EE- Thank you for reading this far, we are now getting to the good part!
Neji- Sure, just to let everyone know, some of the parents come in this time because they fall into the past and meet them,
EE- This is a tribute to Jai Li, who I have mostly ignored so far. This is all going to be her POV.
Jai Li's POV
Hina and I began to make our way back to where we left Yoru and Cho. We found some weird fruit that looked like we could choke down and picked a bunch.
"Oh, yuck!" Hina said pinching her nose with an extra hand, "These smell gross."
I just nodded grimly, trying not to breath though my nose, should I inhale any of the stench.
"I'm not gonna eat these!" she explained, "I don't know about Yoru though, if he's anything like Tashi-kun he'll eat anything, dead or alive."
I smiled to make her happy and we continued walking. When we got back Cho was sleeping and Yoru was just sitting there. God, I wish I could just sleep; honestly I hadn't slept in ages. I could feel myself fading, every minute just a little more. And Hina was really starting to annoy me. Her life was so perfect; she had her mom and dad, well, except all the rumors that her dad was actually Uchiha Sasuke. But that was livable right? My dad was some insensitive bastard with a stick up his ass, Yoru was a clone of him, and my mom was so in love with my dad that she couldn't see me suffering.
I set the horrible smelling fruits down and told them I was going to take a walk. I walked farther and farther. I kind of got lost for a while but I didn't care if I ever made it back. I felt sick. Not like contagious sick. I could feel myself becoming less and less like me and into… well, I didn't want to think about that. With every step, I lost a bit on sanity. It was sickening.
I stopped and froze. I heard something.
THUD THUD THUD
'What the fresh hell?' I thought, it sounded like some huge animal. It was a chicken. Not a regular chicken, a huge one, ruffling it's feathers and breathing… fire. I was frozen to the spot. I HAD to be hallucinating. It looked at me, cocking it's head slightly and then, breathed at me. Flames soared out of its beak directly at me.
At first it felt hot. Burning hot. I even stifled at scream. Then nothing at all. I was falling… then thunk. I fell hard on my ass and tasted blood from my tongue.
I knew I wasn't back in the forest at once. So I was in a forest, it just wasn't the same place somehow. It was hot out. Obviously mid summer. Right now it was supposed to be early spring. The sun beat down, mocking me. Where was I? Where were Hina and the rest? I slowly got to my feet and cautiously looked around. This was weird.
A kunai whizzed at me. My nerves, already on end, I dodged it easily and it hit the tree behind me. And as an instinct, I automatically activated my byuukugan. I looked up and saw three people standing on a tree branch on a tree in front of me. I felt my eyes widen in surprise. It was my mom, dad, and former teammate, Lee. But the thing was, they looked roughly seventeen or eighteen. I had fallen back in time.
"Who are you?" my dad asked coldly, folding his arms over his chest. I just gawked, you know, taking it all in.
"Neji," my mom said, twirling a second kunai with two fingers, "She's got a Konoha forehead protector. Besides, she's like fifteen, don't be an ass."
"She can use byuukugan so she has to be a Hyuuga, but she's not in my clan." He said still glaring.
"So what are you going to do?" I asked snidely, matching his glare, "Look at me like that until I melt?"
"Just ignore Neji," Lee said, "We will be on our youthful way now!"
"No, Lee." Neji said, "She's way to suspicious looking. She might be an enemy in disguise."
Now that that was said, Lee and him both got ready to attack me. But Tenten still hesitated.
"You guys, honestly." She said jumping from the tree and stood in front of me, "Let's find out who she is first."
"Thanks." I muttered, knowing that they were all jounins and I, being a genin, well…
"Sure," she smiled, "Neji just doesn't have his head on right. But what is your name?"
'Should I make up a fake name? Should I just tell the truth?' My mind was spinning and I began to feel sick. I knew I couldn't tell Tenten and Neji that they were my parents, because they had obviously didn't have feelings for each other yet, they'd probably be so freaked they would never get together and I would never exist.
"You can, uh, call me Jai Li." I said, deciding to give the name but ixnay on the whole I'm-your-daughter-from-the future thing. Oh yeah, and see if I could get away without giving a clan name. That would be just as weird.
"Jai Li, huh?" she said, looking confused, "That was my mother's name."
I, of course already knew this, but for the sake of everything I just nodded like I was interested.
"What's your clan name?" Neji asked as he and Lee joined Tenten, in front of me.
"Um, uh, why do you care?" I asked, wincing.
"Because I want to know." He said calmly.
"Well, what if I don't want to tell you?" I said glaring again.
"I'll make you." He said, focusing blue chakra in his hands.
I felt scared at first, I mean, who wouldn't, and then, like I wanted to fight him. I felt this surge of confidence wash over by body. Sure, I would lose. But maybe not right away. Maybe, I might actually be able to land a hit. Maybe.
Neji looked at me, his byuukugan now activated, "What is your full name?"
"You're wrong if you think you'll be finding out."
He cracked a smile and closed his eyes. "I'm never wrong, kid."
"Hardly," I smirked, "Once a stick up your ass, always a stick up your ass, huh?"
"You know me?" he asked.
"Among other people, now are you going to attack me or not?"
"Hakke: Rokujuu Yonshou!" he said. (Eight trigrams: 64 points of divinity)
I almost laughed, "Kaiten!" (Heavenly spin) I as I had expected, none of his hits were even close. Even though, it probably seemed stupid to use techniques that would make me obvious, but hey, they already saw the white eyes and the byuukugan, right? How could I possibly make it more obvious, anyway?
Suddenly, I felt an unexpected jolt of pain right in the middle of my back. Someone had thrown a kunai at my blind spot. I coughed blood and fell to the ground.
"Here's a tip." Neji said, mockingly, walking over to where I fell, "Focus chakra on your blind spot and you'll be able to at least know when you might get hit."
I got to my feet, painfully. I could feel warm blood trickle down my back. Neji began to focus his chakra again and I got ready to block again.
"Neji, stop it!" Tenten said, stepping between us, spreading out her arms, "She's no match for you, you'll kill her!"
"Move, Tenten." He said in a bored tone.
"No. You're just picking on her because she's someone you can beat and she can out-glare you."
"Hn."
"I'm not saying let her go, that's a really deep cut." Tenten walked over to me and supported my weight on one of her shoulders. Lee did the same on my other side.
"Fine." Neji said and jumped away.
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I was sitting on a hospital bed, in just my shorts, bandages wrapped around my upper body. The kunai had been removed and the bleeding stopped. I still felt sore.
"Hyuuga Jai Li." I heard a voice. Looking up I saw it was Tsunade, who apparently was even the Hokage way back then too.
"Tsunade-samma, how do you know my name?" I asked, wondering if Tenten had told her and assumed I was a Hyuuga, (which was pretty obvious) or if she knew all along somehow.
"Because, of course I knew this would happen! In fact I've been waiting a couple hours for Tenten and Lee to bring you."
I felt so overjoyed I considered hugging her, "How do you think I could get back?"
"Why would I send you back?" she asked smiling, "I sent for you."
"You mean that huge chicken thing?" I asked irritated.
"Oh, yeah, sorry if I scared you with that, he's really harmless."
"So, why do you need me?" I asked, hoping I was just having a really odd dream.
"Not just you. Your brother, Nara Cho, Nara Tashi, Rock Hina, and Uzumaki Shiro." She said, "And I was wondering why the rest aren't here."
After I explained the whole situation of Tashi missing and stuff she just put her face in her hands, "You don't get it, we NEED them."
"Oh," I said annoyed, "Just let that huge feathered thing loose for a couple minutes and they'll be here no questions asked."
She was about to say something when we heard some shouts from outside the room.
"Tsunade-samma!" The door flew open to reveal three teenagers, slightly older than me. Not only that, but they were from my time. I recognized them as my cousin, Shiro, Inuzuka Kimiko, and Aubrame Yutaka. (A/N: Sorry, I thought it was cool to make all of team 8's kids have this mission together!)
"Wha- wha-" I stuttered, completely surprised. But another surprising thing was that they were equally surprised to see me.
"Jai Li-nii-chan, how did you get here?" he asked.
I rolled my eyes, "Same way you did. That freaky chicken. But you guys were luckier than I. I ran into my parents, who are all like, 'Who are you and why do you have byuukugan?' Then my dad kicked my ass."
"Jeez, you okay?" he asked and I nodded, "We ran into our parents too, though. Luckily it was only my mom, Kimiko's dad, and my dad. I took my dad out pretty fast, what an idiot." (A/N: I want everyone to know that I love Naruto and am NOT insulting him!)
"Nice." I said.
"So why do you need us? " I asked, turning to the Hokage, "The four of us should be enough for whatever special mission it was."
"Well, I suppose, but I really wanted someone with inside knowledge, on your guys' parents." Tsunade said, wincing slightly.
"Trust me," the girl, Kimiko said, "Considering that chicken-thing, they'll be here in hours at the most."
I felt my eyes widen as I nodded in sheer agreement, "That thing is insane looking. I don't see how they could possibly miss it!"
"Eh, Cho could pull it off." Shiro said laughing.
"Cho's pretty smart." I cautioned, "Oh, and Shiro-nii-san, Cho and Yoru are like five second form killing each other, or five seconds from making out. Which one will happen first, I'm not sure."
"They're always like that." He said, but I just gave him a skeptical look.
"All right." The Hokage said, apparently had been deep in thought this whole time, "I want the four of you to spy on your parents 24/7. Never let them out of your sight."
"But don't they live in different places, they're not together all the time." Shiro said.
"I already took care of that," she smiled wistfully, "I told them they had to work on teamwork skills so I have therefore handcuffed them together. Jai Li, your parents, Shiro's parents, and Cho and Tashi's parents."
"Um, okay, but why are we doing this?" Kimiko asked.
"Because, if things continue how they are going, they'll never get together and you all will never exist. So in a matter of speaking, I'm asking you to play matchmaker, except without them knowing it."
"Matchmaker!" Shiro yelled, "You had some chicken bring us back in time, so we could play a game of matchmaker!!??"
"No one else can do this but you guys!" Tsunade snapped back, "Besides, if you don't do this then you won't exist! So I suggest you accept the mission!"
Shiro muttered something and I caught the words, violent, hag, insane, and then violent again.
"But what to Yutaka and I do?" Kimiko asked yet another question.
"I'm assigning you to Ino and Shikamaru, they're case is the worst, so it needs two people."
"But we know nothing about them!"
"That's why I got these," she held out a cell phone like thing, "You can all contact your siblings in the future at any time." She handed us all one.
"This is insane." I protested, "I can't spy on my parents, my dad already got me really good, if he sees me stalking him, he'll…"
Tsunade cut me off, "How well can he fight with only one hand?"
"Probably pretty well. Besides, they'll know I'm spying on them the minute I start."
"Then, Jai Li, you will do it nonsecretively. Tell them I told you to do this, but don't give them any detail about this, got it?"
"Hai."
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Luckily, Tsunade had mostly healed where I had been stabbed. It kind of hurt, but only a little, I could at least take the bandages off. I pushed my bangs back out of my face and ran my hand over the top of my head to see if my buns had fallen out. They were okay, I guess.
I was walking though what was Konoha about three years before I was born. It was mostly the same. I smiled, I saw them. They were sitting by a fountain, well, Tenten was sitting, Neji was standing, and exactly where Tsunade said they would.
I snuck up behind them, apparently their guard was down, they didn't even notice me standing there. I crouched behind the fountain and strained my ears over the sound of splashing water to try and hear what they were saying. No luck.
"Hey, you guys miss me?" I asked and joined them at the edge of the water.
"No." Neji said, not taking his eyes off of the bottom of the fountain.
"Didn't think so." I said, pretty good naturedly, I think so.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" Tenten asked.
"Tsunade-samma assigned me a mission, and to do that I have to follow you around." When I heard Neji groaning, I added, "It wasn't my idea, I don't want to spend time with you either, Hyuuga."
"Oh, like your not one." He snapped back.
"Getting talkative aren't we, well, I like it better when you didn't talk." I retorted.
"Hey, Hyuuga," he said, emphasizing my clan name, "Why do you wear your hair like Tenten's?"
"Because my mom used to." I blurted before I could stop myself.
Tenten just smiled, thank God, and didn't get anything out of what I let slip, but Neji raised an eyebrow at me, not a good sign.
"Who is your mom?" Tenten asked.
"She, uh, died. Yeah, died when I was six." I lied. God, I sucked at lying. Neji raised the eyebrow higher.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Tenten said.
"No, it's okay, I'm not really that sad anymore, she never really took care of me anyway, she went on lot's of missions." I quickly said, trying not to sound like I was making it up.
"Oh." And then there was awkward silence. For awhile.
"Hey, Hyuuga," Neji said, "You never told us what kind of mission you were doing." He did the same thing when he said 'Hyuuga.'
"And I don't plan on it." I said, "If you are that interested, go ask Tsunade-samma and if she thinks you should know, she'll tell you, okay?"
"Hn." Oooh. Surprise there. Tenten randomly twirled a kunai, Neji kept staring at the bottom of the fountain and I just kind of looked back and forth from him to her.
"Is this what you guys do all day?" I asked after awhile.
"No," Tenten said, "We usually spar. But we have to wear these chains for some odd reason."
"If you're bored, leave." Neji said.
"Not on your life, punk." I said, "I know exactly how to handle your type, I have a brother who could be your twin."
"Who are you? Where are you from and why are you suddenly here?" he asked.
"I'm Jai Li, I'm from Konoha, look at the forehead protector, dumbass."
"We've never seen you, Jai Li." Tenten said, "Could you tell a bit about you, like who your parents are?"
"I would, but it would be unfair to you guys." I said, smiling.
"How so?" Neji asked, frowning.
"Oh, you'll see," I said, "Give it seventeen years." I winked at them, and they just cast confused looks at one another. Well, Tenten did anyway. Neji gave me an I'm-so-on-to-you look and held it for a couple seconds. For a few terrible moments, I thought I had given it away, but then he looked away.
"Hey, let's go eat something, are you hungry?" Tenten asked, standing up.
"No." Neji said as Tenten glared.
"I was asking Jai Li, not you." She snapped and gave him a tug on the chain.
Now that I was reminded that food was necessary to live, I did feel pretty hungry. "You bet." I said and we started walking away from the fountain.
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"So, where are you guys living?" I asked as a took a bite of the ice cream cone I was eating, "I mean you guys can't really be separated."
Tenten raised the hand that was chained and licked her cone also, "Yeah, we're living in my house because both of my parents are on missions so we'll be left alone."
"Are you coming with us?" Neji asked, he hadn't ordered ice cream, oh well, that's his loss.
"Yep." I said wistfully, licking all the way around my cone, "And trust me, with the exception of Tenten, I'm not thrilled either."
"Hn."
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Later that night, I had a dream. I was walking through my old house and couldn't find Yoru. For some reason, I was looking for him. I looked in every room and called his name over and over. Then, starting at the feet I began to disappear. I screamed, but no one could hear me. Then I woke up. The sheet stuck to my skin, I was so sweaty. I wiped my palms on the front of the t-shirt I was wearing. Squinting in the dark, I got up and fished through the pockets of my shorts. The butt pocket, the side pocket, finally I dipped my hand in the knee pocket and pulled out the cell phone that Tsunade had given us.
I held it against my chest as if it were the only thing from my old life I still had. In a way, it kind of was. I couldn't talk to Shiro right now, I had no idea where he was. Suddenly, I decided to see if it worked. Before I wasn't so sure. I mean, a cell phone that can contact people though time, yeah right.
But it would be worth it, I decided. I flipped it open. There was a screen and two buttons. I pressed the one on the left. Wait a second! This was crazy! Hina, Yoru, and Cho didn't have one! How would it work?
But for the zillionth time that day, I was wrong, shocked, and overwhelmed. The screen suddenly went from black, to Hina, Cho and Yoru, looking just as shocked as I was.
"Jai Li!" Cho yelled, happily, "Where'd you go? We've been so worried?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." I said, feeling pretty happy myself.
The End
EE- Thank you for reading and please review!!!
DD- Yeah, and since no one reviewed, -tear- we decided to keep the chicken.
EE- It adds to the plot!
DD- Sure, just PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!