The Unsung Story of the Inconspicuous
A/N: In this chapter Raiku is trodden on, threatened and singled out for a vendetta, and smiles pretty much the whole time.
I do not own Naruto or any of its characters or affiliates.
'Allow me to see if I get this straight,' he father said slowly, standing in front of her as she tried in vain to make her long legs fit the tiny desk. 'You were at Yamada's house.'
'Yes,' she confirmed, fidgeting uncomfortably under the soot.
'And you… offered to help with lunch to escape the grasp of a Hyuuga,' he said, nodding to himself, hands clasped behind him at the small of his back, shoulders perfectly squared. 'A wise course of action. However,' he added, a small muscle under his eye twitching slightly. 'When you actually tried to help with lunch…'
'The rice cooker exploded,' she finished helpfully. She winced at the look he threw her.
'After that,' he gritted out through his teeth, hands tightening on his own wrists. 'You then… fled, Yamada's house as he pursued you… At which point you found yourself on top of a building?'
'…Sounds about right,' she said evasively.
'When Yamada told you to come down, you refused. He then threatened you with entry into the incredibly dangerous and incredibly dramatic chuunin exams,' he said, ending in an enraged hiss.
'… Yes,' she admitted, sliding down in her seat.
'And you still refused.'
'…This sounds a lot worse than it is,' she began reluctantly, but he cut her off.
'No, I don't think that this could be any worse, Raiku, not unless you'd stripped and gone to hug the Hokage!' he exploded, hands thudding down onto the desk in front of her. 'Do you have any idea what you've done!?' he demanded as she shrunk back. 'You've completely destroyed the balance! You were not supposed to be in these chuunin exams, because we have spent decades deciphering the Kyuubi Plot and it does not, in any way, involve you. These chuunin exams however, are involved, and so when you were signed up for them you completely ruined everything that we have built! We can't read the Plot anymore, Raiku, because it's changed, and it's changed because you're in it!'
Raiku flinched as that same, curiously leaden feeling settled in her stomach. She couldn't bring herself to meet his enraged gaze. Her father was a gentle man, but in his mind lay the same segment that hers possessed- the part that was entirely Gairano.
And that part did not take kindly to being disobeyed.
She wanted to bring up her suspicions, her fear that she was in fact more a Catalyst than Gairano and that she would only continue to bring Drama to the people she cared for, bring conflict and pain to her friends and family. But now wasn't the time. In the face of the family's anger, she was beginning to believe there would never be a time.
'I'm sorry,' she said instead, and felt shame clog her throat.
He jerked back from her so violently it resembled recoiling more than anything else, a shaking hand coming up to cover his eyes, failing to reach and simply lying suspended in the air between them. 'I love you, Raiku,' he said quietly, almost distantly, stretching out to put his hand on her head, ignoring the painful jolt as his skin came too close to hers. 'Remember that no matter how angry I get, I love you. But I'm not always proud of you.'
She nodded, eyes downcast.
'We can fix this,' he muttered to himself, removing his hand. 'It simply needs time to correct itself once you've been removed.'
He turned back to her.
'Raiku, you need to fail the exams.'
She sagged in relief. 'Oh good,' she sighed. 'I thought this was going to be hard.'
She tried to hide her smile when two genin she didn't recognise refused to let them even enter the exam room. Daisukenojo glowered from several inches below her line of sight, though she noticed with some small amount of annoyance that he was going to outgrow her soon. Above her own eye level Ryuu's cold, dispassionate gaze flicked over the doors and the people congregating there, and between the two of them she found a feeling not unlike security. Flanked by two people who had proven that not only did they not care about her abnormalities but in fact cared so little as to tease her gave her a sense of belonging she was rapidly growing accustomed to. Daisukenojo moved forward to say something to the genin, but an arm flashed in front of Raiku to grasp his shoulder. The volatile redhead turned, a snarl ready on his face, cut off by Ryuu's pointed look.
Reluctantly he settled back, crossing his arms over his chest.
Ryuu dropped his own arm, shifting the grass in his mouth thoughtfully as he observed the growing scene. They were early, and in the plain, brightly lit hall there seemed little sense of urgency. Raiku adjusted the edge of her mask, glad for the growing cool of autumn, and briefly considered just …
Never going in at all.
It wasn't uncommon for genin to die during these exams, and while she knew she had to fail, she found herself reluctant to either die or allow her teammates to die. She mused briefly on her attachment to them and found it lacking in the profound at her initial glance, and thus of minimal risk.
'This isn't where we're supposed to be,' Ryuu murmured into her ear, letting her know with a flick of his eyes towards Daisukenojo that she should pass on the message. She did so and responded to his questioning look with a jerk of her head towards Ryuu.
Ryuu let his eyes linger meaningfully on the sign.
'It's the right place,' she whispered in his ear in confusion, looking at the number.
'No,' he answered with a slight shake of his head. 'It's not.' His lips twitched upwards as he looked down at both of them, a curious look in his eyes. After a moment, she nodded, turning back to face the door.
Daisukenojo's suspicion abated at that same look, and he grudgingly turned away, dismissing Ryuu with a jerk of his head.
Raiku couldn't help the smile that split across her face, creasing her eyes warmly.
Ryuu looked down over her head at Daisukenojo questioningly. He shrugged, elbowing her lightly in the side.
'We're acting like a team!' she said proudly, setting her hands on her hips. 'Finally!'
Ryuu exhaled lightly in a sound that could have passed for an amused one, while Daisukenojo just jabbed her harder and accompanied the gesture with a roll of his eyes.
There was a strange squeak. She turned her head to look over her shoulder, frowning in exasperation. 'Did either of you hear that?' she asked the boys, eyebrow twitching.
'The squeak? Sure,' Daisukenojo shrugged.
She narrowed her eyes, scanning the plain hallway and the overshadowed alcove leading to the stairs. 'I know I've heard that somewhere before…' she muttered to herself, resisting the sudden, violent urge to destroy the wall that hid the stairs themselves from view.
Ryuu tilted his head. 'I think …' he said slowly. Daisukenojo sniggered immaturely, ignored by both of them. 'That that squeak… is because of you,' he finished eventually.
'Me?' she blinked in surprise, pointing to herself. 'Because of me?'
'I've heard that squeak five times,' he explained. 'And only when you've been here.'
'Five? I've only heard it twice,' she muttered.
'My ears are much better. C'mon,' he said, dropping his voice to be inaudible but all but those two. 'We need to go to the right floor.'
One of the genin guarding the door, bandages stretched across his nose, winked at her roguishly as she turned back. Puzzled, she looked to Ryuu for an explanation and found his expression murderous.
'Come on,' he repeated, turning stiffly on his heel. Raiku blinked and threw a somewhat distracted wave at the genin in that curious grey uniform, following after him.
The walls shook slightly as they walked towards the door to the outer stairs, and Plot oozed.
She flinched, paling. 'Gotta go gotta go gotta go…' she muttered to herself, speeding up just as Uzumaki Naruto rounded the corner to the fake exam room.
It was when she reached the real room Raiku realised just how deep the trouble she was in was.
A room full of shinobi from almost every country, all terrifying and tough looking greeted her. Condescending smirks mixed with malicious gazes until it was simply a sea of unwelcome faces around the rows of desks leading down to the front, and she could already feel her youth weighing her down in their eyes.
'Got any … y'know… left?' Daisukenojo muttered into her ear, not moving his eyes from the crowd. His short stature was earning him sniggers.
She nodded mutely.
'Wanna get rid of the competition?' he joked weakly.
She turned her horrified gaze on him, pulling back her fist and letting fly.
Ryuu leaned back to look at Daisukenojo stumbling back, holding his jaw. 'It was a joke!' Daisukenojo exclaimed, somewhat muffled by his own hand. 'Joke, toaster, people make those sometimes!'
'Nice,' Ryuu smirked to her.
'Don't you ever joke about that,' she muttered, shooting him a serious look. 'Ever.'
'You three… you're rookies just graduated from the academy, right?' someone asked- drawled, she corrected- from their left. She glanced over with a carelessness that surprised even her. Ryuu didn't bother.
A young man with almost femininely fine features, glasses and long pale hair tied into a low ponytail faced them, hands in his pockets. He wore the headband of Konoha, but his eyes were colder than any shinobi she'd seen prior.
She blinked at him.
'Yeah,' Daisukenojo said, siphoning some of Ryuu's natural boredom to his aid. 'What about it?'
'Such cute faces… You're all still messing around, huh?'
Raiku's eyes flicked to him for longer this time. 'Why… does face matter to a shinobi?' she puzzled.
'It doesn't,' Ryuu dismissed, yawning with deliberately offensive flippancy. 'He's trying to psych you out because you look like a wimp.'
'I… I am a wimp,' she pointed out.
'Yeah. But he's not scary,' he explained, smirking coldly.
'It does matter,' the pale haired man corrected, sly eyes flicking between them and taking in the bruise on Daiskenojo's jaw. 'Look around you.'
'Ryuu, no!' Raiku hissed, grabbing his hand as it started to rise. 'You do not cause alkalosis in strangers!'
He shot her a bemused look, lowering his hand.
The pale-haired man sighed. 'I'm Yakushi Kabuto. I'm just giving you a warning now, since everyone's tense before the exams? I'm not trying to psych you out.'
'Thank… you?' Raiku offered tentatively, giving him a friendly eye crease. 'I'm sorry for my teammate- he's tense toooooh that's my hand,' she broke off mid word into another, looking down at the hand still intertwined with Ryuu's, grasped tight enough to hurt. 'Yes, okay, thank you for warning us Yakushi-san!' she squeaked, desperately trying to pry her hand free.
He shot her an exasperated, if amused look. 'Would you like some more help? It must be frightening entering the exams so soon after graduation.' His smile was kind, and the Plot hanging off him malignant, festering half-in half-out of his body with the occasional outburst of a terror-filled voice escaping.
'I don't think I'll pass, so no- I have a hand, and its name is pain,' she whimpered as Ryuu's grip tightened even more.
'Sure,' Daisukenojo answered Yakushi, stepping forward. 'Sounds like a good idea. That's it you guys are done handholding,' he added, jerking a thumb at them.
Yakushi smiled at them reassuringly.
'Daisuke,' Raiku whispered, eyes wide and earnest. 'I don't think we should listen to him.'
He raised an eyebrow.
'Well,' she swallowed thickly as she felt the bones in her hand move against each other in a distinctly unnatural way. 'He may have to fight us later… yeah? So… if he gives us bad information then he improves his own chances.'
Yakushi watched the quiet exchange with raised eyebrows. 'Are you… alright?' he asked, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.
Inside his Plot a woman screamed.
'Yes Yakushi,' she said, doing her best to bow without moving her hand. 'But I think we should take our seats.'
The pressure alleviated slightly. Good sign! She was on the right track.
'After all,' she added hastily. 'We wouldn't want to miss out for something as dumb as not having seats, right?'
The pressure remained the same. Damnit! She strived to think of something she might have missed. 'Thank you for offering to help us Yakushi-san!' she smiled sweetly. 'I'm sorry we didn't arrive soon enough to benefit from your experience.'
The pressure almost vanished. Yakushi seemed flattered, smiling with equal happiness. 'Just come to me if you need help… What was your name, I'm sorry?' he asked mildly.
Oh, there went the metacarpals. No fingers for her. 'We're team Yamada,' she smiled, improvising. She used the crippling grip on her hand to steer Ryuu away, pulling Daisukenojo with her before he could persist and ask for her real, specific name.
Ryuu cast her a dark look as the three found a space, Daisukenojo moving to sit directly in front of them in the only other spare seat they could immediately locate. 'You want to explain to dear Daisuke the problem with that guy's advice any louder, toaster?' he gritted out.
'My hand!' she exclaimed, gingerly rubbing her heavily bruised fingers. 'You killed my hand!'
'Focus, toaster!'
'I needed that! I only have two!' she lamented, sniffing slightly. 'That… that hurt so bad…'
'If I fix your hand, will you shut the hell up?' Daisukenojo grimaced. She nodded. He held out his own freckled, square hand, pulling her gloved, thin one towards him. 'You're such a wimp,' he muttered, not without affection, as a pale glow surrounded his fingers.
'I didn't know you knew any healing techniques,' Ryuu observed, leaning forward in his seat. Daisukenojo shrugged, pinching her skin through her glove as she stretched her tingling fingers.
'My mother's a medic, and since everyone in my family has really good chakra control and we're always getting into fights, she thought it would be a good idea to teach me this stuff. Sort of like you two.'
Raiku was so accustomed to the guilt of hiding things she no longer actually felt it. She nodded in understanding. 'It must be really nice… to know you can fix people,' she murmured.
'I prefer breaking them,' he grinned. She blinked, looking up from her hand to his face.
'Do you really?' she asked, tilting her head slightly.
He opened his mouth to reply, but a loud exclamation cut him off.
'My name is Uzumaki Naruto! I'm not going to lose to any of you!' Naruto cried from the back of the room, pointing to the crowds at large.
Raiku flinched. Behind him Yamanaka Ino picked a loud, aggravated fight with Haruno Sakura, the girl who had glared so angrily at Raiku the day of graduation.
She straightened on the bench to catch a glimpse of the other recommended rookie genin, and caught Hinata hurriedly ducking out of sight with…
'A squeak!' she cried triumphantly, surging up in her seat to point at Hinata.
Every face in the room turned towards her with dubious and in some cases openly hostile expressions.
'Toaster, sit down,' Ryuu said quietly, hiding his face in his hand. In the seat in front of her, Daisukenojo went scarlet with secondhand embarrassment, sliding down out of sight.
'It was YOU!' Raiku continued on, pointing at Hinata, apparently immune to awkwardness in her moment of triumph. Since Hinata was hiding behind her Aburame teammate, this was somewhat awkward. His brow furrowed above black sunglasses that completely hid his eyes, and the high collar made any other indication of emotion impossible to see. 'YOU'RE the one that's been hiding from me!'
'I have perpetrated no such action,' Aburame said. She flicked her hand dismissively.
'Not you, Aburame, Hinata!'
There was another squeak.
'Oh come on!' she exclaimed in frustration. 'I can totally see you!' She vanished with a loud yelp of surprise as Ryuu yanked her savagely downwards, almost cracking her head on the table in front of her.
Aburame half-turned to look at his teammate, raising his eyebrows. She went scarlet under his and every other rookie's scrutiny. 'I-I…' she began in embarrassment, trailing off abashedly.
Kiba rested a hand on her head, ruffling her hair. 'It's a secret, so back off!' he grinned.
Raiku shoved her way free of the bench, landing in one of the aisles on steady feet and turning on her heel to face the rookies, striding towards them quickly. 'Hinata?' she asked, leaning around the Aburame to try and catch a glimpse of her. 'Hinata? I'm sorry I yelled, but I do know you're there,' she frowned in confusion, taking a step around the far taller boy.
His face was overshadowed. 'You both use me as some accessory,' he muttered.
'Hinata…?' she asked slowly, moving to stand between the Aburame and the crowd, placing her closer to Hinata.
A dark shape, moving so quick as to be a blur, darted between her and the Aburame. She blinked in surprise, head instantly following it and making it a discernable shape-
'That shinobi… looks like a porcupine,' she observed. Another sped past her to follow the one that was after Yakushi, and she secretly hoped that they would kill him.
The woman's scream echoed in her ears.
The boy trod on her foot heavily- probably on purpose- and she gave a brief, incoherent exclamation, hopping on one foot and cursing to herself in a distinctly undignified way. She narrowed her eyes spitefully at his back, growling under her breath as she clutched her foot. He was heavy, and he was going to pay.
She turned to give up and pursue it another time just as another blur, resolving it as a lovely girl with dark hair when her eyes instinctively traced it, moved to dart in front of her. If he couldn't pay, she wasn't one to hold a grudge.
At least, not a specific grudge.
She stuck her injured foot out casually and unwisely.
The girl was almost fast enough to dodge, but Raiku was, after all, as fast as lightning.
Just remember to breathe this time, Raiku told herself cheerfully, smiling down at the girl mildly. 'I'm sorry, Sound-nin,' she said cheerfully, rubbing the back of her head in feigned sheepishness. 'But I don't think that three on one is fair, do you?'
And your teammate trod on my toe, she added mentally. In this situation, the team must always answer for the individual. Personal vendettas are a very, very forbidden zone. Indistinct ones aren't.
The girl snarled up at her in instantaneous outrage, jumping nimbly to her feet and sending a fist flying towards her.
At that exact moment Raiku had an epiphany.
She was a new part of this Uzumaki plot, and so she was allowed to be sort of tough. She was naturally a wimp, but she was a hard worker and Yamada worked them harder! Success and validation.
She caught the girl's fist in her own hand, tilting her head in a way she felt conveyed friendliness. 'I… think we should wait until the exams to fight, yeah?' Something slammed into her palm and made the bones vibrate painfully several seconds after she caught the hand, and the girl shrieked as something far more inconvenient surged into her through her clenched fingers through the microscopic holes in Raiku's glove, designed for that purpose. For her part, Raiku's eyebrow twitched and she gritted her teeth to stop from cursing yet again.
'You should calm down, Sound-nin,' Raiku said, forcing that cheerful smile as the girl's knees shook. 'There's… no exit wound when you're completely insulated, yeah?'
A gasp rippled through the rookies as the first porcupine-nin lashed out at Yakushi, and Raiku turned to look at the two fighting. Yakushi was standing back, unscathed, while the other stood in a distinctly offense-based position. She raised a quizzical eyebrow, and understood as the glass in Yakushi's glasses frames cracked and shattered.
'That's weird,' she frowned, turning back to the girl just in time to see her other fist flying towards her nose.
It was becoming clear that while a great many things were not in fact her fault, Raiku had, at the very least, some bad karma. Ryuu's arm shot up from his position in the aisle preparing to follow Raiku, and wrenched backwards.
The girl went flying headfirst through the air in his direction, pelting over his head to land somewhere in the crowd.
Raiku leaned forward to follow her progress. 'Thanks Ryuu!' she smiled. 'I didn't want to get in trouble so soon!'
His face was livid. Wordlessly he pointed back to their seats. She slumped, sighing, turning in surprise at the sound of retching. 'He threw up?' Sakura said worriedly, and moved forward.
Raiku blinked as Yakushi remained on all fours, looking up at the porcupine-nin who was apparently responsible. Naruto and Sakura ran to his side to grasp his arms and give him support. 'I'm fine,' he croaked, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
'Really?' the foremost Sound-nin asked in a rasp, tilting his head. Coupled with his wide, visible eye, Raiku felt it made him look like a spastic owl. As the spastic broom, she felt an instant kinship. 'You're not as good as I thought for a veteran who took the exams four years running. Write this in your card: the three from the hidden village of Sound will definitely become chuunins.'
'Unless…' Raiku said slowly, flinching as his gaze transferred to her instantly. 'That girl over there is seriously hurt.' She gave a nervous laugh as his eye narrowed on her face.
The girl struggled to her feet, breathing heavily. Her heart ran faster than it ever had before, and for some reason she was getting a sympathetic look from a girl with white eyes. 'You… I will definitely kill during the exams,' she hissed to Raiku as the genin parted for her gaze to fully reach her.
Raiku didn't react as expected, as expected. She scratched the back of her head again. 'I look forward to seeing who is stronger, Sound-nin,' she said pleasantly, giving her a thumbs up. 'But you shouldn't rely on your speed to beat me: I'm pretty fast!' She paused, expression becoming worried. 'You should try to ground yourself- you have an entry wound on your hand, but no exit wound. Until the exit is established, you're going to be hurt more.'
'Gairano. Ass. Here. Now.'
She opened her eyes wide, looking at Ryuu. 'I'm sorry Ryuu!' she said worriedly, taking a few steps towards him. 'But I wanted to know why Hinata-san-,'
There was an explosion of smoke in the front of the room. 'Quiet you punks!' someone barked, stepping out of the haze. Dressed in a black trenchcoat and grey uniform, the urban legend that was Ibiki stood in front of a group of shinobi in the same grey uniform, all smirking. Two harsh scars split his face, one across the lips on the left and one reaching for his cheekbone on the right. She wondered if the bandanna-cross-forehead protector hid any more.
'Sorry to keep you waiting,' he smirked, dark eyes bordering on the predatory and staring from a harsh, angular face. 'I am the examiner of the first test of the Chuunin Selection Exam, Morino Ibiki.'
There was something wrong with her family's taste in friends, Raiku realised, staring at the familiar features of 'Uncle Morino'.
Something very, very wrong.
A/N: Ah, Raiku. You had to win at something, some time.
Reviews:
Anonymous (I'm pretty sure you're actually envysXsin): Daisukenojo was asking for it too... it occurs to me that's my principle defence against every sort of emasculation I put a character through. Most excellent. Thankyou for praising my writing, as I struggle constantly to improve and sometimes fear I don't. I'm sorry I didn't update yesterday, but the next few chapters require research, as they fall within an actual Naruto timeline. Would you take partial custody of the universe? Say every second weekend?
V: I'll show you spaces. Seriously, they're totally in this chapter. Promise.
