Kate sat on the thin blanket she'd woken up on and stared at the group eating 'breakfast'. In all honesty, it wasn't any breakfast she'd ever eaten. Yeah, definitely not breakfast, she thought, looking down at the little wrapped squares she'd been given. It was like some cutesy kind of army food or freeze dried TV dinner. Or maybe a Slim Fast package deal? After the group had agreed to have 'breakfast', Karin had taken out a scroll which made sizzling noises like a frying pan and smoked. After the smoke cleared there sat 4 little packs of 'food'. Of course, the ninja survival food was basically a few super dried out bars that as far as Kate was concerned, weren't edible. She looked over to where Jugo was calmly using his super strength to break them into manageable pieces and Suigetsu was literally gnawing them apart like a dog...definitely not edible. Sasuke hadn't been hungry, or maybe he was just being Sasuke, but he'd thrown his over to her and moved to sit on a large boulder above the encampment and was sitting like a vulture purveying the area. Karin had done her part to glare at Kate and mumble something about 'moochers' and 'whores'. It seemed that even in a group of weirdos, Kate stood out... which wasn't much help for her already tattered nerves. Maybe if she wasn't half naked? Why was she wearing a hospital gown anyways? How'd she get here?
"So..." Suigetsu started out loud while ripping apart the last of his breakfast blocks and stuffing them in his face, "How about we start story time?"
"Ugh!" Karin spat out, proceeding to swap him across the back of the head, "Can't you shut up for just a minute?! Why must you always be so-"
"Karin," Sasuke interrupted quietly from where he sat above them. She instantly clammed up and was quiet, but she still did her part to glare menacingly at Suigetsu. Jugo just sat calmly and proceeded to scatter the pieces of his blocks onto the ground.
"What?!" Suigetsu yelped, "W-Why'd you waste that good food?! You could'a given it to me!"
"It's for my friends." Jugo said patiently, and sure enough the birds from earlier began to flock down and peck at the small pieces of what was previously inedible blocks.
"And it's not a waste," Jugo began again, "They're priceless scouts- they've been keeping watch over the areas near here to keep us safe. It's the least we can do to thank them."
"May I..." Kate began. She was nervous about drawing attention to herself, but this was something she'd wanted to ask since she first woke up and saw Jugo's birds. "May I hold one? How do you get them to tolerate you? Where I come from-" She paused, and then adjusted herself a little, "Where I thought I came from... the wild birds never trusted anyone."
The group around her was quiet and then Jugo smiled a soft, serene smile that made her question if he really was a 'bad guy' at all.
"Of course." he answered quietly, and gently held his hand out to her. She wasn't sure what he wanted at first but quickly realized he wanted her hand. She held hers out and he gently grasped it. With his other free hand he gracefully adjusted a small bird from his shoulder to her hand. Kate was stunned. She could feel the little talons of it's feet on her fingers and feel it's weight register onto her wrist... and she smiled. It was her first time holding a bird and she was amazed. He'd let go of her hand and she was holding it by herself. It cheeped and chirped in her hand and she couldn't help but stare at it. Somewhere in the back of her mind she was still nervous and unsure, but at that moment she was absolutely positive that she didn't care what the truth of her circumstances were. For some reason she felt like she belonged here...here on her "bed roll" that just happened to be camped out near four wanted S-class criminal ninjas that as far as she knew could be imaginary or real. Everything was quiet. Only nature provided sound. They all sat there in quiet, taking it all in, waiting for her to start. And so, after letting the small bird flutter away to peck at the remaining crumbs, she did.
"I know that you're wondering who I am. And honestly, right now I'm wondering the same thing. Right now I'm being forced by circumstance to question every memory and feeling I've ever had and wonder if they were real or not. I'm confused, and scared, and quite honestly excited and upset at the same time. It's really... overbearing. So please understand that this is hard... I mean-"
"It's okay," Jugo said softly from where he sat still feeding the birds, "Just begin wherever you feel most comfortable."
Kate shook her head in the affirmative and sat for a minute gathering herself and preparing herself for explaining what she knew and how she knew it. The only question was, how do you explain it all and where to begin?
- - - - -
"All of my memories center around my life as I knew it. I was the only daughter of a wealthy middle class doctor who lived in the country with his wife. They adopted me when I was a baby and I soon became closely knit with my adoptive older brothers. I had friends, a fortune, and of course, health, freedom, and love. I didn't want for anything... but I still wanted things... don't we all?
In this place, this reality I knew, there were no ninjas, no chakra, no battles between mercenaries for villages. There were nations (I lived in one of the most powerful ones) and those nations battled each other with fire and weapons and bombs of unimaginable power, at least, for you guys it's probably unimaginable... People like me dreamed of living in other realities with adventure, or action, or romance because... well, because somehow our everyday lives weren't that interesting or worth paying attention to as the ones we could make up.
There were many popular books, movies, and manga that people immersed themselves into. For me, and many others, these was one named "Naruto", yes, as in Naruto Uzumaki your friend from the leaf, Sasuke. Everything that's happened, well I assumed it's happened, so far was detailed in that manga. From the looks of how Jugo's dressed and you guys work together, I'm assuming we're about... half-way from where I left off? I mean-"
"Does that mean you know the future? Like a fortune teller?" Suigetsu interrupted. Karin elbowed him harshly, while Sasuke's eyebrows rose.
"Um, sort of?" Kate answered, biting her lips from stress and uncertainty.
"Hn. Explain more. What do you know?"
"Is it going to rain tomorrow?" Suigetsu bit in again.
"Is he ever going to shut up?" Karin mumbled. Sasuke shot them both one single sharingan filled glare and the camp was quiet as death.
"Um, well... let's see... um, you guys just picked up Jugo, right?" They nodded in answer and she paused to recollect on what happened in the manga.
"Well, from here you guys go to an old secret Uchiha hide out in some abandoned city... and there's lots of cats and some old lady and... uh... should I really be telling you this?"
"Why would there be a problem with you telling us something?" Jugo asked, his curiosity seeping through his quiet demeanor.
"Because what happens if me telling you changes what will happen? What if everything's changed already? What-"
"Shut up."
The camp fell silent as Sasuke rose and crossed the small distance between them. He knelt down and looked her straight in the eyes.
"You'll tell us what you know when the times to tell us come. Until then you'll cooperate and we'll see how useful your are. Understood?"
"Um, y-yeah, I guess."
"If for a minute I feel you're useless to us or you turn on us, I'll eliminate you."
The camp was eerily quiet after that. Sasuke slowly sauntered back to his small blanketed area and then he bit out orders for the group to begin packing and then move out. Slowly, the rest of team Hawk turned and followed him and begun packing up.
Kate quickly moved to fold the blanket she'd been given and leave the meal bar for Suigetsu, which he took with a toothy smile and wink.
Maybe joining this group wasn't such a good idea after all? … At least for the time being, she was safe. She was going to be guarded by four powerful ninjas, one of whom was an Uchiha. And on top off that, she was officially part of team Snake (since they didn't turn "Hawk" till later) but that didn't mean everything was great. She was also just threatened... and on top of that... she wasn't sure she'd be that useful. She'd never finished the manga because it hadn't been finished... at least... as far back as she could remember. Now that she paused to think about it, she couldn't remember what was the last thing that happened. What... what was going on?
"Keito."
Kate turned around to find herself near Jugo. He was looking at her calmly.
"What? Who's Keito?"
"A-aren't you?" He asked, obviously surprised.
"Um, no, I said my name was Kate, right? Kate."
"Keito."
"No, KATE. K-A-T-E."
"You just said that, Keito."
"Argh! No, my name is- ugh, never mind. You obviously can't understand."
"Or you're just repetitive, princess." Karin spat from where she was busy adjusting her jacket. "The papers said your name is KeitoR1146. You've been arguing back and forth with Jugo for 3 minutes now and you've both been spouting the same name. Just let it drop princess."
Kate threw her a glare which Karin shot back just as fast. It was obvious theirs was to be a tumultuous relationship, since they were both girls who needed to prove themselves to the same man, either for same or different reasons.
"Enough. Finish packing up. I'd like to get to the compound by mid-day." Sasuke said to the encampment, and then moved to his "perch" on a large rock formation.
- - - - -
The fire was covered with water (just in case) and the bed rolls were efficiently rolled up and then stored away in small scrolls that were located in a bag around Juugo's whole process was interesting to Kate. She'd never seen an object stored in a scroll before. To her amazement it was incredibly similar to the show interpretation. The item or items in question were placed on the scroll. Then a series of small hands signs were made and a smoke hazily began to form around the items. Soon the smoke enveloped the items, and then disappeared. Kate was astounded. Karin begrudgingly showed Kate numerous times how the items molded themselves in and out of the different scrolls.
It was decided that they'd travel in a diamond format (not that anyone was going to argue with Sasuke). Karin would lead the group in the front scouting for chakra while Suigetsu and Sasuke were behind her on the right and left ready for any possible attacks. Taking up the rear were Juugo and Kate, perched on his back. Kate didn't mind at first, it all sounded so organized and to her they were the professionals. She reminded herself that no matter how many times she'd read the manga and dreamed about being a ninja, she certainly wasn't one. And so they set out, traveling wherever Sasuke had ordered them since he was the only one who knew where the "Uchiha Compound" was.
Of course while traveling on tree branches was entertaining and exciting at first, it soon became as annoying as riding a horse. The continuous up down up down up down motions were driving her nuts, slowly. Very slowly. While Juugo's hold on her thighs was fine, strong and comforting, she could tell after a couple hours that she couldn't feel her toes. She was pretty sure her legs had fallen asleep. She'd decided that while the show and comic made it look simplistic and easy, in real life it was hell on her body. There was no such thing as a ninja Tarzan. The group in front of her was sweaty, panting and they smelled like cross country and dirt. Overall she wasn't sure what made her more nauseous, the movement of her 'ride' or the smell of them. On top of not being able to feel her feet, she was incredibly bored. It wasn't that she had a short attention span or anything like that (although it was probably true)...it was the fact that no one talked. At all. Ever. During the whole time. And everyone knows that a silent hour always feels longer than one that's talked through. Kate was devastated. This hadn't just been an hour of quiet. It'd been many hours. And while she understood that they were ninjas, and ninjas were cautious and wary of possible attacks, this was too much quiet for her. So finally, with a lot of apprehension and nervousness (was it okay to talk?), she'd quietly whispered in Juugo's ear that she was bored and couldn't feel her toes. Of course, being the most understanding of the group, in Kate's opinion, he slowed down enough to shift her weight a little and allow her to stretch out her arms.
"Can we, talk a little?" She whispered.
"Well, I'm not very talkative and Sasuke likes his silence. He's given us a few good chakra filled hate glares for talking while traveling already..."
"Sounds like he's got a big stick up his ass... maybe he's just a closet gay and it's grating on him..."
Jugo chuckled and shifted her weight mid jump in between two limbs. It scared a startled gasp out of her and she tightened her grip around his neck. Sasuke visibly turned his head towards Jugo and glared.
"Jugo, careful. Don't injure her."
Kate could feel Jugo bristle under the gaze and knew that the criticism and suggestion that he'd injure anything let alone her, bothered him. Maybe there was more to this team than the manga showed... one thing was for sure, she was going to find out.
