Chapter 2 – Waking Up
There's… something. I can hear something… people? People talking. Oh, they went away. Where am I? How did I get here? I'm lying in a bed; I can feel the sheets. How long since I slept in a bed? It has to have been decades… Kirara!
I snap my eyes open and sit up. Shippo! Shippo, where did you go? You have to help me save Kirara!
"Good to see you've finally woken up." Says a strange male voice. I look to the side and see a tall, silver haired man with a mask standing against a wall. That's a hospital wall, right? I've never been in a hospital before. I only have memories of what Kagome told me about them to go on.
"Where am I?" I ask. He looks up from his little orange book and meets my eyes. He has one of his eyes covered. I can't see much of his face. I wonder why.
"You are in Konoha Hospital. Naruto found you outside his apartment, half dead, and brought you here. You've been asleep for about three days, if you're wondering." He turns a page.
I stare blankly at the cover of his orange book. It says, "Make-Out Paradise." Oh, kami, another pervert. Pervert? Oh, no. That reminds me of Miroku. Oh, Miroku, I'm sorry I hit you so much! I'd give just about anything now to feel you touch my backside again! No, stop; don't think about that. I haven't cried in years and I can't start now. I've got nothing to cry about… wait, yes I do. Kirara…
Someone's coming to the door. I recognize that aura! Shippo! Shippo, you're here! You're really here, I found you!
The door opens and there's that blonde boy in orange again, but I don't care. He has Shippo; I know he does. My entire family wasn't the world's best demon slayers for nothing. I don't care what he looks like; I know Shippo is a part of this boy.
Against my better judgment, I leap out of bed and up to this boy. My legs are too weak. Right, I lost too much blood. I fall to my knees and grab him around the middle. My hands scream with pain, but I ignore them. He looks shocked but manages to put on a smile for me. He has a nice smile.
"Good to see you're okay miss. Are you feeling better?" He asks me.
"Shippo, Shippo, you have to help me." I say desperately. "Kirara, they took Kirara away, we have to get her back, Shippo! They took Kirara away from me!"
The boy looks confused. Even the masked man manages to look puzzled and lowers his hentai book. "Um, miss, I'm not Shippo, whoever he is. My name is Naruto."
"No, you're not, you're Shippo." I insist. "You don't look like him, but I know that voice and that demonic power. I'd know you anywhere; my family wasn't the most famous clan of demon slayers in Japan for nothing. But we have to get Kirara back. Akatsuki took her away, Shippo; I'm human again. I know it's been a century since we saw each other last, but you have to help me."
The silver haired man has a disturbed look in his eye. The blonde boy looks down at me sheepishly. "I'm sorry miss, but I don't know what you're talking about. My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I don't know anyone named Shippo or Kirara and I don't know who you are."
Tears start welling in my eyes. Go ahead and let them see! Let them see a three hundred year-old demon slayer cry! I don't care anymore. "Shippo, it's me, it's Sango. I may have changed my name over the years, but I'm still Sango! Why don't you answer me? I know you're stuck inside this boy, I can feel you!" The boy goes tense, as does the man. It's so thick you could cut it with a knife. I glare up at the boy, as if it's his fault that Shippo is sealed inside him and can't answer me. "Why won't you let him answer, boy? Let me talk to my kitsune!"
His eyes grow wide. "Kitsune…"
"Kitsune?" The masked man echoes.
I squeeze his legs tighter, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the floor. I crawl over him and grab the cuff of his black and orange jacket. They probably think I'm insane now, but I don't care. I'm desperate. "Let him talk! You have to let me talk to him! You have to let me talk to Shippo Kyuubi!"
The tension shatters. The look on the boy's face tells me that I just said something very wrong. The man grabs me by the back of my shirt and hauls me off the blonde boy, tossing me back onto the hospital bed like a rag doll. I probably weigh as much as one now. Even though I can only see one of his eyes, he looks angry. One of his hands latches onto my throat. Oh, Kami, it hurts, I can't breathe; I'm not immortal anymore; I haven't felt pain like this in a long time.
The man appears as if he's about to say something, but a blonde woman bursts into the room. "What the hell is going on?"
The blonde boy points at me. I glare at him. Shippo, what are you doing? You promised never to betray me! You promised. The masked man still hasn't let go of my throat. Much longer and I'll black out. I can't let that happen again, I have to save Kirara! Even in my weakened state, I'm still very strong. I grab his wrist and twist it mercilessly. He grunts loudly in pain from a now broken wrist, but he doesn't let go. Why? Who could hold on after such a viciously broken wrist? Then it hits me; he's a ninja!
"Kakashi, let her go, you're choking her." She orders. She points at me. "And you, calm down, you'll only make things worse."
Reluctantly, the man backs off, cradling his hand. I bolt upright. "It can't get any worse!" I exclaim. "The Akatsuki took Kirara out of me, I have to save her!" I look pleadingly down at the blonde boy. "They took my fire cat away; they took my two-tailed kitty away. Shippo Kyuubi, you always promised to take care of Kirara, why won't you help me now? She needs us! Who knows what those damn Akatsuki might do to her!" I'm crying. Damn. I haven't cried in over a hundred years. "They're horrible people! They're as bad as Naraku was! You remember what he was like! You remember! You won't let them get away with this will you?"
The boy looks heart broken and confused. The other adults seem shocked, their anger temporarily forgotten. I can't stop crying; I want my kitty back.
"What is your name?" The blonde woman asks gently. I don't let it show, but I am shocked by the change in her tone.
"Y-Yugito of Kumogakure." Automatic response. It's second nature now.
"That's a lie." The silver haired man hisses. "You said, just a moment ago, that your name was Sango."
"Sango?" The blonde woman repeats, surprise in her voice.
I bow my head grimly. "I used to be called that, but that was a long time ago. I changed my name; my birth name brings back too many memories."
"Sango as in the demon slayer, Sango? The Sango that helped collect the shards of the Shikon Jewel? She's your namesake?"
I glance up and shake my head. I know that if I'm going to get Kirara back, I have got to trust these people. They're my only hope! "No, she is me."
Now the woman looks really shocked. "That's not possible. That was over three hundred years ago. You can't be her."
I growl at her. Wow, Kirara's habits really wore off on me. "Who says I can't? I've been a hanyou for the past three hundred years! I've been immortal! Yeah, go ahead and look! Watch a three hundred year-old, broken, demon slayer cry! I don't care anymore! I don't have time for this… I have to save Kirara before those Akatsuki do something terrible to her! I shouldn't have come here. You won't even acknowledge me, Shippo! I've got to go."
I move to slide off the bed, but am quickly pushed back down by the masked man and his good hand. He doesn't look that angry anymore. I feel kind of bad for breaking his wrist now.
"Just hold on for a moment. You just woke up and this is some really unnerving and shocking news for us." He said.
I look over at Shippo pleadingly, be he just goes ridged and doesn't respond. How can he not recognize me? I bury my face in my hands and breathe deeply. I nod ever so slightly. He's right. I'm being too rash. I don't even know where the Akatsukli headquarters are. I can't save Kirara on my own. I need help. Hastily, I wipe away my tears.
"I-I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I just… I'm completely lost without her. I feel like everything's fallen apart." I put my face back in my hands, sighing. The ninjas (I assume they were all ninjas) were caught in a silence for a moment. At last the blonde woman turns to the boy who isn't Shippo.
"Naruto, would you mind going down to the cafeteria and getting us all some tea? Feel free to help yourself to some ramen. Kakashi, let me see your wrist." The boy stood up and hastily exited the room. I feel guilty. I've scared him. Now he probably won't even look at me, much less help me get Kirara back. I stare after him as the woman tends to the masked man's wrist, healing it with what I know to be called chakra.
"Naruto," I begin carefully, "Is… a Jinchuuriki, isn't he?"
The blonde woman looks over at me, and nods. I hold my elbows and stare at the wall, too ashamed to say anything more. Usually, I wouldn't care about such emotions, but now that Kirara is gone my entire demeanor has crumbled. This is going to take some getting used to. I dread the thought of all the emotional turmoil I'm going to face. It was bad enough getting used to being a hanyou, but becoming human again? They have so many more emotions and much less control over them…
The masked ninja, apparently called Kakashi, flexes his wrist. My eyes widen slightly, but other than that I show no surprise. Even demons can't heal that quickly. Ninjas are such odd creatures.
The blonde woman comes over and sits down next to me. I tense slightly. How long since someone did that? Everyone was always afraid of me. Because of Kirara. Oh, how I wish you were afraid of me.
She reaches out and takes my hand; I flinch away. I'm not used to contact unless it's from battle. Oh, no, she looks kind of sad. Great, now I feel bad again. Stupid human emotions.
"Sorry." I say, forcing myself to relax. "I'm not use to being around people."
She nods. "So… do you prefer to be called Sango or Yugito?"
"Yugito." I say surely. No one can call me by my real name anymore. Shippo is the only one I'll allow to do that.
"Okay, Yugito. You claim to be a three hundred year old woman who was once called Sango. The same Sango of the Shikon Jewel. Do you mind telling us how you and, eh, Kirara, were sealed together? And how Akatsuki removed her from your body?"
I narrow my eyes at her. Those are personal memories, personal thoughts, she doesn't need to know about them. "Why should I tell you? It seems I can't even say Shippo's clan name here, I'm not allowed. Why? How did Shippo even get inside that boy? What makes you think my story won't have the same after affect? I don't even know your name yet."
Oh, great, I made her feel bad again. I seem to be doing that a lot now. Oh, but… She's answering my questions!
"… My name is Tsunade, and I'm the Hokage of this Hidden Leaf Village." She's saying. Hokage? Oh, right, like the Raikage only different. I get it. "The person you keep talking about, Shippo, is it? Well, he's sealed inside Naruto. The fourth Hokage sealed him within his navel fifteen years ago. Kyu-, I mean, Shippo, killed many people, so no one was allowed to speak of the incident again…"
Could she make it any more vague? What an unsatisfying response. So they sealed Shippo inside that boy's belly button. Wonder what the seal looks like. I never had a seal in the first place, seeing as I was never technically a Jinchuuriki to begin with. Did these people even ask themselves why Shippo was attacking the village in the first place? Damn humans. Demons never kill without reason. I bet it was because Naraku was here. I hope Shippo managed to get him and tear him into millions of tiny little pieces. Oh, no wait, Inuyasha already did that.
I don't like the way she's talking to me. It's like she's talking to a child. I'm not a child, hell; I'm older than she is. I decide to voice my thoughts.
"Please stop talking to me like I'm a child." I say, interrupting her. She looks kind of shocked. I guess people don't interrupt her often. "I'm not a little kid, so stop speaking to me as if I am one. I'm older than you are. Hell, I'm even older than Shippo is, okay?"
Oh, boy, now she looks a little pissy. Maybe I was too hasty? I should really stop pissing people off.
"All right, Yugito, but if I'm going to do that you have to stop acting like a child."
Wrong answer. Now I'm angry too.
"Acting like a child? Acting like a child?! I am not acting like a child; I'm trying to cope here! Do you have any idea what it's like to suddenly be bombarded with emotions you haven't felt in hundreds of years? My entire demeanor has crumbled in a matter of hours! Do you have any idea of the emotional turmoil I'm on the verge of facing? No, of course not! You're just a human; you can't even hope to understand! And I'm not telling you anything until Ship- er, Naruto comes back because he has to hear this too. I came here because of him! Does he trust you? How do I know I can trust you?"
Oh, Kami, mood swings. Now it's really falling apart. Oh, jeez, they probably think I'm even more nuts now. Ugh! Stupid human emotions! I miss Miroku…
Naruto walks back into the room, carrying a tray with three cups of tea on it. He looks nervous and is eyeing me suspiciously. I feel terrible. I was too thoughtless when confronting him. Now he's afraid of me. Oh, Naruto, I'm so sorry!
He hastily puts the tray in Tsunade's lap. "Here." He mumbles shortly before giving me a nervous glance and heading back to the door.
"Wait! Naruto! Please?" I cry out, extending a hand toward him. He stops, his hand on the door handle, and looks back at me. I cup my hands to my chest and lower my eyes. "I'm sorry I frightened you. I didn't mean to; I'm just desperate and I've lost a lot of blood. I'm not thinking clearly. I understand if you never want to see me again. The last thing I want to do is make you uncomfortable. I'm sorry."
I don't have the courage to meet his eyes so I stare at the floor. He'll never accept me. He's just going to laugh or not say anything at all, I'm sure.
"That's okay, miss! I understand! No hard feelings, okay?"
I look up immediately, surprise taking over my features. He's smiling at me! "R-really?"
"Yeah!" he exclaims, sitting o the other side of me. "You've been through a lot, I can relate. Besides, I can never hold a grudge for very long. Let me introduce myself, I'm Uzumaki Naruto and I'm going to be the greatest ninja ever!" He points to the blonde woman. "That's Tsunade-baa-chan," she looks angry that he called her that. I can't help but wonder why. Lastly, he points to the masked ninja, "And this is Kakashi-sensei."
Suddenly, the blonde woman hit Naruto on the head. "I'm not old!" she yells. Ever so subtly, I lean away from her. She's scary.
"Oi, and Naruto, I haven't been your sensei for a while now. How many times do I have to tell you to just call me Kakashi?" The silver haired man says. Naruto just rubs his sore head and grins. He smiles just like a fox. I like it.
His smell drifts into my nose. Hey, I know that smell! Gosh, I missed it too. He smells like Inuyasha! Well, except for the dog smell. He smells like ramen and fox instead of ramen and dog. But the ramen smell is still there! I can't help but giggle at this.
Naruto turns to me questioningly. "What's so funny?" he asks me. I look at him, still giggling.
"You smell just like Inuyasha!" I exclaim. I smile at him softly. "I missed that smell."
"What smell?"
I giggle again. "Ramen."
The boy brightens up like a candle. "I love ramen!" he tells me. The two other adults in the room roll their eyes. I wonder… oh, what's he doing? Still talking. Jeez, he loves ramen that much? Hmm, that restaurant must be good. He likes that flavor, huh? Okay. Still talking. Has he even taken a breath yet? Man, I thought Inuyasha was obsessed with the stuff. Where's the off button on this kid? Is he turning blue? Breathe, kid; breathe! Shut up! Somebody turn this thing off! Stupid mood swings!
I shake his shoulder. "Kid, stop talking for a second, will you? I think you're turning blue!"
He stops and takes several large breaths, his face returning to its normal color. A bead of sweat trickles nervously down my cheek. What a strange boy. I can't resist smiling at him, though. He's rather endearing.
Tsunade clears her throat. "Well, Yugito, now that Naruto is here maybe you'd be willing to tell us what exactly happened to you?"
My mood sobers quickly and I press my lips together, looking down at my wounded hands in my lap. "Akatsuki. They attacked me and extracted Kirara, my two-tailed cat."
The overall mood in the room darkens. Naruto looks furious, he's clearly heard of this before. Before he can burst out with whatever it is he wants to say, the masked man speaks up.
"How are you alive? If Akatsuki extracted your demon from your body, you should be dead by all means."
Naruto and Tsunade both look surprised at this, but also suspicious as they realize that it is true. I sigh. "I'm alive because I was never technically a Jinchuuriki." This shocks all of them. I continue. "If you know the legend of the Shikon Jewel, you will know just how Naraku became a half-demon. He was a human on the brink of death that allowed a number of demons to possess him. Basically, the same thing happened to Kirara and me. She possessed me, saving me from death, and I've been a hanyou for the last three hundred years. Until now, at least." Teardrops fall from my chocolate eyes and I swipe them away hastily. "I-I'm sorry. Its difficult dealing with all these emotions after so long, even more difficult knowing Kirara isn't with me anymore. She's been in my family for generations. She practically helped raise me…"
I look up when I feel a hand squeeze my shoulder reassuringly. I look up into the face of Naruto, who is smiling softly in understanding. I gather courage at his smile and continue.
"As for how she was taken from me… well, I guess it was a few days ago, seeing as I've been out of it for a while. I was back in Kumogakure visiting… the grave… of… an… old friend." Miroku… "I actually don't spend much time in Kumo, but my family's old village is there, so I'm more or less allied to it. I feel obliged to be, you know? Well, I was leaving when two men in Akatsuki cloaks ambushed me. Black, high-collared cloaks with red clouds, right? Their names were Kakuzu and Hidan. We fought and they forced me to use Kirara's power, but they still managed to beat me, pinning me to a wall with kunai through my hands. I paused, taking several shaky breaths. Naruto continued rubbing my shoulder comfortingly, though he was looking extremely pissed at the information he was hearing. "The next thing I knew… they had taken Kirara, leaving me for dead, and I was weak and human again." I bite my lip, looking up at Naruto. "Shippo is the only one from the old days that I knew to be still alive and with no one else to turn to… I guess I came to you."
His expression is a bit unreadable. I was never very good at reading people. Partially because, well… they usually ended up dead anyway, so there wasn't much of a point. All three of them look like they're trying to decide what to say.
Naruto stands up abruptly, looking down at me with the most determined pair of eyes I've ever seen. "I'll help you get your cat back."
End Chapter 2
Ugh, after… how long?! I've finally got chapter 2 up. I cut it off earlier than I wanted to, though. Because of this, I'm looking for someone who'd like to be my co-author for this fic. It's just not getting any attention and since it's one of my first fics, I don't want to sell it off as a plotbunny.
I'm going to be very picky about who I choose to help with this since my other fic that has a co-author, "Tousan," has pretty much been taken over and I have lost reviewers. I don't want that to happen with this fic.
I'm going to be holding a contest for the position. The details of the contest are as follows:
Write a short piece (poetry, short story, whatever) relating to "Our Tailed Burdens" so that I can get a feel for your writing style and what direction you would be pushing this in. Also, please be aware that the pairing has been switched to NarutoXSango and that this takes place after the time-skip.
Your piece of writing can be as long or short as you want it to be. If you want some extra material to work with so that you have an idea of what I have planned for this fic, just ask and you'll get some spoilers.
Your writing does not have to be restricted to Yugito/Sango's point of view. You can write about other characters also, as long as they are connected to this fic.
Send entries to:
quildainia AT yahoo DOT com
or just include them in your review. That works too.
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Other than that, I hope you're all pleased with this chapter! I'm happy with how well I managed to pull off Yugito/Sango's emotional ups and downs, confusion, and personality. Also, if you didn't catch why Tsunade and Kakashi let their hostility fade so quickly, it's because they thought she was a loony and you just don't hit crazy people. Her story is pretty hard to believe!
Please read and review! Virtual cookies for those who do! (seriously, i have a picture that i'll send everyone)
Flames will be given to Gai and Lee.
Mysteri
Kyuubi Fanatic – To all potential co-authors, the best of luck to ya! Just….don't follow in Jjvalour's footsteps please? nn;;;