Innocent: More reviews...heehee!! So here is an early Christmas gift..I started a new chapter -huge grin- I got a certain review that made me really really happy, my first feedback on Azumi thanks to Spochemu, I'm glad you like her!! Heres my update!
Disclaimer: No owning of any sort...Mang, Anime...or otherwise...but I do have a computer..that counts as somthing, no?
Chapter five: Lets Get This Straight
"Aww come on it's fine...get out here so I can do your hair!" Azumi was seated in pants and bra on her bed combing out her hair with long strokes rolling her eyes at the bathroom door.
"I cant believe..how did you...I had it locked up..and didnt bring it and..." Hinata's voice was muffled.
"This is why I love that little Hanabi girl of yours..she told me all about this certain Kimono..your mother's right? For your coming-of-age party? Well now its the dinner-with-the-pain-in-the-ass-kazekage!" She unfolded her legs and did a flip off the bed landing on her butt, she laughed slighty. "I meant to do that.." she muttered matter-of-factly and reached under her bed pulling out a large white box.
"Anyways it's perfect for you now..I got Minya to stitch it up..fix it..after the little escape you pulled wearing this..it's a wonder she fixed it at all!"
"I wish you'd call your mother by mother..instead of her name." Hinata peeked into the bedroom. Azumi fell silent and waas staring at her hands.
'Too bad she isnt my mother..'
Azumi's head jerked up when Hinata touched her shoulder "You've been acting really strange lately...are you okay?"
She pulled a huge grin and batted Hinata's concerned hands away "Ahh I'm fine! Just the hot air..you know..dries up my skin and I am a water nin and all..doesnt fit me much is all!" She laughed. "That looks...amazing on you! Suna eat your heart out!"
Hinata blushed furiously and fiddled with her index fingers. "It isnt..all that great..."
"Riiiiight!" Azumi stood and looked her friend over with admiration. The kimono she wore was perfect for her and fit like a glove, made with pale violet silk with flower petals of pale pink designed across the bottem. The obi and collar was a darker purple. Her mother's locket matched it perfectly Azumi frowned.
"Unfortunatly you tore up the slippers that came with it..but..I think I have some cute sandals to match it..." She trailed off attacking her closet leaving the white box on her bed. Hinata stared at it, sitting next to it and slowly opening it. Azumi's own kimono was revealed wrapped in pale blue paper. Azumi's hand swipped it away.
"It's not..ready yet..I got to fix one last thing. Here." She handed her a pair of light pink sandles that wrapped around the ankle and ended in a tiny bow behind the calf.
"They're cute!" Hinata grinned "Thanks Azu-chan..I really don't know how I'd do this without you!"
"Do what?" Azumi bounced onto the bed and landed behind her weilding her brush and a purple scrunchie.
"Run away..come to Suna...everything...I cant get through anything without you." Hinata mumbled softly "Sure I had Kiba and Shino...but..I needed a best friend like you too really get me..." Azumi's brushing paused.
"Hinata..I'm not going to always be here..in fact...I could be gone in a couple of weeks. You're eventually going to have to go on without me...you did before I came to Konoha and you can when I'm gone...promise me you'll..promise you just wont go back to that father of yours..dont let anyone ever ever ever get you down. Birdie you are strong and don't you dare let anyone tell you otherwise, or I'll have to shove my sword up your ass!"
'Leave it to Azumi to take somthing sentimental and turn it around to threats...but..why is she talking about leaving?'
"Azumi..you'd tell me if somthing was wrong right?" Hinata asked carefully feeling Azumi tense behind her, her hair was tightly thrown into a bun and Azumi jumped off the bed looking a bit troubled.
"Sometimes Birdie...things are'nt worth mentioning..or..they just hurt to much to tell. Stop worrying okay? Now go wait in the living room so I can get ready!"
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"I hate this hat..." Gaara muttered as Temari place the Kazekage hat atop his head and flisked his nose. He scowled at her.
"Aww give me a break..it looks fine." Temari laughed shaking her head then her hands flew up to check he hair..it was still tied into a low ponytail. She sighed lightly. Temari hadnt made much effort to look impressive, a simple pink kimono with a darker pink obi..no designs just simple.
"Say thank you."
"Huh..." Gaara raised his eyebrows as he stood from his desk, the dinner would be ready in another hour..his guests would arrive in forty-five minutes.
"I got rid of Kankuro for the night..he'd be all over those poor girls if he came..Azumi would most likely kill him." She muttered the last part with a bit of unease, Gaara frowned.
"Thank you...what is your problem with Azumi?"
"I dont know..she's weird..I watched her check a patient out their first day here."
"And?"
"I dont know..maybe I was being paranoid..but you cant controll a jutsu without hand signals to summon it..and you surely cant have more then one jutsu activated at a time right?"
"Well yes...but what does that have to do with Azumi?"
"She sent water into the man, she said the Jutsu's name "healing flood" but..no hand movements..nothing..it just went in the man with it's own accord..then she did it again..at the same time and healed the outside of his body. It was creepy..I ..it was like there was another presence..."
"Are you suggesting she's a demon vessel?" Gaara asked curiously. Temari looked at him sharply.
"I really dont know. Just...We need to keep an eye on her. What did Tsunada say about her?"
"That she was extremely gifted and smart..expecially when it came to healing. Called it her second nature and somthing or another."
Temari nodded. "Alright then..I'll see you in an hour."
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"Azu..you look amazing!" Azumi grinned brightly and twirled around the living room a couple of times before throwing on a pair of plain white sandles.
"This ol' thing!? Right!" She blew her 'adoring fan' a kiss and burst into laughter.
Azumi was decked in a midnight blue Kimono with a pale blue obi and water marks adorning the bottem of the kimono like ocean waves her hair was shining down her back and her cheeks were slightly flushed, eyes dancing green to aquamarine.
Hinata groaned "Don't tell me you..."
"Took a swig of sake..of course my dear..never do buisness without a bit of rum in your system I always say!" She flashed a huge grin at her friend then snapped her fingers and almost instantly the room was filled with small bubbles.
"Besides..I needed the bubbles" She laughed and linked her arm through Hinata's. "Shall we be flying off then Birdie?"
"Flying..walking we better hurry or we'll be late!" Hinata sighed
"Or we'll face all Hell!" Azumi piped in and the two were out the door closing it with a light slam.
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"So...do we eat then talk then have dessert or wait 'till after this..wonderfull meal is over?" Azumi asked taking a bite into her bread and chewing slowly. She watched Temari sitting across from her..the woman looked uneasy and kept fiddling with the table cloth. At the head of the table, Azumi wasnt to pleased to see Gaara had hardly taken his eyes of Hinata..who at the moment was seated next to her blushing furiously under the Kazekage's gaze.
"Wow you could cut the tension with a knife in here!" Azumi exclaimed highly aware she was the only one talking..
'Fine wih me...I'm usually the star of the show anyways...bloody idiots dont even know whats going on under their stupid little noses!'
'Calm yourself little one...' A voice in the back of her mind soothingly.
'Hey! No time no hear from..whats with you?'
Azumi wasnt suprised when she got no answer her attention turned to the present instead..and the problem.
"So here's what we have figured out so far.."
"Actually..it..it was m..mostly Azumi-chans findings.." Hinata muttered next to her, Azumi elbowed her.
"I wouldn't have figured it out without Hinata though but enough with that! Gaara-san I'm sure your a great leader and all but..you are kind of stupid."
"You have no grounds!" Temari hissed slamming her fists on the table and raising. Gaaa seemed unfected by the insult and stared at Temari untill his older sibiling finally seated herself.
"Explain." Gaara leaned back in his chair attention focused on Azumi.
"You are'nt dealing with any run-of-the-mill poison but.." Smirking she tapped her fingers on the table in mock drum roll. "A Jutsu!"
Temari snorted "Right. Of course somthing that impossible is suddenly possible!"
"I suggest you shut the hell up or me and Hinata will let you do things your way and have your village destroyed from the inside out..I mean the inside literally."
Hinata grabbed her friend's shoulder "Please Azu-chan..they..they dont understand..you have to explain..stop cursing at Temari-san please?" She mummbled softly then stared down at her fork.
"Hinata why dont you explain?" Gaara asked "If you helped Azumi-san come up with this..wild theory then you should enlighten us."
"Uhm..." Hinata shook her head furiously hair whiping slightly from it's bun. Azumi scowled at her then at Gaara then back at Hinata.
"Aww man! You messed up your hair. Hmmph..fine take it away Hinata exactly how I said at the bathhouse no?"
"bu..but.but..." Hinata nervously fiddled with her index fingers then let out a long sigh. "Okay..Azumi has..a theory..I didnt help much..but but I think it's actually possible and Azu-chan does have proof..from today..when she was working..in the uhm..hospitol..."
'Of course it's the hospitol you nimrod! Oh I wish he'd stop staring'
"Azu-chan has all the math part figured out. Sixty patients..all of each have 3 bugs each..the heart..the brain and the stomache. We propose there are twelve ninjas who specialize in a sort of Jutsu that allows them to..drain one's chakra and energy untill dead.."
Hinata paused looking up to see what Temari and Gaara's reactions were. Temari looked interested and Gaara..emotionless and still staring. Hinata blushed then continued.
"A team of two are each in charge of ten patients..or in this case victims. They switch out every..so often to rest and replenish themselves."
"And the purpose to all this?" Temari asked with a raised eyebrow. Hinata blinked and Azumi easily cut in.
"It's a warning..or it's a way to wipe out a bunch of your citizens at a time so once the Land of Lightening decides to attack your basically out of capable men and woman. I took the liberty to sort of study the backgrounds of each patients and.."
"So thats why you were up all night..." Hinata eclaimed Azumi rubbed the back of her neck.
"Erm.yeah..I didnt think you..erm..." Azumi had that panicked look again as she struggled to explain herself.
Temari frowned "How did you get all the information so quickly..sixty patients could take days."
"Yeah well I have my connections and besides it does'nt matter how I got the information I did..time is what we need here! Sixty of YOUR citizens will die in a week..or less then a week!"
"That soon?"
Azumi nodded at Gaara "That soon. I did some..research, gathered information from the docters and nurses who have been keeping an eye on the patients. Every three hours the bugs seem to almost disapear one at a time and gradually slowly, a foreign chakra seems to..burst from them and then suddenly they shrink. Every three hours the bug jutsu is sort of..taking whatever chakra it took from the victim and getting it teleported to it's user. Three hours, you relize we dont have much time..time is the essence."
"And what do you propose we do?" Gaara asked. Hinata nearly smiled in relief they were trusting Azumi now..she had their attention.
Azumi stood from her chair her head lowered so her hair fell in front of her eyes. She took a deep breath. Hinata tried not to smile. To most it would seem Azumi was merely trying to calm herself..but in reality it was Azumi's way not to burst out into a huge happy shout and go "Hells yeah!" or somthing like that, it was Azumi's way not to show her exitement.
"Oh Gaara, Gaara, Gaara, I am so happy you asked"
Hinata gulped. "Uh-oh..."
"What? Dont trust me..come on Birdie, it's simple." She flashed her best friend a bright smile and pushed herself from the table and encased herself in a bubble.
Gaara and Temari stared in both shock and confusion. Hinata sighed and took a bite of rice, she could feel the sibling's eyes on her.
"She's trying to put her idea into the correct words..or getting it tweaked and perfected." Hinata murmmered softly with a light sigh "It's her way of calming down. You dont know her much..but she's really smart..and really great when it comes to laying out plans..expecially when she's in charge."
Gaara nodded and took a bite of meat, chewing it slowly his eyes on Hinata thoughtfully, she in turn avoded eyes contact and stared at her plate. Temari sighed.
"As much as I hate to admit it but..Azumi's right..you can cut the tension with a knife."
Hinata giggled, red staining her cheeks as it went into full blown laughter. "I..I'm s..so..s..sor..ry!" She gasped holding her stomache.
"It's.not only a saying..bu..but an ..inside jo..joke...and ...and you say..ing it..sorry!" She blushed brighter and managed to stop her laughter still holding her stomache.
"I'm so very very glad you are enjoying yourselves but I've got it!" Azumi was back on the ground..leaning against the main doorway out of the dining room.
"Gaara-kun" She coyly batted her lashes at him flicking her hair and winking at Hinata who tried her hardest not to laugh. Hinata knew very well what was coming. "May I pretty pretty please see a map and paper..and pencil?" her famous puppy-dog pout was in place, eyes teary face lightly flushed, hell she even had her bottem lip quivering. Gaara looked from the giggling Hinata to the pitifull Azumi and sighed.
"Sure."
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"How long is this going to take?"
Hinata was stretched out on a couch in the living area hugging a pillow to her stomache and trying her hardest not to fall asleep.
"I dont really know." Hinata yawned "She's probably doing her freaky math thing..feel that chakra She uses her water to help..add things and such..." Another yawn and she continued "Azu-kun is strange, strange, strange, strange, strange!" Gaara watched her from his seat in a straight backed-chair, Temari was sitting against the couch trying not to laugh. Hinata, in her half-asleep state was more open..almost drunken.
"So...what is with Azumi?"
Hinata shrugged curling into a ball "She's smart..and she's weird and she's my friend and she does some really cool things..like..one time..she..." Hinata did movements with her hands as if she were summoning a Jutsu "but with her feet and toes..atleast thats what she said..I think she was lying..she's one freaky girl..."
Temari shot Gaara an "I-told-you-so-look"
"Freaky how?"
"Weird watery-moves with no hand signals or saying the jutsu..and oh oh..she looks Noooothing like her parents..she always claims she takes after her mom's side..and her mom was like her and looks nooothing like her family and so..uhm..what was I talking about?"
Temari grinned at Gaara who looked as if he was trying not to smile, it vanished suddenly replaced with a look of concern as Hinata shivered.
"Hinata-chan are you cold?"
"Mmm..." She hummed shivering again. Gaara strode over and took the blanket off the back of the couch and leaned over tucking it around her. Hinata's hand shot up just before he left and she scooted towards him slightly.
"You're...warm..." She muttered frowning refusing to release his hand. Gaara threw Temari a slightly shocked and help-me look at her and she held up her hands.
"You're the one that likes her!" she mouthed and grinned at his scowl before getting up and heading towards Gaara's office where Azumi had been in for the past two hours.
"I'm going to make sure Azumi-san hasn't fallen asleep herself!"
Gaara glared at his sister's back as she disapeared behind the door. Uncomfortably he slid down onto the couch and Hinata leaned against him snuggling into his side and sighed happily at her newfound pillow.
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"Azumi-san?"
Temari got no reply, the room was dark save for a pale aqua glow, a dark figure was leaning over the map spread on the floor, the glow was caused from ice crystals sliding across the map marking certain spots.
The strange girl scribble somthing down on the paper.
Temari's eyes widened as another figure..a ghostly figure circled the map.
"I dont know little one...I cant really place the location the chakra sourse is coming from but it's in this area." The pale blue form of what looked to be an impish-cat-like creaure of pale blue and sea foam green floated above a cetain spot on the map.
"Yeah..it's exactly what I got..we should..split our medical-nins up and ..lets say teams of four go in each building and search..there are..one two...five ..nine buildings in all..including houses to search on this one block...it'll be done in a day..but I get this house..it's all mine."
"What about Hinata?" The voice was curiouse and filled with concern. The tiny creature settled on Azumi's shoulder it's front paws adorned in tiny fins ruffled her hair like a concerned mother.
"I'll send her with...Kero. He'll take good care of her I'm sure and I'll assign them farther away. This people are dangerous...I dont want her to get hurt."
"You are only keeping the ineveitable at bay...the day you leave..Hinata will be very hurt..you two are closer to sister and what of Kiba?"
"Agh! I cant think when you get like this, Mizu!!" Azumi cried out hands flailing at the creature. The tiny thing, apparently dubbed Mizu callapsed itno droplets of water and to Temari's amazment sank inside of Azumi with a faint glow.
Backing away Temari hit a small table next to the entrance and a vase fell, crashing to the floor.
Temari stared in horror as Azumi..not quite Azumi whireld aound in a flury of water surronding her taking shape of a larger Mizu..a larger and meaner Mizu. Azumi's eyes where flooded with blue..nothing but flashing blue light. Suddely as if it never happened the vision disapeared and Azumi was sitting back on the floor, facing Temari.
"Dont.Say. Aything or I swear to the gods...Temari..please dont.." Azumi's eyes were hidden.
"You are like..Gaara...with Shukaku..." Temair muttered still frozen in place., she could see Azumi tense.
"I..no..Mizu is harmless..Mizu..is..a secret...you must tell no one..even Gaara...please..you just cant you cant!" Azumi was shaking her head furiously. Temari took several steps forward and kneeled in front of the shaking young woman.
"Mizu is not..dangerous?"
"She resents that comment..of course she is..wicked dangerous but she's not evil..she's good and she's..she's like my mother..she's all I got..."
"But what of your family back in Konoha?"
Azumi laughed bitterly. "I'm the experiment they felt sorry for. They took me in...as their own..we've moved from place to place since...since I was eight..when they broke me out."
There was a long silence. "I wish to speak no more of this. The plan is ready..promise you wont tell anyone Temari-san...I..I wouldnt survive it..."
Temari stared down at the girl, transformed from the foul-mouthed, hyper-active and wicked tempered young woman to a frail crying girl. It hit a soft spot in her..the one she held for Gaara and she smiled helping Azumi up.
"I knew there was somthing strange about you. I promise. Dry it up Azumi-san we got bad guys to catch."
"Thanks..Mizu says thank you too...and that she wont let me shove my sword up your ass..." Azumi was back to normal with a bright playfull smile tears dying up.
"Yeah well tell Mizu I say thanks.. I really though you'd do it..or atleast try."
Innocent: Heehee...so Azumi and Mizu revealed!! What'cha think? Half her story aint even close to being finished yet! Muhahahahaaha-cough- haha..ack...-cough cough- bring in the reviews pretty please! I hope yo uenjoyed the little fluff between Gaara and Hinata...poor Hina..it will continue a bit into the next chapter..but thats all I'll say on it! Love ya all! Hope you like the update! I might not get to update untill after Christmas so in advanced (just in case) Merry Christmas to all!