Symone: A Naruto Side-Story - "The Heart Of Rain"
Chapter Eleven: A New Friend, The Threat & The Wind Country!
Authors Notes: This is the Chapter that will bring the story in to reasoning. After this, you should understand where I'm going with this and enjoy as the arc begins to play out with all sorts of new twists. This'll be a good one & most certainly has to be enjoyed!
PS: Renji needs to eat damnit!
It seems to be around noon time as Bangai is seen shoveling through the thick woodlands, trying to find his way to the Hidden village of Grass. "Hmm... I'm so looooost..." spoke Bangai to himself as his eyes slanted narrowly and his mouth slung downwards in confusion. "Maybe I should just go back to Tsunzaku...yeah..." spoke Bangai to himself yet again, worn out from the past 3 days of adventure. "I think I've been going around in circles...yeah...circles...for hours..." deliriously thought Bangai as he heard the fidgeting of a weighted branch, suspecting that someone can be close by. Again, he turns hearing the sound, but from another direction. Quickly, a shuriken comes hurling towards Bangai as he dodges to the side, getting slightly cut by it as he falls a bit with his back landing upon a nearby tree. Suddenly, two ninja's appear in front of Bangai as his eyes are shot with fear and worry, holding his wound with his hand. "What do we got here? ...you a Grass-nin sent to take us out?" spoke the ninja to the left as Bangai replied, "N-no, Sir!", stuttering. "I'm from Tsunzaku!" he yelled as the ninja walked up to him with a smirk of derangement. "Oh? I think someone's lying!" said the man as he tilts his head up as Bangai looks to his forehead protector, realizing he's a Hidden Rock ninja. "Hidden Rock...ninja?" spoke Bangai in question as they replied, "Of course we are! We're the spies you Grass bastard's came to kill!" spoke the Rock ninja standing furthest away from Bangai. "I told you! I'm not a Grass-nin!" yelled Bangai with anger resonating from his tone of voice. The ninja in front then delivers a devastatingly sharp knee to the chest cavity of Bangai as he spews up saliva from his mouth, falling to his knee's. The ninja then kicks the side of his face, smacking him onto the ground of leaves beneath him as his eyes closed in agony. Bangai tries to get up as he presses his two front arms on the ground and pushes, though the ninja then stomps down on the back of Bangai, pressing his chest in to the ground, slightly crumbling the dense dirt underneath his body as he cries out in pain, "He-... Help... ME!".
Somewhere not too far from the rechid cries of the sincere Bangai, a familiar face is seen listening in on the scream for 'help' as her head turns, flowing that radiant purple hair of hers to the side as her mouth opens a bit as the figure appeared to be the female kunoichi, Aisu Symone. "A scream?" thought Symone as she widens her eyes quickly, thinking to herself, "...should I get Mikomi-Sensei?... No! He's too far away right now! Someone could be in trouble! I better hurry!" as she dashes off with much needed speed.
Bangai is now seen, being thrown against a tree by the Hidden Rock ninja that was closest to him. The ninja holds Bangai up by the neck of his shirt as he looks at Bangai, laughing a little. Bangai places his hand behind his back, secretly performing a one-handed seal without the ninja's knowledge as his eyes sharply open with a scream, "Tsunami Bakuha!(Tsunami Bomb!)". The ninja looks to Bangai in shock! "What?" the ninja screams as Bangai collects the hydrogen and oxygen minerals from the plants around him to form a miniature tidal wave of water that blows the ninja back, dropping Bangai on the floor as he was tossed in the tidal wave as well. In a quick succession, the ninja has his chest crushed into a tree as his ribs are heard cracking apart. Bangai tumbles out from the wave as it banished from the air, rolling him to the side a bit roughly. Bangai gets up quickly with blood pouring from his right eye as he see's the other ninja standing there still. "What are you waiting for? Get him?" the now injured ninja yells as the other ninja takes out a shuriken. Bangai realizes he's still in danger as he tries to run away, but the ninja had thrown the shuriken and stuck it in to the upper back of Bangai as he tumbles down on the ground yet again. The ninja then steadily paces over to him as he hovers over his body, looking down on him as the shuriken emits from his back. "What a nice trick. It won't work on me though!" yelled the ninja as he pulls out a handful of needles as he cups them in between his fingers. "Die!" yelled the ninja as he goes to hurl the needles at Bangai, but suddenly, was kicked down by the arrival of Symone before he even had the chance! "What? Who are you? You bitch!" yelled the ninja as he hurls the needles at Symone from the ground he had just skid across, though she easily forms a shield of ice that emitted from her arm to cover her from the attack. Symone then smirks a bit again as she speaks in a frightening tone, "No... YOU die!" as her eyes narrow with anger. The ninja jumps back a bit, standing as he had been freaked out about the ice that had emitted from the young kunoichi's body as Symone re-admits the ice in to her body. "You're... you're a monster!" yells the ninja as Symone replied, "Like I've said once before in my life... I used to be a monster, but now I'm just Aisu Symone!". The insidiously detestable eyes of the ninja widen with a build up of adrenaline to his brain as he charges towards her. Symone looks to him, smiling a bit as she forms a seal, slowly and steadily stating, "Ninpou: Aisubutai, Kenjitsuya Dageki...(Special Technique: Element Of Ice, Solid Ice Arrow...)" as her arm is engulfed by ice completely. She holds her arm out as the ice forms an arrow headed tip towards where her fingers are, extending out a few inches from her open palm as she launches from her arm - a solid arrow of ice that had been embedded by chakra. The ninja stops in his tracks as a speeding arrow of ice is aimed at him. The ninja tries to jump towards the side but the arrow pierces straight through his shoulder, knocking him to the ground with a ferocious impact, knocking him nearly unconscious with a quick scream, twitching slightly. Symone then pulls out some wire from beneath the bandage around her waste as she quickly runs to the ninja she had pierced, kicking him in to a tree, then wrapping his body around it with the wire she had discarded. Symone then tilts her head towards the side, looking to the ninja Bangai had taken down as he tries to move, but instead falls back in to the tree due to his fractured ribs as she walks to him slowly. "Please! Please! Let me go!" pleaded the ninja as Symone discards more wire, quickly running around the tree, tying the ninja to it. "If you can find a way out, then feel free to live. For now I don't want you bothering any more people. Understood?" spoke Symone in an aggressive monotone of sorts. "Yes! Thank you! I promise I won't bother you... or anyone again!" spoke the ninja as Symone smirks. "Good" she replied, swaying her hair over her shoulder as she looked to the opposite direction at an unconscious Bangai. Symone jumps over to the foreign stranger and throws him over her slender shoulder, opposite of where her hair had fallen over.
About three minutes had passed as Symone appears where she first was when she heard the screams of the stranger as she's seen bandaging his head and wrapping his naked back, around to the chest. Symone then gently places his head on a low log, giving him a little support to sit upright with without pain. Suddenly, a rustle in the leaves ahead call out Symone's attention, hearing the presence of a ninja. She stands up slowly - her eyes sharpened with intimidation as suddenly, Mikomi dispersed from the tree up above with his trench coat flapping upwards towards the early blue sky. A smile pressed on his face as he quickly lands with one knee down, holding his body with the arm opposite of the knee that had landed, looking down with that banged hair falling downwards to the ground. Mikomi stands up as Symone's expression becomes a bit softer and less stressed. "Sensei!" yelled Symone as Mikomi looks to her curiously. "What do we have here?" asked Mikomi, referring to the stranger on the floor as he tilts his eyes towards him, walking forward a tad. "I don't know, but those new Rock spies we were looking for were attacking him, and so after hearing him scream for help, I ran to him, beat, and then tied up the ninja... and I found him like this while one of the ninja's seemed to be already nearly beaten" spoke Symone in reply. "I see" said Mikomi as he picks up Bangai and throws him gently over his shoulder. "Let's go!" yelled Mikomi as Symone replied, "Alright!" with energy in her soothingly attractive young voice as they disperse forward in to the woodlands.
"He's been out for quite a while now. It's already about 3 o'clock" said Mikomi, looking to Symone as she nods in agreement. "Symone..." spoke Mikomi as she replied, "Yes, Mikomi-Sensei?". "Go get some water ready. He should be waking any moment now" said Mikomi as Symone nodded yet again with agreement, walking off towards their water supply. Bangai then awakens, looking up to Mikomi. Bangai blinks a little, trying to realize where he is as his eyes glow with shock, jumping up heavily as he screams, "WHO ARE YOU?". "Oh-Whoa! Calm down, buddy! We're not here to hurt you!" said Mikomi as Bangai looks around with the corners of his eyes, realizing he had been bandaged. "Wait...! That girl...!" hesitantly spoke Bangai as Mikomi said, "Who? My student? The one who saved you? That's Symone". "Symone...?" spoke Bangai as Mikomi then asked, "We haven't introduced ourselves yet. What's your name?". The man known as a stranger to Mikomi replied, "I'm Bangai". "Bangai, eh? Well, I'm Kusa No Mikomi. Why have you come to the Grass? From the looks of your clothes, you're apparently not of this village, or even our country" asked, then stated Mikomi as Bangai replied, "I came here since it's the closest village to Tsunzaku besides Sunagakure(Hidden Sand). I need somewhere to go to ask for help, and the Sand ninja denied us their help". "Help? What help do you need?" asked Mikomi as Bangai replied, "Back in Tsunzaku, at the border of the Rain & Wind country... there's a small village populace that's mainly Wind country property, but the North-Western Amegakure(Hidden Rain) keep trying to invade it by using the Kumogun clan who seems to be in most control on that end besides the control the corrupt Government has. The Kumogun usually fail though thanks to Renji-kun, who's like a hero to Tsunzaku, but things have been getting really dangerous and soon... I don't think Renji can do this alone, even though he denies help from anything and anyone". After quietly listening in on Bangai's story, Symone spoke up from behind him, "Ame-...gakure? The Hidden Rain..." Symone spoke as she quickly remembered her old house there... thinking of Souitai, her Mother Feiru, and her Father Touhou, but only for a glancing moment as Mikomi speaks to Symone, "Symone. Meet the man you saved; Bangai!" as Symone replied, "I know his name already. I was right here listening to you both". Symone bows her head. "Nice to meet you, Bangai" said Symone as she smiles cutely as she always had since she was a little girl. "Hello, Symone. Thank you for saving me. If it weren't for you... I'd probably be dead. I don't think my friend Renji would like that too much!" said Bangai as he smiles, laughing sarcastically as he see's an image in his head of Renji sitting at the table in his house screaming, "BANGAI! HOW CAN YOU DIE, YOU IDIOT? HOW WILL I EAT NOW?" as a sweat drop falls from the head of Bangai. Symone replied, "I should be thanking you. You've given me my first chance to actually feel like I can protect someone. My ambition was to always help another human, and you made that come true in a weird way I guess. Thanks". "Well, then I guess we helped each other out, huh?" Bangai had said, smiling gently as he looked in to the eyes of Symone. Symone blushed a little, turning her eyes away quickly at the cute man. Mikomi looks back and forth at them both, sighing repeatedly, "Hmm? Hmm?" as he tilted his head to them again. Suddenly, Mikomi coughs as it breaks the flirting of Symone and Bangai, grabbing their attention as Mikomi looks to Bangai. "Bangai-kun... If you'd like, I'm a highly skilled Jounin of the Grass, and you already seen my students power..." said Mikomi as Bangai quickly looks to him, curious as to what he's to say next. "...If you wish, me and Symone shall accompany you to Tsunzaku" Mikomi said, thinking to himself, "This would also be a good thing for Symone. She needs to revisit her past, and maybe this will be the closest we will get for a while". Symone looks to Mikomi with her mouth opened a bit, shocked, but at the same time more numb than anything. Bangai then yells with much enthusiasm, "Really? You'll come? That's great!". Mikomi then asked, "When would you like to depart on our journey? Would leaving now be alright?". "YES! The sooner the better! I don't know when the ninja will attack next to be honest" spoke Bangai. "Okay then! It's settled! We're off to Tsunzaku!" enthusiastically spoke Mikomi. "Alright!" yelled Symone in excitement as a new journey approaches.
"We all packed?" asked Mikomi, speaking to Symone and Bangai minutes later as they are seen carrying bags with food and water. Bangai and Symone then both quickly reply at the same time, "Yes!" as they look at each other in the eyes, smiling stupidly with glee.
Bangai had accomplished his goal of finding free help as he had been introduced to the Hidden Grass Village's legend ninja, Kusa No Mikomi and his student, Symone, who both happen to be eager themselves for such an adventure. Will the 'Hope' & the 'Heart' be able to help the village of Tsunzaku? What will become of the story next chapter as the new arc continues...?