The Work of Hidden Skills
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters seen in the Anime/ Manga Naruto
The res of the dark went by quickly, and now it's at least noon. I rested my elbows on the sill of the window, looking out at the sun as it rose. Although my hair refused to stay out f my eyes, so I sighed in frustration, and walked over to my bag. I rummaged through it, trying to find the hair elastics I had brought. After a few minutes I finally found one, and plopped myself down on the couch next to Mani, who had woken up a few minutes ago. grabbing the brush that I had thrown onto the cuch some hours ago, I brushed my hair and put it up in a high ponytail. I left my bangs down so that they were forming a kind of 'M' shape around my forehead.{A/N: The poytail looks like Ino's did before the Chunin exams, just longer, about to her lower back, just above her butt}
All of a sudden Mani jumped off the couch and stretched, extending his claws. He walked over to the door and was about to scratch it, but I was able to open it before he killed it 'Probably would too...' I thought as I walked after him. He walked with an air around him that just oozed the words 'Don't mess with me' And I almost laughed, though that would make ti seem like I was insane, so I kept it to myself. I looked around us, and then realized where we were going. I slapped my forehead and picked up Mani. "Does Tsunade want me?" I asked him, and he nodded. I smiled. "Well, next time tell me, I don't appreciate being made fun of by my feline friend." I said, and he growled at me playfully. I rolled my eyes. "Come on." I said, and set him back on the ground.
We ran the rest of the way, me nearly tripping over him quite a few times. Nearly being the key word in that statement. But eventually we did make it to her office. And once I walked in, I swear she looked astonished for a minute. 'Nah, probably my imagination.' I walked up to her desk. "You wanted to see me?" I said it as a question, although it was more of a statement. "Yes. I have gotten word from your village that gives you permission to use the villages technique. They seem quite sure that nobody will be able to copy it." I was honestly surprised at this. I almost fell over, except if I did I would squash poor Mani, and that was not on my to-do list. "Yes, the technique is not one that someone can copy. It takes years of practise and broken bones. I'll give you al little tid bit. My bones have been broken and re-broken so many times, I can move in ways you couldn't even imagine." I said this in a sad menacing tone. It wasn't my fault, I had been forced to do the training and in the end began to like it.
"Okay then. Oh! you'll also need a forehead protector. Shizune!" She yelled, and Shizune entered with a forehead protector, and handed it to me. I thanked her and turned back to Tsunade,tieing the forehead protector around my forehead, the Konoha thing just visible the way my hair was parted. "Another thing, Renira. You have a mission. I need you to safely bring this to the Land of Candy. There are some documents the feudal lord wants. You may run into trouble along the way, so being the reason I'm sending you." I nodded and took the thick manilla envelope. Seemed easy enough. " Would you mind me adding a few others to this mission?" She asked out of the blue. I swear she wasn't in her right mind right now. "Umm, no." I said it more like a question though. "I have a request here for two of the sand siblings to accompany you, Temari and Gaara. Although it seems as though Temari forced Gaara to.." She said the last part more to herself than anyone else.
Tsunade then dismissed me, saying that the departure would be in about an hour, because she still had to notify the sand siblings. I walked out of the office with Mani at my heels. Picking him up and carrying him with one arm, the other holding the envelope, I made my way back to my apartment. Upon entering I had dropped Mani on the ground (He just sat down near my bag) I laughed. "Your too smart for your own good, you know that?" I said, and he just showed me his ponty teeth. I sat down next to him and removed the stuff that I wouldn't need for the mission from my bag, (Hair elastics, etc.) and was only then able to fit the envelope in the bag. I slung it over my shoulder and put the clothes into the dresser ( I have about 24, and put 20 of them away, th others in my bag still). Then I walked over to where I had put my gits. Grabbing the staff, I retracted it's size so that I could fit it onto a strap that I had attached to my cargo pants, and i put on the gloves Hinata had gotten me. I walked out of my apartment, locking the door as I went.
There was about ten minutes till we were supposed to leave once I got to the gates. I saw Temari (the seriously sisterly annoying one) and Gaara (The extremely there already, and Temari was first to acknowledge my prescence. "Renji!"She yelled, and hugged me. I just looked at her, stuck in her death grip. My face probably started to turn blue as I spoke. "Nice to see you too. Now I need. To. Breathe." I said, and then realization showed on her face as she dropped me back onto the ground. "Thank you. I do believe I cherish the air that I breathe at the moment." I said smiling. "Well let's head out." And we walked out into the forest.
I swear that Temari was talking for hours to herself, because neither Gaara nor I were paying attention to her. And after what seemed like a few minutes it was starting to become dark out. "Should we stop or...?" I waited for an answer. Gaara was the one who spoke. "We're not ina rush, so we might as well stop for the night." I nodded and stopped, jumping up to a tree branch and sitting, Mani following in suit. After a little bit Temari came up and sayt next to me, speaking. "Not to be rude or osmething, but why do you have tattoo's?" Way to blunt there, Temari. I laughed. "They're not tattoo's. They're birthmarks, sort of." I explained, stroking Mani's fur. "It's also a part of my Kekkei Genkai, which I've only actually used once, hence my knowledge of it." I finished, and looked up at Temari. My free arm was wrapped around my knees, and my chin rested on them.
"Oh. Do your parents have the same thing?" I flinched at the mention of my parents. "Actually, I don't know. They died before I knew them..." I replied, and her face softened visibly in the darkness. "Oh, I'm sorry." She said in a barely audible tone. "There's no need for you to be sorry. It wasn't your fault I waited for 4 years to see them come home, never actually knwoing they were gone permanently until 4 years after the deed was done." I stroked Mani's fur absently now, thinking of those 4 years wasted (from when I was 2-6) sitting by the window sill, looking down the road waiting for them. "It wasn't your fault that they were heartless, watching me with my hope, only to be crushed. And you know what, I don't even have the faintest idea of what they're faces were like. All pictures were conviently burned of them, even the ones in my home. Which had also been burned." My eyes were blank showing no emeotion, much like my monotone voice. It lways hurt to talk of them, the ones I never knew. I sighed. "There's never any use of dwelling on past happenings. What's done is done. And one day Karma's gonna come back around and bite them in the ass." I watched Temari. Shock had crossed over her face, then pity. I abruptly stood up and went to the top of the tree, balancing my weight on the thin tip.
Standing there, my hair blew in the nighttime breeze. I tilted my face towards the stars, just looking. Then a prescence appeared below me, just above the foliage of the canopy that blocked the sky from the ground. "What is it you want?" I asked in my monotone voice, still looking out at the sky. Gaara's equally monotone voice answere me. " Ahouldn't you be getting some rest?" He asked, and I looked at him with a 'really?' look. " Gaara, I've been unconscious for the past week. I'm not going to be resting for at least two weeks."He met my gaze, and just nodded. I looked back out at the sky. " How is it your not using Chakra right now?" He asked. 'Did I hear him right? ' "Huh?" I looked back at him. "How is it your standing there without using any Chakra?" I looked at him. I thought for a moment before answering. ' It's not as if he would be able to use against me in any way. I mean, it's not possible in anyway shape or form so there's no harm in telling him, or the world.' " Look at my feet." He did." You see the silver glinting? That's chains that are partially controlled by Chakra, but are still unbreakable in any way shape or form. They attach to the things I want them to, like this tree, and protect me on a last whim." I explained, the chains moving for effect.
"In fact, if you don't believe me, attack my legs with your sand coffin thing ." He looked at me as if I was insane, and was about to say something when I cut him off. "Okay, first off, I know about it because some people do not know how to keep their mouths shut around me, and two it's not going to affect me at all. I swear." He still seemed to think I was insane as he looked at me with his bored eyes. I shrugged and was about to move away, but when I tried to my feet were held where they were with sand. I smirked, and stayed put, watching gaara. The sand traveled up my legs, stopping just below the knee. I was too focused on my surroundings to notice when he closed his hand and spoke the words 'Sand Coffin', but I did hear a 'crunch' sound. I smiled and looked down at my legs. I feltas the cold chains slithered across my skin, almost making me shiver. The sound had been made by the sand putting pressure on the metal, but not nearly enough to shatter them. I bent at the waist and unzipped the zipper that I had recently attached to all of my pants, making them shorts. Of some sort. "You see?" I said as the fabric fell away from my leg. Silver chains lined my skin, showing no weakness. "Immpenetrable. Plus, even if a copy ninja was watching now they wouldn't be able to copy this. Well, they could but it would never be as definite as this." I said, pulling the zipper back, re-attaching the fabric.
The sand releasing their hold on my legs, I ran back to the base of the tree, and sniffed. Something was terribly wrong. I whistled, but it was too high for Temari to hear, who had fallen asleep. Mani appeared at my side soon after, and I whispered to Gaara. "Something's wrong. I have to go now. I should be back soon. " I could barely hear myself, but I was sure that he had heard me. I took off in the trees, faster than ever before. Whoever it was following me was not after the parcel, but me. Or worse, Mani. Kiba had said he was found somewhere, unattended. I made it to the land of Candy quickly, and gave the parcel to whom I was supposed to. I was actually in shock for a few minutes, seeing as how it was at least one in the morning by now.
I shook the shock from my head- quite literally- and was off again, the rough bark of the trees familliar aginst my hands as I leapt from branch to branch in an animalisitc way, trying hard to avoid a fight in these conditions. I mean, think about it. It's almost completely dark, and my enemy knows exactly where I am. This is definetly not the best of situations. I groaned as I realized my efforts were fruitless, my persuers were still on my trail. "Damnit!" I shout/whispered to myself. . I took one final leap and did a flip, landing in a crouched position, in a clearing. I turned and waited for my persuers, which wasn't that long.
They way I was positioned, I was almost in the center of the little clearing. My persuers were a number of two, on directly in front of me, the other behind me some distance away. I stood up, still with my guard up. I mean really, who would let their guard down in a situation like this? "What the hell do you want?" I said to the one in front of me, in a pissed-off voice. Mani stayed off to the side, hopefully unnoticed by these two people. "Well, to put it simply" He started in a very..what's the right word...Oh right, stone like voice. Impressive. Not. " Your coming with us, whether you like it or not." By now I could tell this mysterious loser had black hair and it was in a ponytail (stupid). The other thing I almost immediatly noticed were the red eyes. Sharingan? I mentally shrugged. As if I gave a damn. {A/N: I'm sorry if your an Itachi fangirl (if you haven't realized it's him there it is), but it's just how she views him.}
"Oh, over my dead try taking me alive, I dare you." I said, and evil and sadistic glint in my eyes. If it was a fight he wanted, a fight he would get. Although it may be classified as more of a battle. He smirked at me. My left eye twitched, this guy just kept pissing me off. "And how about this. You beat me fair and square, meaning no Mongekyo (sp?) Sharingan, and I'll go without a fight. I win, and I get to ask you a question, and my actions after that are dependant on the answer to the question." I said, eyeing the cloak he wore, the red clouds especially. If these two were from the organization I thought they were from, then I could finally piss off the bastard I met some 8 years ago. I almost smiled at the thought.
Itachi (I had learned his name while he agreed) agrred to my standards or whatever, and man I almost pitied the poor dude. Almost.I laughed sadisticly as I started the fight, using a ninja art I had come up with and perfected myself. I made the tiger handsign, and spoke. " Ninja Art: Insanity!"
No POV
As the words were said, Renjira's eyes rolled backwards, her own essence leaving her body. With the whites of her eyes showing, the Chakra in the chains awakened, becoming alive. The slithered out of her pockets and had an almost electric charge to them. They glowed and were snakelike, with seemingly minds of their wind around her picked up, and her hair elastic broke, her hair flowing freely and glowing too. She snapped out her staff, having it return to normal size, about a foot taller than herself, and positioned it so that it was behind her, leaning at a slant, one of her hands forward, the other holding onto the staff. And all this happeded withing seconds. "Your turn." Her mouth moved, but it was most definetly not her voice.
Itachi kep up his smirk, even without his Mongekyo he would win hands down. There's no competition right? He used a firestyle jutsu, but Renjira was too smart and fast for that. Easily evading the flames because of the lighter weight, she sidestepped it and ran straight ahead with her staff, preparing fir a frontal attack. Just as she was about ti strike, her attack was blocked by his arm, sending her a few feet back. She was quick to react, and after examining how he fights after like a minute she devisies a perfect attack. Going for a frontal attack again, she was just about to hit her target when she repostioned herself, seemingly appearing in another place, aiming for another point. She repeats this many times before actually striking, and Itachi looks completely lost. Shocker, I know. His Sharingan couldn't keep up with her movements, they were too fast.
As her staff hits him, the sound of bones snapping is very distinct. Each of his shoulder blades had been snapped into sixteenths. Retracting her staff, Renjira went back to normal.
Renjira's POV
My eyes rolled back into place, and I blinked a few times. "Damnit. Ah, well I guess a minute was enough time." I said, rubbing my eyes, trying to clear up my vision. 'I'm gonna go blind one of these days...' My vision finally clearing up, I asked my question. "Do you know someone named Tobi?" I asked, and got an expected reply back. "What's it to you?" I sighed. There really was no need to make this difficult. "Well that's all I needed to know. Make sure this gets to him in... oh let's say twleve hours, or else you will be in mortal danger." I said, and did that thingy where you go 'whoosh' adn then your gone, but not the poofy thing. (Yes, I am a very little girl at heart. Hello, that's where it was left!) In my place I had left a picture of me from when Tobi met me, and once it was in his hands it would change, showing me growing up. It was some thing that Tobi had asked me to do, and me being the very wierd person was just like 'Why the hell not? Not like it'll change anything.' Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I wasn't.
As it was, dawn was quickly approaching. I made my way back to where Temari and Gaara were, and was glad to see that Temari was up. Wordlessly I jumped by them, and they followed, while Mani was at my side. Wordlessly we made it back to Konoha, I guessed that Gaara had told Temari that I already delivered the envelope.
After arriving (at about noon) I made my way straight to Tsunade's office and almost brought the door down I was knocking so hard. Shizune opened the door and Tsunade yelled at me. "What's the point of knocking if your just gonna break the door down?" I didn't have time for this. I went up to her, and yelled back. "I don't give damn about your door right now! I have much larger problems than that!" I slammed my hand against her desk. And I continued in a strained whisper. "I have the damn Akatsuki after my ass. So I have to resign from my Ninja duties, but I think it's best if we keep it up as if I'm still a ninja, otherwise I won't be able to come up with an excuse and some people will be pissed off, and that rage will be directed at you, not matter what I say." I lifted my hand from her desk, and I could see she really did not want to take orders from me, but she knew better from...past experiences not to disregard me. "Fine. Remember, if they do end up sucessfully captureing you, you will not me marked as Rogue because you are no longer Ninja, and are welcome back, depending on what I say if you ever come back." I nodded, and was about to leave but stopped myself. "Oh, and by the way, the documents were brought safely around roughly 1 am." I said and exited the building. Mani jumped up into my arms and I held him, walking to my apartment.
Walkin in I first changed into a new set of clothes, then went straight to the roof. I sat with my knees hugged to my chest as a clone I had made played with Mani. Getting bored I did some flexing, bending my back backwards until I was bent over in half (backwards). It wasn't as painless as I'd like, so I kept the position 'till it didn't hurt anymore. Putting my hands onto the cement above my head I brought my legs up so that I was now doing a handstand. Standing back up normally I practised my Taijutsu (on the air) Doing flips and flexing my body into positions that really shouldn't be humanly possible with out breaking bones, kciking and punching. Like they saym practise makes perfect. Or does it really?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Elsewhere~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Third Person POV
A man in an orange lollipop-like mask held a picture that showed a little girl, about seven or eight in it. She had dark brown hair, and wasn't smiling. Her face was sullen, and serious. Then the picture began to alter, and the image changed. Now the girl was a year older, the age of eight. It was obvious because of the poor excuse for a birthday party. Her hair was darker, and her eyes were even more sullen than before. The image changed multiple times, her eyes always sullen and her haird growing darker and darker, until it was black. Then the bloodred streaks began to appear. And each image showed her outside, never inside. Then the last 'slide' formed, and it was a video. It showed her performing in what seemed to be her home village. Singing and dancing.
The man spoke once it finished. "Did you meet pretty girl-chan? Tobi remembers her from a long time ago." 'Tobi said.{A/N: Yes, I just had to put girl-chan there. And honestly it's the only time I ever will. } "Yes Tobi, we did. And she threatened us. Now you better help us get her here. Because we already know she's not coming without a fight." Fish-boy (Kisame) said. Tobi nodded his head furiously. "Yes, Tobi will help. Tobi knows her well." He said, and then went off somehwhere.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Back in Konoha~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Renjira's POV
After training for some time it was getting dark, so I went back into my apartment. It was a good thing nobody bothered my today, but who knows tomorrow they could ambush me and the girls will try to friggin' pamper me an' shit while trying to get my pissed off assout to do something fun. I sighed heavily and layed down on my bed, thinking, my fingers laced together behind my head.