascination in the kidney when the dog pulled slightly on the lead in her direction.
'I'll take first go,' Daisukenojo volunteered to everyone's surprise. At their awestruck stares, he coloured defensively. 'I like dogs!'
'That isn't a dog, it's a bear,' Ryuu pointed out, cringing slightly.
'I'll take… last,' Raiku said, hoping to any god listening that the dog would be tired by then.
'You gonna run away?' Daisukenojo asked, smirking at her insufferably. 'It might eat you, skinny.'
'It'd have an easier time with you, midget,' Ryuu remarked boredly, sticking his hands in his pockets.
Daisukenojo flushed for the second time in as many minutes, this time in anger. 'How about you say-,'
Their volatile leader abruptly unclenched his fist.
"Enjoy!"
The dog lunged for them, suddenly ecstatic with freedom and probably spurred on by Yamada's laughing.
I will not run away, I will not run away-
Oh, who was she kidding? Raiku was the best runner in her rookie class, and it was from practice. She managed to take a single step before Daisukenojo grabbed her and held her in front of him defensively, earning a short scream.
'Oh, tough guy!' Ryuu taunted shortly before a bone-crushing display of canine affection bowled him over.
Raiku laughed nervously, eyes darting between the dog and Ryuu's enraged face. 'Let me go?' she offered, laugh turning vaguely hysterical as the dog looked up to trace the voice to its owner.
It stared at her.
She stared back.
'Let me go!' she repeated in higher pitch when it took a step towards her, cavernous eyes shining at her brightly.
Daisukenojo took a wary step back.
The dog saw the opportunity and lunged, trampling Raiku into the ground in its haste to follow him, pressing her hand into the concrete almost hard enough to break it and definitely at least bruising her ribs. Raiku curled into a ball defensively, clamping her hands protectively over her ears.
'Follow HIM! Follow HIM!' Daisukenojo yelled, desperately waving his arms in Ryuu's direction.
'Good boy!' Ryuu grinned maliciously as the dog took an uncertain step towards Daisukenojo yet again, caught between the two of them. It looked between them in confusion, a relatively new concept for a dog.
"Just don't make any sudden moves, speedy," Yamada advised Raiku, who was currently trying to make herself conspicuous on the street under the dog's legs. "It'll get bored. Like a bear. Bears get bored if you play dead, get me?"
She bit her lip tremulously. 'Why did you have to compare it to a bear?' she squeaked. Drool landed on her forehead and the behemoth happily panted, apparently not intending on going anywhere.
Raiku stared up in traumatised horror as more threatened to descend.
Daisukenojo feinted to the left and cursed when the dog followed his every move. Ryuu inched for the forgotten and trailing end of the lead. 'Easy now,' he breathed, sticking close to the ground and stretching shaking fingers for the leather. 'Easy…'
It gave a joyous bark, dropping and preparing to pounce on him. Raiku gave a pathetic wheeze as the air was successfully driven from her lungs. Ryuu yelled in a distinctly unmanly fashion and tripped backwards. Daisukenojo wasn't as subtle and took a diving roll for the leash, grabbing it just as the dog decided on a target.
Yamada watched the dog bounding- maybe galloping was a better word- down the street with Daisukenojo attached and screaming, and decided maybe this wasn't such a bad gig after all.
Then it came back.
'Make it stop!' Daisukenojo screamed as he flew past in a red blur.
'Don't you dare,Gairano!' Ryuu shouted at her from across the street where he was pressed against the wall like it would save him. She threw her leg out and tripped it over, sending the ball of red hair, grey fur and at least four limbs rolling into the wall surrounding the corner.
"That is not how you fight a bear, speedy," Yamada criticised from the safe height of the top of the fence. Said 'bear' lay with its legs in the air, tongue lolling out of its mouth pathetically and a low whine issuing from it.
A hand thrown out from under its bulk twitched, then clawed at the ground as the almost completely encompassed Daisukenojo probably started to suffocate. Muffled wheezing became audible.
Yamada smiled cheerfully. "Not bad for your first mission; all things considered."
The hand stopped wriggling.
'I think Daisukenojo's dead,' Raiku said, eyeing the hand worriedly.
"Yeah," Yamada said smugly. "Not bad for your first mission. Now tell me, where have you three gone wrong today?"
'Shouldn't we help him…?' Raiku offered, cringing in sympathetic pain at Daisukenojo's visible hand.
"Answer my question, speedy!"
'I don't know!' she yelped, covering her head to protect herself from his wrath.
"You didn't work together. Now I'm betting that if you two both gave it a shot at once, you could lift Cerberus off Daisukenojo before he dies," Yamada said firmly.
Its name was Cerberus…?
Raiku and Ryuu exchanged looks, and wordlessly got to their feet and stood at either end of the deeply embarrassed dog. There was the shared, silent promise that this would never, ever be mentioned again, and they both grabbed canine and pulled.
Cerberus rolled over with an absolutely scandalised expression, and Raiku and Ryuu fixedly avoided each other's gaze in favour of staring at Daisukenojo.
He coughed feebly.
Ryuu nudged him with a none-too-gentle foot, giving him a careless glance. 'Get up, midget.'
'Screw… off,' he managed, almost completely flattened into the street.
'Daisukenojo, can you breathe now?' Raiku worried, crouching next to his head and peering down at him. A dead teammate would be level five Trauma! Anything about level two led to a Drama Ranked Love Interest!
Love Interest.
She shuddered slightly, largely unnoticed as Daisukenojo managed to nod at her. 'Are you sure?' she pressed, forehead wrinkling in concern- just visible under the forehead protector. 'You seem sort of… winded.'
'I'm fine,' he maintained in a shallow wheeze, giving her a thumbs up.
A heavy hand clapped her shoulder and Ryuu's respectively, Yamada standing cheerfully next to the sprawled figure of their teammate. "You see? Working together, you ensured that short stuff lived to see another day! Good work!"
'I hate you… so much…'
"Good!" the giant enthused, shooting him a manic grin. "Now we go back to training, because you three can't even handle a dog!" The thought of training seemed to make him immensely cheerful, plastering a large and dazzling smile over his face as he sauntered in the direction of training ground two.
'He's gotta be putting on an act,' Ryuu said eventually, watching him go. 'Like the Uchiha's sensei.'
Raiku looked up from Daisukenojo, hand still outstretched to help him up. 'Yeah?'
'Yeah. "See what's underneath the underneath," apparently,' Ryuu remarked, sticking his hands in his pockets and following their leader. Raiku tilted her head quizzically before Daisukenojo accepted her help and almost sent her crashing to the ground with his weight, brushing himself off. 'Freak,' he snorted. 'At least he's not some sort of control freak,' he did have the grace to concede.
Raiku nodded, putting an expression of sheepish happiness onto the visible parts of her face, rubbing the back of her head with a hand. Daisukenojo flushed, awkwardly punching her in the shoulder. 'Thanks anyway, skitzoid.'
Raiku blinked. 'What did you call me?' she asked in surprise. Daisukenojo roughly brushed a hand over his face and stalked off, back stiff.
She gawked after him. 'I am not a skitzoid!' she protested, taking off after him.
'I thought you were supposed to be quick!?' he shot back, not that that stopped him from accelerating into a jog. 'I'll show you how quick I am!' she threatened, righteous fury burning in her eyes.
To her credit, it's relevant to point out at this time that Raiku lived a life free from all major sins. She liked puppies, helped old ladies, and was respectful to her father sometimes.
She really didn't deserve what was about to happen to her.
Neither, of course, did Hinata, but that didn't stop the short-haired girl from stepping directly into her path when even Raiku's reflexes couldn't slow her down in time. She had just enough time to turn towards the fake brunette and throw her arms in front of her face before the sidewalk came rushing up to meet the back of her head.
After a few seconds, Raiku groaned, stirring from her position above Hinata. She opened a bleary, electric blue eye as Hinata's terrified face came into view.
… Detailed view.
Raiku blinked in obvious puzzlement. 'Hinata?' she asked curiously. 'When did you get here?'
Hinata swallowed nervously, blank white eyes huge.
Raiku blinked. 'Hinata?'
There was that odd quality in the air that only occurs when someone's watching something the parties involved don't particularly want them to see.
Slowly, Raiku turned her head to her right.
A very beautiful, voluptuous woman was looking down at them, hands resting on white clad hips, dressed in a dress-
Raiku squinted.
...Made out of fabric strips?
The woman's red eyes glinted.
Raiku's head jerked back to star down at Hinata, then down at herself.
Hinata was really worst off here. She couldn't even move, the skin exposed where her jumper had ridden up now almost exposed to the skin of Raiku's wrist, even the several inches of proximity sending a mild electric current through her. The main problem was actually that one of Raiku's legs was thrown on either side of her, and neither of them had moved.
A shaggy haired boy with a puppy on his head grinned with appropriate wolfishness.
Raiku yelped and lunged to her feet and back several steps, bowing so low she almost bent in half. 'I'm sorry!'
'I'm not,' the boy- Kiba? Yeah, probably Kiba- smirked.
'R-Raiku…?' Hinata managed, struggling to sit propped on her elbows.
'That's me! … An apologetic me, just so you know!' Raiku confirmed, keeping her eyes screwed shut, hands trying desperately to pull the ripped fabric of her sleeve back over to protect her wrist.
'Gairano, Raiku?' the woman she now recognised as their jounin leader asked in a low, unintentionally silky voice.
'Yes!' she winced faintly. That wouldn't earn her any points, now that she'd apparently molested the Hyuuga heir on a public street.
Oh god.
What if this was the beginning of a lesbian sub-plot?
She paled, keeping her head low to hide it. She didn't want to be a lesbian! She preferred boys! Liked them as much as a twelve year old reasonably could, really!
Her sudden terror was fortunately misconstrued. 'I-I'm okay, R-Raiku,' Hinata said, making her wobbly way onto her feet. Raiku waited for the question: So, how long have you been the natural soul mate of a light bulb?
It never came.
'Y-You were… in a hurry?' Hinata asked tremulously, keeping her eyes averted.
Raiku shot up, hands coming up to grip her hair in panic. 'Oh no, Yamada-sensei!' she exclaimed, before looking to Hinata with a terrified expression. 'I'm sorry, I have to go! I'm sorry about before! Sorry!' she added again for good measure and sprinted away as fast as she could.
Hinata stared after her, still ironically shocked. Kurenai put a comforting hand on her shoulder, misinterpreting the expression. Hinata looked down at the hand over her heart.
Why… Is my heart beating so fast?
It was actually because there was a great deal of highly unwanted electricity bouncing around her nervous system and making her body literally go haywire, but she hadn't ever been electrocuted before and so she couldn't really tell.
She flushed dark red and dropped her hand quickly.
She was going to try really hard to avoid Gairano Raiku from now on.
Yamada-sensei was standing in the middle of the grassy training ground when she managed to catch up to them, the two boys of her team waiting for her expectantly. "Taking time out to smell the roses, speedy!?" Yamada barked, dark eyes glittering gleefully. "Fifty push-ups! And your nose better touch the ground each time, get me!?"
Raiku's shoulders slumped wearily and a groan escaped her as she hung her head.
Between the molestations and push-ups, being a shinobi was much harder than she'd anticipated.
A/N: Hinata is not a lesbian in my story, so please don't kill me. However as much as I love Raiku, I love seeing her in awkward situations more.
Review and receive love.
