The Work of Hidden Skills
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of the characters in the Anime/Manga.
Gaaraluff146: I formatted the way the dances go differently, I find this way less confusing. Tell me what you think, please!
Early the next morning I awoke abruptly, as I usually did. i stood up, and went over to my dresser, yawning. I grabbed my clothes and headed to the bathroom. Coming out, I wore the same thing as yesterday, as that was my 'uniform' you could call it, so I had many of them. My hair was brushed and over both shoulders, covering my birthmarks. It was still dark outside, so I had time to make myself some Ramen for breakfeast.
By the time I had finished, it was a good time to head to the gates where we would be leaving. I grabbed my bag and slung it over my shoulder walking out the door. Arriving at the gates there was mostly everyone there. "Well, eaither I'm late, or everyone else is early." I muttered to myself. To make myself feel better I chose the latter.
Some time later we were all there. All together there was about 12 of us going, all of them older than me, obviously. Attendance was taken and then we were off to our first place we were to perform at, Konoha. As we traveledi felt stares on my back. I had somehow migrated to the front, and was slightly behind the prson who I bacame accustom to calling 'travel guide' in my mind. Taking my thoughts off of the stares, I thought about the process of our sound. The way it worked was that when a group of Taitnen concentrated, the sound that was going through their minds would project out so that others were able to hear. Although it was supposed to be an entire group of at least 7 people, I was able to project sound on my own. It would proa=bably come in handy sometime later on if I need to put someone in a trance...
Why my thoughts went on, I was abruptly pulled out of them as we reach Konoha. "Okay, you guys." Tour Guide started."I need you to meet back here in about two hours for the first performance." We nodded and walked our seperate ways. I walked towards the park in the center of the place, I was bored and wanted to something at least remotely difficult. I found a suitable tree and climbed up it the normal way, and sat down on a branch. I then flipped myself over so that my head was towards hte ground, and noticed I was a good 50 feet off the ground. I just shrugged it off and started doing some crunches, hanging upside down. And not to brag or anything, but I had some toned abs. I mean, muscles really do not look good on girls, but my abs made me look amazingly strong, and well..it just looked good on my when I do the Taitnen technique in battle, and the normal way when performing. After about a half hour there were only a few drops of sweat on my forehead. I didn't want to tire myself out before the performance, so I jumped down to cool off some.
As I was walking through the streets of Konoha, this really blond chick walked up next to me. And when I say blonde, I mean like it's-so-blonde-ist's almost-white blonde. At least she didn't sound half as annoying as she looked. "I like your outfit." She said, looking over my outfit. "Thanks." I replied."I'm Ino, by the way. Are you just visiting?" I smiled. "Hello, Ino, I'm Renji." I said, giving her the name that most people called me. "And yeah, sadly. I really like Konoha." Now it was her turn to smile at me. "Well that's too bad." Someone called her name. "Well, it looks like I have to go now. See you around?" "Yeah, probably." I said, walking in the opposite direction.
Looking at the meeting place, I noticed some of the performers gathering. Well, I guess I spent more time walking around than I thought. So I walked over to join them in waiting for the rest of the performers. Gradually they all appeared, and we were led towards the area where we would perform. There was already people arrving to watch as we came into a circle to decide on what to do first. "How about A-391?" It was a unanymous decision, so we got into our starting positions, me in the center with the other 11 of them stationed so that I was hidden almost completely, except for a few angles at which you could see me.
The 'music' started. Once the words came, the dancers started to move and ssing in a chorus, all except for me. I stayed still, my body hunched over with my invertabrae visible underneath my skin, my arms hanging limply. Once the words 'Need a ride' rang out, my body became animate as the others slid in a box formation, and I slid forwards.'What you need, you can have that.'And my body moved in jerky movements, lifting myself up. 'I can transform ya' And I was moving in jerky movements, jumping and jerking my head to the left, then right. Then we all began to move as one. Stomp left, then right, arms up in an 'X' form and head to either side.'Anything you want I can-Ican-Ican get it for ya' and we came into two lines, 6 in the fron, 6 in the back, every person in a 'window'one beat, the backrow comes up, second beat, the first row moves back.
The now back frow does a body roll, the somersaults to the front while the front was doing some kind of army march-like-thing. Now here's where the fun part comes in. We sepaerate into two groups, and on oppsite sides of each other. Each side lifts up one person, and throws them into the air at each other. I heard the crowd gasp and I smirked. The group I am plummeting towards disperses while I do an aireal and a backflip and land in a crouch, somersaulting back into middle stage. The music fades as the other 'flyer' and I lock hands and pull ourselves up halfway with only our arms.
The croud erupts in applause. The other flyer and I take steady postions and walk up to the fron of the stage, bowing. He turns to the right and walks back to the line, whil I move to the left and join the line, bowing again. I walked off the makeshift stage as they went into another dance, I paid no attention to the performance, fir I had to prepare for the next one that I was in. I grabbed the red cape/cloak thing that was given to me by one of the other girls. It was red velvet on the outside, and black satin on the inside. It was perfect for the next performance. I tied the strings around my throat to secure the cape/ cloak thing, and put up the hood so that it covered my eyes and cast a shadow over the rest of my face.
I readied myself at the foot as the song ended, the crowd made a thunderous applause. It had become quite a bit larger since I was onstage, I guess everyone knew there was three performances per show and the last was the most spectacular. I mentally shrugged as I stood behing the dancers, hidden by their bodies before the music started. " D-78*" I whispered, and the piano began to play. With the intro, the dancers moved gravefully finding their partners and leaving me a path to walk through. I began to sing the lyrics that I had sung at my parents funeral.
I'm so tired of being here
Suppressed by all my childish fears
And if you have to leave
I wish that you would just leave
'Cause your presence still lingers here
And it won't leave me alone
I slowly made my way to the front of the stage, as the dancers did ballroom dancing.
These wounds won't seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There's just too much that time cannot erase
I removed my arms from under the cape, and showed the scars that had been hidden before, along with on my torso.
The dancer joined me in singing the chorus. I slowly twirled through the dancers.
When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears
When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears
And I held your hand through all of these years
But you still have
All of me
i removed the hood from my face, and looked directly at the crowd, my voice captivating them, and making them sway and even cry.
You used to captivate me
By your resonating light
Now I'm bound by the life you left behind
Your face it haunts
My once pleasant dreams
Your voice it chased away
All the sanity in me
My hands clutched my head, in mock pain from the insanity, no long er twirling and back at the front of the stage.
These wounds won't seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There's just too much that time cannot erase
A pained expression entered my features as the chorus started up again.
When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears
When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears
And I held your hand through all of these years
But you still have
All of me
Tears ran down my face now, really getting into the song. All of my heart was now put into the singing.
I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone
But though you're still with me
I've been alone all along
The cape was untied from around my neck and fell to the ground, and I was pulled backwards into the group of the dancers.
When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears
The dancers grabbed onto my arms, trying to pull me back.
When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears
I fought against them, still singing.
And I held your hand through all of these years
But you still have
All of me
And the hands engulfed me as I sang the last notes, the last thing seen was my arm, reaching out towards the croud, as if looking for help. The croud erupted in an applause that was so thunderous I thought it was actually thundering, and yells and whisltes were just as plentiful. The dancers made their bows first, then I made mine. An amazing applause greeted me. I looked up for a moment and saw the one called Ino staring up at me in amazement, and clapping wildly. I stood back up an smiled, grabbing my cape and exiting the stage.
The performers were lounging about, and I found the girl that let me borrow the cape. I went over to return it. "Please, you can keep it. It really looks good on you." The 16 year-old tells me as I try to give it back. "Thanks. I'm Renji, by the way." i said to her. "AndIhave tendency to swear when I say more than one sentence. " She laughed and said "Well, Renji, I'm Kiri and it's nice to meet you. " Sh said, and I nodded. I walked away, smiling. I put the cloak in my shoulder bag, and walked away from the others. Again I found myself randomly walking the streets.
I heard my nickname being called. I turned around, only to meet the glare of the setting sun. I just barely could see Ino's approaching figure. "Oh, hey Ino." I said, sheilding my eyes from the sun with my arm. " I was wondering if you wanted to meet some of my friends. They don't exactly believe that I met you." I laughed. "Sure thing." I said, folwwong as she led me to where her friends seem to be hanging around. There were only about 4 of them. One with his hair tied up, another that was fat (A/N: lol, i think we know who that is...) another who wore an orange jumsuit like thing, and the last shocked me the most. He had shiny -mind you, shiny- black hair, which looks like a bowl cut, and really bushy eyebrows. I inched as far from him as I could without being noticed.
"Okay well first off, that's Shikamaru." She said, pointing to the kid with hi hair tied up. "That's Chouji,Naruto and Lee." She said, pointing to them in the order that I described them. I smiled. "Hello." They all just looked from me to Ino in shock. "Okay, I know I'm sezy and shit, but there's no need to stare. Did I forget to mention I get to be full of myself sometimes? Heh heh, oops. Ino just laughed. i waved my hand in front of Naruto's face. "Ya still there?" No answer. I slapped him across the face. That got a response out of him. "What was that for?!" He yelled at me. The others stopped staring at me, only to stare at Naruto. "Well, you were being unresponsive so I slapped you to make sure you weren't dead on your feet, 'cause it sure seemed like it." I said, and they laughed while Naruto rubbed his cheek where I slapped him. There was a big red mark, too.
A few hours had passed, and it had gotten dark. I stood up from my position, sitting on the grass. We had talked the entire time, and these were the kind of people I could be proud to call my friends. For the time that I was here, anyway. I walked back to where the other performers were, and saw that they had gone to their rented appartments. I just shrugged and climbed up a tree, resting my head against the trunk of the tree, my legs crossed in front of me on the branch. I stared up at the star filled sky, and fell asleep.
{*D-78 = My Immortal - Evanescence}