Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I had, I would have made Sasuke the main character.
It's been 3 years since I first met Kibeth. I had grown a lot, but still held onto her fur as when I did when I was a child. Eventually, a small mold came and there was an imprint of my tightly closed fist on her wavy locks. My hair was longer now, down to the middle of my waist. I still wore almost the exact same clothing. Black pants that came to my knees, and now however, long almost boot like leggings that came with the black pair of ninja sandals I wore. Then, and camouflage like tank top.
Kibeth has been training me. I'm a lot more skilled now, and I can defend myself without a problem. I didn't know why she was so persistent on the constant training. Whenever I tried to ask, she would just shake her head and whisper in her forever calmed voice, 'just in case.' Not that I don't like training, I purely loved it. My arms were getting muscle and I would smile and think, 'how could the bad guys get me now, when I'm getting so strong?' and would smile musingly to myself.
We still live in the forest. And even with Kibeths protection, I still had a major problem. I'm deathly afraid of any human being now.
Anyone with a normal face, a normal attitude, I would scream like a banshee and hide behind Kibeth like she was some sort of barrier, which is becoming increasingly hard to do since I'm getting much taller now.
Today we were going on a walk, and a long one to. I had all my things inside a pretty blue bag I carried over both my shoulders.
"Where are we going, Kibeth?" I asked.
"Were going to meet with some… people that I used to know." she would say, her voice in almost a singing tone. I don't know how Kibeth can talk, or so sweetly for that matter, but all I know is that she can. One time, she said that there were even other animals that could talk like her, but they were ninjas and belonged to other villages.
We walked all day. The sun was setting, and I looked down at my callused feet.
"Kibeth, my feet are getting soar." I whinned. "I miss the days when I could ride on your back. But now, I'm too big!" I complained, flopping my arms against my side to make a dramatic effect.
Kibeth chuckled, and then. Fa-bam. She was huge. Just like that.
I stood there my mouth stupidly hanging open, as I stared at Kibeth who had grown easily to the size of a Grizzly Bear.
"I never told you? Talking isn't one of my only talents. Yes, I can grow to any size I want. That and I'm pretty good at earth-based techniques. However, I've got a bad dent in where my genjustus should be. Were not all perfect, are we? Now climb up here and stop your annoying whining.
For I moment I stood, dumb struck, until I grabbed a fistful of hair, and hosted myself up onto her enlarged back. I could see her white, vicious mouth open, grinning wide to display a large row or sharp teeth.
"how do you like that? Now hold on tightly… I don't want you falling of and spraining an ankle." She chuckled deviously.
Without warning, she flew into the canopy, spraying large chunks of dirt in everu direction. Landing gracefully on a wide tree branch, she looked back at me, and laughed, no-belowed with amusment at the sight of my face, which had gone deathly pale, like I had seen a ghost.
"Hold on tight!" she murmured, and raced through the trees. Each time I thought we would hit into a tree, we would suddenly dodge it, like being pulled away from unseen forces. I clutched onto her, and her back being too wide to put my legs over like a horse, I had to tuck one under me, which gave me the constant feeling like I was going to fall off.
Finely, she landed, and as quickly as I could, slid off.
She laughed, and I scowled at her. "Are your feet so sore now?" she rattled, barely able to speak over her fits of laughter.
"I-I'll walk." I said shakily. "Don't worry. You'll get used to it. Or at least you'll be able to suck it up. Since, I can't have us walking all the time. Places we need to be at aren't going to weight long enough for tired legs." She said, and I got the message. That wasn't the last time I would be hanging for dear life.
We walked for a short while more, until we stopped abruptly. There was a clearing, and stood two men, both claded in cloaks. My heart raced, and thoughts came back to my abusive family. I could see their faces, and thought, 'what's the difference between then, and now? What's the difference between them? They could harm just as much as my family could. So what's stopping them?' which flowed through my mind every time I had to see another human face.
I clutched onto Kibeth, who led me through the bushes. When I saw their faces, no fear flew through me like I thought there would be. Because they looked hardly human at all.
A blue face, and a black and white one. The blue man, resembled the features of a shark, and I thought 'what was god thinking when he made this guy? Did he mix up the genes of a shark and a boy?' then my eyes trailed over to the other one, who was even more peculiar. With a green Venus fly trap over his face, and only two golden like eyes, similar to mine peeked out.
Kibeth noticed when I un- gripped her skin, and looked back at me surprisingly. I guess she thought that I would be in even more fear, since they would scare the wits out of any normal child, let alone a severely mentally abused one. I shrugged. No memories of my family came, so I was fine.
The tree of them talked for a little while. I only got a few sentences before I got bored and plopped down and started drawing pictures In the dirt. First I drew a cloud, matching the ones on the two men's cloaks. Once I got tired of that, I decided to actually start paying attention to the two strangers. Kibeth was in an argument, and they seemed desperate for some reason.
"The Akatsuki needs you, Kibeth. We don't have enough members, there's n one that is as good as you. I know we have Orochimaru in our group now, and I know you don't like him, especially around her, but you gotta come through!" the tall man pleaded. I looked at Kibeth's face. She was in distress, like she was trying to decide something really important.
She looked over to me, and softly smiled, if you could call it a smile. "What about Sophie? What about her care? What if Orochimaru does something to her?" Kibeth growled.
"Pein said she would be in the best of care. She wouldn't be harmed. Besides, you won't hardly ever have to leave her side. She's powerful herself, being in the Kinshin clan and all. She might even end up joining the Akatsuki herself in a handful of years." said the voice of the giant plant.
"what are you afraid of happening, anyway?" he growled, like he was a completely different person.
"Kibeth, think about it. How are you going to raise Sophie out here, in the wild? People easily get sick in the wild. What then? She'd be better of coming with us, with you." Implied the blue man.
"I… I guess you're right." Kibeth said, defeated. I stood up, and went over to Kibeth, staring into the big man's face.
"Sophie. This is Kisame, and that's Zetsu. Their Akatsuki members. We're going to be traveling with them for a little while, OK?" she said.
I smiled at Kisame, but he didn't do anything. He looked kind of confused. "You would think that this girl would be afraid of a face like mine." Kisame said, almost sadly.
"She's been through a lot." Kibeth shrugged. I climbed back on her back, while we started traveling in a completely different direction. Before long I had fallen asleep.
Authors note: I made this chapter a long while ago, but messed up putting an entirely different story in there by mistake. Now I had re-written it and here it is! Review pls.
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