The Unsung Story of the Inconspicuous

A/N: This time I have no beta to thank... V's fingers have been given a holiday.

I do not own Naruto or any of its characters or affiliates.


They sat in what passed for silence in the howling wind and freezing cold. Raiku's glow refused to fade, built inside the heart of a storm. She felt…

Happy.

The glow wasn't trying to get out because the power wanted to stay inside. Because it didn't come from her it didn't want to burn or devour, because it came to her she was all it wanted to be.

Her blood sang.

"Speedy, Sullen, Shorty- you all did Konoha proud," Yamada said, breaking their equivalent to silence. Ryuu leaned on Daisukenojo's back, yellow eyes glazed with exhaustion and fever. His left hand, the one with which he helped to keep them safe, shook as it lay next to him on the wet ground, and the impact of foreign chakra made his skin crawl and his stomach clench. Even a Hatori can only do so much. Daisukenojo's face was flushed with exertion, and his hands shook as he raised his canteen to his lips, wiping his mouth roughly.

'I know how Ryuu does what he does,' he said eventually, avoiding Raiku's gaze. Ryuu gave a soft snort at this, regaining some of his usual derision as the wind tried to reconcile with him, pushing lightly at his hair. 'And I know Yamada-sensei's just the toughest guy around. But you've been doing some pretty crazy shit recently, Raiku-chan. You're gonna tell us why.' He passed the canteen back to Ryuu, who had finished his own within the first hour of the storm.

Raiku tilted her head. She opened her mouth to speak, and Daisukenojo watched the threads of electricity span the inside, dancing between her tongue and the roof of her mouth.

'Gairanos don't have bloodline limits,' he said quietly, and she knew he was trying to stop her from lying.

She closed it again, and looked at him for a moment.

'I explode sometimes,' she said simply, lips twitching upwards into a beseeching smile.

After a moment, more because the tension was broken than because what she said was funny, Ryuu began to laugh. Daisukenojo joined in, shoulders wracked with harsh laughing, half-coughing from exhaustion. Yamada chuckled to himself while Raiku just smiled sheepishly, hanging her head, complete with its shock of snow-white – lightning white- hair.

'That explains why I caught you with ink in your hair,' Ryuu managed between breaths, the force of his laughter hurting his weakened form.

'Never mention that again,' she pleaded good-naturedly.

'I'm telling everyone,' he said, relishing the words, shooting her a wicked, if exhausted grin over Daisukenojo's shoulder.

'I'll tell everyone Daisuke had to carry you!' she threatened, pointing a lightning-clad finger at him.

'And I'll tell them it was because I was holding off a hurricane, how about that?' he countered, head falling back onto Daisukenojo's shoulder wearily. 'But seriously,' he added in afterthought. 'Tell anyone about it and I'll murder you.'

Raiku grinned at him mischievously.

Yamada looked at the electricity suspended above them as they camped just inside Fire Country, acting as both illumination and call for help. "Yeah," he said proudly. "I've still got the best team."

'I didn't know you were trading teams,' Ryuu said blandly.

Raiku giggled, biting her fist to try and keep it in as Yamada shot Ryuu a dirty look. "You're lucky you're so good with hot air, get me?"

'Ryuu made a joke!' Daisukenojo grinned, craning his neck to look over his shoulder. 'Reckon the world's ending?'

'It'll start with you if you keep moving,' Ryuu cautioned, lips twitching upwards despite his valiant effort to stop them.

'How long do you think it'll take Konoha to send a relief team?' Raiku asked Yamada, smiling brightly.

"They should get here tomorrow," he said, casting another look at the beacon above him. "Speedy… how are you making that?" he asked, frowning slightly.

She shrugged.

'That's the spirit,' Ryuu drawled.

'See, whenever someone's suffering, you get really talkative,' she pointed out, giving him an odd look. 'Even when it's you. You're… the miniature form of Ibiki.'

'Don't say that,' Daisukenojo groaned. 'Last thing we need is for him to get ideas, toaster!'

'I still don't think I deserve that nickname,' she said, rolling her eyes.

'I don't know how you got it, and I don't care. It works.'

"Get some sleep, team," Yamada interrupted shaking his head in exasperation. "You all need it. Except you, Speedy."

'Do you have any idea how often you add that to your sentences? I am the exception to every rule.'

"You're running home."

Raiku stared at him. Daisukenojo broke into loud guffaws, wiping tears from his eyes roughly. He continued even when she quite rudely sent a jolt up his spine, hitting Ryuu in the process. 'Sucks to be you, toaster!'

"You need to report the mission and tell them about that," he said, jerking a thumb at the beacon. "They're not going to see it in the storm, get me?"

'Then why did you ask me to make it!?' she demanded.

"Wanted to see if you could."

She sank back, fuming, power sent crackling and blue washing over her skin in waves.

"You don't scare me," he snorted, waving a massive hand. "And tell Suzu-chan I'll be home soon," he added in lower tones, coughing to try and hide his slight blush in his hand.

'Why can't we just wait until tomorrow and travel home under our own power?' she asked suspiciously.

"Because we just walked through Wind Country monsoon season. We deserve a goddamn lift. Hell, we deserve a parade. I've seen ANBU go in and never come out."

'That's a lie.'

"Jounin," he conceded. "Jounin have gone in and never come out. Chuunin, definitely."

Raiku hung her head, sighing heavily. 'This is because of that "fast as lightning" line, isn't it? I'm being punished because of the way I was born? This is discrimination. Discrimination and harassment. I'm so telling your wife.' She stood, dusting her hands off. 'Also? I'm leaving my pack. I may not come back, and then you'll have to carry it. Daisukenojo, I'm looking at you.' She grinned at the face he pulled at her and stretched her arms above her head, crackling contentedly despite the lack of positive adverb used with such an action in any other context.

'"Electrical malfunction",' Ryuu said suddenly, opening his eyes as he remembered and as she took a step to run away.

She blinked, caught off guard at the non-sequester. 'I'm sorry?'

'Your mother. You said she died of an "electrical malfunction",' he elaborated, staring into the darkness of the forest, not turning his head towards her.

'That's because she did,' she said, giving him an odd look and pelting away.

She was unprepared for the speed. As soon as she took a step she came to a halt, shrieking, feet digging deep grooves into the ground as she sought to stop herself, yanking branches she hadn't been quick enough to dodge out of her hair and in one case, out of her arm. She spun around to stare at the trail she'd left behind her in the span of only several seconds, some of the branches still glowing red at the point of severing as she'd exploded into motion and away-

She looked down at her smugly glowing hands, then back at the rapidly cleared path through the forest. In the distance- the very distant distance, surely she hadn't gone that far- her beacon shone.

Ryuu exuded boredom, but at this moment he broadcast derision to her from several kilometres away. Oh and she could just imagine the look on his face, the one with that slightly raised eyebrow and that infuriating sense of amusement at her expense. She wanted to kill him and he probably hadn't done anything.

"TRY. DODGING," Yamada's roar echoed through the trees, strangely quiet and tinny at the current difference in location.

She wasn't that loud, she wasn't going to bother trying to respond. '"Try dodging",' she echoed mockingly, pulling a face and setting her hands on her hips in exaggerated posture. '"Get me, Speedy? My name's Yamada and I think that I'm so tough-"'

There was an ominous boom from his general direction. She yelped and turned to run; the world exploded around her in a maelstrom of electricity, the forest sped towards her and her feet just kept moving as the lightning tore her through the trees and rain, overtaking the wind and ripping branches and saplings up behind her in the slipstream. Her body went too fast for her mind to keep up and her reflexes weren't quick enough to dodge anything at this sort of velocity, until suddenly they were.

She wasn't going quickly. The world was moving slowly. And then she realised that that wasn't true either, she was just moving. Her brain caught up to everything else and swore explosively, kicking electricity in the face and demanding both a cigarette to calm it down and a progress report, hog-tying her own ability and sitting on it with a steering wheel.

She could dodge: she'd be a damn poor kunoichi if she couldn't. She could jump and run and walk on water. If she could dodge a knife, she could dodge a tree. If she could dodge a senbon-

Raiku jerked her head to stop the train of low-brow humour and borderline plagiarism, the movement sending a tree exploding into another, split down in half.

With this sort of speed no one would ever be able to catch her again.

And then, because some things are stronger than lightning, she collapsed.


Ryuu, safely unconscious, was slung over Yamada's shoulder as they made their way back to Konoha with an escort service of Team Gai. Daisukenojo was stubbornly refusing help despite the unhealthy blue pallor of his skin, standing between Rock Lee and Tenten so they could, to his supreme embarrassment, keep an eye on him.

"So she didn't make it back at all?" Yamada frowned, turning his head to talk to the green spandex-clad Gai.

'No, my friend! But don't worry, for we s-,'

'She's in a tree,' Hyuuga Neji stated flatly, cutting him off. 'Asleep. One kilometre ahead.'

Yamada's expression flattened. "Figures she'd fall asleep," he grumbled.

'Considering all the crap she took for us in the middle of a hurricane, I think she earned it,' Daisukenojo pointed out.

Gai smiled hugely at Yamada, almost blinding him with the glare. 'Yes Yamada! You must tell me how it is your team so bravely-'

"Could someone get ready to go and get my student, please?" Yamada interrupted quickly. "She might be hurt."

Daisukenojo snorted. Tenten glanced at him. 'What's so surprising about that?'

'We're the freak team,' he said bluntly. He raised his voice. 'Yamada! Do you really think it's safe for anyone to grab her?'

"I think they're just going to have to deal with it, Shorty!" he said with malicious glee. "Gai, maybe you could do the honours? Given that you're in the springtime of your youth."

Gai's eyes teared up in joy that Yamad eyed with suspicion. 'Of course! I would gladly act to save your student, who so valiantly braved the wil-,'

'Someone. Shut. Him. Up,' Ryuu groaned in pain, screwing his eyes further shut.

"Sacrifice won't be necessary, Gai," Yamada said, rubbing his face. "Just don't touch her skin. She uses a defensive technique that can kill pretty easily."

'That's what we're calling it now?' Daisukenojo muttered. Gai nodded and struck a strangely flamboyant pose, darting off into the trees. For a few minutes they travelled in silence interrupted only by tears of inspiration streaming down Rock Lee's face, before Daisukenojo spoke again.

'She's going to barbecue him.'

"Yep."


Raiku was already in motion when she woke up. She felt curiously warm, and absolutely safe. She exhaled lightly, burying her face further into fabric with a small, contented sound.

"Speedy, you waking up?"

Her good mood evaporated. She grumbled.

"Oh good. Mind telling me what happened?"

'F'got to breathe,' she grumbled screwing her eyes further shut to try and cling to the last vestiges of sleep, hands fisting in a strange-feeling material.

'Who the hell forgets to breathe, toaster?'

She cracked open an eye to squint around her blearily. A perfectly round pair of eyes stared down at her, framed by a terrifyingly shiny black bowl cut.

She stared.

Then she shrieked.

Rock Lee yelped and tried desperately to keep a hold on her as she struggled to get free, screaming loudly. Ryuu's eyes shot open and she caught the movement in her peripheral when he flung a hand out in protective response-


'This is the worst rescue in the history of Konoha,' Daisukenojo grumped, expression flat. Ryuu walked alongside him, hands in his pockets.

The grey haired boy shrugged. 'At least I got to knock out Rock Lee.'

Might Gai carried his unconscious student with mournful tears streaming down his face, cradling Rock Lee carefully. 'How could you be so lacking in youthful empathy!?'

'Practice,' Ryuu said dryly.

'I'm surprised it was you, not toaster,' Daisukenojo muttered, casting an eye over to Raiku's recently concussed form. 'She usually… y'know. Explodes when she freaks out?'

'She explodes?' Tenten asked from next to them, expression menacing. 'She explodes and you're making Neji carry her?'

'He should be alright, as long as he doesn't make any sudden movements,' Daisukenojo snickered. At the expression on Tenten's face, he looked away hurriedly.

Neji's face was impassive, as it always was, carrying the unconscious Gairano without any apparent difficulty.

'At least she's not heavy,' Ryuu said, perfectly deadpan.

'Yeah, that'll totally make up for the exploding.'


Raiku woke up slowly this time, since her brain had evidently learned its lesson. A pale shape swam into view as the pounding of her head increased. The unsteady figure of a face made itself known, and she squinted to try and focus. The face was quite beautiful, with the pale eyes of a Hyuuga. But the blurring of its edges made telling gender impossible, roughly until she caught sight of the long hair.

' 'Lo,' she said woozily, tilting her head as best she was able. 'Have we… met?'

'No,' an indistinct voice said. She frowned under the mask, brow wrinkling slightly.

'Your voice… is really deep for a girl…' she mumbled, blinking owlishly, lifting a finger to poke him in the chest. 'Sorta… flatchested, too… arentcha?'

The arms supporting her stiffened, and she dimly heard hysterical laughter, before something dark rushed up to meet her.


'I cannot approve the use of the Gentle Fist technique on a hapless maiden!' Gai exclaimed, shooting Neji a melodramatically vengeful look. The Hyuuga didn't appear to care.

Daisukenojo wiped a tear of laughter from his eye, leaning on Ryuu for support. 'Brilliant!' he cackled. 'Absolutely brilliant!'

'And he called her a hapless maiden!' Ryuu added, shoulders shaking with repressed laughter.

Yamada coughed, trying to hide his smirk. Neji held the girl with faint distaste, slightly away from his body. Well he was trying to- Raiku was one of the great thrifty members of the Gairano family, and believed in body heat instead of air conditioner. She buried her face in his chest, curling up into a ball as best she was able, exhaling lightly.

"I wouldn't let her face touch your skin," Yamada advised. "That would hurt, get me? Or your hands."

'Consider it done,' Neji said darkly.

Blissfully unaware, Raiku slept on.


A/N: Look, someone was going to call Neji a girl eventually. At least I mean it lovingly.

Reviews

V Starwind: Neji was totally asking for it. Look at how he dresses!

envysXsin: Sorry I didn't respond to the previous one- I'm incredibly grateful for your criticism and comments, and are indeed honoured that you've chosen to review, and quite staggered by your praise. As for fighting for the fate of the world... See you at sundown. Bring alcohol.