A/N: Oh wow. This is by far the longest chapter I've ever made. Hand-written, it was twenty five pages long. TWENTY FIVE. Just... holy crap. Anyway, thank you so so so much to everyone who is reading this and reviewing! You all really have no idea how much it means to me and I hope you all continue to help me learn about writing as well as enjoy my story! Have fun! (P.S. the song mentioned at the beginning is 'Anna Rose' by Vienna Teng. I encourage you to go listen =])
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it. Yosh.
Chapter 8 - Offense vs. Defence: A Little Ritual Bonding
I rubbed my eyes tiredly as I wondered the roads of Konoha, yawning (my breath did not smell, god damn it) and trying to ignore the humidity in the air that made my skin sticky. It was still much too early for the sun to rise. My stomach felt all weird and quivery from lack of sleep, but the soreness that coated my body had prevented me from resting anyway. The dewy air filled my nose and I stretched up lazily, oddly relaxed for the first time in a while.
Normally, you see, waking up so dreadfully early was high on the list of 'Kaya's Personal Taboo's', but a nagging sense of responsibility and whatever else it is that make old people to crap like this had me dragged out of bed three hours earlier than absolutely necessary. I figured that because I had my first 'formal' training session today and I was nowhere near being able to read Japanese directions, I should probably get a head start on finding the meeting place. Supposedly it was a big bridge with arches or something - Sakura had helpfully described it to me as 'hard to miss'. Perhaps no one hear realized that their village was the size of a small country. I sighed as I failed miserably to read yet another street sign. Surely someone of divine, unearthly powers had a very particular loathing for me.
I looked up boredly, counting the stars I could still see. It made me feel calm when no one was around like this. It seemed I'd been unhealthily busy these last couple of days, so even being lost in a dark, unfamiliar village didn't disturb my peace. It was quite nice actually.
I looked down and kicked a pebble off to the side, watching half-lidded as it tumbled.
"Left it is, then," I murmured, picking up the pebble and chucking it at the sign. Hopefully it would miraculously sprout nerve endings and feel my little token of despair, I mused before spinning on my heels and heading forward, humming the tune to 'Anna Rose'to myself. I really missed my Ipod...
A bird chirped somewhere and I was spontaneously reminded of Teddy. I threw my arms up and did a quick, arbitrary little victory dance in the middle of the street. I'd actually woken up on my own this morning! HA!... Teddy's an ass. Of course, he didn't really do anything bad, I suppose... but it makes me feel better to pretend.
There was a long time when this train of thought lead me to other completely irrelevant things and I soon found myself lost in a sea of disconnected musings. I won't get into right now, considering I have a story to tell, but I was abruptly brought out of my head a while later by the sound of my sandals contacting wood. Apparently, my divine, unearthly enemy decided to take pity on me today; so there I was, on the bridge that did indeed have big red arch-things. And I was three hours early. Damn it.
I sighed to myself and continued onward. It wouldn't hurt to wait, I supposed - the sun had already started to rise, so it was bound to eventually get warmer. I closed my eyes and plopped down by the railing, thumping the back of my head to the beam and mulling over my discoveries thus far. Other than the miscellaneous lunatics I'd encountered, the main characters of the Naruto plot seemed just like ordinary kids. And when I say 'ordinary' I mean bratty, selfish, and generally unintelligent. Sakura sounded like she could keep up with a conversation, which was good, but the boys seemed very blindly immersed in competition with each other. Judging by the ultimate lack of character development, I concluded, I was probably at the very beginning of the story. That meant that I had to have been transported here just when the series began.
I opened my eyes and glared up at the sky, just starting to leak into orange and purple streaks. 'Which means,' I thought bitterly, 'that I'm most likely stuck here until the story ends.'
I groaned and banged my head again. "How cliche."
...tap tap... tap tap...
Oh no. The Onomatopoeia O' Death.
I squinted an eye open slightly, hoping dearly that Sakura wasn't an early-bird. I still needed preparation time. I wasn't entirely sure how to react when I saw Sasuke instead, head down and hands stuffed in his pockets. He wasn't looking at me as he approached, more like staring depressingly down at the floor, but I could still see his face through the dark curtain of his hair. His bangs were held back neatly from his face by his ninja-head band thing and the orange sunlight was hitting his face at just the right angle, making his pale skin glow. I internally huffed and closed my eyes again, preffering to go unnoticed. Why did no one in this dimension have zits? Unfair.
The footsteps paused a little ways off as he probably spotted me. I tried to keep still and waited until they resumed again until he was leaning on the other side of the bridge, his glares burning holes into my face. I fought to keep my eyes closed and ignore it.
This went on for an irritatingly long five minutes and in no time I could feel a vein starting to twitch in my forehead. Why doesn't this kid freaking blink? And why can I feel him staring at me through my lids? People are not supposed to feel stares! I started to bristle, unnerved.
"Good morning," I worked out finally, swallowing the urge to stick my tongue out at him. Glaring at Kaya in the morning is a very bad idea. I don't care who he is - ninja, ANBU, Hokage or anyone else. Honestly. what did I ever do to this guy?
"..." There was no reply, but I assumed he'd looked away by the abrupt absence of discomfort. 'Jeez,' I thought, 'someones on their period...'
So we waited there in silence for what felt like (and probably was) hours, me biting back little shifts of discomfort and him letting his eyes drift closed patiently, occasionally sending me a one-eyed glare. I'd started pondering why he was being so Anti-Kaya at first, but one thing lead to another and I was suddenly thinking about food. I'd only had an apple that morning. Holy crap I was hungry.
"Er - excuse me," I put in softly, trying to avoid a glare. It didn't work. "do you happen to have, like, a power bar or something?"
He stared at me blankly, looked me up and down, then closed his eyes again and ignored me. I internally snorted a little. God forbid I ask the Almighty One for a source of nutrients. My morning grouchiness gone, now I was just curious.
"Can you talk?" I questioned innocently. The now hazy blue sky contrasted with his dark eyes as he opened them again, this time sparing me the glare in exchange for an annoyed look.
"Yes." Ah, so he isn't mute!
"I see," I nodded seriously. "So you're just being an ass, then?"
There it is. The glare. I sighed; that was a real question.
"...Is there a legitimate reason why you keep glaring at me?"
He huffed superiorly and lifted his head a little, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Because you're annoying."
He looked at me, maybe waiting for some kind of drastic reaction, but I only raised an eyebrow.
"How so? You do realize I've never even really talked to you, don't you?" I asked, now genuinely curious. I'd only (not even) known him for like, what? A day?
"..." No answer again. I almost laughed; he was like a little kid having a temper tantrum! He closed his eyes again and went back to ignoring me, turning his face to the side. If I didn't know any better, I would have said he was pouting. I chuckled a little into my hand and closed my own eyes, crossing my legs peacefully and lapsing into a suddenly tenseless silence. For the first time that morning, I was comfortable sitting with him in the quiet. It was funny how someone could be so untalkative he might as well not have been there at all could have such an imposing presence. (And no. That is not referring to everyone's towering height over me. Shut up.)
A bird chirped in the distance (which I subsequently winced at because recently chirping birds have been bad omens) and the water under the bridge trickled by in the background. It reminded me of camping with Jiraiya... call me crazy, but I was actually starting to miss the old perv. He was like the crazy uncle I never had... because he was disowned from the family and kicked out of his mom's house in order to pursue his questionable occupation as an "adult romance" author. Yeah. That's him. I wonder when I'll see him again... I internally grinned. I can't wait to show him what an awesome ninja I'll be. He'll be so impressed... Wait. What was I thinking about? Crap, I did it again. Okay, lets think. There was Sasuke being a bratty kid, power bars, birds...
"So Sasuke, why do you wear arm-warmers? It's got to be, like, spring or something, right?" I leaned forward and stared at him intently.
He blinked at me. "To hide weapons in."
"Oh... but doesn't it get hot?"
"No."
"Did you eat this morning?"
"What?"
"You know. Food. Did you eat?"
He gave me a 'WTF' look and shifted his position. "Hn."
"Good." I nodded approvingly, then stayed silent again. On the contrary, it was actually very not good, because now I couldn't ask him where the nearest food kiosk was and when it would open without sounding dumb.
"Sasuke-kuuuun!"
Sasuke immediately stiffened out of his relaxed posture (which was funny, because I couldn't remember when he'd looked even remotely relaxed. Maybe he was stiff no matter what his mood) and I cringed, whipping my head in the direction of the thundering footsteps. Pink hair. Lots of pink hair. I looked down and glared at my lap. Crap.
"Good morning, Sasuke-kun!" she piped cheerfully, clasping her hands behind her back girlishly as she wriggled her way next to him. A vein twitched in his head and if not for the awkward situation, I would have laughed. Sakura leaned forward and blushed.
"How are you feeling today?"
"..." No reply. I was torn between laughing and glaring at Sasuke for being so rude, so instead I coughed strangely. Sakura whirled around, taking surprised notice at my presence.
"Oh! Kaya-chan, I forgot you were on our team now!" Suddenly her tone went icy, "Were you and Sasuke-kun having... fun?"
I laughed nervously as she sent me a terrifying look. "Who- me? Nope! No fun here!" I patted my stomach heartily, "Just a little polite conversation brought on by delirium from lack of food."
"Oh," she blinked and gave a confused little smile, "um - okay. Well, in that case," she turned to Sasuke again and batted her eyelashes, "So Sasuke-kun, I was just wondering if after training today, you'd... um - maybe want to go out to eat or something. I mean it's probably going to be a long day and we won't get out until late if Kakashi-sensei doesn't show up soon-"
He suddenly opened his eyes, making her jump and squeak a little as he glared at her without moving his head (yeah, the guy has talent). She looked like she shrank into herself a little.
He looked at her for another moment, then closed his eyes (again) and donated a simple, "You're annoying."
I rolled my eyes at him. If it didn't work on me than why would it work on-
BAM!
A huge kanji fell out of the sky and nailed Sakura right in the head, causing her to face-plant into the wood, looking stricken. I flew backward and whip[ped my head around frantically.
"What in the holy fuck was that?! Did you see that thing just fall out of freaking space?!"
Sasuke ignored us as I quickly scrambled over to Sakura, trying to claw her out from under the gigantic anime-rock. "Freaking hell, Sakura are you still alive? Please don't say you're dead!"
"A...Annoying? I'm really annoying...?" she muttered brokenly. The giant kanji suddenly disappeared and she was one her knees, looking at her lap with watery eyes.
"-concussion?! That thing was huge! Who throws around large stones shaped like ideograms?! Are the construction workers here out of their god forsaken minds - Dude will you stop glaring at me already? There is no way you didn't see that!"
Sakura stared blankly at my blind rampage while I yelled at no one in particular about bridge-safety. Sasuke glared to his hearts content and I periodically demanded to know why (to which I only got a grunt) but gave up after a while and plopped right back down uncomfortably. Apparently I'm the only one with a high emotional sensitivity for things that fall out of the sky. Now I'm the only one not depressed on a foreign bridge with an asshole and a girl who's eyes I can't meet properly because she looks like my lost sister. Plus everyone here is a jolly bundle of fun.
Happy times.
The blond genin trudged wearily across the red bridge later that afternoon, his shoulders slouched and his eyes squinted shut as he made his way to the newly formed Team Seven. His footsteps tapped along through the peaceful silence as he rubbed miserably at his stomach. He'd only had the time for two cups of ramen before he left his flat and even then he'd been pushing it before he'd raced out the door, pulling on his jumpsuit hastily. If only Ichiraku was open before eleven...
"Ohayo, Sakura-chan!" he managed to grin out at the discouraged girl. She shot him a distasteful look and crossed her arms.
"You're late Naruto," she huffed, turning to the side. "You should be more like Sasuke-kun. He was the first one here!" Sakura glanced at him lovingly.
Sasuke shifted. Naruto pouted.
"But Sakura-chaaaan! The teme has no life! I could totally kick his - oof!"
Naruto took a nose-dive into the wood, grunting noisily as his head hit the ground with a thunk! Sakura cackled at him and he frowned, lifting his face to reveal large red imprints of the floor boards. He twisted his head back to look for what tripped him, only to discover a small sandal sticking lazily out into the walkway-
"Hey!" Naruto jumped back, hopping into a stupid looking accusational pose. "What're you doing here?! You keep getting me hurt and I didn't even eat this morning-"
"Shut up, Naruto! Kaya's on our team now, remember?" Sakura flipped her hair agitatedly. "Besides, she's asleep."
"Ehh?" He crawled over to the small figure to find that the girl was indeed sleeping, her messy brown hair hanging over her face as she leaned half-heartedly against the railing. Her breathing was soft and steady and her long brown eyelashes flickered every now and then, casting shadows on the tips of her flushed cheeks. Naruto thought she looked like a fairy.
"Why's she so little?" he poked her side obnoxiously, causing her to squirm a little. "And why's she on our team? I only wanted to be with Sakura-chan - it's bad enough I got stuck with Teme too!"
Sasuke looked like he was restraining himself impatiently from making a face and Sakura looked bored, scraping some red paint off a beam with a stick. "I don't know, maybe everyone where she comes from is like that. And I don't know why she's here - it must be a special case for her to come straight into a genin squad without going to the Academy. Maybe she's just really good."
Naruto continued to poke her in the ribs consecutively, taking a childish delight in watching her sleeping face quickly becoming irritated. Sasuke sighed.
"Stop it, dobe."
"Why should I?!" he stuck his tongue out and kept poking, this time a little more forcefully.
"Holy cow you guys, this chick sleeps like a rock!" he jabbed her harder and her leg twitched. "She's really squishy too. Maybe she-"
"GOD DAMN IT TEDDY, I'M SORE!" he heard her screech as a small foot connected with his stomach. It wasn't a hard kick, but it still skidded him back a few feet, almost knocking him into a hysterical Sakura. He grabbed his poor abdomen and cried streams of anime-tears as he felt his ramen slosh around inside of him.
"Owww..."
Kaya was suddenly on her feet with flames in her eyes, brandishing her fists to the general public.
"Where is he?! Where'd he go, let me at him!" her head whipped from side to side angrily. "I'll kill him if it's the last thing I do!"
"Uh... kill who?" Sakura squeaked in between giggles.
Kaya's face suddenly went blank as she seemingly remembered where she was. She blinked her green eyes and looked at each of them respectively, a million almost unreadable emotions flashing across her face in quick succession - confusion, surprise, suspicion, then finally settled on mortified horror.
"Oh my god!" She kneeled down in front of Naruto's crumpled form, fluttering worriedly. "Orange Kid! When did you get here?! Are you okay? Did I hurt you? Crap, you must hate me - I swear I just thought you were this guy that keeps sneaking into my apartment and harassing me because at first I thought he was just sent by someone to get me but then he started acting all 'oh yeah, I'm sixteen' and kept poking me so when you did that I thought you were him and I still owe him a good kick in the... er - yeah..." she paused when she noticed the odd stares she was getting. She cleared her throat and lowered her head. "My bad."
Naruto scratched his head, quickly forgetting about his spontaneous nausea. "Sure. So why are you so short?"
Sakura smacked her large forehead and Kaya blinked. "I'm sorry?"
"Yeah," he nodded wisely. "You talk like you're older but you have such a little foot."
"Little foot?"
"Yeah."
"Like the dinosaur?"
"Huh?"
"What?"
"Idiots." Sasuke grunted from the sidelines. Naruto was just about to turn around and tell the bastard to shut up when an inconspicuous 'poof! sounded from atop one of the arches and immediately grabbed the collective attention.
"Yo."
All at once Naruto shouted indignantly, Sakura chided, Sasuke twitched and out of the corner of everyone's eye, Kaya tensed up, her face once again filing through expressions at an unreadable pace.
"YOU'RE LATE!" Naruto cried, jumping up and down in anticipation. "Are you really gunna train us now, Kakashi-sensei? Like, really train us?!"
"Yes Naruto, really." he drifted down from his perch gracefully and rubbed the back of his head. "Forgive me for being so late. You se, there was this old woman across the street from me who needed help with her groceries and before I knew it..."
And then he drifted off into a long, elaborate, pathetically transparent tale that will not be discussed on the account that it will make you bored to tears. When he finally finished with a contented sigh, there was a long silence where all he received were four blatantly disbelieving stares. Then -
"I'll race Sasuke to the training grounds!" Naruto announced with a fist in the air.
"Hn."
"Don't be stupid, Naruto. Sasuke-kun would never do something so immature-"
"Sasuke's gone." Kakashi-sensei piped up cheerfully, pointing Sakura to the cloud of dust he left behind. Sakura stuttered incomprehensibly and Naruto started shouting again.
"That's not fair Bastard, you cheat!" And before anyone could blink, he was gone as well.
"Well," Kakashi-sensei stuffed his hands in his pockets and stepped forward. "I suppose that means we should go then. Girls?"
He flashed an eye-crinkle over his shoulder and Sakura sighed. She idly observed that this was probably going to be an even longer day than anticipated, and that she'd need to pay some more attention to her hair's constant attempts at frizzing. She hung her head dejectedly and followed his lead, absently twisting her head in the direction of Konoha's newest genin. She narrowly overlooked the mix of fear, sorrow, admiration, and irritation that flickered rapidly through the girl's face as she stared at Kakashi-sensei's retreating back.
"Come on, Kaya-chan." she goaded uncertainly.
Kaya seemed to snap out of her trance and sent Sakura an odd look before nodding eagerly. Sakura frowned a little to herself as Kaya jogged to catch up.
What a weird girl...
You know that feeling when you just know you're dead? Like when your organs forget their functions and start jumping around inside your body so that on the outside you look like a panicked, vibrating mess?
Yeah. Imagine that times three.
I don't know when this shaking crap started - I'd always been perfectly capable of holding still when I was scared before. Maybe it's because this is a situation in which I know there will be no pity. The only time I ever felt this was was during a public speaking assignment in the sixth grade. It wasn't so much that I was afraid, I guess (because quite honestly, I'm too stubborn to admit that). I'm just excruciatingly intimidated. I mean, come on! This Sasuke kid vomits fucking fire on people!
Uh huh. Absolutely dead.
Okay, perhaps I should start from the beginning . After Kakashi-sensei decided to make his grand entrance and managed to thoroughly freak me out, we'd made our way to a training field similar to Team Gai's, only more open. It was here that we already found Naruto and Sasuke going at it, so Sakura and I left to warm up by some trees while Kakashi-sensei broke them up before they killed someone. I ignored the fact that this made me feel entirely worthless (and judging by Sakura's frown, I wasn't alone) and kept busy answering Sakura's rapid-fire inquiries without ever looking her directly in the eye. Honestly, the girl never rests. I knew I couldn't possibly be that interesting, but apparently someone thought otherwise.
Anyway, I was in the middle of explaining to the pink-haired girl what exactly artificial plant breeding was when out of the corner of my eye a large tongue of flames spewed out of nowhere and licked at a screeching Naruto's feet. It was while my mouth was hanging open in a very unlady-like fashion that Sakura thought it an appropriate time to fill me in on what exactly the name Uchiha meant. Apparently, he was from some prestigious clan of ninja (No, not vampires. I know, I thought so too) who's specialty was fire. Vomiting fire, to be correct. It was also at this time that our masked sensei announced that he too would like to test my abilities against one of his other genin. Apparently, getting beaten to a pulp by Green-Boy simply wasn't enough for these people.
"But - uh - shouldn't we have more time to warm up, sensei? I mean it's still early in the day and the thinner air could go to our heads if we move too fast and result in an ultimate lack of oxygen to the brain and cause all of us to drop and suffer minor strokes, and... and..." I'd stalled pleadingly, but was silenced by a single, gloved hand.
He eye-crinkled (not very) good naturedly and chuckled in amusement.
"Now, now Kaya, it is essential we experience your shinobi knowledge first hand. You know this, I suspect?"
I swallowed as his one visible eye gave off that scary little gleam again. He didn't have to say the name seconds later for me to know who my opponent was.
"Sasuke, if you would be so kind..."
As I said. I am now currently in very deep shit.
Somebody nudged me gently out onto the clearing (mind you I would have totally rearranged their face had I not been busy trying to keep my heart from falling out my ass) and waited patiently until I actually started breathing again before backing out of the scorch-line. My mind was starting to do that detachment thing where you feel like you're inside some sort of sick dream sequence; so while my brain was debating the many ways I could persuade God to forgive me for pulling Sarah Minear's hair when I was six, my face was frozen in this pathetic, miserable scowl that clearly screamed 'I'm screwed'.
Sasuke seemed perfectly at ease, however, if not a little irritated at having to waste his precious 'glare at everything' time by beating up the guinea pig. He strolled over to the other side of the field casually and took up a frightening offensive stance. 'Oh my' I internally sighed. Suddenly death was looking like a very possible option.
"Kaya, when I say begin, Sasuke is going to charge at you. I want you to defend yourself, understand?" Kakashi-sensei said slowly.
"Yeah." 'I'm foreign, not retarded,' I thought bitterly, proceeding to fall into an awkward sort of defensive stance facing sideways. I was just deciding exactly what to do with my hands (fist or palm... fist or palm...) when a lazy "Begin," found my ears and a shadow immediately covered the ground in front of me. I didn't even see him move... When I looked up, my heart stopped beating.
Now I could (sort of) understand what Sakura saw in him. Impossibly cool onyx marbles - so cool, in fact, I bet you anything my fingers would freeze were I to reach out and touch them, but I wouldn't because that would be weird - and skin so smooth it looked like the face of a porcelain doll hovered over me. Needless to say, I was simply gagging with inferiority. He was near godly up close. Plus, if I felt short before, it was no comparison to how I felt now. I honestly could have been mistaken for a midget or something.
I wasn't exactly sure what he was doing until that searing survival instinct kicked in and sharpened my senses enough to notice the fist coming directly at my face. It's a shame that my brain gets scrambled so easily, even with the adrenalin making my reflexes faster, because while I could vaguely feel my eyes widen in sheer panic at having my jaw crushed in, my stupid fuck of a subconscious was admiring the hard muscles that coiled in his bicep as his arm sprang. Honestly, how hard do you have to train to get muscles like that at freaking twelve/thirteen years old? Would I get super awesome muscles? Crap, I need to pay attention. I observed him closely, my brain working decidedly fast, and quickly read his face: irritation (evident), exertion (almost non-existent), curiosity (probably at what color my face would turn after being thoroughly shattered) and why in the holy hell am I looking at his face when there is quite clearly a hard fist aimed right at my-
Bam.
Her brain was obviously working, he concluded. It was evident in the way her expression was completely clueless and pathetic, but eyes were quick and assessing. This was why he was mystified as to why she wasn't moving out of the way. He would have gone for her stomach, but truth be told, he would find it much more entertaining to send her flying. He wouldn't put too much force behind it or Kakashi-sensei would lecture him, but he wouldn't go easy on her either. If she was to get in his way, she might as well be useful.
In a flash, he was before her. She looked surprised, then panicked, then back to assessing and calculating again, but still made no move to block him. This was why he didnt like her - her face changed too much. Even when she was seemingly lost in thought, a million different things showed on her face. It made her both readable and unreadable, which was terribly irritating. Therefore, it wasn't that hard to attack her.
Irked, he pulled a readied fist, giving her one last moment to defend herself (which she only glanced at briefly before ignoring it again in favor of his face) and promptly delivered a hit to her upper jaw. (As non-lethal as possible).
He watched her soar through the air for a moment before turning away disinterestedly, listening to the thump of her body a little ways back. Kakashi-sensei gave a defeated sigh, which was closely followed by Sakura's gasp and Naruto's indignant shrieks. He honestly didn't see what the big deal was; they were, in fact, simply wasting training time on this pathetic civilian.
Stuffing his hands in his pockets contently, Sasuke opened his mouth to voice his opinion on the matter, only to realize the shrieks had stopped. In it's place was a soft shuffling and heavy breathing. He glanced around and sure enough, the girl, head bowed and shoulders shaking quite violently, was standing - unsteady, yes, but impressive considering her obvious low pain tolerance. In all honesty, he hadn't really hit her all that hard; perhaps it was shock that caused her to tremble.
"Hey, Kaya! Are you alrigh-"
"Do it again."
Silence. Kakashi-sensei's one eye sparkled curiously while Sasuke furrowed his brow. This was stupid. She wanted to be hit again? What was wrong with this girl? Her voice was shaking in what he assumed to be pain, but her tone was as close to as serious as the grave as one with her height disadvantage could portray. Well, it made no difference to him, he supposed. He looked apathetically towards Sensei for permission, which he received in a slow nod. Without further ado, he charged again towards the slouched figure.
He decided to go for the stomach this time, so maybe she could at least stifle the pained squeak he was sure would come - Honestly, girls were so annoying- and pumped his arm back for the swing. It was then, just as he released the chakra in his bicep to empower the blow, that she looked up - and he nearly tripped over his own feet. (He didn't of course, because Uchiha's do not trip). Her eyes, decidedly a clear green with the sun shining directly at her face, were open wide in a strange, furious glare - pink lips curled up in an (almost, but not quite) frightening scowl and a thin stream of blood running down her chin. He found it odd, and a little entrancing due to the fact that her face was so comically innocent looking, one would never have imagined it could hold such a twisted fury - and that coming from an expert in hatred was something big. He had only punched her once... something told him she was one of those girls who easily let go of their tempers. (cough) Sakura (cough). She looked absolutely pissed - and it would have been funny had it not been for the flare of monstrous chakra that suddenly engulfed him. So that was why she was so special...
It took him a moment to realize that she was still standing in front of him, as opposed to soaring through the air, breathing hard. It took another moment to feel the frail warmth enveloping his right fist.
She... caught it.
Now this typically wouldn't have been a big deal or anything (just a little smack to his ego), but that was a pretty chakra-high punch, and it should have at least skimmed her. But no - she stood stalk still, forearms straining and eyes brightening into a feral grin.
"Oh hell yeah!" she breathed triumphantly.
He absorbed this information for a moment, then with an irritated growl, dismissed it as a lucky shot. This was ridiculous, he resolved. There were much more significant things he could be doing with his time than playing games with some amateur foreigner. He was about to back off when he was suddenly caught with an arbitrary (and rather weak) side kick to the ribs. He grunted a bit in surprise but no sooner narrowed his eyes dangerously. Vaguely, he could hear Naruto laughing his little heart out (which only added to his temper) and promptly sent a glare in the little freak's general direction - only succeeding in making him grow louder.
"Idiot..." he growled before turning his attention back to the girl and landing a good blow to her own side.
Her eyes widened even more and her mouth gaped in a momentary gasp before she collapsed to the floor in a furious attempted to sweep his legs out from under him. He jumped nimbly and aimed a kick to her head - which she (barely) dodged. Angered now, Sasuke flipped back a ways and started forming hand seals. He could faintly hear two small voices protesting loudly and one slightly more commanding telling him to stop, but all he could feel was the sheer need to beat this Kaya (and of course, the smoky burn forming in his chest).
The girl's eyes grew huge as he inhaled deeply and she froze to the spot. For a moment, a part of him feared she wouldn't dodge it, but it was too late to stop the jutsu now.
"KATON!" he breathed and the fire exploded from his lungs. Flames clouded his vision and licked the ground in front of him. There was no feeling but the heat of satisfaction, no sound but the cackling of flames and he was so absorbed he nearly forgot it's reason for being there - that is, until a seething yell erupted from the very center of the hellfire. A hazy figure was suddenly flying at him, arms crossed and head covered, straight through the middle of the jutsu. Before he could register what was happening, an impossibly small, hard fist had buried itself right into his face.
In that second, I don't think anything had ever made me happier than to see Pretty-Boy's face molded around my fist. It was like my own personal epiphany - good cantriumph over assholes! Teehee, just kidding, But seriously. It truly was an amazing experience. I wasn't even thinking about it really - the minute I felt flames at my feet, the only thing my instinct told me was 'get the fuck OUT'. So I did. And it just so happened that the way 'out' was the same way as 'in', so why not clobber Sasuke on the way?
It was an awkward punch, though, so instead of flying backwards and cracking his self-obsessed skull on a tree like I'd so delightfully fantasized, he did a sort of graceful spin before skidding unceremoniously across the grass. There was a really quiet moment where I thought that maybe I shouldn't have done that, but my doubts were soon quelled when a very delighted Naruto began rolling around laughing and a very distressed Sakura looked close to hysterics. I felt a little relieved at getting myself on better terms with the main character, but also a little put out by the loss of two others. (Sigh). I just cannot win.
Either way, I started to crack a smile at Naruto's contagious giggles, but it died prematurely when I realized that the feild was still on freaking FIRE.
"Ahh! Someone put it out before we DIE!" And with that, I proceeded to run around in circles, flailing my arms comically and shouting like a banshee. Naruto's face was turning blue with hysterics and Kakashi and Sakura looked completely baffled.
All the while, Sasuke sat quietly under the shade of a particularly large tree, glaring unnaffectively at the rediculous duo.
Great. Another idiot on the team.
It took me a relatively long time to recuperate from my (totally kick ass) victory. Not so much the physical part as the mental. When I was training with Jiraiya, he'd always give me warning when he was about to attack, and Lee had only really chased me around like a mad-man. Being in a real fight like that... the mental strain was exhausting. There was no theme music, no cues, no third person narrator. Just fists, kicks, and fire. Don't get me wrong, my face hurt like hell and my brand new clothes were depressingly totaled, but I'm sure you get the idea.
We were currently on a ten minute break, each of up dispersed across the clearing respectively. Sakura and I were leaning against a tree (more my idea than hers, since she'd only followed me to resume her endless questions, albeit a bit colder since the 'Sasuke Nailing' as I'd so nobly dubbed it)... (no innuendos intended), trying to get me relatively cleaned up. I'd bitten my cheek pretty bad and the inside of my mouth tasted like metal (that bastard). It'd probably hurt like a bitch when I brushed my teeth later... not that I needed to, of course! My breath does not smell, damn it!
Naruto seemed to have gotten over the whole 'I almost got you killed' thing and actively portrayed our new-found friendship by helping me put out the charred grass. He was currently beating up on one of those kicking-log things, insisting to everyone that he didn't need something as lowly as a 'break'. Although, with his energy and seemingly endless stamina, I couldn't find it in me to doubt him. Kakashi-sensei was up in a tree, reading his book with unmoving eyes again.
As for Sasuke, (whom I officially own, by the way) he had indignantly shrouded himself in brooding moodiness by the tree he'd taken to, well, brood under. A big cloud of 'don't even try' loomed over him evilly, being the only real cause of Sakura finally backing off. While it was slightly hilarious that they all towered over me, yet each acted more like a child than the last, it also sort of pissed me off. I need to be restored to my rightful height, damn it!
I held the icepack up to my jaw gingerly as Sakura rubbed some aloe stuff that spontaneously appeared out of nowhere on a little burn at my wrist, shooting off questions like never before.
"So what's the name of your village? Is it something exotic? Like Aanali or Takan?"
I gave her a look. Where in the holy hell did she get this stuff?
"Um... no. It's called Miami."
"I've never hear of that... what's it like?"
I looked away from her too-shiny eyes and became overly interested in the burnt hem of my pants, plucking at my legs splayed out in front of me. "Well... it's really hot all year - it's way down south, so we never get any snow and it always rains..." I looked up over the canopy of trees to the great canyons that surrounded the village thoughtfully, allowing myself to give as much of the truth as possible. "There were never this many trees, either. I'd never seen so much vegetation in my life before I came here. There aren't any mountains like there are here, but we have the ocean. If you looked out just right, you could see the lightning hit the surface when a storm came." I sighed to myself, already missing Florida's bipolar weather system. "It was... pretty."
The pink haired girl at my side made a small noise of wonder, causing me to shake out of my reminiscing and shoot her a raised eyebrow. "Why are you so interested, anyway? The structure of my village's environment can't possibly be that interesting."
Sakura's eyebrows rose and she flushed, flipping her hair (for like, oh my god - the millionth time) and looking at something else. I smiled to myself.
"Well... it's - er- its just that I've never really met someone from outside Konoha before." She crossed her arms and stuck up her shin. "It's research, that's all."
I almost snorted. Is that the universal excuse for everything innapropriate or was it just coincidence?
"Besides," I looked up when she continued, "It's really rare that a foreigner gets to be a Leaf shinobi, almost unheard of. Especially for a kid!" I growled at her, but it went unnoticed. "We figured you were some kind of genius or something."
I flinched at the 'we' part of that sentence and re-examined the other people in the field. Naruto had abandoned his kicking-thing and was now perched on his haunches, staring at me expectantly. Sasuke was glaring at me out of the corner of his eye from a distance, ears perked. Even Kakashi-sensei had looked up from his pretend-reading session to blatantly observe the conversation. I shrunk a little into the trunk of the tree and shifted cold fingers to hold the icepack more securely. Maybe the general idiocy of my ex-high-school's population hadn't been such a bad thing...
"Well that was a nice break!" I got up and stretched the fake kinks out of my arms nervously, trying to hold back a painful wince. "We should really get back to work, then! I'll just go this way where no one can give my creepy stares-"
Someone appeared right behind me and grabbed the back of my shirt as I attempted to go hide behind another tree, keeping me squirming in place as he turned to the others.
"Ten minutes are up, Team!" he eye-crinkled jovially and I flinched a little. "All of you get back to work. I'm going to have a little chat with Kaya."
There was nothing threatening whatsoever in the tone of his voice and the sentence wasn't said with any form of foreboding malice, but I still found myself panicking as the tall Jounin dragged me out of the clearing, watching helplessly as my teammate's faces receded behind the growing crowd of bushes. A rotten dread filled my stomach as I looked up to Sensei's now unreadable face. What had I done wrong this time?
He didn't take me far - only a few meters away from the field, really - which quelled my fears of him actually wanting to bring me to an untimely demise. Later I realized that if he'd wanted to kill me, he wouldn't have needed to get me alone in a forest. I would have simply disappeared right before everyone's eyes and he would shrug it off and tell everyone I'd been eaten by a rabid bear or something. But because that is irrelevant to what's going on right now, we'll save that for later.
When we finally topped, he turned to me sternly and shot an eye-crinkle for my benefit, crossing his arms and making his shoulders look relaxed. The more attention I paid, the more I could actually feel tangible waves of apprehension rolling off him. I inwardly sighed and looked away from his tense, grey gaze. Offensive.
"I'll get straight to the point then," he began kindly, leaning back against a tree. "I've gathered from your little spar that you have quite an unusual chakra signature."
I looked up at him, a little shocked. "How did you know?"
"When you've been trained properly, you know how to sense these things," he chuckled, then sighed. "Which also leads me to believe that you haven't, in fact, had proper training."
It was more a statement than a question, but I puffed up indignantly nevertheless.
"My old sensei was a good trainer! He was just... well, he was an idiot, that's all!" I deflated as he chuckled again.
"Either way, you still require a little more extensive training. From what I can tell, you release chakra on a constant basis through your respiratory system on a constant basis. While this would be near impossible and plain unnecessary for most, it seems your... conditions are different, correct?" I nodded slowly. He sighed again. "Well, as I said before, your chakra signature is strange. It's abnormally strong for a ninja of your age and rank - for any ninja, really - and very... probing, I suppose."
I shot him a confused look. "What does that mean?"
Kakashi-sensei looked at me unreadably for a moment, then glanced up at the canopy of trees thoughtfully.
"The only way to describe it is... very alive. Like a being in its own. Do you know what a chakra signature is? It's the unique flow of energy in every person - an aura, perhaps, but a little more feeling than that. Some people have a very strong presence in a room-" my thoughts immediately went to the Hokage, "- this is also due to chakra signature. It's different for everyone, but it usually takes the form as an ebbing or pulsing of chakra, or a rapid flame or cackle, depending on the ninja's affinities. Most shinobi know how to hide it on missions for the sake of stealth, but chakra is a part of you - and yours appears to be nearly unsuppressable. Not abnormally large, just very strong and very real."
I looked down at my hands with wide eyes. To be completely honest, the whole concept of chakra still baffled me. I mean, tangible energy that could literally be summoned to heighten the limits of a human body? It was insane! Something like that was in me? I could feel a little blood drain from my face. It made me feel like a time bomb that might go off at any given second.
"My point is," he continued, rubbing the bridge of his nose tiredly, "Without stealth, a ninja is just a dog with a few good tricks. With a signature like yours, you'll be noticed a mile away."
I frowned at this and tried to push aside the guilt I was feeling for putting this poor guy that didn't even likeme through so much trouble and tried to remember what Jiraiya had told me. All the reasons he'd made me jog after that stupid cart and chase myself around with all those stupid chores and drag him out of stupid villages with stupid, wriggly, creepy men... holy crapthat was funny. I wish I could just relive that moment and do it all over again, if not only to see their faces. Hm... perhaps I was onto something with that jutsu. If I could just imitate that hand-seal again, maybe I could-
(Snap!) "Speed!"
"Pardon?" Kakashi-sensei blinked at me uncertainly. I grinned up at him sheepishly.
"My old sensei was onto something, I think. He said that to make up for the problems my chakra would cause on missions, I could become a specialist in speed. Although I resent the idea of jogging around after evil Sages that wear makeup while they lay on carts and write porn, I think it might actually work. The speed part, not the... well, you know. Look," I tried again at his bewildered expression. "Everything a ninja does physically in a fight typically relies on chakra, right? Well if I'm noticed while everyone else is trying to be all 'You can't see me' I can buzz in, take them out, and be gone before anybody knows what hit them. Admittedly that's an awful excuse for an explanation and that sample situation probably made it seem less likely to work because I'm simply untalented with fancy illustrations like that, but seriously, just think about it." I inhaled deeply and closed my eyes, hoping he only really paid attention to the intelligent parts of my rant.
There was a long silence when the only things I could hear were the rustle of (too many) leaves and the distant sounds of Naruto going at it with Sasuke again. Another sinking feeling entered my stomach as I realized I'd probably just made myself look like an idiot again. Kakashi-sensei said nothing for an extended time and I shifted nervously. If he didn't like the idea then maybe I didn't need to be a ninja. Maybe I could just leave the village and expel chakra by meditating everyday for the rest of my life and be a useless faction to this world. Why couldn't I do that? It'd be much less trouble and-
A vivid picture of Tashi and Dad and Grandma Ama shone bright and clear before my eyes and my lids snapped open. No - I wouldn't be a coward. I was here and I needed to get through the show fair and square. I needed to do it for home... I needed to do it for myself.
A few feet in front of me, Kakashi-sensei fake-smiled and stood, dusting himself off a little as he righted himself.
"I see," he said finally. "Well it seems we might need to arrange you some separate training sessions. It will take a while, but we can continue this discussion another time."
I nodded. It was strange, the way he talked to me - it was more like he was addressing an associate rather than a student. While maybe I should have been flattered that he thought so highly of my intelligence, I still didn't fail to sense it for what it really was. Hostility. Defensive.
I almost reached out to tug at his sleeve as he casually brushed by me, but I thought better of it. Instead, I cleared my throat and hesitantly asked the older Jounin to wait. He complied stiffly, not turning to look at me as I steadied myself.
"Look, um, Sensei..." I looked down, embarassed. Perhaps confrontation wasn't the best idea... "I... I know you don't trust me."
His shoulders seemed to tense tenfold as soon as the words left my mouth, but still he didn't turn to face me. I rubbed my hands together nervously.
"But..." I suddenly worked up my nerve and straightened my spine, letting my voice sound resolved and confident. "But I can prove myself to you. I refuse to be a waste of a student."
It was then that he finally turned, twisting a little over his shoulders to look down at me. I summoned all the determination I could muster as I stared him dead in the eye, locking my knees and bowing low.
"I'll work hard and I won't complain. I'll take anything you throw at me, Sensei."
He looked down at the crown of my head thoughtfully. His face was stony and I glanced up in all seriousness, momentarily engaging him in an ultimate stare down. This went on for about a minute (but felt like an hour) before I looked back down again and bit my lip. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything. Did I step out of line? Did I just make the situation worse? I could always drop the whole ninja thing and leave Konoha - Damn itI've already gone through this. No running away! If worse comes to worst I'll just have to make do's with a sensei that doesn't like me. No big deal! It's not like-
A wave of warm relief washed all through me when I felt a large hand rest itself on my head and muss my hair up, even if it wasso large he could probably fit the whole top of my skull in his palm. I looked up through the messy strands of hair as he turned away again and made his way back to the field. He wasn't smiling, but the accepting gesture was certainly a start. I stood a little to quickly and tripped after him, glancing up just in time to see him lazily pull out Jiraiya's little book.
I sighed.
Maybe next time, Kaya. Maybe next time.
Training with Team Seven lasted significantly longer than with Team Gai, I noticed. It might have been everyones inability to focus on the training itself, or it might have been Kakashi-sensei becoming exceedingly too amused with our antics to bother stopping us anymore, but either way I didn't find myself sitting again until almost five, panting and letting the low sun pelt my back as the grass tickled my face.
Sakura was trying to get Sasuke's attention, Sasuke was trying to glare-murder Naruto, Naruto suddenly thought everything I did was hilarious, and I was just plain unable to concentrate any longer. My brain was a massive blur and mush of uselessness out of exhaustion.
"Okay, kids. I think that;s enough for today." Kakashi-sensei announced, snapping his book shut cheerfully and slipping it into his Jounin vest. "Everyone go home and we'll re-group here tomorrow at eight.
"Why so early?! You didnt' even get here until late!" Sakura cried.
"I'll be here on time, don't worry. Now everyone go get some rest." And with a poof! he was gone.
Sakura groaned and turned back to Sasuke, only to find that he was already half-way down the path. She gasped and skipped after him, yelling at him to wait.
"Hey - Sasuke-kun! Ha - ha," he finally stopped, not turning to face her as she bent over her knees and gasped for breath. "I - um - I was just wondering - ha - if you're not too tired, if maybe you and me could go and get some-"
"No."
Another large block of stone pummeled the poor girl to the floor as he walked off indifferently. A part of me started to freak out again, but my incapability to form a coherent sentence only allowed me to sit and watch blankly as she sunk to the floor in silent despair. That, of course, is when Naruto decided to pop up out of the blue.
"Sakura-chan! Forget about Sasuke, he's a loser - hey, now that training's over do you think you'd want to go get some ramen with me-"
"No Stupid!" she punched him square in the face and sent the poor kid flying backward.
I pushed myself to my knees as she stomped off in the other direction. 'Did someone just say... ramen?'
Right on cue, my stomach growled like a small dinosaur in my belly and I was abruptly very awake. Kaya needs food. Now.
My food ticket senses zeroed in on a depressed looking Naruto and I was at his side in seconds.
"Hey, uh, Naruto?" he looked around at me, surprised. I grinned at him sheepishly, pretending to be embarrassed. 'Food, Food, Food, Food-'
"Don't worry about Sakura, she'll come around eventually."
'No! What are you doing, woman?! FOOD!'
"Oh! Thanks, Kaya-chan!" he puffed out his orange-clad chest importantly. "I know she won't be able to resist me for long!"
"Um, yeah. Okay," growwwl, "But in the meantime, do you think I could come eat with you? Only as friends, I mean, but I don't really know my way around yet so..."
The look on his (ridiculously round) face was so cute I almost glomped him. He looked so genuinely shocked - people must not want to eat with him often. Well, it's what you get for being so loud all the time-
"Yeah, awesome!" he grabbed my arm and suddenly I was flying. Like, literally flapping in the wind by my arm.
"Naruto - too fast-"
"You're gunna love Ichiraku's, Kaya - they have the best ramen in the world!"
I giggled a little as we blurred by a stricken looking woman who'd immediately dropped her groceries and gaped at out mad hunger flight.
'How did a kid like this get his own TV show?'