Ok, sorry for the one slip up in Raimaru's name (when he introduces himself to Yue and Nade). Oh well, at least I didn't do it more than once. Oh, kudos goes to KalliopeStarmist for being the creator of Tragic no jutsu. Go check her page for many amusing stories. (Tragic no jutsu came from her Village Hidden in the Lemon peels story)
On to the next chapter!
I don't own Naruto (though I think Hinata should)
--
Chapter 2: Sitting in a Tree
One of the bells was accidentally destroyed. Shino had administered the traditional bell test to see if they could really be genin. When time started, Yue and Nade immediately disappeared to hide, while Rai went over to a nearby tree and sat down. A large boomerang, several sharp implements of doom, and a few destructive jutsus flew by. And then the bell was destroyed. Rai, after commenting how troublesome the entire thing was, walked up to Yue and Nade, whacked them both on the head with his fan, and proceeded to lay out a plan to get the last remaining bell. In the end, Team 13 did become genin, and because of Rai, Nade an Yue set up a very uneasy truce. At least, while they were on missions.
It just so happened that several weeks and missions later, this truce was being tested. Team 13 had been assigned to watch a particular road for a group of bands, then ambush and possibly eliminate them. To get the best view and provide a good ambush for the green ninja, Shino had decided to have the group watch from the trees (and allow them more time to train with the tree walking ability). Shino, in his infinite and quiet wisdom, split the group in two so they could get a better view of the road. Needless to say, Shino chose Rai to be in a tree with him. Or as Shino had put it having the only other member of the team with good observational skills (being Yue with his Byakugan) be in the other tree with an offensive specialist with him (being Nade or Rai) for the ambush. Yue and Nade started to protest but upon seeing several bugs skitter across his face, which, in the several weeks they were with him, was the closest thing they could equate to Shino being angry.
So, going back to the main story, the truce between Yue and Nade was being strained. Being stuck in a tree with each other for several days didn't help either.
Yue, being the Uzamaki that he was, was thinking about random things for no real reason when a thought came into his head.
"Uh….Oi, Nade…why do you always wear black and red all the time?"
"Because, they are much better when one is hiding, unlike bright orange." Nade stared abjectly at Yue's bright orange pants. Yue blushed slightly, and tried to find a good comeback in his slightly flustered state.
"Well…Red's not much better." Yue turned his head in the patented Naruto pout.
"I can cover the red up easily with my vest, unlike your pants." Nade zipped up her vest. This started yet another uncomfortable silence that had occurred frequently over the past several days.
--
A few hours later, Yue had his giant boomerang out, tapping out a rhythm as he held it in his lap, while using his Byakugan to watch the road. Nadeshiko on the other hand had out a kodachi that her father had given her and was sharpening it.
"Would you mind not tapping? It's getting on my nerves." Yue pouted angrily, but stopped tapping.
"Your sharpening is much louder than my tapping."
"Well my sharpening unlike your tapping serves a purpose."
"What purpose? The things already as sharp as it can get."
"It's a form of meditation, dobe."
"Well, my tapping is a form of meditation too." Yet another pout.
"How is that a form of meditation?!?"
Several trees down the way, Rai, who had thankfully remembered to bring along his trusty magnetic chessboard, was playing Shino's bugs in a game of chess. Surprisingly, Shino's bugs were putting up a decent game, especially while Shino was sitting and reading a book. Shino sighed and laid down his Courting Rituals and Mating of Exotic Insects, Vol. 2. "When are those two going to figure out that being that loud everyday is the reason we're still out here?"
"I predict after tonight."
"Mmmm."
--
Nights like this, were the nights that Yue loved. It was the night of the full moon. It was a night when Yue could see his namesake in all its glory. And since he and Nade were sleeping separate watches, he wasn't going to be disturbed. At that thought he looked over at his teammate.
"Whoa." And that was all that he could say for the next several minutes. And, for some reason, he was again glad that the moon was out for he saw a breathtaking sight.
Nade was sleeping on the next branch over and her face, neither clouded from brooding nor scowling from anger, was illuminated by the moon.
"Kami, she's beautiful…" Yue stared at the moonlit maiden for a few more minutes, eyes taking in the perfect cheeks, the large forehead which didn't actually look that bad, and the luscious li…Dang it! Why am I thinking like this? She hates me! And she annoys me! She looks good in the moonlight…Dang it, Yue get a hold of yourself!
As Yue started to bang himself upside the head, he heard someone mumbling. As he turned, he saw it was Nadeshiko. Leaning closer, he could make out a few words. He sat back up thinking, then berated himself, then thought some more.
He soon noticed how close it was to the time he needed to wake up Nadeshiko and switch watches. Fidgeting a bit with some of the things in his many pants pockets, he decided with a plan of action.
--
Nadeshiko was confused. It did not bode well if an Uchiha was confused, but here she was.
Yue had just woken her up. There was none of the usual…(was it ticked off, was it annoyed?)...feeling in his voice. And he didn't add any kind of insult either, unlike the past few nights. He just woke her up with a slightly kind voice, smiled, and turned and promptly went to sleep.
He was probably just sleepy. Yeah, that's probably what it was. So Nade put it out of here mind and started her watch.
Several minutes passed as she did her now routine sweep of the area, and a few moe as she just let her eyes wander, as she thought of a few things. Finally done with her thinking, she realized where her eyes had finally landed.
"Whoa." Nade just sat there for a few minutes, wondering why the moonlight was so good that night. She also wondered if the moon was looking out for a little yellow haired sprite of the same name.
Yue had turned his face upwards in the few minutes that it had taken her to look around the area. He had a sort of peaceful look on his face, laying there like he had not a care in the world, which was kind of cute looking.
"No, not quite cute….but…handsome maybe?" The whiskers definitely added a cute factor but, in the moonlight, didn't quite stand out that much. One piece of unruly hair fell across his face, obscuring part of his nose. Maybe, if I'm really careful I can move…No! You don't like him. He's a nasty little pervert who insulted your forehead!
Nade quickly turned away, determined not to let thoughts like those plague her the rest of the night. Her view landed on the trunk of the tree.
"Huh?...What's this?" The trunk of the tree looked like it had had something carved into it. Peering closer she tried to decrypt the words.
"Hap…py…11…th…birth…OH!!" She sat back on her tree limb shocked. I hadn't thought anyone outside my family remembered, much less knew, about today!
Maybe Yue is not as nasty as I originally thought…
--
"Moon and Flower, ready to move in. Shall we proceed, Bugs?"
"Wait until Storm and I are on the ground. Then proceed."
--
Biggs, Pierce, and Wedge were just your typical mercenaries. Hire them, pay them, and then tell them what to do and they got it done. They had been in countless weird situations, even once escorting a brainwashed girl with strange powers to a very rural town, all the while in large mechanical suits. But for some reason, they always drew the line at fighting ninjas. Especially when the ninjas were just little kids. Say all you want about how mercenaries were scumbags, they didn't care, but there were some things that one just didn't do. This drew Biggs, Pierce, and Wedge to make a difficult decision after a strange series of events.
First, as the three were walking along, guarding a group of bandits that hired them, a spritely young lad with bright yellow hair, and some black highlights, jumped out in front of them. No sooner had this boy jumped out, when he miraculously pulled out a freaking huge boomerang and threw it, nearly decapitating the mercenary buddies. After the obvious threat, the mercenaries decided to toss aside their morals against killing kids, but then the second strange thing happened.
Seemingly out of the yellow kids shadow, a girl dressed in black with pink hair jumped from behind the yellow kid wielding a flaming short sword. After Pierce's jacket caught on fire, all three noticed the shiny metal headbands of the two kids. All three looked at each other, trying to make that difficult decision.
The unanimous verdict was to run. And run they did, until they turned around and saw what was going on with the bandits who hired them.
A short kid with black hair was wearing a large cloak which was billowing from a nonexistent breeze, creating a fairly large shadow underneath. The shadow however was not staying still as a normal shadow should. Instead it was connected to every single one of the bandits, and the black haired boys shadow seemed to be holding them into place. It was then that Biggs, Pierce and his smoldering jacket, and Wedge noticed all the bugs. The many thousands of bugs, all sitting upon the three's employers.
At this point Biggs, Pierce who had since discarded his jacket, and Wedge split up and ran in all random directions. They were not fighting little kid ninjas, nor were they going to be covered in bugs, and least of all, they were not going to get killed over a small paying job. Thus the last of the Akatsuki mercenary force ran off into the words with their tails between their legs.
Unfortunately, Biggs, Pierce, and Wedge never saw each other again.
--
Yue smiled as Shino-sensei waved a hand at the sentries of Konohagakure's west gate. He was finally home after a week of being stuck in a tree. The last half of the week though wasn't as bad as the first half had been though, as Nadeshiko hadn't gotten onto his case as often as she had earlier in the week. This left Yue confused.
What did I do that made her stop being less mean? Yue pondered this quite a bit as team 13 was walking back to town. It couldn't have been that…could it? It was just what anyone would have done right? I don't want her to think I like her…do I?
As they walked inside the gates, Shino walked up in front of his students and stopped. "You have the rest of the day off," Shino said in his usual quiet manner, and jounin-bamfed away. The three genin shrugged and continued on their way.
That was until two of the three pairs of eyes spied an older girl walking in their direction. She wore a Chinese style white and blue fighting robe, had white eyes, and her hair was tied up into two buns.
"Nanami!" shouted two voices in the afternoon sun. The owners of the voices looked confusedly at each other.
"How do you know Nanami?"
"She's my cousin, Nade-baka." Nade, uncharacteristically, made a 'd'oh' face. "How do you know her?"
"Her dad and my dad are on the same ANBU team, Yue-teme."
"Now, now, Nade-chan, don't be using such language against my little cousin." The tall girl, only a couple years the arguers elder, had walked up in front the quarrelers.
"If he's your cousin, then how come I hadn't known about him or met him until I was put on a team with him?" Nade was becoming slightly irate. Her friend, and pretty much her only real friend, hadn't told her about the idiot of a boy that was related to her, much less warn her that Nade could have been grouped up with him.
"Well, Hinata-sama was sort of estranged from the Hyuugas for a long time for marrying Yue's dad." At this Yue hmpf'ed. "Hehe…well, at least up until he became the Hokage a year ago. Anyway, his family hadn't really been to the Hyuuga compound that often; especially not when your family came around with your dad."
"Strange though that Otou-san and Nadeshiko-san's parents were on a team together and we never met…I wonder why…My parents are too confusing anyway." Yue scratched the back of his head and sighed.
"Whatever, chibi. Hey, Nanami, could I talk to you about something…"
Yue just stood there.
"…Like girl things…" Nade eyed Yue with this comment.
Yue still stood there, even looking slightly expectant.
"…In private."
"Oh. Uh…bye, Nanami, Billboard-brow." Yue sent Nade a brief glare, then walked off in the direction of the sweet smell of heaven on earth, Ichiraku Ramen. He, however, forgot to dodge the thrown object aimed at his head.
"Anyway, as I was saying…what does it mean when a person acts idiotic and mean towards you one second, and then does something thoughtful and nice for you?" Nade asked quietly, avoiding eye contact.
Nanami narrowed her eyes at the pink haired semi-goth. Then her eyes widened and made a small glance in one direction.
"I think I know what this is about…" the slightly older girl said in an all-knowing type of voice.
"Nevermind…" growled Nade. She began to stiffly walk away.
"Ok, fine, don't tell me," Nanami shrugged. "Just listen to one small piece of advice…"
Nade turned around doubtfully.
"Never expect anyone to show their true emotions, because sometimes they don't even know what they are themselves." And with that she turned and walked in the direction of her cousin.
"Oh, and coincidentally, your father wants to see you at training field 7 after you get back." She then continued walking to the unfortunately short blonde. "Same for you, except field 13." And with that she jounin-bamfed away, even though she had only just become a chuunin. Ayame later remarked that she saw what looked like Nanami running down one of the adjacent streets fairly quickly.
The two who had just received the information provided by the strange girl, unbeknownst to them, were thinking the exact same thing: Training grounds?...why would Otou-san?...Wait a minute!
"CHUUNIN EXAMS!!!!"
--
(A/N) If anyone can spot the Final Fantasy reference they get a cookie. The next part of the story will probably have to be split up into multiple chapters, because I don't think anyone will like to read something that could quite possibly take up 15+ pages on MS word. As such, don't expect the next chapter any time soon, the only reason this was up quickly was that I had a fairly free week at school, and I had part of a long weekend to work on it. Fear not though, I have the next several parts of the story planned out so they will eventually be written and up loaded. I will try not to be like a majority of writers here on and never post anything new for over a year. Trust me, something will get written eventually.
Next time on Generation of Fire:
"Come students! To get there on time you must have the fire of YOUTH!"
"Oh, Kami, not again! How did dad ever put up with this?!?"