First off: sorry for taking so long to update. I had tons of things on my head (for example my grandma whose condition gotten from bad to horrible and nothing can be done about it). Also, I was hoping for this chapter to be betalized, however Falkynbird, my beta, sadly had too much on his head as well and thus I've decided to stop waiting for mistakes correction. I just went over the chapter myself and fixed what I could. Sorry for all the grammar errors that'll most likely appear in this one.
Thanks for the reviews for last time, but I must say that I'm slightly disappointed in the number of those. Collage is getting really troublesome and if the popularity of this fic won't be satisfying, I'll put it ON HOLD, so if you wanna know what happens next: review.
I must admit that this chapter looks slightly different then how I imagined it when I first thought up this story. Though I must say that I prefer the way I did it now (it might due to the manga I've began reading only few days ago, which really dragged me in and got me in a romantic mood).
So, without further delays:
Chapter #16: Angel With Cut Wings – Tamao's Story part I
Title Page: Tamao is glancing down to her left, blushing slightly and holding her hand in front of her mouth as the wind blows her hair to her left
A twelve-year-old boy with spiky, brown hair and green eyes stopped in front of a massive, metal gate with a large symbol that's suppose to scare demons away on it. The boy was wearing a black t-shirt and a green vest on that. His green pants were slightly baggy and you could see metal protectors on his hands.
"Who are you?" demanded one of the guards, a man in his thirties with long, blonde hair and hazel eyes, wearing a mostly black and brown outfit and a hitae-ate with the rock symbol on his forehead as he aimed his spear at the young arrival. The boy didn't seemed to be scared at all. He just glanced at the weapon and then back at the man with a stone-calm face.
After a short silence, he bowed and announced, keeping his calm: "If that's not a problem, I'd wish to speak with the leader of this village, the great Tsuchikage! I have a thing of great importance to me to ask him… once he'll answer my question, I promise to head my way…"
"And what is your name?" asked the other man suspiciously, but the boy did not reply. He just glances at the other guard and after a longer silence, he announced: "I'm terribly sorry, but I'd prefer to keep my identity a secret until I'll meet Tsuchikage-sama… if you feel the need for it, I'll give away all my weapons and will even allow myself to get tied up and trapped in genjutsu if it's needed, but I really need to see Tsuchikage-sama… I will reveal my name to him only…"
The man that was aiming his spear at him stared at the boy for a short while and then nodded, turning to his companion: "I'll take this kid to Tsuchikage-sama… shouldn't take too long, Ookusa…" and with that the huge gate opened, letting the boy and the man in.
The visitor looked around impressed. He never got a chance to see Iwa Gakure, one of the Five Great Villages of shinobi world. It was even more exciting as the town itself was located in the wide, round crater with high, mountain walls surrounding it from every direction, throwing long shades on the entire village.
All the buildings were made of grey stone and weren't painted in any way. With the shadows covering the village from the mountains, it really made a rather disturbing sight for a twelve-year-old. Each of the buildings had just one shape: a square or a bunch of squares put to together. In several places he saw towers that reached the sky with sun deflected be their glass windows, once it hit them.
In very few spots of the village, where shadows did not reach, the boy noticed parks and gardens, each filled with thin trees and messed bushes, surrounding tens of flowers of incredible shapes, like stars. Those places were basically the only, colorful ones around as the streets were all made of grey stone and were surrounded by buildings that look strangely similar to one another. The boy thought that if he were to walk this place alone, he'd surely get lost sooner all later.
As their journey continued, the boy realized they have been going down from the moment he walked through the gate. Only then did he noticed that the whole village was separated into some sort of rings, one surrounding another that was located on a lower level. He came to a conclusion that they had to be ledges of the crater the town was located in.
"First time seeing a shinobi village?" the guard asked with a smile as he noticed the boy's amazed look as he threw glances from one side to the other. The twelve-year-old stopped observing the surroundings for a moment and upon turning to the man, he replied hesitantly: "No… second actually…"
The man was surprised by that answer, yet he did not say a word. Finally they reached the lowest ring of the village, which only had a large estate located in the middle and few building surrounding it. What seemed odd to the boy was the fact that this was the only district that was completely exposed to the sun. As they reached a wide gate, the boy noticed a huge kanji symbol for 'earth' located right above it in the white circle.
As the passed through the gate, they've entered a strange garden, which had a lot of flowers, trees and bushes near the walls, yet there was just an empty, round space between them. As the boy looked in the middle of it, he noticed a young girl. She had long, blonde hair, clipped in a ponytail that was tied with a large, red ribbon and with two braids falling on the two sides of her face. Her eyes were sky-blue and she was wearing a black t-shirt with a yellow vest on that. Her pants were also yellow and baggy and she was carrying a large scroll on her back. The boy also noticed an Iwa forehead protector around her neck.
The young kunoichi noticed the boy starring and instantly turn around, blushing slightly. In a flash she disappeared behind a nearby tree and observed the strange arrival from behind the leaves. The boy also stared in the place she was, even though he couldn't see her. Finally they reached the entrance to a large building, made in a similar style as every, other one in the village, and walked in, leaving the garden behind.
After a short marsh they reached the Tsuchikage's office and as the man knocked on it, a loud 'enter' was heard. As they walked in, the boy noticed a man sitting behind his desk. He had messy, blonde hair and hazel eyes. The man carried a large scar on his left cheek and war wearing a white and brown robe. The twelve-year-old also noticed a headgear with the 'earth' symbol on it laying on the desk.
The man slowly got up and walked over to the boy, smiling widely. The guard immediately bowed as he announced: "Terribly sorry for interrupting, Tsuchikage-sama, but this boy asked to see you and…"
"It's okay Ishiwa…" announced the other man gently as he glanced at the guard. "Thank you for bringing him here… you may go back to your duties…" and with that the guard bowed before disappearing the cloud of white smoke. The other man glanced at the boy once more and still smiling, he asked: "What would a man your age do here all by himself?"
"Forgive my rudeness, Tsuchikage-sama…" the boy bowed shortly before he continued: "But considering the circumstances, I figured you'll be the best man to ask about my brother's whereabouts… since most likely you were the last one to see him…"
"Was I?" asked the man with a raised eyebrow, yet still with a soft voice. "And who might your brother be then?"
"Monodane Resshin…" the boy replied quickly, making the man's eyes widen. He took a closer look at the boy and then narrowed his eyes at the realization: "Indeed, the resemblance is quite big… I haven't noticed it since now… guess I didn't expect any of Resshin's family to show up… he told me…"
"What he said was not entirely true…" responded the boy angrily as the memory of a certain event shoot in his mind. "He did kill our entire clan, yet at the time he was doing so, my parents and my young sister… we were outside the village… by the time we got back, my brother has already fled somewhere…"
"And you came here seeking revenge…" conclude the Tsuchikage as he gave the boy a sad glance. Silence felt between them for a longer while as the man looked out the window and stared at the clouds. Without turning back to the young Monodane, he announced: "I don't suppose it'll change anything, but I'm really sorry about what Resshin did… I have never expected Iwa's ambition to push him that far… and I know that nothing I can say will make you feel any better… nor will it make you stop hating me… I'm afraid that I can't help you however… once I've heard about Resshin's doing, I didn't want him in my village… he disappeared somewhere soon after, none of my shinobi knows the direction he went…"
"So I came here for nothing…" Naraku lowered his head disappointed. He then glanced outside the window and narrowing his eyes, he said out loud to no-one in particular. "I guess I'll be leaving then… sorry for the trouble, Tsuchikage-sama…" and so he bowed again before heading towards the door.
"And so you're just gonna leave?" asked the man calmly, making the boy stop halfway. "I'm aware it's not easy for you to accept, but you shouldn't travel throughout the Earth Country at this time… the winter is coming and around here it gets pretty cold… I offer you to stay here till the season change…"
"Thank you for the offer, Tsuchikage-sama…" replied Naraku, without even turning around. "However I made a promise… besides my family, someone else was involved in that incident… someone that was important to me… maybe even more important then my relatives… and that someone died, because I wasn't there… she died because of my brother's sick game… I swore to that person, just before she died in front of my eyes, that I'll hunt Resshin down… and kill him…"
"In a way I can understand you…" announced the Iwa leader calmly. "But do reconsider… taking you as a guest is the least I can do to redeem myself from what Resshin didn't because of me… and if you'll accept my offer, my daughter will surely show you around…"
"Your daughter?" the young Monodane repeated confused and just then the Tsuchikage came towards the window, calling out: "Tamao, my dear, would you mind joining me in my office for a moment?" and in a flash the girl with blonde hair and blue eyes that Naraku saw in the garden appeared in the room by jumping through the window.
"Yes father?" she asked quietly and only then realized that her parent had a guest in his office. In an instant she hid her head behind her hitae-ate as much as she could as a blush appeared on her face. She held her hands before her face unsure and backed away from the boy, reaching her father.
A small blush appeared on the young Monodane's face as well as he turned to look at the ceiling. The Tsuchikage only glanced at the two kids and then smiled under his nose before turning towards his daughter: "Tamao, my dear, I have a request…" and with that he pointed at the former leaf-nin: "This is Monodane Naraku… he'll be our guest for some time… I was hoping that you would show him around… give him a tour of the village…"
"Y… yes, father…" the girl replied shyly with a bow, yet her face stayed red. She walked over to the boy, who extended his hand, thus making the kunoichi jump back immediately. The former leaf-nin glanced at her confused, thus making her blush even more. "P… please, follow me…" she asked quietly as she opened the door and exited the room.
Naraku, confused even more, soon follow. As the two kids walked down the hallway, none spoke a word. Tamao walked out front, buried behind her hitae-ate with a deep blush on her face and starring at the floor and Naraku following behind, confused slightly, but also red on the face.
As they entered the garden, the former leaf-nin finally found enough courage to break the silence and swallowing his saliva loudly, he spoke up: "So… as your father said, my name's Monodane Naraku… and since we'll probably be spending some time together, it'd be much easier if you'd tell me yours…" and at those words his face redden even more, yet because the girl still had her back turned towards him, he didn't realize she got redder on the face as well. "It'd be strange for me to just call you 'hey girl'…" he joked, scratching the back of his head.
"It… it's Akaramu Tamao…" she replied quietly after a short hesitation, yet still didn't turn around to face the traveler. As she said so Naraku appeared in front of her and with a wide smile on his face, he extended his hand once more: "Well then, nice to meet you, Tamao-chan…"
The kunoichi hesitated for another moment. She wanted to take a step back, but for some reason she felt that she didn't needed to. Surprisingly she found the fact that the boy she meet just few minutes ago was holding his hand towards her calming her. It was unusual, considering that very few people really smiled to her, even less were this friendly.
After a short moment she held out her hand as well and shook the boy's arm: "N-nice to meet y-you too… Naraku-kun…" she announced with a warm smile, making the boy blush deeply again and the moment he realized that they were still shaking hands, he swallowed his saliva loudly again.
Tamao got a little confused by this and then she realized the same thing Naraku did a second ago. With a loud 'kyaah' she jumped away as if she got burnt and with her face completely red. The young Monodane grabbed his chest were his heart was, cursing in his mind: "Calm down, dammit!" turning around at the same moment, not to let the girl knowing of the way he just acted.
After a minute they both managed to calm down somehow and once more turned to face each other. Still a little nervous, Tamao managed to asked with a little shaking voice: "S-so… where would y-you l-like to go, N-naraku-kun?"
"Well…" began the boy, scratching the back of his head as a tiny blush was still visible on his face and a single drop of sweat run down his face. "You're the local, maybe there's some cool place you could take me to?" and as he purposed that, the girl thought for a moment.
"I…" she then said shyly. "I think I know a good place…" she announced cheerfully and completely loosing herself she grabbed the boy's hand to drag him behind her. Only after a moment did she realized what she just did and once more she let go of the leaf-nin's hand, blushing deeply and turned around bowing to apologize to Naraku, yet the boy was already lost:
"Shut up already!" he cursed in his mind as his heart almost shoot out from his chest by pounding loudly. Once more both took their time to calm down and then headed to the place Tamao mentioned before.
The place the kunoichi led the young Monodane to turned out to be a viewpoint, though not a typical one as it was just a small ledge, located above the entire village. As Naraku glanced down, he saw the whole town beneath him. Sunrays felt on the two kids as the boy took a deep breath. With a wide smile he glanced at the girl, who stood behind him and the moment he did so, she turned away, blushing deeply.
"This place is great, Tamao-chan!" he announced cheerfully, still smiling. "You feel like you're the top of the world when you stand on the edge! Have you tried it?" but the blonde only shook her head quickly in negation. "How come no-one comes around here?"
"It's b-because…" began the girl shyly, avoiding the boy's sight. "The o-only one, who k-knows about this p-place… are my father… and me…" and with that she paused for a moment. "My mother shown it t-to me when I was very little… s-she said that it w-was the place where m-my father purposed to her… she then t-told me… well…" but at this point her voice broke for some reason.
She couldn't understand why she brought the boy she just meet here. And even after giving her mother a promise like that. It seemed illogical and yet… it felt right. This boy… that Monodane Naraku… he seemed different from the people she meet so far… but then, he didn't knew everything about her yet… and if he would, then he'd turn away from her… just like everybody did.
"N-naraku-kun…" she began shyly, gaining the boy's attention once more. "W-we should go… I know other p-places which you might w-wanna see…" and with that the two kids took a walk around the Hidden Stone Village, laughing and just having fun.
That night Naraku found it hard to sleep. He looked outside the window and just barely saw the stars shining on the sky through the mountain ceiling. His heart kept on pounding like crazy and his face still had a bright, red color. He felt that he was sweating slightly and what annoyed him the most was the fact that he couldn't control any of it.
"Dammit, what's with me?" he asked himself as he walked around the room. "For some reason every time I think of that girl, me heart starts racing… and it's even worse then that time when Aiko-chan…" but at this point he stopped and looked at the floor.
"But I must admit Tamao-chan is pretty cute…" he thought with a smile as his face turn red even more. "Today, when I was with her, I actually forgot about Resshin completely… heck, I felt like I forgot about the entire world... not even Aiko-chan could do that… maybe I should…" he began but just the thought made his heart almost shoot out from his chest again and sweat covered most of his red face. He shook his head in negation: "What the hell am I thinking? I can't! No matter how much I want to… besides, what chances do I have?" and then his thoughts got interrupted.
Suddenly Naraku heard a strange noise coming from the outside. It was the sound of a blast. In a flash he got to his feet and jumped out the window. But as he landed in the garden, all he saw was the Godaime of Iwa, standing before the pile of small rocks with his right hand extended. As the older man noticed the boy's presence, he turned towards him and smiled widely: "Forgive me, Naraku… I didn't meant to wake you up…"
"No, it's okay…" assured the former leaf-nin. "I couldn't sleep anyway… but that sound just now… what happened?" and with that he threw the man a questioning glance. The Hidden Stone leader only smiled under his nose before he replied: "Mitsukai Hokori… it's a technique I invented a long time ago… it was when I met your Yondaime on the battlefield during the last, Great War… we were both only jounin back then… when he used his Rasengan to defeat me, I knew I had to form a counter of some sort… soon the idea of this technique came to my mind…"
"Wow… a technique that's equal to the famous Rasengan…"
"It surpasses it…" corrected the Tsuchikage with a tiny smirk appearing on his face. "But don't get too fired up: at the same time it requires much more chakra, better control of it and is dangerous also for the user. If I'd allow it to go out of my control, in worst case scenario the entire village could disappear…"
"Then why are you risking so much?" asked Naraku confused. "If it's that dangerous to use it in the village, why as a Tsuchikage you do it for training only, Ishido-sama?" the man only lowered his head at the boy's question and after a short moment of silence, he replied: "It's for Tamao… you see, she's… different then others… she's special… but not 'special' in the way you see her…" and at this point the former leaf-nin's eyes widen in surprise. The Iwa leader only smiled before he continued: "You thought I didn't notice? Don't insult an adult… and most of all Tamao's my daughter, so I can tell what's been going on…"
"I…" the young Monodane began, but he was instantly interrupted by Ishido: "Don't… it's not like you can help it… to tell you the truth, I'm actually happy with this… Tamao doesn't really have any friends… much less those that are around her own age… I guess what's going on right now is new to her… I'll be observing you closely however, so don't think about hurting her…" and with that he smirked evilly, making shivers run down Naraku's spine.
"But I don't understand, Tsuchikage-sama…" announced the former leaf-nin after a short moment. "If that technique is so dangerous, why did you said you're training it for Tamao-chan's sake? Tamao-chan isn't someone who likes to hurt people… even after knowing her for such a short among of time I can tell this much… so why…"
"I tough her this jutsu…" came a response as Ishido lowered his head. "You see, even though she hates to fight, Tamao can become really dangerous… she just can't help it… and once she'll go berserk, no-one can really stop her… at least no-one that's human. This technique… Mitsukai Hokori… is the only way to break through to her in order to help her calm down…"
"Help her calm down?" Naraku repeated in his mind surprised. "Tamao-chan can be dangerous? What's this all about?" and after he thought that, he settled his sight on the Iwa leader: "Ishido-sama, you say that Tamao-chan can go berserk just like that?" the man only nodded. "And without that technique… I won't be able to help her?" another nod. Naraku only narrowed his eyes as he glanced at the ground. After a short moment of hesitation, he turned towards the man once more, this time with determination in his eyes: "If that's the case, then please, Tsuchikage-sama… teach me this technique!" and as he said so, the Iwa leader looked at him surprised as the boy bowed deeply.
"Why would you ask me…?" he began, but the boy didn't allow him to finish: "She'd suffer… Tamao-chan is a gentle person… I can tell that if she could, she'd prefer not to become a shinobi… she hates hurting people… so if she'd lose control over herself, her heart would broke… I do not wish for something like that to happen… I'm not saying that I'd be able to do a thing in that kind of situation… but if that technique would be helpful to her… I'd be able to at least give it a try and save her!"
The Tsuchikage only looked at the boy, even more surprised and after a short moment he walked over to him and placed a hand on his head, thus making the young Monodane raise his head from his bow: "You really are different from Resshin, Naraku… I could tell that the moment you entered my office. Resshin never cared about anyone besides himself, but you… you think more about others then even yourself… there are very few people in the world who do that… and I respect those that are capable of walking that path…"
"Tsuchikage-sama…" the boy began, but for some reason the words froze in his throat. The man only widen his smile as he headed towards the gate: "Come with me… if I am to teach you Angel Dust, we mustn't train in here…" and with that they both left the estate.
---Flashback ends---
"So this is what happened…" concluded Naruto with a smile as he glanced at Hinako. "Sounds kinds like a fairytale really: they meet, become close… heck, Naraku even managed to get Tsuchikage to teach him that Mitsukai Hokori thingy… all I got was ero-sennin and his 'information gathering'…" and at that he slammed his chin on the desk before him.
Hinata merely giggled at the blonde's behavior, yet the former cloud-nin narrowed her eyes: "This story isn't really a fairytale… if anything, it's a nightmare that one would wake up with a scream from…" and as she said so both Leaf shinobi glanced at her surprised. "The story hasn't ended yet… on the contrary… it was only beginning…"
---a beautiful story… that twists into a true horror… you turn the page and…---
And with that, this chapter ends. Hope you enjoyed it and that you'll leave a review once you're done, coz otherwise this fic will be put on hold.
There's just one more thing left to say: MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR! If you'll review, we'll most likely 'see' each other next year! Take care!