Chapter 3
Thanks for the reviews, you're the best. I dedicate this chap. to all you lovely readers, but most especially Kami-Inu. Thanks for giving me the important info i needed.
well enjoy...Oh warning: does contain light swearing...I think, and a little sasuke bashing.
The next morning Luna awoke just before dawn, stretching she got changed and taking a sling bag with her, silently made her way out of the village. 'I think I'll go train as the sun comes up. I think I'll also want to avoid Sasuke if I can; hmm…I wonder...will he still come to school.' Soon she came to a clearing near a river. Dropping her bag she created a clone and both began making the skilled and precise movements of taijutsu.
Kick, punch, duck, punch, punch, sweeping kick, back flip, block, dodge, kick, kick, punch, duck, dodge, block, back flip, sweeping kick, roundhouse kick. On and on she went until her clone disappeared with a poof of black smoke. Panting heavily she made her way to the river with her bag. Looking through her bag she pulled out the towel she packed and a change of clothes. Taking a quick look around, and finding no one she began removing her clothes and bandages; once free of all material she dived into the river.
She found some plants she knew she could use as soap, so she washed her hair and body. Swimming upstream a bit she found a small hot spring. 'Ooh.' Settling down she relaxed her sore muscles. After about a minute her markings started tingling. 'Not now.' Guessing she was clean enough, with a sigh she swam back down stream to her stuff. She quickly dried herself and changed into her clean clothes. Today she wore a black shirt that came off her shoulders, had long sleeves that came to her fingertips, and purple detailing; black knee high boots, and a dark purple skirt that came mid-thigh. As an afterthought she pulled on a pair of bike pants she found in her bag as well.
Back at Sasuke's she crept to her room and found the basket to put her dirty clothes in, and she had a lot. She had yet to clean all her dirty clothes from her travels around the world. 'I'll have to do some washing soon.' Putting her weapons and bandages on she made for the street once more, on her way out she grabbed her wallet. 'Let's see…Sasuke should be waking soon.' Luna said looking at the angle of the sun, shrugging she headed for Ichiraku Ramen.
Upon entering the shop her stomach growled, a blonde turned at the noise.
"Oh, hey Luna!" Naruto patted the stool beside him; Luna smiled to the boy as she sat down.
"Um…beef ramen please." Luna said after looking over the menu.
"Sure." Nodding the cook left to get her noodles. While Luna waited, she watched Naruto practically inhale his ramen. The two teenagers were close friends as they had much in common, they both were orphans and, unlike Sasuke, they didn't know who their parents were. When Naruto paused from inhaling his ramen he spoke.
"You know, it's kinda creepy, but you're a lot like teme. So much you could be his sister." Luna eyed the blonde with a frown on her face. He had to be kidding, they were nothing alike.
"Really?" Naruto took another mouthful.
"Yeah, well you both have black hair and eyes –"
"His hair is more blue-black than black and my eyes aren't fully black." Luna interrupted before taking a mouthful of her ramen, which had finally arrived. Luna licked her lips, this was the best ramen she'd had in a while.
"Whatever, anyway; you both are quiet, keep to yourselves, bite people's head off when they try to invade your bubble and always answer questions as if you're bored or uninterested." Luna suddenly dropped her chopsticks and threw her hands into the air dramatically, being careful of her left arm.
"Oh great! It's like I am actually related to Duckbutt!" Naruto laughed so hard, he nearly fell off his seat.
"D-Duck-Duckbutt?" he managed through his laughing, Luna pointed to her head.
"His hair." Naruto smiled and continued eating.
"I see…well I prefer you to teme any day." Luna grabbed another mouthful.
"How so?"
"Well even though you're like teme in most ways than one –"
"Thanks." She murmured dryly.
"–you have a sense of humour, something he will never have and you don't ignore people when they just try and talk to you and wave them off as losers just because they can't be all stuck up and perfect like them." Naruto said sadly momentarily neglecting his ramen. Luna placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I don't have a tree stuck my ass unlike that fool. I wouldn't worry about him, I'll deal with him. You need to worry about the exam coming up in about a week." Naruto smiled and the two continued eating.
xXx
At class Luna sat once again between Kiba and Shino, waiting for Iruka to come in; he was late for some reason. The door opened and everyone looked at the door to see Sasuke walked in with a look that said 'don't mess with me; I'm just waiting for an excuse to kill someone'. Sasuke felt everyone's eyes watch him as he sat down in his seat, looking over to where Luna was sitting he saw the glee in her eyes. 'That bitch, she did this! I'm sure of it. Oh why didn't I just stay at home, this is just so embarrassing.' He thought. Everyone just couldn't hold it in any longer, they all laughed. Luna and her friends the loudest of them all. Sasuke had walked in with, instead of his normal black hair that stuck up at the back; he had bright pink hair that flowed down his back. While Sasuke was passed out, Luna had died his hair the same shade as Sakura's and added hair extensions. 'Ha, take that Duckbutt!' Sasuke glared at Luna.
"Nice hair Uchiha. What happened? You mixed up your conditioners?" Luna smirked as she saw his patience growing thin. She was going to add more fuel to the fire, however Iruka walked in.
"Alright settle down everyone." Iruka took one look at Sasuke then Luna who smiled sweetly at him. 'Those two are going to cause many problems for Konoha I can feel it.' At lunch, Luna sat with Shino, Kiba and Hinata again.
xXx
At lunch Luna sat under the tree, her friends and she has claimed as their own. 'Gee, these ninja lessons are so boring; I know all this stuff already. Maybe I should just sleep through it just like Shikamaru, (groan) but then I would get Iruka always getting up me and that would troublesome…I'm sounding too much like Shikamaru, maybe I shouldn't play shougi with him so much.' Sighing, Luna reached for her sketch pad. Taking out a pencil, she started sketching ideas for her newest artwork. 'Let's see…Kiba is loud, energetic, strong, has a strong sense of friendship, loyal and has canine tendencies…a dog would be too obvious, maybe a wolf. Hinata…hmm she is difficult…she is quiet, shy, and strong in her own way, but she has low confidence and this affects her ability to show how strong she really is. Maybe a fox? Nah not quite right. Maybe some kind of large cat…like a tiger or lynx or maybe a bird. Shino is quiet, intelligent, and strong and has a thing for insects…'
As Luna thought through her drawing a butterfly fluttered down to rest on the page. Looking up, Luna carefully reached down for another page and more charcoal. After a few minutes Luna had finished the sketch of the butterfly and was beginning to add colour when it flew away. Looking up she saw what had caused it to; Akamaru running towards her, tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. Luna gasped, dropping her art materials she jumped into the tree branches. Even though it had been almost a week since she had first started at the academy and two since the mark had appeared and her coming to live in Konoha, the strange markings still stung when touched roughly.
"Control your mutt, will you!" Luna hissed as she jumped down.
"Sorry." Kiba mumbled as he picked up Akamaru before he could leap at Luna again. Akamaru whined as Luna glared at him, this made Luna's face soften. Sighing Luna bent down into a crouch.
"I'm sorry Akamaru, but you know you mustn't just jump at me." She opened her arms. "Come here." Akamaru barked happily as he wiggled free of Kiba's grasp and jumped into Luna arms. Akamaru began to yip softly as the dark woman stroked his fur. Naruto then came into view.
"Hey Luna!" he waved eagerly. Luna smiled as her eyes landed on the blonde. Naruto joined their group and the five teenagers lay peacefully on the grass. Luna broke the silence when she turned to Shino; he had eventually warmed up to her, though it taken some long talks and some of her best paintings to do so.
"Hey Shino."
"Hmm?"
"Why do you always wear shades? I mean you never take them off, even indoors." Shino shifted under Luna's harsh gaze. Her eyes always made him uncomfortable when she glared or stared.
"Because I want to." Luna reached over and removed his shades; he quickly covered his eyes with a hand, leaving a small gap so he could still watch what the evil girl known as his friend was doing. Hinata, Kiba and Naruto watched on curiously. Luna put Shino's glasses on her head, and she looked at him sternly.
"Why do you hide your eyes Aburame" when Shino didn't answer Luna lunged at the bug user, tackling him to the ground, wincing slightly. When they settled Luna was sitting on Shino's stomach and held his hands above his head. His eyes were now tightly shut. She leaned in close to his face, knowing that he, like Sasuke and herself sometimes, didn't like people invading their personal bubble.
"Sorry Lu, but you're gonna have to do better than that." He sent his bugs out to crawl all over her arms. They heard Naruto squeak and Hinata gasp behind them. Luna smirked at Shino's pitiful attempts.
"Sorry bug-boy, but I'm not scared or creeped out by bugs. I find creepy crawlies cool." Shino made more bugs crawl up her arms. Naruto squeaked again and hid behind Kiba, Luna looked over to make sure the blonde was ok. Shino opened an eye a crack to see Luna was distracted; he used this to his advantage and tried to throw her off him. Luna was able to hold on as they rolled over, making Luna gasp in pain. Luna blushed and rolled them over again so she was above Shino again. 'Oh god! That was so wrong.' She screamed in her head.
When Shino had flipped them the first time, he held Luna's hands like she had when she was above him, but his body was resting in between her legs. Luna could tell, under that high collared jacket the silent boy was blushing. Luna sighed and thought over her options. 'Let's see, his hands are pinned so he can't shield his eyes. However I'm using both my hands to do that, damn me having small female hands, and the moment I try to use either of my hands to pry his eyelids open, his hands will more than likely fly up to shield his eyes.' Luna sighed again. 'I'll try reasoning once more; otherwise I'm going to get rough.'
"Please Shino, just a peak. I'll give you those insect sketches you wanted." Luna pleaded. Shino thought over her offer. 'Hmm…'
"That's tempting, but…" Shino faded off. Luna frowned. 'Argh! Fine then, you asked for it.' Luna smirked evilly. Naruto poked his head over Kiba's shoulder in time to see Luna's smile.
"I hate when she smiles like that. It's just so creepy." Naruto chuckled nervously. Kiba shivered.
"Same here." They went into shock as they watched Luna's plan unfold. Luna reached down and kissed the young Aburame. Shino opened his eyes wide in shock, but seeing Luna's black and silver orbs staring back at him he quickly shut them again.
"Don't bother, I've seen them." Luna let his hands go, and leaned back a little. Shino sighed and slowly reopened his eyes. Luna got a good look at them this time. Shino's eyes were a rich brown, they almost looked gold; her heart strings pulled painfully as a painful memory flashed in front her eyes. She shook her head to rid herself of it and returned his glasses, just so she could stop looking at those gold brown eyes, and got off him. Reaching out a hand she helped him up. "You know I've never seen such a colour before and I've seen every colour under the rainbow. They're unique, almost like mine." Shino dusted himself off.
"That's exactly why I hide them. They're different, even within the Aburame." They walked back to their friends. Naruto immediately pounced on Luna; thankfully he avoided her left arm. The four all raised an eyebrow at the blonde's weird behaviour, he was acting like some gossip seeking girl. (coughInocough)
"So, what's it like?" Luna glared at Naruto, though softer than normal, making him detach.
"What was what like?"
"Shino's eyes. Why does he hide them behind sunnies?" Luna looked at Shino then back at the group.
"He has sensitive eyes, that's all." Iruka called everyone back in. Naruto shrugged and started walking back to class. Hinata and Kiba looked between Shino and Luna, but deciding to let the little lie go they also walked back.
"Why'd you do that?" Shino murmured softly, walking beside Luna. Luna shrugged.
"If you don't want people to know, that's your choice. I have no right to tell people about others." Shino stopped walking for a moment. 'She went through all that and she's not going to tell.'
"Thank-you." Luna shrugged.
"Meh."
You like this chapter? I hope you do. Sorry for me taking so long, but I've been busy. (glance over shoulder) Ah! Itachi, what are you doing here? ( Itachi grabs my shoulders and drags me away) NOOOO! please Itachi, i'm sorry. I'm so sorry, i didn't mean to ruin all your clothes and replace them with pink ones. (Itachi glares at me) Please don't kill me!
Itachi: What makes you think I'll kill you?
Me: Review and call Gaara-kun, maybe he'll save me!.
?: What makes you think i'll save you? I ratted you out and gave him the idea. ( I glare at Gaara)
Me: Betrayal! ( i break down in tears) Save me someone!