I believe it is time to tell my readers what my favorite part of writing is. I absolutely LOVE to make up characters and anything that goes along with them. I hope you enjoy the first significant use of direct characterization in my Fan-Fic! I own nothing except my own characters.
Ki-Sho walked out to the two combatants. The girl who had called herself Tira stood next to Takaguru's unconscious form, facing in the opposite direction. Tira's body was extremely tense as if the fight hadn't released all her anger. Her hands were formed into fists and her knuckles were white. Ki-Sho saw blood trickle down from her hands. Something was getting to her, but his first priority was to attend to the loser of the fight.
Ki-Sho bent down over Takaguru, his face on the floor. Takaguru breathed with a light wheeze, but his breathing was steady. Ki-Sho turned Takaguru gently onto his back and lifted up his shirt. On the boy's left side he was already bruising from where Tira had kicked him. He definitely had some broken ribs.
With a sigh Ki-Sho began to prod and feel around the boy's ribs. Takaguru winced and opened his eyes. He smiled at Ki-Sho. "She's pretty strong ain't she?" The boy's voice sounded almost like he was attracted to her.
Before Ki-Sho could respond Tira spat her reply. "Shut the hell up!" Her voice filled with anger and a hint of sadness. Even though she didn't face Ki-Sho, he could tell her next statement was through gritted teeth because of the way she sounded. "I don't wanna hear another damn word." Her fists started shaking. Takaguru did as he was told.
For the moment Ki-Sho had to ignore her and tend to the boys ribs. Three of them were indeed broken, but luckily none of them were full breaks. They were all just cracked. That made the injury easier to heal. Ki-Sho did a few hand-seals and placed his hand over the broken ribs. He could see in his mind the bones slowly repairing themselves. Not bothering to heal Takaguru's bruises, Ki-Sho stood up. A few bruises would be good for the boy. He still needed to learn to take victory when an opportunity presented itself.
"You're fine" he told the boy. "Get back to your classmates" he ordered. Takaguru once again did as he was told. As he walked away, the boy glanced back with a look of confusion on his face. Ki-Sho couldn't help but think that the boy was a fool.
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Tira felt rage flow through her entire body as Ki-Sho approached her after attending to Takaguru. She ran her tongue along the inside of her cheek where she'd bitten herself when Takaguru had kicked her. She hated him. It was people like him, people who lived for the fight and nothing else, who got themselves and others killed. It was people like him that had gotten her mother killed.
She closed her eyes and fought back the tears as her fingernails dug even deeper into her palms. She started when she felt a hand come to rest gently on her shoulder. "M-mom?" She opened her eyes and, to her disappointment, looked into the face of Ki-Sho. He looked at her with concern as she winced in emotional pain. She had allowed herself to become lost in her thoughts about her mother.
Tira's mother had died when Tira was still an infant. She had been a ninja as well, but she had died on a mission. One of her companions had a lust for battle that had caused him to prolong a fight he could have ended earlier. He lost his life for not finishing off his opponent. The opponent followed Tira's mother's group and was able to kill the entire group just because her companion didn't finish the fight when he could have.
What upset Tira now was not that she missed her mother. Tira had been to young to even remember her mother. What tormented her was that because of people like Takaguru she didn't have a mother. What tore Tira up even more was the fact that she thought that she'd enjoyed the fight almost as much, if not more, than Takaguru had.
She was losing the battle against her tears. Ki-Sho squeezed her shoulder gently and shook her lightly. Her eyes focused on him without blinking as her tears nearly fell from her eyes. She moved her right hand put to her face and wiped away the moisture around her eyes surreptitiously as she pinched her nose. She took a deep breath and lowered her hand, which she saw was covered in her own blood. She realized her face probably had her blood on it as well now. "Damn-it" she sighed.
Seeing her hands, Ki-Sho grabbed them and examined them. As he did hand seals in preparation of healing her he spoke, but only loud enough for her to hear. "You must be very upset. I'm sorry. I'll give you a cloth to wipe the blood from your face in a minute."
He grabbed her hands and she felt a cool, tingly, soothing sensation where she had cut herself with her fingernails. Ki-Sho continued calmly as her hands healed. "Don't feel too angry at him though." She made a face at him. Ki-Sho smiled pleasantly, then his look became stern as if he were trying to say something without actually saying it. She stared at him for a few more seconds and he chose to elaborate further. "Maybe Takaguru just needs someone to teach him that what he does is wrong." He raised an encouraging eyebrow at her.
"Hmph!" she didn't want to believe it, but Ki-Sho was probably right, and she was probably going to have to be the one to teach Takaguru the lesson. Ki-Sho released her hands. "I have a cut in my mouth too" she told him. She opened her mouth to show him and then closed it when he nodded.
He smiled and moved his hand to her cheek. The now familiar healing sensation filled the cut on the inside of her mouth. When he finished he pulled out a white handkerchief and threw it in her face. "Keep it" he ordered. She grabbed the cloth and wiped her nose and eyes with it before taking it away from her face. She began wiping off her hands as she walked back to the group. She felt strangely comforted. She smiled and silently thanked Ki-Sho as he began to pick up her weapons and carry them out of the way. He left the giant sword where it was.
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Tira walked by Mina and Mina lightly hit Tira on the arm as she smiled brightly, enjoying herself. "Good job kid!" she exclaimed. Tira said nothing and sat down, leaning against the wall and closing her eyes. Mina shrugged. She knew that Tira was probably exhausted. It had been a very interesting fight. Tira had admirable abilities in close combat. At a distance, however, her abilities were limited. She'd need to be paired with others that could help her with that in some way.
Mina was getting ahead of herself. She needed to see the rest of the freshmen fight before she thought about groupings. She turned back toward the group and eyed every one of them down. She didn't want to pick Onimaru quite yet. She had already seen some of his abilities and right now she wanted to observe what the others had to offer.
She randomly picked from the others who remained. Her eyes rested on the girl who had brought her dog. Mina pointed at the girl and smiled wickedly. The girl noticed and turned to her dog. "You ready?" The dog barked with enthusiasm and the girl nodded. They walked out together toward the center of the already battle-scarred room. A boy already waited for her there.
Mina noticed Ki-Sho standing on her left side. He addressed her casually. "So what do you think of Tira?"
"Well I'll remember her name if thats what you're asking." She kept her voice casual, but she really wanted to yell out that she wanted to train Tira herself. "I never expected any of them to beat a sophomore. Let alone the first one out there." She paused to think. She shuddered in excitement and grinned widely. "We'll have to see if the other freshmen have what it takes!"
Ki-Sho just chuckled quietly. "You'll never change will you?"
She smiled happily. "You bet your ass I won't!"
Tira's past was fun to make, even if a bit emotional. Of course when don't the characters in Naruto have problems?! Lol. Tira is actually not one of my favorite characters. My favorite hasn't been introduced yet, but he is a sophomore and I loved making him. Look for the name Umatsu and you'll know thats him!