The Kinkou of the Yajuu
I don't own Naruto and Animorphs!
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"Talking"
'Thoughts'
-telepathy-
XD Scene change
/ Different point of view
):P Flash back
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Chapter 12
He soars above the team as they head to where the two members of Akatsuki were taking Gaara. He glances over to the osprey that's flying about twenty feet away from him. –See anything Marco?- He asks and Marco replies, -Nothing yet.-
He descends to report to Kakashi about their findings, or lack of findings. –Nothing yet.- He informs those traveling by the river. Kakashi nods while Sakura looks disappointed. He glances at Danielle, she's flying about in her crow morph so that she can keep up with the traveling ninja.
He left Soul in Hinata and Shizune's care since he couldn't take care of Soul while on this mission. –How are you doing?- He asks Danielle privately. –Alright, I had de-morphed an hour back so I'm good.- Danielle replies. –Anything you want to report?- He asks her as he stays within range of her thought speak. –No much, though I have to admit, the old woman is doing pretty good despite her age.- Danielle tells him, he chuckles and ascends higher into the air.
He leaves it to the goshawk to pilot the body for a while as he considers what's going on with Gaara. 'Hopefully, we'll find you before they do what they came here to do.' He thinks quietly to himself as he continues to soar above the heads of his cell leader and his team mate.
XD
He looks at Gaara's limp, but alive, body. He sighs as he glances at Kakashi's limp body; he resents the fact that Kakashi hadn't allowed him to fight the guy with mouths in his hand. He sighs as he considers the old saying, what's done is done and there isn't anything you can do but live with it.
Currently, Marco in his racehorse morph hitched to a make shift cart and is currently pulling said cart. Danielle's walking with Tenten while he's perched on the side of the cart in his goshawk morph while Lee's with Sakura and Neji with Gai on taken point.
-I can't believe I allowed you to talk me into this.- Marco complains. –Well, neither Danielle nor myself acquired a horse. I'm sure Lee's willing to take over and sing his praises of 'youthful' spirit as he does so.- He mentions to Marco and quickly Marco says, -Ok, that's not even funny, Naruto. Not one bit.- -Then stop complaining and if it helps, I'll see if I can't acquire a horse when we reach civilization.- He says and Marco just sighs, if he could, he would smile.
XD
He's actually pulled off the trick that Ax had when the Andalite created his human morph, only he did it with to create a horse. He acquired eight horses; all male even though most of them were gelded, two were what would be considered warm blooded horses with the rest being hot blooded. He remembers bits and pieces of what Ax had told him about creating such a morph as he begins to forge a unique stallion that's a breed all its own.
Three of the eight horses were like the Arabian type breed from the Animorphs' reality breed; two were of the Akhal-Teke type breed; one of the Barb type breed; and the two warm blooded horses being of the Lipizzan type breed. His horse morph's colouring is that of honey gold with white spots around his rear end. His morph stands at sixteen hands and was between the age of five and seven. The morph has the Akhal-Teke type's almond shaped eyes; with the tail being like that of the Arabian type, with muscular hindquarters, and blue eyes. The mane and tail were silvery white in colour, making him look like a palomino if not for the white spots on his rump like the native breed Appaloosa.
So he's kind of pissed off when the man that's watching him move about the fenced area calls to a stable hand and smears, "Do you usually let poor quality animals breed?" He pauses and turns to look at the man. The stallion in him reacts to his anger. His ears flatten against his skull and he begins to take stiff steps towards the man, he plans on teaching that man a learn he wouldn't forget, mostly with his teeth and sharp hooves.
"I think you may want to apologize, sir." The stable hand says, the young teen had been among the group that watched him morph into his horse morph. So the stable hand knew he's actually a ninja pretending to be a horse since of course, nobody can actually transform into other creatures without using a henge.
"Why? Is it your's?" The man asks cruelly. –No, but I am a ninja.- He says before he kicks the man in the face with his rear hooves. He turns to face the man and then de-morphs before the man's eyes. The man gulps as the man holds his nose, the man backs away, clearly not wanting to remain anywhere near him. He watches the man finally stand and hurry off.
"Baka." He murmurs as he climbs over the fence. The stable hand is just looking at him, clearly awed by him kicking that man in the head. "He's not a regular, is he?" He asks, suddenly wondering if that man could cause the stable trouble. "No sir." The young man says and he looks relieved.
"Ok, do you know where that girl is? The girl that doesn't have a headband?" He asks as he begins to wonder where Danielle was. "She wanted to take a look at our prized mares. I believe she petted all nine of them before she asked where a free paddock was." The stable hand asks and he sighs, he should have known. "Could you point me in that direction?" He asks and the young man does so.
He finds a lively mare in said paddock, prancing around, clearly enjoying the sensation of moving about. "Danielle." He says, shaking his head. –Well, how could I resist?- Danielle says and he chuckles at that. "If memory serves me, they only had the Akhal-Teke and Barb type breed mares. Though I'm surprise you got a painted coat with only those two types." He says to the bay and grey mare that seems to shimmer as the fifteen hands high mare moves about. Much like him, Danielle kept the almond shaped eyes of the Akhal-Teke type, though for body structure, the head and upper part of the body seems to be Akhal-Teke with the end part being that of a Barb type, though the exception if the tail which is of the Akhal-Teke type.
Danielle looks slightly proud of herself about that and within two minutes, Danielle says, "I'm kind of surprised myself too, but I wanted something just as unique as your spots." He chuckles slightly as he says, "Well, let's head out. I think it's about noon and I'm getting hungry." Danielle nods and they head off together.
"It was amazing though, wasn't it?" Danielle asks quietly. "Yea, it was." He adds, remembering how energetic and powerful the stallion was.
XD
They make it within sight of the gates. He perks up and increases his pace which Marco matches. –Can't we just stop and let Lee take over? I'm sure he'd be ecstatic at finally being able to pull the cart.- Marco says privately, he easily sees Lee out of his left eye. –Come on, it's just a little further. Did you want to run the rest of the way there?- He asks. –Maybe.- Marco says.
Within seconds, they've picked up the pace and were entering into a fast trot. "What's the rush?" Sakura asks and Danielle replies, -You don't know what it's like to be in that body and not be as free as the wind. You'd be surprise how 'hot' blooded horses can be.- Neither Marco or him replied since they're busy synching up their strides so that they look like an expert team of cart horses.
They stop at the gate, he knickers at the expressions on the guards' faces. Marco joins him in laughing at their expression, it only made increase his laughter as the guards look so startled and lost when Marco joined him. One of the guards finally recovers and checks on Kakashi, who's under a tarp to keep him out of direct sunlight. The guards look alert and study Marco and him more intently.
Once the make shift harasses were taken off, Marco and him de-morph. It had been about ten minutes before Danielle and Marco's time was up, he shakes his head at the weary looks that the guards were giving Marco and him. It's not long before Gai appears, praising Marco and him on showing off their 'youth' spirit and their burning 'youth.'
The others were right behind the green wearing jonin, Lee applauds Gai while Sakura and Danielle look uncomfortable. It's not long before they're allowed into the village; he cocks his head to the side as Gai races off pulling the cart carrying Kakashi to the hospital. Sakura heads off to file a report, Lee accompanies his team mate.
"You guys want to pick up something before heading to the manor?" He asks the others. "I think I'll head off to bath house. I need to relax after this." Tenten says and Neji says, "I should as well before I head to the compound."
Once they're gone, Marco says, "They're so dating." He chuckles and they head off to the manor. "But we can still pick up food, right?" Marco asks and he just chuckles in reply.
XD
He glances around at the crowd that gathered to say bye, it's been a month since they've arrived and soon enough, they'll be heading back to the base. Soul's resting in the slash, he smiles at Hinata one last time before the Ellimist makes his appearance. He's surprise at the form the being takes, he notices that the ninja look startled, most likely not expecting to actually meet the being that's taking them away.
He has to admit, the robe was a nice touch, though he does wonders why the Ellimist seems to look like a humanoid fox. The Ellimist says to Tsunade, "I'll see to it that he's here to go on that mission." Tsunade looks startled and he's interested on which mission Tsunade has planned for him.
Within seconds, they're in front of the base and that the Ellimist has vanished on arrival. "Hey you guys, miss me?" Marco asks the group waiting for them. "Like a hole in the head." Rachel replies dryly, but the grin on her face tells other wise. –Prince Jake.- Ax says, inclining his head to said teen. "Don't call me prince." Jake says automatically. –Of course, Prince Jake.- Ax says, he notices Ax smiling.
"Toby!" Jara shouts out a greeting. "Father." Toby says warmly. It's not long before the group breaks up and Toby and the other Hork-Bajir head off into the forest as the humans and Andalite head into the base.
"So, what did we miss?" Danielle asks Kit. "Nothing much. Just meeting a bunch of Atlatians and meeting a speedy version of an Andalite." Is Kit's reply. "How about you?" Kit asks. "How about fight some guy with mouths on his palms that can make clay bombs and some crazy puppet guy. I shouldn't forget, meeting most of the rookie nine and team Gai." Danielle says lightly. "Really?" Kit asks and Danielle just nods.
He notices Cassie giving him a look and he mouths, later, to her. Cassie nods and smiles slightly, he looks ahead. Oddly, wishing Hinata were here as he notices the look Cassie sends Jake's way and the comfortable way Tobias rides on Rachel's shoulder. 'There's plenty of time for that when all this is over and done with.' He thinks and glances down at Soul. The cub has grown during the month, but once more, not as much as you'd expect from an animal.
-So, what's been going on while I was sleeping?- Kyuubi asks, startling him since he hasn't heard from the fox for the longest time. –Damn it fox! You still haven't lived up to your side of the bargain and until you do, I'm not telling you a thing.- He informs the demon within him. –Stupid brat.- The fox grumbles but does seem to be considering what he said as they head to the largest room at the base, the cafeteria. Finally the fox tells him and he chokes at the answer, not expecting that the fox would give in so easily.
The others glance his way, he scratches the back of his head, not sure if now was the time to tell them Kyuubi's answer to why chakra works better when they're in-between morphs. –How's my heir?- The fox inquires and he replies, -See for yourself.- He allows the Kyuubi's chakra into his eyes as he opens the slash to reveal the cub. The Kyuubi grunts in satisfaction before retreating out of his mind, he sighs in relief and Soul cocks his head in confusion since his eyes return to being blue. He smiles slightly at the cub before closing the cloth and looking to make sure he's not hit by the door leading into the cafeteria.
XD
It's been about a week since they're returned from his reality. Oddly enough, a ship with a small squad of Andalites arrived two days ago and Ax has just made contact with one of the members. Of course after reading a bunch of history scrolls and books from his reality, Ax doubted they were here for official business, something which Toby and him agreed with.
They haven't really informed the Andalite government to having more members, so the 'break' up was staged with the original members at the 'base.' As to why they're not with their families, they came up with a cock and bowl story about how the Yeerks killed them off during a mission gone wrong. It's funny, for a bunch of supposed black op operatives, they sure didn't investigate to see if the story was true, which worries him since it means that something big was going on and that they're most likely weren't going to like what it was.
He's also found time to inform Ax about why the in-between morphs seem to have greater access to chakra then the complete bodies; he hopes that it helps put Ax's mind at rest while he figures out a way to simplify it for the rest, which is why he's seeking Toby to get her help with that. He's currently checking the second valley that has a small population of Hork-Bajir, he has already checked the first valley and spoken with the Hork-Bajir of that valley, which leads him to check out the second valley.
He notices Ket and begins to descend towards Toby's mother and his name sack, Naru. He notices the bundle in Ket's arms and guesses that it's Naru she's holding. He de-morphs before greeting Ket. "Hey, Ket. Good to see you." He says and Ket smiles up at him, nodding her greeting at him. He lands on the ground without so much as a thump, he walks over and Ket lowers the bundle, he finds the baby sleeping. He notices the stubs that will one day become sharp blades; he's reminded with Toby since he would often visit the free population of Hork-Bajir on earth before he joined up with the Animorphs.
"I still can't believe you named him after me." He admits, as Ket pulls the bundle close to her chest. Ket smiles and says, "Naruto good friend, as good a friend as Tobias. Ket not be here without Naruto." He chuckles softly as he nods in agreement. "I guess…" He admits.
He glances up as Jara Hamee lands from moving through the tree tops like a squirrel or a monkey. 'Or maybe like a ninja.' He adds silently. Jara smiles at him as Jara hands some green bark to Ket. It's not long before Toby joins them, he smiles at Toby and says, "I remember when you were that age." Toby does the Hork-Bajir equivalent of a blush. "Toby grow, is almost ready to have baby of own." Ket says, smiling at her daughter.
He chuckles as Toby groans, Jara seems just as amused at his daughter's reaction as he was. "It's good to see you two again. I'll remember which valley you live in so I can visit in the future." He says and Jara and his wife Ket nod, clearly happy to have him around.
Toby and him move off a bit before he says, "All parents embarrass their kids at some point." Toby nods as she replies, "I remembered how Cassie's mom attempted to talk with her about sex and about protection against harmful viruses." He looks thoughtful and asks, "So, have you found anyone?" Toby shakes her head and he sighs. "It just seems that everyone wants to pair off these days. Ax seems to enjoy the special ops female that's about his age, sure he's attempting to miss lead the group of Andalites, but he's still enjoying her company." He says and adds, "Kit and Blue seem to enjoy seeing who can do crazier aerial stuns, Nath and Danielle are talking about aliens species, Tobias is slowly going over the morphing limit, though I doubt he knows he's doing it. I think I spied Marco flirting with Rachel's two siblings, but then, he might just be practicing." "And you seemed to enjoy Hinata's company while we were at your village." Toby says and he sighs.
"She's grown up from the shy, freaky girl I kind of knew." He admits. He notices Toby's look and he chuckles. "Well, it's true, I never really got close to her growing up. I never really saw her until her fight with her cousin…" He says, he looks off into the distance as he remembers that brutal fight between the two cousins.
"So, I was wondering if I can practice trying to explain about how morphing is affected by chakra. I've already told Ax, so he understands the explanation but I don't know if the others would understand the techno mumbo jumbo." He says, changing the subject. Toby allows the subject to be changed and says, "Shoot." He grins and once they're settled, he goes through the five versions he's come up with that, in his opinion, were simplified explanations then what the fox gave.
It takes about an hour with Toby's help to create two better versions and then another to decide which one was the best. Soon enough, they pair company and he promised update her next time she comes to the base. He morphs into his goshawk and heads back to the base. He feels more confident about his ability to explain the effects chakra has on morphing. He just hopes that the others were ready to hear it was all.
To be continued …