Sanctuary Within
Arc One, Chapter Three: Unexpected Tendencies
Chapter Length: 2,806
Story Statistics
Story Length: 14,176 \ Reviews: 4 \ Favorited: 5 \ Alerted: 3
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Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, which belongs to Masashi Kishimoto… and I suppose Studio Pierrot too… I wish I worked there… I would have made the fillers shorter and less gay… BUT THE FILLERS ARE OVER! REJOICE FOR NARUTO: SHIPPUDEN! Ahhh… Disclaimer finished…
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"Yaaaaaaaawn"
I rose out of my bed and opened my eyes. "Muahaha… it worked!" I said to my self as I looked at my window. I took some kunai and pinned one of my many sheets over the window. The sun in my eyes was no longer a problem! I rose out of my bed got dressed. I walked out the door and went on my way to the academy.
As you can imagine, today has an uneventful morning.
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"Hey Hiatari… How's your hand?"
"Huh?" I looked at Tsuki. She was prodding my palm, "Oh, its better now, thanks."
She giggled to herself, "It's nice to see you in good condition."
"Um… okay," I said, "that has to be one of the many random things I've ever heard…"
"Yeah, well I'm just saying… seeing you all better would raise the spirits of others… you're so un-Hyuuga-ish..."
I chuckled, "Oh… and you know how Hyuugas are?"
She quickly moved her hands to her hips and puffed out her lips to make an angry face, "as a matter of fact, I do!" she said in a deeper than usual voice.
I smiled and patted her on the head, "Okay, stop that… such a face doesn't suit you…"
"Did you just call me cute?" she asked, reading between the lines.
I turned red, "N-n-no! I'm j-just saying tha-at you sho-shouldn't make that face is ah-all…"
She smiled, "Okay!" She sat down in her seat and faced the front
I sighed. What was that all about? She's being random today… Needless to say, I decided to sit down also. Then I heard a voice call out, "Hey…" I turned to see Airomaru taking his seat. I responded the same way as him and he nodded as he laced his fingers in front of him.
"Everyone, settle down now!" Iruka called from the front of the class. "Okay, today we're going to work on Chakra…"
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"Sorry I'm late guys, The Hokage had me in his office for a while…" Genai said to us as he jumped down in front of us.
"Are you and the Hokage related?" Tsuki asked out of nowhere. Genai visibly flinched backwards, "Sorry… no…. Why ask such a thing?"
"Sorry, it's just that you both seem to like that underclothing style," Genai looked down at himself, "the mask," he touched the fabric on his face, "and the silver hair…" he ran his fingers through his hair once. "Eheheheh… I do take after him a lot, don't I?" he said, scratching his cheek.
"Can you take off your mask off?"
Genai stopped. "Why?"
"Oh, just to see your face…" she said, putting a hint of innocence in her voice.
He sighed, "Fine." He put his finger under his mask and pulled it down. He grabbed the cloth over his eyes and pulled it up over his forehead protector. He seemed middle-aged. The only distinguishing features on him were his pentagramic scar over his entire right cheek. He still had his eyes closed.
"Please sensei… open your eyes…?" Tsuki asked, sounding concerned. I'll admit, I was intrigued by this too. Airomaru stayed staring, also intrigued.
He sighed again and opened his eyes. They were drowned in gold. His sclera was tinted in between white and yellow. His iris was dirty yellow. His pupil was like someone took a smidgen of black paint and mixed it with a fist-wide puddle of yellow. "Wh…why are your eyes like that!?" Tsuki asked.
He sighed, I could tell he was about to lie. "Accident…" he said, looking sad. "I can't see color out of them…" That last part couldn't have been a lie, judging from his facial expression and the way he said it.
"So you're color blind?" Tsuki asked, very concerned.
"No, I'm semi-blind…" he said softly. It was almost as if he hated it. "I don't see black and white either; everything is black for me except for your outlines."
"All you see is our outlines?" she asked, mystified.
He sighed as he closed his eyes and pulled the cloth over them again, "Just your outlines… although a 'bonus,' I guess you could say, is that no material object may obscure my vision, which is why I have this cloth. I'm also not susceptible to Genjutsu."
"That's amazing!" Tsuki said, amazed now. He sighed, "If you think so… CHAKRA!"
The three of us flinched. "CHAKRA! That's what we're supposed to be working on right now! So… GET TO MEDITATING! Hehehe…"
"Wait a minute!" Airomaru finally spoke, "That's blatant! You need to instruct us!"
"You're eight… you're old enough to do things on your own… besides, meditating is just preparation for what we're really going to do…"
"And an excuse to read that book of yours…" I said. It made Tsuki laugh. He sweat dropped and turned around, "Hey, if you read this, you'd like it too, sadly you're not old enough to be allowed to read this!"
"I don't wanna know that, man!" I yelled out.
"Liar!" He yelled back.
"Pervert!"
"Go meditate!"
He jumped so fast that it left behind some smoke. He left the three of us there alone. "Umm… what now?" Tsuki asked.
Airomaru sat down and put his hands together, "Meditate I suppose…"
"Yeah…" I said as me and Tsuki replicated him.
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"Hey… Hey… Heeeeeeey!"
I opened my eyes to see Genai standing there, "That's enough meditating. We're ready to get to chakra down."
The three of us got up. Genai stood there and put his hands in front of him. "Now, watch me" He put his right hand out in a fist and extended his two fingers up then placed his left hand and covered his two fingers with it while raising his left fingers up as well. "This is a Hand Seal, the Seal of the Rat. Airomaru, I'm sure you're familiar with it, as well as other Hand Seals and what they do." Airomaru nodded. "Tsuki, Hiatari. Hand Seals are important for channeling your chakra, without them, you can't use chakra efficiently. With this hand seal, I'd like you to transform into me."
Tsuki looked at me. I looked at her. "Um," I began to ask, "How?"
Genai sighed and put his hands to his sides. "Okay… Imagine there are lines going everywhere through your body, flowing a green spasm-like liquid. This green liquid, call it your Stamina. Now, with the seal, try to imagine your stamina and will it to go to your hands. When it does this, it will change to blue. This blue will be called Chakra. When your stamina becomes chakra, it will regulate to your entire body once and back to your hands, where it will release. When it releases, you have to imagine the effect and will your chakra to change your physical appearance, like this."
Genai put his hands in the seal of the rat and called out, "Henge!" He poofed up white smoke from his feet and when it cleared, I found myself looking at… myself…
The other me smiled and put his hands down, then spoke in my voice, "When you do this, you must take in all aspects of a person, height, weight, clothes, and voice." He poofed again and returned to his regular form, "So if it helps, I'm five-foot nine, I weigh one fifty-six and you know what I'm wearing and what I sound like. Good luck with this!" He said smiling as he vanished once more.
Airomaru spread his legs to about shoulder width and put his hands into the seal of the rat, "Henge!" he called out. He poofed up smoke. I expected to see him transformed into Genai, but instead I saw a bleached version of him with ruffled hair, disfigured face, torn clothes, three arms, and only one eye. Tsuki began to laugh. I couldn't help myself either. He poofed back into himself, "Damn…"
Despite our current laughter, I knew that this would take a while…
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"Feel that?"
"No…"
"That?"
"No…"
"That?"
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Kakashi jumped back as he dropped the senbon in his hand. I leaned back on my stool holding my right eye screaming in pain as I fell back and hit my ass on the floor. I rolled on the floor screaming in agony while Kakashi quickly started looking about the room franticly for something. He quickly dashed for the door and shut it.
"Do you have the Sharingan yet?" he asked, completely unconcerned.
"NO!"
"Are you sure? Can you perceive my movements?" he said as he started doing push-ups and sit-ups.
"If by that you mean 'can all you see is yellow and feint red on the top of your vision that is your blood' then NO, I CAN'T PERCEIVE YOUR MOVEMENTS!"
He sighed, "You're a real useless Uchiha, you know that?"
I got up and clutched my eye with my right hand and pointed my left at him, "I'M USELESS!? YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE A HOKAGE BUT YOU CAN'T EVEN PROPERLY USE A SENBON TO DO A SIMPLE OPERATION!"
"It was an honest mistake, now just calm down…"
"HONEST MISTAKE!?" I removed my hand to show my bloodshot eye, "DOES THIS LOOK HONEST TO YOU!? YOU'RE INCOMPITENT AND AUUUUUUGH!" I clutched my eye again and bent over in pain.
The door burst open and Tsunade stepped in, "Kakashi-sama! What's going on here?!"
"Tsunade-hime, do me a favor and heal Hiatari's eye for me…" he said pointing at me while looking at her.
I was yelling in pain as the former Hokage looked at me, "Kakashi! What did you do to him!?" she said as she rushed towards me and put her glowing hands over my eye.
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"Uahahahahahaha!"
"That's not funny, Naruto!"
"Heee-yes it is! He stabbed your eye! What were you doing, letting someone like him put a senbon to your eye anyway?" the fox grinning man asked me as he slurped more of his ramen.
I turned to him and he fought back his laughter. I had bandages over my right eye.
"Think about it, he always has his left eye covered… He can't have good depth perception… Well anyway, that was a good meal accompanied with a good laugh…" Naruto said, putting his eleventh bowl down. That man's stomach must have been replaced with a black hole…
"It wasn't a good laugh! I could have died!" I protested.
"But you didn't… Kakashi-sensei knows what he's doing, even if he seems to lie or be completely moronic about things… its one of the reasons I trust him as a shinobi and as our Hokage… Hell, it's one of the reasons why I trust him as a person…" Naruto said, vouching on Kakashi's behalf. I thought about it. Sure Kakashi screwed up… but at least he now knew what not to do… right?
"I'm afraid I can't walk you home tonight Hiatari… will you be okay?" he asked.
I nodded, "Of course, I'm not a little kid anymore, just a kid-kid!" I tried to mimic's Naruto's fox grin, but I probably looked dumb without the whiskers…
Naruto gave me his fox grin and patted my head, "Be careful out there kid-kid." Naruto walked off in the opposite direction of the Hyuuga compound. I turned and started walking that way myself.
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"-jibun rashisa wo chikara ni, mayoi nagara demo ii, aruki dashit- uh?" I said. I had been singing a song to myself when I thought I heard something distant break.
I turned my head to my right. I narrowed my eyes and I saw a strange figure. To me, it looked like someone took a piece of cloth and placed it on top a long stick. This figure seemed to be a cloaked man or woman standing atop one of the wooden poles. As I narrowed my eyes even more, I realized that I saw something on what I assumed to be its back.
It jumped up landed on top of another pole that was closer to me. I looked at it. Somehow, I felt their eyes burrow into mine. Even though I couldn't see them, I could have sworn those eyes were inhuman… I could feel that person gaze at me… I was scared and I stiffened up, only to be snapped out of it by a scream, "Hiatari!"
I immediately recognized that voice and called back out to it, "Tsuki!?"
I slowly put two and two together. Whatever was on that person's back, turned out to be Tsuki wrapped up in bandages. The brown-cloaked figure, itself, was not a normal resident of Konoha… it couldn't be… That's when I realized; He was kidnapping Tsuki.
"Put her down!" I yelled as I ran to the hooded kidnapper. He leaped up and landed in front of me. His hood covered his entire face with shadow. I could feel his glare. It smiled and began running to the Konoha gates. Without much thought, I ran after him.
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"Put me down you disgusting man!" Tsuki yelled at her cloak-hooded kidnapper. She struggled franticly but couldn't move much; even her fingers were stiffened up. She wondered if her prison was just too tight or if she had been poisoned with some paralyzing toxin.
I was right behind her. She looked at me, "Hiatari, help me!" The figure turned his head back. His hood was partially coming off, the shadows no longer covering the bottom half of his face. He grinned wickedly.
My eyes widened in fear, but I continued to run. I wondered what he was going to do to Tsuki. He turned back ahead and picked up speed. "Damn it… I'm not that fast…"
He was slowly but gradually losing me, but I still managed to keep him in sight up until we reached the academy. He jumped up to the roof of the academy and perched himself on the roof edge, looking around. I couldn't jump that high, but I could still climb the distance. I jumped and grabbed the side of the roof and lifted myself up with great difficulty. He turned to me and smirked as he jumped off and ran for the Konoha wall, not far from the gate.
It made sense to me; he wouldn't go through the gate, least he risk being seen. I had to keep up with him. I ran in his direction.
He was running at the wall and jumped to it then started running alongside it, he was running up the wall… I looked up and noticed that there were cracks big enough for about my hands to fit. I jumped up and scaled the wall, occasionally needing to make those jump grabs.
I reached the top and there he was, waiting for me. Tsuki was struggling and grunting as she wiggled around. The figure smiled at me when I felt a cold grey stare hit me. Then, he reached for his waist on the inside of his cloak and pulled out a sword. He tossed it in between us and smiled again.
The sword suddenly picked itself up and unsheathed itself.
I was confused as to how this was possible, "Wh-what!?"
Before being able to question further, the sword dashed at me and swung horizontally at me. I ducked under it, but the sword hit me in the face with its butt. I stumbled back and landed on my back. The sword rose above me and dashed straight for my face. I rolled to my left as the sword impaled the stone behind where my head once was.
I got up slowly and looked at the kidnapper. He smiled again as the short sword disenthralled itself free and rose behind me. I turned around as it swung upward and cut part of my right cheek and the top of my forehead, narrowly missing my eye. I fell back as my bandages came undone.
I looked up at him and he smiled as the sword sheathed itself and floated back to his hand. He grasped the blade roughly and put it back onto his waist as he turned around and jumped off the wall.
I scurried up again and leaned over the edge. It was a long fall.
Well, all for nothing…
I jumped after him…
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Crunch, Crunch, Crunch, was the sound the leaves made as I ran across them. I was following Tsuki's Kidnapper who had started jumping through the forest trees.
I don't know why, but it seemed like he was leading me somewh-
"Hey!"
I spun around to have three pointy blades to my face.
"Uh oh…"
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Unbeknownst to anyone else, three pairs of eyes peered over the moonlight village that was hidden in the leaves. Which ones where more sinister, who could tell… It was a close tie between the crimson red eyes and the deadly yellow eyes…
Their black colored, red trimmed, white patterned coats seem to shine in the moonlight…
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A/N: Dear god I apologize for waiting this long to get this chapter out, really I am. I was having technical malfunctions (I up my cooling system) with my computer… that rendered it useless for sooooo long… Again, I apologize, and I hope I didn't leave you hanging, it could be considered a Cliffhanger… Anyway, not to worry, I haven't been sitting around and wasting away (entirely) while my computer was in its month-long coma. I (semi-)promise that I will get the next few chapters out much faster… maybe a week apart, sooner perhaps? I also promise that I will never take so damn long to update… Again, my apologies, I hope you like the chapter, thanks for reading…