VvVChapter 1VvV

Red, Tooth, and Claw

Theme Song: Linkin Park – Nobody's Listening

Shinatsu:

As my mind echoed with the memory I shot up from my bed, shaking my head to rid myself of the torture of the reminiscence that haunted me. Why? I never even really understood. I've been told over and over not to talk or even think about the incident. But…

I shuddered at the memory, such a torturing recollection; haunting me whenever I let my guard down. My mind raced with the memories; the sight of my home in ruins, the moment I found my brother unconscious under all that mess. I was lucky to even be alive. Both of us were. All those memories, never fading, never leaving; always there and forever haunting. I leant my head on my arms again, turning my eyes toward the sun; something so bright and joyous, at this moment it soothed me, as my heart was ripped to shreds by the mere thought of losing my brother. It would never happen; he was so strong. He can handle himself very well. Not to mention how well he takes care of me. That would never ever happen; it was a dream…just a dream and never more…

I sat in silence, hugging my knees tightly, watching the sun rise through my open window. I raised my head as Moro yawned tiredly. He stood up to his full height, almost 7 feet tall, and stretched his long legs. You see, Moro is a white wolf that was given to me after I moved into my current village. Then he was only a small pup, but he grew rather quickly! He's not a normal wolf that you ight see in a forest or something. When I was about six he was actually big enough for me to ride. We became attached and he trained with me everyday from then on. He's never left my side.

Pushing aside my covers I leaped out of my bed and reached my arms up to the ceiling, stretching them, as I pulled my clothes out of my wooden dresser. After getting dressed I tamed my hair with a comb, admiring my one red bang in front of my face. (If you want to see what she looks like look at my pictures)

Moro nudged my cheek lightly with his wet nose and walked toward my bedroom door, telling me that he wanted me to follow him. He always did that, whether we had an assignment, food was on the table, or someone wanted me. It never occurred to me how he knew all this stuff, but I went with him anyway. He was normally right.

After placing the final piece of armor on my leg I headed toward the door, grabbing my headband before I left. Stopping to look in the mirror, I tied it around my neck, examining the metal plate carefully. I cleaned off a small smudge on the edge and stared at the musical note engraved in the middle. "Sound village…" I murmured. "Nice."

I stepped into the kitchen and smiled when I saw my brother Jeremi and teammate Kiryu singing, or should I say screaming, one of their favorite songs out loud while they made breakfast.

If I had to
I would put myself right beside you
So let me ask
Would you like that?
Would you like that?

And I don't mind
If you say this love is the last time
So now I'll ask
Do you like that?
Do you like that?

No!

The smell of the eggs and bacon was overwhelming. Kiryu glanced at me and grinned.

"And why are we doing the cooking?" he asked, flipping over a few pancakes.

"Because lazy over here decided she was going to sleep in this morning and let us do all the work," Jeremi answered.

"Well you always did say that your cooking was better," I teased, walking up to my brother and ruffling up his long black hair with my fingers. He groaned and smoothed out his hair with his free hand. I love doing that. His hair reached down to his neck which made it fun to screw with. (Think of skater hair. If you want to know what he looks like look at my pics)

It took us a few minutes to eat. It was a normal breakfast. I messed with my brother while Kiryu leaned back in his chair laughing. I decided not to mention my dream to anyone, especially not Jeremi. He'd ask so many questions that I'd never get my free space. Besides, why should they spend their time worrying over me? It's my problem. I can handle it.

After we finished eating we gave our leftovers to Moro, who was lying in the corner alone. He knew that he'd eventually get fed. But this was only an appetizer. He'd normally go out on his own to hunt down some animal large enough to satisfy his hunger.

Kiryu leaned back in his chair, placing his feet on the table. Jeremi leaned back in his chair as well, flipping a golden coin into the air and catching it as it came back down. Moro walked up to me and nudged my hand with his nose. I glanced at him and smiled, scratching the back of his ear. Sometimes he'll act so much like a dog that it kills me.

The silence lasted a few minutes until Kiryu finally opened his mouth. "When are we ever going to get another mission? The last one we had was so lame, it took us less than an hour to complete it. Why did they let us graduate if they weren't going to let us do anything?" He slammed his fists down on the table and yelled, "I need a challenge!"

The second the word 'challenge' was mentioned silence echoed throughout the room and all of our faces were set dead serious. Jeremi smirked and looked at Kiryu, then me, and back. "I've got an idea," he said, pointing at us. "You two fight. I'd like to see just how well you two can handle yourselves."

"Smart plan, Kotone," Kiryu stated. "But I don't know if your little sister can take it…"

"You're on, Kiryu." I stood up and cracked my knuckles menacingly, being watched carefully by Moro and Jeremi. All of us had identical looks on our faces that definitely said 'hungry for a fight'. We all stood up and calmly headed for a large wooden sliding door at the end of the hall. We headed outside of the small dorm in which we slept, walking toward a small dirt circle in the middle of the village of Otogakure; the Hidden Village of Sound. A crowd of ninjas and pedestrians were gathered around the circle, shouting and cursing. There was probably a fight currently going on. "Moro," I whispered. He growled softly, knowing what I wanted him to do. He charged up to the crowd growling and snapping his jaws. The people began to scream and back away, as Moro made a small path. Jeremi glanced at me and I smirked, making him shake his head. Kiryu, Jeremi, and I walked into the middle of the circle quietly. The men that were fighting before backed down and headed to the outside of the circle, watching silently. Jeremi stood to the side as Kiryu and I stepped into the middle, each grinning fiercely.

As we glared at each other Jeremi began the countdown, both of us waiting for the signal to go, as we planned out our strategy. The audience that was forming around us began to whisper and murmur, some betting on who would win. "3…2…1…GO!"

Both of us unfroze at the exact same time, charging at each other with speed, yet just as it seemed we would collide into one another I bent to the ground, placing my hands onto it before I propelled myself straight through Kiryu's legs before he even knew what was happening. And before Kiryu even had the chance to turn around a kick landed in his back at such speed that it thrust him forward onto the ground, yet he landed with a growl on his hands and pushed himself back towards me, his feet landing straight on target in my stomach, pushing me backwards into the crowd.

I moaned as I landed and dropped onto all fours, gasping for air as I slowly lifted my head to watch Kiryu casually strolling towards me. "You so cheated. You used some of your chakra to enhance your strength…" I paused to catch my breath and watched Kiryu's lips twist into a half smirk/ half snarl. He ran a hand through his light brown hair and chuckled.

Kiryu grabbed me by my collar then turned round, sending a punch straight into my face, forcing me to fly back into the other side of the arena. I slid down the dirt and sand, gasping for breath and fingering the forming bruise gently, my head was facing the floor yet through my hair I watched Kiryu like a hawk.

"Come on, Shin! You're holding back. Consider this training," my brother yelled from the sidelines. I shook my head to clear it and focused once again on Kiryu.

As he neared me, my eyes narrowed viciously and before Kiryu knew what was happening I had placed my hands onto the ground and at the same time swung my legs around, swiftly knocking the other off of his feet. It was Kiryu's time to fall and he fell with a thud onto the ground, scowling as his back began to throb from the pain.

I threw my fist ferociously into his face, but while he had paused after each hit to give me time to recover I was doing no such thing and as the fist was pulled away from Kiryu's face it thrust back into it repeatedly. I threw Kiryu to the floor and pulled three kunai out of my leg strap (what's it called?) Kiryu did the same. He stood up and wiped the blood off of his lip, spitting it onto the floor. He grinned at me and advanced. I followed his lead.

I leapt forward, aiming my kunai at Kiryu's head. He blocked it, as I had known he would. I chuckled lightly and used my leg to sweep Kiryu's feet out from under him.

Kiryu landed on his back with a groan, not having time to recover because I was moving to hit him again, but he recognized my moves from the first time I had tripped him and he rolled away, coming up in a battle crouch. It would be so much easier to simply use his chakra, but he didn't want to do that, he wanted this fight to be as fair as possible; he wanted to test his physical strength.

Kiryu moved forward, trying for a classic head strike. I blocked, sweeping his kunai down and out before bringing it up to try for a similar move that he had used.

The crowd was cheering and shouting things, yelling things from encouragement to insults, but inside the arena, it was silent. We heard nothing. We said nothing, but every now and then we'd comment each other.

The low, hard clacking of our weapons meeting was steady and rapid, quick, sharp beats like a fast heartbeat. We moved around the arena, not really watching where we were going, just always aware of where the weapons and people were so that we didn't trip or get cornered. Neither of us was thinking, we couldn't afford to, we were just reacting, letting our bodies do the work while our brains shut down. We'd been fighting for years and our bodies knew what to do, knew how to defend and attack, how to react to certain moves. Our bodies saw traps and strategies and reacted to them without any input from our brains. Fighting was automatic, instinct, for us now.

I quickly realized that we were almost evenly matched and that unless one of us got creative, the battle could last for hours. I didn't want it to last for hours, my muscles were already screaming at me to end the fight right now or they were going to be so pissed at me. I thought desperately, trying to think up a strategy, a plan, which would work. Kiryu was smart, and with his abilities and chakra levels it wasn't easy to trick him. He wasn't always aware that I was using my chakra, but he often did, he was often able to anticipate his enemy's moves in advance and figure out traps.

I decided that a trap wouldn't work, so I'd just have to do something obvious and simple. I pushed Kiryu away and darted to the side, putting a foot of empty space between us. Before Kiryu could rush at me, I made my move; I threw my kunai in the air. Kiryu glanced at it out of instinct, a bare flick of the eyes that didn't even last a second, but it was enough.

I jumped forward, my body already doing the work before my mind could tell it to. I kicked Kiryu in the chest, hard, and his breath whooshed out of his lungs as he collapsed onto the ground… again. I ripped the kunai out of his hand, squeezing his arm tight, and sat down on his back, preventing him from moving. Kiryu wiggled and squirmed underneath me, and after a few minutes decided to give up, knowing that it was useless to waste his energy. But I'm not stupid. I knew he was holding back most of the time. He could throw me off his back if he wanted to.

"I give up," he said. "You win."

I smiled, standing up as Jeremi took my hand in his and shot it up in the air.

The crowd roared of excitement, and even though it wasn't a very big fight the noise was ear busting. Kiryu walked up behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Good job," he said, smiling.

"You too," I replied. He ran a hand through his hair, smirking.

Then the mob grew silent and all I heard was one pair of hands clapping, in a slow rhythm, like dripping water: Clap…clap…clap…clap…

"Very good. Very good, indeed. I never expected you to do so well. But then again…" the crowd parted as a man walked slowly into the circle, "I trained you."

A man stared at me and my brother. But not any man. He was dressed in traditional robes of a pale soiled yellow. His skin was even paler still, being a milky white. His hair was long and black, contrasting with his whitish skin. His eyes were even more mysterious, a wild yellow with pupils of a serpent. There were purple marks accenting each one. This could have been a simple moment. But the aura of the person spoke to me. He was a ninja. He was my savior. I owed him my life, since he saved mine and my brother's when we were young.

"Orochimaru-sama," I sputtered. I looked down at my feet and fell to my knees, Kiryu and Jeremi following my lead. Even Moro bowed down in respect.

"Stand," he said calmly, a hissing sound coming from his voice. I obeyed him, standing and trying to keep eye contact.

"It seems you have grown in strength. I am pleased." He looked at Jeremi, and then Kiryu. "I would say the same for you two. I am pleased." He grinned and chuckled.

"I…I didn't know you were in the village. Nor did I know you were watching the fight," I stammered. Orochimaru chuckled once again.

"Of course. Your agility, strength, and creativity seem to have matured greatly. Which is good, because I have an assignment for you to complete."

"Alright!" Kiryu smiled and laughed quietly. He never really cares much about what he does or who sees him, a characteristic that proves to be both useful and troublesome.

Jeremi raised an eyebrow in confusion. "A mission? What would that be?"

Orochimaru just grinned.

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Whoo! How was that? Did I do good at explaining the fight? I suck at writing stories. Hmm….reviews people!! I need reviews!! Post comments to let me know what you think. The next chapter is actually going to be the first episode based chapter. It may be longer than this one. Pssh, no it will be longer. The chapter will be based on episode 20. If you want you can review that so you'll know what is going on better. Next up:

Chapter 2:

A new chapter Begins; The Chunnin Exams!!