Hey y'all, it's Tuesday, and you know what that means :D YAY new chappie!
I want to thank Angelfang, cute-anime-cupcake, KITTY LOVES HIDAN AND KAKUZU, and Sapphire-sama for your reviews! You guys are amazing, thank you!
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO.
And so, let's begin!
Chapter 13: ANBU - Day 1 (Second Attempt)
Kagami slowly blinked her eyes open as dawn broke outside of her window. The sky was a blend of purples and blues, tinted with streaks of orange.
She lay still in her bed, staring up at the ceiling, trying to make pictures out of its texture.
These past few days haven't been so bad…But I still can't…
She turned over onto her side and looked out the window. The sun barely peeked over a mountain. A bird flew by, making a swift shadow over the girl's face.
"Papa, I still miss you…" she whispered, her voice barely audible. "And Roji… Daisuke…Taoru…Chiyo…Yokotoro-sensei…everyone…"
Holding onto a ripple of her white bed sheets, she quietly breathed while the sun slid up into the morning sky.
"I wish you were all still here to see the sunrise…It's so beautiful…"
Kagami soon realized that she couldn't lay there and think to herself for too long. For her, time still existed, and she had to move along with it.
She sat up and stretched, raising her arms above her head, then kicked out her legs from beneath the blankets. Stepping out onto the cold, hardwood, floor, she covered her mouth as she yawned.
"Ahhh…well. Time to officially become an ANBU today. And not chicken out."
As she wrestled on an oversized shirt borrowed from Shun, she set her mind on her life goal.
I'm going to bring back my village, and I'm going to protect my people. I'm going to become stronger, and I'll fight so that everyone else can be safe.
She hopped from one foot onto the other while pulling on a pair of shorts. Quickly, but neatly, while brushing her hair, she looked at herself in the mirror, then ran towards the door to put on her shoes.
I'll fight, and I'll keep fighting…so that no one will have to go through what I did…not if I can help it…!
Her hand rested on the doorknob for a moment, then turned it. Opening the door, she stepped out and felt the warmth of the sun's rays greet her face.
Every morning…I'll have to wake up knowing that you're not here…but I'll have to face it…because this is something that will never stop.
The faces of her family flashed through her mind. She held out her hand and grabbed the air in front of her, then made a fist.
That's why…
"That's why I'll never stop! I'll keep fighting until the day we're all together again!"
With that, Kagami smiled and gazed once more at the sun. She then clapped her hands together into a hand sign, and created a mirror portal for her teleportation jutsu. She stepped into it, then disappeared. If anyone watched her, it would have looked like she disappeared into nothing. But we know that she disappeared into some dimension that no one else has seen or been in. She disappeared into time and space themselves.
"Wow, I never realized, until now, how big that shirt is on you!…You're short. Grow taller."
Kagami stuck her tongue out at Shun. Immediately after she did this gesture, Shun chucked a bundle of clothing into her face.
"Try those on. And don't disrespect your sensei," he said, half-serious, yet half-joking.
"MMPH!"
Kagami had just arrived at ANBU's headquarters in the village, and Shun was assisting her with finding the right-sized uniform. They were in…YES! The uniform room! Who would've guessed?
The room didn't have any windows. Just plain gray walls that stared back at you with…grayness. Rectangular, fluorescent lights lit the room, and one of the lights occasionally flickered. Black metal cabinets, filled with different sizes of the different articles of the uniform, were lined up against two of the walls. One of the other walls had a door that led outside into a hallway, and the other other wall led to a bathroom.
Kagami walked into the bathroom and changed into the clothes that Shun had just thrown at her. It was the ANBU uniform.
The black sleeveless shirt fit fine, and the black pants fit fine. The shoes were fine, and the armguards were fine. Everything was fine…except for the silver tank top, which was worn on top of the sleeveless shirt. It was too big for Kagami. It was bigger than her.
She walked out of the bathroom with the tank in hand, and said, "…Do you have anything smaller for this?"
Shun gave her a surprised look, not that she could see it since he had his mask on.
"You kidding me? That's a small! Try it on again."
"Small my arse," the girl retorted under her breath, as she reluctantly put the tank top back on.
Her sensei burst out laughing when he saw Kagami's issue with the piece of clothing. It looked like an oversized dress on her. She was practically swimming in it.
"Don't laugh!" she demanded.
"AHAHAHA! Oh man!" He took a breath, then exhaled. "Okay, okay. I'm sorry. I'm done now."
Two seconds later.
Shun snorted…then, "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Sensei…you suck," Kagami said dryly.
"Hey! The attitude!" Shun scolded, snapping out from his laughter.
His student clasped her hands together in front of her chest, as if she was praying. She looked at him with a straight face.
"What attitude? I didn't do anything. I'm a good girl, Shun-sensei," she innocently claimed. Then she sarcastically added, "See the halo on my head?"
Her sensei face-palmed. Kagami took this opportunity to strip off the overly large tank top, (she still had the black sleeveless shirt on, she wasn't going nakies), and chucked it back at her sensei's head. To her dismay, she completely missed.
"Wow, my aim sucks….I need to start throwing kunai again."
Shun looked up from his facepalm and gave her a horrified look. Not that she could see it.
"Heaven forbid. I have a feeling that you have a knack for hitting things other than your target."
"Hey, you're just jealous! One day…it'll be a blessing in disguise."
"Right, whatever."
There was a knock on the door.
"Yo, Shun. Your kid needs to take the oath in ten minutes," a muffled voice notified from outside the door.
"Alright, thanks!" Shun called back. He turned to Kagami and said, "Let's go get you your mask. We can fix the rest of your uniform later."
As they left the uniform room, Kagami shuddered. "Heaven forbid you from ever having your own kids."
Shun stuck out a foot in front of his unaware student, causing her to fall flat onto her face. He pretended to look off into some distance, while he stuck a pinky finger in his ear and twisted it around.
"Say what?"
"…I hate you, sensei," the girl mumbled into the floor.
Shun grinned. "I love you too, Kagami."
"Woah."
"As you can see from our selection, we like variety in our collection of masks."
Kagami looked around in awe at the multitude of masks that hung from the walls of…YES! The mask room!
Faces of birds, bears, cats, wolves, foxes, and dogs stared back at the girl with empty, black-holed eyes. The masks were a simple white with red lines and swirls, but they were each unique in their own way.
"So which one do you want?" Shun asked, hands on his hips.
Kagami gaped. "Um…There's so many…"
Her sensei lifted his right wrist to his face, pretending to look at an imaginary watch on his wrist.
"Well, you gotta take the oath in a few minutes. So you gotta choose quickly. We can't have your face shown to the other ANBU, y'know. Even though I already know what you look like. But! We're a special case. Just us two."
Kagami had a feeling that he just cheesily winked.
"Um…"
Shun put an arm around Kagami's shoulders and began singing. I'll let you know right now, he doesn't have the prettiest singing voice.
"You and I~ We'll always be together! You and I~ Will be best friends forever!"
"YOU WISH! Get offa me!"
"Hahaha! Okay, okay. I was just playing around…But really, you need to hurry up."
"Umm…"
Kagami quickly scanned around the mask room, but there were just so many. How could she choose when she hardly had the time to not even look at half of them?
Shun walked over to one of the racks, took a mask down, then showed it to Kagami.
"How 'bout this one?" he asked.
It was a wolf mask, lined with whiskers and decorated with little swirls here and there. A wolf. Her animal spirit.
Shun knew about her history. It was on the day when they first met, (which…wasn't too long ago), that Kagami had told him about herself. He remembered after their fight at the ramen shop, he poofed them over to one of the training grounds in the village. There, they settled their brawl and wrestled it out. He won, of course, and he ended the match by simply sitting on her.
They made a temporary truce, mostly on Kagami's part, since she was the one who was out of breath after their fight. They decided to rest, and laid in the cool grass as they watched the orange sun slide down behind the mountains. Shun recalled the conversation they had.
"So tell me about yourself, Kagami."
"…Where do I start? There's…almost too much to say…"
"Ah, well…how 'bout I give you an example? Let's see…I like ramen. I like to play card games. I have a special ability which allows me to see two different perspectives at the same time, which is the reason why my eyes are different colors. I can also run extremely fast. I find it funny when girls fight over a guy, or vice versa. And…I like to sleep on my stomach-side. Your turn."
Kagami looked at her new teacher with an odd look.
"Those…are some interesting things to know…about my sensei. I never knew much about my old sensei…but umm…well…I like ramen, too. And…I like to play hide-and-go-seek. I-"
She only told him about things from the surface at first, but then she unconsciously went deeper. She told him more and more about who she was and where she was from. That was when he found out about the Bikuyu and her village. That was when he realized that his student was…no ordinary person. Or was it that she was an ordinary person, but what had happened to her was too extraordinary for her?
"Wow…I like it, Shun-sensei. It's…nice. Did you pick it because you know that I have a wolf spirit?"
"Let's just say, you remind me of a wolf"
"Oh, I do?…Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
Shun laughed. "To me, it's…it's a brave thing…Being a wolf is hard. Generally, wolves travel with others. But…you're traveling alone. And you feel alone, don't you?"
Kagami widened her eyes. She was only with this guy for…what? Not even three full days! And he could already read her.
Shun bent down, then put a hand on her head and patted it. It was the same gesture her father always did.
"You're a brave wolf, Kagami. Although I may not understand how hard it is…I know that it's hard and that it's painful to be alone, after being with the people you love for so long. But…I'm here for you, Kagami. We're all here for you. Konoha is your home, too."
Kagami leapt into Shun and wrapped her arms around his neck. She held him tightly, digging her face into his shoulder. Shun embraced her back, with one hand cupping the back of her head. He felt a wetness drip down onto his shoulder.
The Hokage looked up from his never-ending paperwork to see the two people who had just entered his office. He kindly smiled.
"So…how did it go?" he asked.
Shun did a thumbs-up and said, "Everything went smoothly today! The uniform, the mask, the oath, the rules, the codename, everything. Right, Ookami?"
His student nodded her head twice. "Mhm!"
The Hokage chuckled. "I like your codename…Ookami. It means 'wolf' yes? Even your mask is in the shape of a wolf-face! Did you pick them out yourself?"
"Nope! Shun-sensei did," she answered, smiling. Not that anyone could see it.
The old man himself smiled. "I see. Well then! Welcome to ANBU, Ookami."
"Thanks, old man."
The Hokage cleared his throat.
"Generally, on an ANBU recruit's first day, I would have them take…somewhat of an assessment, to see where they would best fit in the organization. However…" He pointed behind her. "I need you to fix that first."
Ookami turned around to see what the Hokage pointed at. It was the door, and it was still broken. The doorknob hadn't been replaced yet.
How did she not notice that when they came into his office?
"Ohhhh…that! Don't worry old man, I'll fix it up in no time! I got this."
"WHY IS FIXING A DOORKNOB SO HARD!"
Ookami angrily threw a screwdriver down onto the floor, making a rather noticeable scrape on the wood.
"Oh crap…!"
She slowly turned her head around to see if the Hokage had noticed. Good thing he didn't.
It was nearly sunset now, and both Hokage and Ookami were still in his office.
"I'M FINALLY DONE!" the girl cried.
She threw her arms up in the air, rejoicing. However, she didn't have a firm grip on the screwdriver she had been working with, the same one she scraped the floor with earlier. She lost hold of it, so it flew across the room, breaking a window, and fell down somewhere outside.
"Aw CRAP!"
This time the Hokage noticed.
"OOKAMI! Do you plan to wreck my entire office?" the old man bellowed.
"I'M SORRY! Hold on, hold on, I got this!"
The girl swiftly executed a series of hand signs, then shouted, "FIX-THE-OLD-MAN'S-WINDOW JUTSU!"
A glass appeared and formed itself into the broken window. It glared against the sun, looking as if it had never been broken.
"See? All new!" Ookami announced proudly. "Good thing glass is somewhat reflective…or I couldn't have fixed it," she mumbled to herself.
The Hokage blinked, then carefully scrutinized the window.
"Very impressive…I have not seen anything like this before." He turned around to face the girl. "Now let's just hope that that screwdriver did not gouge out anyone's eyes."
Ookami bolted out of the room. After teleporting outside, she stepped onto the dirt ground, fiercely whipping her head left and right to search for the screwdriver that had caused her so much trouble.
"Are you looking for this?"
A black-haired boy stood in front of her, holding the exact object she was looking for.
The girl sheepishly replied, "Oh…yes! Thank you!"
As the boy gave her the screwdriver back, he gave her a dark, curious look.
"It broke that window up there…then fell down here. But…" he craned his neck to look at the window, then glanced back at the girl. "Now the window isn't broken anymore…Were you the one who fixed it?"
"Uhhh…"
What am I supposed to say? The Hokage told me I can't tell anyone, except Naruto, about who I am, my abilities, the Bikuyu, and-oh you know what?
"No, actually, everything you just saw…was a GENJUTSU!"
The girl wriggled the screwdriver between her fingers, making the straight object look curvy.
"See? I'm just a figment of your imagination. NOW STOP DREAMING AND GO HOME!"
She briskly stepped back into her mirror portal, and disappeared.
Sasuke stared at the air in front of him. He looked back up at the window, then at his hands. There was no trace of what had just happened. Nothing at all.
No…but it was real. I saw it. No one can fix a window that quickly. That girl…
A gust of wind blew, carrying rusted leaves and playing with the boy's tufts of black hair.
Who is she?
TADAAA! At chapter 13, Sasuke and Kagami have FINALLY met, except…they just don't know it. TEEHEE.
SO! That was a long chapter, sorry again :/ But I hope you liked it!
Review if you'd like to! And next Tuesday, you shall find out more! Ciao for now.