Gender Bender Naruto: The Series
By: KioKat
Summary: We all know Naruto, the #1 knucklehead, loudmouth ninja, right? Well, what if He had been a She? What if the whole Naruto world had been flipped around? The kunoichi now shinobi and vice versa? Join us on the adventure of a lifetime with Uzumaki Nariko, Konoha's #1, knuckleheaded Kunoichi!
xox
Chapter 14: Panic, Fear, and Too Many Memories
(Completed: 03-08-10 )
x
x
The trio of genin stood frozen in place, surrounding their client as the fog thickened and their sensei disappeared within the mist.
How had it come to this?
Things had gone easily enough. After agreeing to escort Toshirou the rest of the way, the four shinobi had traveled until they had come to a large expanse of water. With some persuasion from their dark-haired client, an older fisherman had rowed them across, and except for an awed cry from Nariko on seeing the bridge and an angry shushing from Seiichi, the trip had been silent.
Nearly to Toshirou's home, they had left the boat and set off once more. It had seemed they weren't going to face any more trouble when she had arrived.
At 5'11" with strong shoulders and the eyes of a killer, Momochi Yuzuna made for an imposing figure, especially with her giant "guillotine" blade as she called it.
Kairi had instantly called for the three of them to surround Toshirou, but then, Yuzuna had whipped out a strange jutsu that had caused a thick fog to consume the area, which brought them to as they were now...
The trio held their kunai tightly before them, glancing about nervously. The dark, heavy tension to the air strangled their voices and kept even Nariko quiet. But for the nervous swallows and quick breaths, all was silent and the genin strained to hear.
"Wh..." Nariko licked her lips before attempting to speak again, voice smaller than normal. "What's going on out there?"
Seiichi glanced at her, shifting anxiously, as he attempted to scan the grounds around them. Shrugging helplessly, he gave the space before them a worried stare.
While the two extroverted members to the team remained troubled but fairly calm, their naturally quiet teammate was simply a bundle of nerves. Her grip alternately tightened and loosened upon the handle of her kunai as her eyes darted about almost agitatedly. She transferred her weight from foot to foot restlessly as she quietly struggled to take breath.
The intent, the pure... tension within the air seemed to shove itself down her throat and clog her lungs. It constricted her chest like metal bands, tightening with each second. The air, the very air she breathed was too thick, as cloying as those sweets she detested so much. It reminded her far too greatly of that plate of dango set on the table, an excessively generous amount of some syrup or other added to the treats. The sight turned her stomach with disgust as pale fingers grasped the wooden skewers to slip the sweet into the mouth of a face that glanced up from its work to stare at her, smiling too kindly, too gently...
Sakaye choked on the sickly-sweet smell, so strong she felt she could taste it, her stomach rolling violently at the excessive sweetness and that face...
"Would you like a taste, Sakaye-chan?"
That face; that lying, lying face...
'Lies, lies, all lies... You remember, don't you?'
Oh, yes, she remembered well. Far too well. That taste, the awful syrupy taste on her lips and mouth as she gagged, and that smile, that light laughter...
"Oh dear, I suppose it is a little sweet."
The heavy taste, slipping down, down, down her throat, sliding, choking, so thick, thick, thick, so... so sugary, too sweet, nauseating, overpowering as fingers brushed her cheeks and removed the excess from about her mouth, but not from inside where it suffocated, strangled...
"Here. Let me help you..."
Too much... Too much, too much. Her eyes, they blazed and watered, her nose was on fire, and the taste remained, refused to leave her be as it choked, choked...
Giggle. "You're so messy."
Choked.
"Sakaye!"
The dark-haired female jolted terribly as she whipped her wild gaze forward, gasping for breath and sweat soaking her body even as the cold mist surrounded them. Her form trembled as her vision shook and blurred.
Wait. Blurred?...
She blinked, her sight strangely clearing with the motion, and inhaled sharply as a strange heat slipped down her cheek to mingle with the burning fire that seemed to have taken hold of her features.
Even through the fog Kairi could sense her student's panic and the shock of the others on discovering it. She wondered at the Uchiha's behavior—memories awakened by the situation at hand perhaps?—and questioned if the girl had even realized that she had flipped her kunai, the point turned dangerously close to the vital vein that ran through her stomach.
"Calm down," the jounin called. "As long as I'm here, all of you will remain unharmed." Smiling though she knew they couldn't see it, she carefully slid up her headband, revealing the scarred left eye she kept hidden beneath, which lay shut for the moment.
"The minute I named you Squad 7, we became comrades, teammates..." She glanced back at where she knew they stood, both eyes falling shut. "...companions."
The three genin and Toshirou clung to her words, unknowing that she had even turned in the first place as she shifted her gaze forward once more.
"I won't let you die," she stated adamantly.
However, with a half-teasing glint to her eye, she added lightly, "It would kill my teamwork if I did."
Seiichi released a breathless laugh, fear morphing into disbelief. At a time like this...
Yet, his face grew solemn as he watched Sakaye's tense body slowly relax. The grip on her kunai loosened before tightening with new vigor. The strange, dazed-but-not look to her eyes faded and the dark orbs become firm once more. Her limbs pulled from their tight constraints against her sides and her stance widened into one more appropriate for a defensive maneuver.
Olive green orbs flicked over her face. Her expression had become one he better recognized and the flush to her visage had faded. Even so, that shiny tear stain marred her cheek and his insides roiled uneasily at the sight.
Just what had happened? She had been so... calm when those other two nin had attacked, so what had caused Sakaye to panic now?
Strange; he never thought he'd hear the words Sakaye and panic in the same sentence, but it was the only one he could think to use that could truly describe what Sakaye had done. She was normally so collected, so absolutely unaffected, yet when he had realized how her kunai had been twisted...
'Sakaye-chan...' came Seiichi's single, worried thought.
Nariko furrowed her eyebrows and peered at her rival, blue eyes flecked with concern. Due to her position, she could only view the Uchiha's back, but even she had been able to see the trembling of the dark-haired girl's form and the child-like stance she had taken: knees buckled, shoulders hunched, head dipped, and hands before her—assumably clutched to her chest.
Confusion darkened the pigtailed girl's face and a frown tugged at her lips.
"Sakaye-gaki?" she hissed across at the girl, eyebrows drawn downward.
Seiichi spared the blonde a puzzled, narrow-eyed glance, but the shift of Sakaye's head indicated that she had heard.
"What's up with you?" Nariko whispered. "You're not chickening out on us, are you?"
The Uchiha tilted her face to glare at the whiskered girl.
"Don't be ridiculous," Sakaye bit out, turning away to quickly scrub the uncomfortable wetness from her cheek. Sweat, she insisted. Nothing more.
The dark-haired kunoichi then shook her head once and resumed her defensive position. "Now shut up and focus. Don't want you getting killed because you can't pay attention."
The short genin turned red with anger. "You..."
"Nariko, shut up!" Seiichi barked suddenly, eyes wide.
Startled by the command, especially the odd desperation to it, Nariko silenced, watching as her crush focused intently on something in the distance.
Shortly after, she discovered what when voices drifted through the air, indicating that Kairi and Yuzuna had been speaking as the trio conversed.
"Well, well, well," Yuzuna said gleefully, bringing to mind a demented glint in the criminal's eye. "Hatake Kairi, the Copy Cat ninja and famed user of the Sharingan. I've certainly been looking forward to this..."
Sakaye whipped her head up in shock. Sharingan? But—No way. That was impossible. Sharingan belonged to the Uchiha, and other than herself and... her, there were no others, so how could Kairi possibly...?
The girl's mind raced as Seiichi frowned at the word. Sharingan? That sounded familiar, but...
Nariko simply glanced at the other two in confusion.
"Sharingan?" she echoed, not realizing that she was speaking aloud her teammate's thoughts. "What's that?"
She garnered an annoyed, frustrated glance from her crush in response.
"How should I know?" Seiichi grumbled angrily. He hated not knowing things...
"Kekkei Genkai."
The two snapped their heads toward the Uchiha, who observed the space where the pair of jounin presumably were darkly.
"It's a Kekkei Genkai, a bloodline limit," the girl muttered, narrowing her eyes. "It allows the user to copy any jutsu they see, as well as see through any jutsu and then reflect it back at their opponent."
Seiichi's frown deepened and his frustration grew. He was certain he knew this. It sounded so familiar, but he just couldn't...
"It's characteristic of the Uchiha clan."
His eyebrows shot up and his eyes widened.
Oh. That was it.
Nariko blinked, only becoming more confused. "Eh? Sensei's an Uchiha? But her name–"
"No," Seiichi said slowly as it dawned on him. "She's not... That's what makes this weird."
The three glanced at each other.
Their sensei had the Sharingan, but she wasn't an Uchiha...
Exactly how many secrets did the jounin have?
oxoxo
Had circumstances been different and had Kairi known her students' question, she might have grinned with that odd gleam to her eye and responded in some way that answered their question but didn't really, as she had found this increasingly amusing to do the more she came to know them.
But they weren't and she didn't, so Kairi ignored the hissed and muttered conversation of her students. When facing an opponent like Momochi Yuzuna, one needed all their concentration, so all her concentration she would give.
She glanced about, her Sharingan eye now activated and whirring as she observed her surroundings. A sense of satisfaction consumed her on locking with her target. Yuzuna sat on a tree branch about 6 meters to her right, thinking that the mist could hide her.
Well, perhaps it could, but her chakra it could not. In fact, the color contrasted quite nicely with the the dense fog, making her form all the more visible. Even so, Kairi attempted not to shift too greatly in that direction. A master in the art of silent killing, Yuzuna could discern an opponent's position and movement simply by the near-silent shift of their feet. If the rogue nin felt at all that Kairi knew of her location, then she was likely to turn the battle towards a swift and ugly note.
"What's the matter?" the Ex-Mist nin called out, the grin obvious in her voice. "Can't see me?" Yuzuna cackled, not waiting for a response.
The jounin nearly smiled at the irony, but restrained herself for fear of the other growing suspicious and learning of her advantage. That wasn't to say that the bandaged kunoichi could possibly hear someone's lips quirk upward, but depending on how greatly trained Yuzuna's ears were, it was possible she could hear the stretching of cloth if Kairi grinned beneath her mask. Given the woman's skill and record, it wouldn't be that much of a stretch if she could. Thus, Kairi dared not risk it.
'Shinobi Rule #32: Better careful than dead.'
Kairi suppressed another smile.
"What? Are you just going to stand there?" Yuzuna sneered. "Don't tell me you're going to give up so soon..." A maniacal grin suddenly consumed her features and her voice turned dark. "I haven't even gone over my murderer's to-do list yet."
"M-murderer's to-do list?" Nariko gulped, glancing about nervously.
"Oh, yes..." the enemy hissed excitedly. "Did you know I can drill through 8 different parts of your body to kill you?"
As the opposing kunoichi recited her list, ("Throat, spinal column, lungs, liver!") Kairi glanced back at where her students' chakra glowed, unable to separate one from the other. In fact, the colors blurred somewhat...
The jounin narrowed her eyes, knowing that it was not simply the distance and mist that made it so, though they helped matters little. She was also well-aware that her Sharingan could never truly be on par with one naturally acquired or with one attained by someone of Uchiha birth. There were certain limitations to what could be done with hers, and she knew the chances of hers progressing any further were unlikely, if not impossible.
However, now was not the time for such thoughts. She had an enemy to take care of and four people to protect.
One such person trembled where she stood, blue eyes darting around as the Mist nin finished her list and cackled.
"Which one would you like me to start with?" Yuzuna's voice rang out with a snigger.
Nariko shivered, clutching her kunai so tightly that her knuckles turned white. Sweat dripped from her forehead and cheeks, and her breath quickened. Had the blonde been in a better state of mind, she might have thought it ironic how similarly she mirrored her rival's former state of only ten or so minutes ago, but she was not, and so it didn't register that she was also beginning to fall victim to fear.
A pair of mismatched black and red orbs shot back towards the whiskered girl, who was quickly descending into a panic as the female Uchiha had not too long ago. Kairi's lips pulled tight, thoughts of Yuzuna hearing the action fleeing from her mind, as she called out to her students once more, though a little more frustrated that before.
"Calm down!" she shouted. "I've said it once and I'll say it again: I won't let you–"
"Don't bet on it."
The three genin froze as the voice resounded just behind their backs, and Toshirou gaped at the crouched kunoichi.
'When did she–?'
The blade swung, but Kairi abruptly appeared, stabbing the jounin in the back as the other four dropped to the ground. Yuzuna burst into a puddle of water as the silver-haired nin spun around and ducked, the large blade barely grazing the tips of her hair. Kairi whipped out a foot to remove her opponent's feet from under her, but Yuzuna simply leapt into the air so that the leg swept beneath her harmlessly. Kairi quickly braced her palms on the damp soil and brought her feet up to clip the other's jaw. The Mist nin then heaved the heavy blade before her to block the kicks and Kairi twisted, pushing off from her hands to return to her feet again while Yuzuna charged after her, continually swinging her blade.
The two jounin fought fast and furiously, the Konoha kunoichi dodging the enemy's large sword as Yuzuna fought for an opening. The criminal was fast, but Kairi was faster. The dark-haired kunoichi cut through the Copy Cat nin, only for her to disperse in a splash of water, the droplets spraying upon the Ex-nin's back as she spun around to block a kunai meant for her spine.
Their small audience watched with amazement as the pair moved far too quickly for them to catch any more than the sound of their battle and the sparks of light where Yuzuna's blade clashed with a well-placed block of Kairi's kunai.
'So this... is what a jounin battle looks like,' Sakaye thought. A shiver coursed through her body, but the look in her eye indicated that it was not from fear.
Seiichi gaped, too thunderstruck to be frightened. 'So... So fast!'
Toshirou merely gave up attempting to observe the battle, simply waiting and hoping that Kairi would win.
And Nariko, normally the most confident, excited, and loudest of the trio, was none of the above. Instead, she trembled where she sat, in the same place where she had landed when they had leapt for the ground. The blonde attempted to control her tremors, but they continued and her eyes welled up.
What was wrong with her? She had never in her life felt this way before. She had experienced it briefly when the earlier two nin had attacked, but that had been over quickly and it had been done with. This, however...
She had been so close to dying. She had felt the wind as Yuzuna had swung her blade, had actually felt the breeze as it just barely missed the top of her head. She was certain if she bothered to check that she'd find a few strands of blonde hair on the ground where the enemy jounin had sliced through the very tips of her pigtails, but she didn't for fear that the sight would finally cause her to break down.
She inhaled sharply and her breath came out raggedly when she exhaled again. Then, she shut her eyes tight, trying to force back the burning within them.
Damn it... Damn it, damn it! What was wrong with her? Why was she so...
...Scared?
Kairi briefly glanced back at her students, sensing the blonde's distress.
Yuzuna took the chance to sink her blade into the ground and, grasping the handle tightly, swung her body around it, legs whipping out for a hard kick.
Kairi spun back just in time for her to cross her arms before her, as the Ex-nin's feet caught her fully and sent her flying. The silver-haired jounin pulled into herself and rolled on the ground, springing up instantly, but Yuzuna was there with another swing of her sword. Not expecting the attack, Kairi stumbled back into a puddle, water sloshing around her ankles. With a swift recovery, she pulled out a kunai and shot it at the jounin, hoping to gain some precious time while the other blocked.
But she did not block as Kairi had desired. Instead, Yuzuna dodged the projectile, swapping her sword to her other hand as she snapped out her arm.
It was then, and only then, that Kairi realized the thickness of the water in which she stood.
"Suirou no jutsu!" Yuzuna cried. "Water Prison!"
The puddle shot up from the ground and encased the Konoha jounin. Instantly, Kairi struggled, attempting to jerk about and push at the edges, but her arms wouldn't move more than a centimeter or two, if even that, against the unnaturally heavy liquid constricting her form.
Knowing to attempt movement any further would be useless, Kairi halted and allowed her mind free reign, thoughts flying through her head.
She recognized the jutsu, a C-rank meant for close range, and understood how it worked. In fact, she had used it herself once or twice. Given that, she also knew how to break it.
The jutsu required bodily contact at all time. As useful as the technique was for imprisoning and containing someone, it was only that contact that could keep it functioning. The only way to eradicate the jutsu was to break the contact the user had on the sphere of water. The person on the inside would be unable to accomplish such a feat as the jutsu completely restricted their movement, and thus, prohibited them from freeing themselves. Unless, of course, the person were able to execute a strong enough earth jutsu to counter the water element, given that they were also able to use jutsu without hand signs—which was, as far as she knew, impossible—or the prisoner was of the Hyuuga clan and were to use that famous Kaiten of theirs, releasing chakra from any point on their body in order to burst the liquid bubble.
Unfortunately, Kairi was neither, so she required a second shinobi to force the user, Yuzuna, to break contact with the sphere of water in which the silver-haired jounin was encased. Said shinobi would have to come up with some sort of plan that could distract the enemy kunoichi long enough to bring her to incidentally break the contact on her own, or perhaps attack her or drive her into a corner in such a way that she was forced to relinquish her contact.
It was in glancing over the four before her—the shocked Sakaye, the pale Seiichi, the horrified Toshirou, and the trembling Nariko—that Kairi finally came to a terrifying revelation.
She was screwed.
oxoxo
The blonde stared at their jounin, wide-eyed and shocked, as her body's shaking increased in strength.
No way. This... This couldn't be happening! There was no way this enemy nin could capture Kairi of all people!
Nariko tried to connect the image of the powerful, albeit laid-back kunoichi she had come to know over the past month with the captured, helpless ninja before her. The sight absolutely terrified her, and the look on Yuzuna's face as she eyed the four of them... it turned her blood cold in ways she couldn't have possibly even begun to describe. The girl's body shook so hard her vision quivered, and the tremors forced the hot wetness in her eyes to finally spill over and down her cheeks.
The dark, suffocating intent to the air increased as Yuzuna grinned beneath her mask, amused by the blonde's fear. She chuckled menacingly. This might be more fun than she thought.
The enemy nin quickly formed a seal and a water clone formed beside her, making the whiskered girl's eyes round further and her fingers dig into the ground.
Kairi gritted her teeth. It was obvious enough that neither of the three could handle the jounin, even without the absolute terror reflected in their eyes or the shivers that continued to overtake Nariko's body.
Decision made, she jerked her head slightly and shouted to the three. "Run!"
Their heads snapped towards her.
"You can't fight her!" Kairi exclaimed, bubbles flying from her mouth. "Take the client and run!" Her eyes flashed with a sense of worry when they didn't move, so she decided to push harder. "She's a jounin, a seasoned jounin, even more powerful than me! She's a criminal and a murderer; she'll kill you in an instant!" Her eyes darkened. "The mission comes first, and that means protecting Toshirou at all costs! Her bunshin has a range! If it goes too far, it disperses! If you leave now, you might stand a chance, so go!"
They didn't move.
"Now!"
The terrified Nariko didn't have to be told again.
'I-I can't take her!' the blonde thought, scrambling to her feet. 'She'll kill us for sure! I–We have to–!'
In her rush, she slipped on the damp ground. The blonde cried out as she hit the dirt, limbs shaking as she did, and the girl simply lay there on her stomach, fighting back tears.
"Any one of them could have been killed as a result."
"We could have died!"
"You know you can't be Hokage if you're dead, right?"
"Did you know I can drill through 8 different parts of your body to kill you?"
"Are you insane!"
"We could have been killed!"
"Throat, spinal column, lungs, liver!"
"I won't let you die."
"Don't bet on it."
A sob tore itself from her throat and the tears spilled over.
'I... I can't do it,' she whimpered. 'She's going to kill me. I'm going to die. We're all going to die...'
Her body tensed as footsteps neared. Whipping her head around, she jerked herself up in fear.
SLAP!
All went silent as the sound echoed throughout the clearing, Nariko's head snapping to the side as Sakaye glared harshly at her, slowly lowering her hand. A dark mark slowly developed on the smaller genin's whiskered cheek, the skin stinging, though the sensation seemed dulled against the sudden numbness her thoughts had taken.
She watched dumbly as her headband clattered to the ground, the force of the strike having sent it flying from her forehead. She stared at it, unseeing but not, as one memory stirred and emerged from the depths of her mind.
"Can I see yet?"
Light laughter filled her ears and she scowled at the sound, impatiently awaiting her confirmation.
"Not yet," the voice murmured as an odd sound, like the rustling of cloth, filled her ears.
The blonde frowned, puzzled by the noise and the sudden pressure on her head as her teacher's hands brushed past her ears. Her confusion grew further when she felt the woman's fingers fiddling with something on the back of her skull, and a jerk that caused a tightening around her temples and forehead.
Finally, the appendages left her and the girl's eyes darted beneath their lids.
"Alright," the woman finally said. "Open."
The eyes slid open, revealing a pair of puzzled cerulean blue orbs. Her hands instantly went to her forehead and the crease in her brow increased at the sensation of metal and cloth. The digits brushed across it as she observed her teacher, noting that something seemed off about the chunin.
Then, she came across the indention in the middle of her new accessory.
All movement halted and she gaped at the woman, eyes darting to the brunette's forehead as she realized that she was lacking something very important...
Izumi beamed at the girl. "Congratulations, graduate. You've just made genin."
Nariko was so stunned for a moment she almost couldn't remember to be happy or breathe. Izumi seemed to understand, for she simply smiled warmly at her student as she waited for the shock to diminish enough for the joy to win out.
Just a few more seconds and tears filled Nariko's vision yet another time that day. She quickly pounced on the older kunoichi, arms wrapping tightly around her and lips pulled far on her cheeks, as she grinned wider than she ever had before.
Izumi winced as the motion aggravated her wounds, but said nothing. She understood what the blonde wanted to say, knowing the only reason she didn't do so was the fear that opening her mouth would release the delighted sobs and not the grateful words she wanted. The brunette's smile softened as she wrapped her arms around the overenthusiastic blonde she had grown to care so deeply for.
Even with Nariko's insistence that she wouldn't cry any further, her teacher's next words broke that resolve and the dam released.
"I'm so proud of you," the woman whispered.
"...You'll make a wonderful kunoichi..."
Back in the present, Nariko mentally looked herself over and almost laughed.
She was being so... pathetic, so stupid. Hadn't she been the one claiming earlier that they should continue onward, threat of death or not? She had been the one saying it was their duty to not abandon people, and look at her! What was she doing?
She glanced back at their sensei, who sat in the liquid sphere, observing the four of them carefully.
"A true Hokage doesn't abandon someone who needs their help."
Her eyes drifted back to Toshirou and Seiichi, who stood a little distance before her, eyes wide.
"We're shinobi, Konoha shinobi! We help people when they ask for it. That's the point of the missions: to help people! That's what Konoha's about!"
Finally, her gaze fell on Sakaye, who sat crouched before her, slanted eyes dark but firm.
"We're Konoha shinobi, so let's start acting like it!"
The blonde stared at her rival a moment longer, before slowly reaching for her headband. She picked it up and gripped it tightly in her palm, before then returning her gaze to the other girl, her opposite in every way. A few seconds passed as they watched each other mutely.
Finally, Nariko grinned.
That seemed to be the reaction Sakaye had been waiting for, for she smirked in response and her stance relaxed slightly. She stood, as Nariko wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her jacket, and held out her hand to the blonde.
The whiskered girl accepted the gesture and allowed the Uchiha to pull her up. Eyes shining, the orange-clad genin smiled.
"...Thanks," she whispered softly.
The dark-haired female simply tilted her head slightly in response. "Hn."
Nariko grinned once more, swiftly tying her shinobi headband to her forehead where it belonged. She then turned to her teammates, blue orbs sparkling.
"I've got a plan."
Sakaye smirked again and Seiichi, after a moment of surprise, slowly smiled.
The three spared a glance at Toshirou, silently asking his permission for what they had to do. He hesitated, his dark eyes darting between them. Images of his daughter cluttered his brain, but at last, he sighed and nodded.
"If you must..."
Nariko's cheeks pulled tighter and her eyes squeezed shut briefly, before she returned once more to her squadmates.
"Alright, so here's what we're gonna do..."
o
o
Fun Facts:
– The title refers to both Sakaye and Nariko's moments of panic and fear, as well as the fear most everyone feels in this chapter. The memories, of course, refer to Sakaye's remembrance of her sister, but it could also refer to Nariko's memory regarding her graduation as a Genin and the snippets of remembered words as she is panicking. However, I had mostly had Sakaye's memory in mind when choosing that part of the title.
– The "Murderer's to-do list" was inspired by Naruto: Innocent Heart, Demonic Blood, which is a written version of the Naruto series all the way up to the Wave Arc. It called Zabuza's listing of the places to kill somebody a "Murderer's to-do list" and I liked the idea so much I chose to use it here.
– I was amazed to realize how quickly the Kakashi vs. Zabuza battle went when you pulled out all the extras dealing with everyone's thoughts and all that, which slowed the fight down. In the Shippuden anime, Naruto has a flashback to that battle and it was a great deal quicker than the original because they cut out the extras I mentioned. Thus why Kairi and Yuzuna's clash with one another is so fast.
– I almost ended this chapter with Kairi's revelation of "She was screwed," but decided that I didn't want the next chapter to begin with Nariko still in the state she was because I felt it would have had less effect than if I continued with and resolved her terror in the same chapter. Thus, I chose to lengthen it.
– Chapter 11, the chapter in which Nariko meets Kokoro, was written after this chapter, so this chapter used to be Chapter 13.
– So far we have had mention of two members of Sakaye's family: her father and her sister. However, the last will not be mentioned until Chapter 16, breaking the consecutive Sakaye-Memory streak.
– Because Nariko's hand had not been injured in the Demon Brothers battle like Naruto's, I couldn't use the pain of that to jolt Nariko from her terrified stupor. Thus, I used Sakaye as the wake-up call with a firm slap to the face. Grins. I have a feeling that Sakaye has been wanting to do that for quite some time. Laughs. I'm kidding—or am I? Anyway, I'm pleased with this change from the original Canon, however minor it may be.
– There seems to be a common assumption in the Naruto fandom that Itachi likes dango—Or it may just be the KisaIta one. I'm not actually sure. Anyway, it does not state in the Data Book that dango is his favorite food as is implied—Strangely, cabbage is listed for that. However, as I recall, it did state that Itachi's hobby is visiting old-fashioned Sweet Shops, which may be where the idea stemmed from. All the same, I have always liked the idea of Itachi having a sweet tooth, which explains the too-sweet plate of dango on that table.
– Memories can be very powerful things.