I hope you all enjoy this! Thanks so much for reading, I really appreciate it!
The trees in the park whistled lightly as the breeze rustled the green leaves effortlessly. The sun was reaching its peak as it slithered into the light blue sky. Clouds drifted gently through against the azure blanket, fluffy white puffballs painted on a bright cobalt ceiling. The stone path trailed through the tall brown and green trees, weaving in and out of the dense forestation.
The normally peaceful nature trail usually had a few people strolling along it so as to enjoy the natural and tranquil part of Konohagakure. However, no seemed else seemed to be on this path except for the mass of teenagers that continued to stare amongst themselves.
For the longest moment, no one broke the dreadful silence. Everyone shared awkward stares and uncomfortable glimpses, trying to fathom what had just happened between them. Only a few minutes before, a near war had almost erupted between the teenagers and animals. Now there was just discomfited quietness.
Megumi seemed to be the only one who was not at all uncomfortable. In fact, she seemed unnaturally pleased with the outcome of the spontaneous. A spark of devious delight flickered in her hazel-green eyes, or at least that's what Takara thought she saw as she glanced at her new companion.
With a deliberately obnoxious cough, the other blonde girl of the group caught the attention of the surrounding adolescents. "So…" she began awkwardly, "does anyone want to give their name first?"
"It's usually polite to give your name before asking for another's," the serpentine princess shot back. Her slit eyes gazed over to the young girl with the golden puppy on her shoulder. "That goes for you too. And you should wipe that smile off your face, because I have no problem with slicing it off," she added as she fingered the blade nestled in her belt.
Megumi remained unaffected by the threats of the fourteen-year-old, though a cold expression replaced the triumphant smirk upon her face.
"Oh, for the love of…" the pale-eyed golden-haired boy uttered in exasperation as he stepped forward. "My name is Riku Hyuuga."
The crimson-eyed girl watched her best friend warily before she smiled, admiring his spunk. She absentmindedly patted her tiger's striped head, as if she was able to draw encouragement from her animal companion. "I am Kohana. Kohana Sarutobi." With a small gesture towards her animal companion, she added, "And this is Shiro."
The overgrown feline let loose a throaty rumble, causing the other animals of the group to stiffen reflexively. The white-coated herbivore seemed to be frightened the most, his chocolate brown eyes remaining fixedly on the striped beast. The stag's mistress gently patted a spot behinds its small ears, calming the creature down until he loosened his muscles.
"I'm Yuna Nara," the brown-haired girl said without looking at the others. Her rich hazel eyes stayed locked to her deer's, making sure he did not scare again. "And this is my friend, Kumade. Please be wary of him, he can frighten easily or be defensive in the blink of an eye."
"And I'm Kaoru Shoten," the green-eyed blonde murmured. She waved a hand in Yuna's direction, glancing around between the other teenagers. "I'm… with her, I guess. I'm not really from here."
"My name is Yuu Terumi," the brown-haired brown-eyed boy said. His hand twitched anxiously as he looked around at the others. Takara wondered if he was preparing himself to grab his sheathed sword in case anyone attempted another attack.
"Amaya Watanabe," the raven-haired girl beside Yuu uttered. She shrugged a shoulder towards him. "We're from the Mist Village, here for an assignment."
"I'm Shin Miyazaki, from the Rain Village," the other brown-haired boy said. His grumpy attitude seemed to have dissipated, though the awkwardness of the situation seemed to be bearing down on him like it was with everyone else.
He took a small glance towards the sinister girl beside him, and with an intentionally loud cough, he caught her attention, albeit a fleeting yet evil sort of glimpse. "My name is Karasu Itami Shi from the Sound Village. This is my snake, Salyzar. If you anger either of us, you will pay the consequences. That is all you will ever know about me," she hissed.
Takara silently gulped; she assumed at least a few of the others felt just as scared as she did, for a couple people took nervous steps away from the fourteen-year-old.
"I'm Megumi Urufu," the youngest person of the spontaneous cluster of people announced proudly, jerking a thumb in her direction. Her curly dirty blond hair swept around her shoulders as she twisted her hand around to point to yellow puppy on her shoulder. "This is Inazuma."
A moment of silence passed amongst them, though the former inhabitant of the Blizzard Country just stared at the stony path they stood on. After a few seconds, she realized that the quietness was in anticipation of her introduction.
"Oh! Um… I'm Takara Inuzuka," she whispered, barely audible amongst the large cluster of adolescents. She nervously petted her gray pet's rough coat, seemingly drawing his courage into herself. "This is my best friend, Ginmaru. We're from the Snow Village." The final words made her choke, fresh tears pushing at the edges of her eyes. The wolf beside her felt her sadness, and he pushed his head under her hand in comfort. "Or… what was the Snow Village…"
This caught the attention of many of the other young adults. "What do you mean?" Yuu asked in bewilderment.
"There… Mount Hoshi… There was an avalanche, and…" Takara trailed off in the end; she didn't want to discuss this, especially with a bunch of strangers. There was no need to continue anyway. Everyone was able to finish the sentence on their own.
Kohana stepped forward, her bluish black hair swaying ever so slightly. The sky blue ribbon in her hair stood out shockingly against her dark hair, though her crimson-colored eyes were the most stunning feature about her as she came towards Takara. Hesitantly yet comfortingly, she rested a hand on the other girl's shoulder, giving a kind smile.
"I'm sorry for your loss," the tiger mistress said quietly.
All Takara was only able to muster a shrug in acknowledgement that she accepted the condolences, but the gentle words didn't make the pain go away or push back the tears that threatened to slide down her fair skinned face.
"Why do people always apologize when it wasn't their fault?" Karasu jeered loudly, sending a scornful look in the direction of the two older girls.
The depressed female didn't really react, though mostly because she hadn't heard her. Kohana's face portrayed what could only be disappointment as she looked to the sadistic child, slowly removing her hand from Takara's shoulder. A few of the other group members – the Konoha residents, the wolf owner noted – sent surprised stares toward the serpentine girl. Shin merely rolled his eyes.
"Please ignore her," he said with a tired sigh. "She has no social skills." This earned a silent yet deadly glare from the young she-devil.
"The rest of us are still sorry for what happened to you," Yuna remarked, giving an empathetic bob of her head as she looked to Takara.
The nods of agreement and murmurs of comfort only made the ex-Snow Village inhabitant blush at the sudden attention. The worst part was that the notices she was receiving were not out of care or friendship but out of pity. A pack of strangers was showering her with unwanted pity. That thought nearly made Takara scurry away and bury herself in a hole.
Seeming to not notice how uncomfortable the girl was from all the stares, the group continued to shower her with condolences and words of comfort. "So… no one else survived?" Kaoru asked.
"No…" Takara shook her head.
Riku frowned at this. "How come there was no news of this?"
"Blizzard Country isn't exactly up to date with communication with the other nations," Amaya interrupted with a mild roll of her eyes.
Yuu's eyebrow quirked in contemplation; the solemn topic seemed to have ceased the itching in his fingers to grab for the blade strapped to his back. "I've never even heard of there being an avalanche around Mount Hoshi. I thought that area was considered safe."
"That mountain is as old as time," Yuna stated as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Everything crumbles with age at some point."
The raven-haired fifteen-year-old shrugged, just hoping that the conversation would steer away from her. "I suppose."
"Or," Megumi began, "we could call it fate."
Everyone immediately turned to the youngest person of the group. A couple people blinked in surprise while others furrowed their brows in confusion.
"What do you mean by that?" Yuu asked. "Fate, as in destiny?"
"There's no such thing," Karasu instantly snapped, crossing her slender arms over her chest.
Kohana frowned at the other girl's attitude. "Let Megumi believe what she wants to believe in," she remarked, though she did cast bewildered crimson eyes over to the blonde. "Do you wish to explain what you mean by this?"
The little girls scoffed as she twirled a lock of her bouncy blonde hair. "You guys really think that this big meeting," she said as she gestured around her to indicate the semicircle that was slowly forming around her, "was an accident?"
"Coincidence," Shin sighed, shaking in disbelief at the occurring conversation.
Megumi laughed at this, a witch-like cackle that made Takara shivered. No one else seemed to take notice of the girl's sinister snickering. "You guys will want to trust me on this one: coincidences do not exist."
"So you believe that things are predestined for everyone?" Kaoru asked, doubt lacing her disbelieving tone.
The girl with the puppy on her shoulder shrugged, causing little Inazuma to twist about in an attempt to get more comfortable upon her perch. "I know that they are."
"That's a pretty big claim for something as small as a chance meeting," Yuna said, absentmindedly petting her white stag behind the constantly flicking ears.
Megumi rolled her hazel-green eyes in what appeared to be exasperation. "You lot really don't know anything, do you?"
Takara stiffened at the other girl's tone. There seemed to be underlying her words. Knowledge, maybe? Frustration, of course, but what was hidden underneath it? What Megumi was saying sounded like something an old woman would be chastising her grandchildren for not knowing.
"Megumi," the wolf girl began cautiously, "what are you talking about?"
The blonde twelve-year-old blinked, the formerly agitated look disappearing. For the first time since Takara had seen her only hours before, the young girl looked genuinely confused and even surprised.
"So you all… don't know?" Megumi inquired, confusion clear in her voice as the superior tone quickly dissipated.
The previous Snow Villager felt her muscles contract and tense at these words. She didn't know what she was supposed to expect her previous traveling companion to say next, but she knew it was going to be an awful shock that would flip her world upside down again.
With an absentminded scratch of the back of her golden head, the preteen glanced to her shiningly yellow pup. "Inazuma," she whispered, though her voice was still loud enough for the others to hear her. "Grow."
The puppy leaped from her mistress's shoulder, a feral look suddenly appearing on her young and cute face. Electricity began to spark around her paws the moment she touched stone ground. Striking an elegant yet beastly pose, the golden canine began to shift. The lightning ran up her legs and coursed around her body, visible sparks surrounding the yellow fur. The teenagers watched as the limbs and bones of the dog stretched and expanded into a larger and more muscled creature. Within seconds, the little pup was a full grown wolf the same size as the gray Ginmaru.
Takara gawked at the phenomenon she had just seen. Her brown orbs blinked repeatedly, trying to make the image of the adult golden wolf go away. Because there was no way it could really be there.
A side glance toward the other members of the group told her that Inazuma was really there as a large beast and not a little puppy like she was minutes before.
"What… What…" Takara stammered out. Her mind strangely began thinking of her own wolf companion. She hadn't felt this surprised since she first heard Ginmaru speak to her in her mind. Was this the same thing? Was this some type of magic ability that wolves seemed to have? It didn't make sense.
Megumi held up her hand to halt Takara from asking anything further, and her stern hazel gaze told the others that they could not inquire anything either.
"You all don't know about this," the twelve-year-old spoke. Her voice had taken on that wiser and older tone once again, and it made Takara shiver. "But there is a special energy that runs through your veins. It is like your life source. It's called chakra."
Brown and green meshed together into murals of colors. Wind picked up around the group as their speed threatened to outdo the quick breeze. The rhythmic noise of their feet landing and pushing off the sturdy branches was the only sound that echoed through the dense forest.
Kazuki, with Ushiro nestled on his shoulder, led the team, setting the rapid pace towards Konohagakure. Rin and Umiko were on either side of him, just a few feet behind. Yoru and Cerberus brought up the rear, keeping watchful eyes on the squad as well as the surrounding forest.
The team had remained silent during their entire journey. Now that the spies were assembled, the time for friendly greetings had passed. The seriousness of the situation had finally settled in, and their deadly auras seeped through with each step they took towards the Leaf Village.
The Uchiha's green eyes were settled straight ahead, but they reflexively turned to the corners of their sockets when Cerberus's low growling interrupted the silence.
"Someone is following us," the orange-haired boy whispered. There was no urgency in his voice, only the calming tone he always had.
The squad leader nodded once as he pushed off a tree branch. Instead of continuing to sail through the mountainous trees, he swooped towards the ground, the other team members following. After landing in swift crouches, the group slowly stood to their full heights, looking around the woodsy area cautiously.
The soft rustling of leaves and an almost inaudible thud of a tree arm made the four teenagers simultaneously turn around to look above them. A dark shadow was crawling along the branch Kazuki had occupied only seconds before. The figure paced back and forth, and with his Sharingan activated, the Uchiha boy could just make out a flowing yellow eye staring at the group below.
"Ready yourselves," Kazuki ordered. The team responded at his command, slipping into battle-ready stances at the same time.
The shadow lurking above in the trees froze for a moment as it watched the shinobi prepare for a fight. With quick and sharp reflexes, the figure leaped to the ground, landing on its hands and feet.
Kazuki warily eyed the stranger; he couldn't make out the foreigner's face, for it was still concealed in shadows. He slowly took a step forward, and his emerald eyes widened. What he had thought was the darkness produced from the forest's shadows were actually black bat wings shielding the figure's face. The stranger slowly curled her wings so that they rested against her side, revealing a pale-gray face. Honey blonde hair was matted to the girl's sunken face, and two horns protruded from her temples. One horn was broken, and a bandage acted as an eye patch over one of her yellow slits. Her greasy and filthy body was unhealthily thin, her bones poking against her grotesque skin.
The Uchiha's eyes widened as he stumbled away from the monster. "Is this thing even human?" he whispered to his team, glancing at them nervously for assistance.
"She is," Yoru said, narrowing his eyes skeptically at the creature before them. The red teardrop tattoo beneath his left eye wrinkled as he scrunched his face in thought, trying to figure out what it was they were staring at.
The strange girl looked up to the others with a curious golden eye. Her head tilted to the side in wonder as she took in the group gawking at her. "Hmm," she hummed to herself. "Master Kazuki is just as handsome as his father, Master Madara."
If the raven-haired boy had been shocked before, he was lightning-struck now. His mouth fell open in a large gaping O-shape. Umiko, standing beside him, burst out into a fit of roaring laughter, which made him blush ever so slightly.
"How the heck do you know my father?" Kazuki asked accusingly. "Who are you?"
"Master Madara and Master Kioshi sent Iriai no Naomi and her best friend, Hamtaro, to assist Master Kazuki and his friends," the girl said airily.
"Kioshi?" Kazuki repeated, tasting the name on his lips. Who was that again?
Rin moaned in what sounded like admiration. "Kioshi of the Saviors, huh? His work really is splendid."
The Uchiha child turned to the raven-haired blood user in surprise. His eyebrows furrowed together as he crossed his arms over his chest in a reprimanding manner. "You have the hots for the Saviors founder? He's, like, forty!"
"And you are 117, so I fail to see your point," the Takahashi snapped, glaring with her crimson-colored orbs.
"At least I look your age," Kazuki pouted. Ushiro, sitting upon his master's shoulders, began shaking in what the Uchiha could only presume was kitten amusement. The fact that his tiger was laughing at him only made him flush with anger.
Umiko erupted with laughter, doubling over to clutch her gut as her needle-sharp teeth bared themselves to the group. "Seems like Kazuki is jealous." The team leader rapidly whipped around to glower at the blue-skinned girl, which only made her cackle even louder. "Do not feel so bad, Kazuki. Kioshi is legendary for his work. You are just a boy with cool eyes."
The black-haired boy gritted his teeth at this, and his fists clenched by his sides. "I am the son of Madara Uchiha. Do not underestimate me."
Yoru took a step forward, and for a moment, Kazuki thought the other boy was going to continue to argue against him. However, the young adult merely walked over to where the crouching science project was staring curiously at the group of shinobi. The three-headed canine sat beside his master, warily staring at the bat-like girl with six pairs of cautious eyes.
"You mentioned someone named Hamtaro," the orange-haired boy said as he knelt down so that he was eye level with the gray-skinned creature. "Does that mean Kioshi sent others with you?"
Naomi tilted her head to the side in wonder as she looked at Yoru. Her one golden eye was fixed on the red teardrop-shaped tattoo that trickled down his left eye. She pointed a withered talon-like finger at the marking. "Such a pretty design."
With a simple nod of his head, Yoru smiled pleasantly at the deformed girl. "Thank you," he replied politely. "So, who is Hamtaro?"
The bat girl blinked in surprise before perking up instantly. "Oh, yes! Hamtaro is Naomi's best friend!"
She shrugged her right shoulder gently, and a little apricot-colored fur ball emerged from beneath her mess of sweaty dirty hair. Beady black eyes looked over the strangers with interest before squeaking several times into his mistress's ear.
"Hamtaro, these are the people Master Kioshi wanted us to help," Naomi said, gesturing a grayish hand toward the four ninja. The little hamster piped again, though this time a bit more aggravated. "No, I do not know their names yet." The blond girl turned back to dazedly stare at the shinobi again, her yellow eye seeming to not really focus on the people before her. "Who is it that Master Kioshi sent Naomi and Hamtaro to assist?"
Kazuki grimaced under the gaze of the strange female before him, and with a disgusted gulp, he gestured to each person of his team as he said their names. "Kazuki Uchiha and Ushiro, Rin Takahashi, Umiko Hoshigaki, and Yoru Saito."
"Iriai no Naomi and Hamtaro are ready to help, Master Kazuki," the science creature said as she gave a bow, which was exceptionally low since she was already crouching close to the dirt.
The respect that Kioshi's experiment was showing brightened the tiger user's mood, especially since he was still a bit offended by Rin's admiration of the Saviors' leader. "Cool," the boy smirked. "Welcome to the team."
"Thank you," Naomi smiled dazedly. She inched closer to the squad leader, crawling on all fours. When she was crouched by Kazuki's feet, she stood up to half her height, which only reached to about the immortal boy's chest. She sent him an airy smile as her fingers began to play with the material of his shirt. "Naomi is happy to be apart of the handsome Kazuki Uchiha's team."
Green eyes widened in fright as the century-year-old male squirmed out of the girl's talons. Shivers tickled him where her fingers had touched him. "Yoru, you can watch over Naomi, got it?"
The spiky-haired eighteen-year-old smiled. "Of course."
Naomi initially seemed upset that the team chief had wriggled away from her, but Cerberus's middle head gently licked her fingers to gain her attention. The experiment squealed in glee as she knelt to play with the 'puppy', as she insisted on calling the terrifying canine.
With a sigh, Kazuki turned around to face the direction in which his squad had originally been heading. "Alright team, let's get back on track. To the Leaf Village."
Nods of assent went around the group as the cluster of unlikely companions flew into the trees.