Ninja Ashikabi's Ch.2
-Naruto's Apartment – 7:05 AM-
Morning arose in Konoha, waking the sleeping villagers still in bed. Shops had started opening up and villagers walking out the door to their various jobs or duties. The sunlight shined through the window, illuminating the inside f Naruto's apartment. He and Haihane were still asleep, Haihane clinging to Naruto trying not to wake up from her blissful sleep. Naruto didn't have that luxury, as the sunlight forced him to wake from his slumber. It took a few seconds for his vision to clear, but as soon as he could see again, Haihane's beautiful sleeping face was barely an inch from his own. His immediate reaction was panic from waking up next to a stranger, but he calmed down as he remembered the events of last night,
The last thing he remembered before blacking out was Haihane asking him to be her Ashikabi, and then suddenly kissing him. 'Why had she done that?' That was the question that rang in his mind. He was about to get his answer. Haihane had started to stir from her sleep as well. She opened her eyes to the sight of her new ashikabi and gave him a small smile. "Morning, Naru-Kun." She leaned in and gave him a peck on the lips. It still startled Naruto, but it seemed he would have to get used to it. "M-morning, H-haihane-Chan. Um, what happened last night?" he asked the question as steadily as possible so that she wouldn't get the wrong idea.
"You became my ashikabi, and I became your Sekirei." She said it as if it was the simplest thing in the world, but Naruto still didn't have a clue of what she was talking about. She got out of bed as Naruto looked at her bewildered "Yeah, but what does that mean?" he looked her for an answer but quickly avoided his eyes when he saw her doing her morning stretches, and those clothes didn't help the situation, that's for sure. "My people are called Sekirei; we have two main drives that are hardwired into us from birth. The first is combat, to fight until and prove ourselves the best." She finished her stretches and sat back down near the end of the bed. "And the second?" asked Naruto. She gave him a warm smile and layed down in his lap. Naruto was initially startled but calmed down and looked to Haihane's unusually calm expression, waiting for her answer. "Our other drive is to find our Ashikabi, someone to serve and protect. To love for as long as possible." she reached a hand up to caress his cheek, looking to him for a response.
"Haihane-Chan" Naruto was stunned, was this the same woman who had torn all those villagers apart like they were nothing. She seemed so helpless now, waiting for him to answer her unspoken question. 'Will you accept me?' It reminded himself, when he tried to win over parents at the orphanage.
Haihane felt water drop onto her face. She looked up in confusion, and then she saw that Naruto was tearing at the eyes. She jumped from her position; afraid she offended or upset her new Ashikabi. "N-naruto? I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please don't cry." She pulled his head to her chest attempting to comfort him, at first naruto flinched at the contact, but soon slowly put his arms around haihane and returned the embrace.
"Don't cry Naruto, please don't cry." Haihane tightened her hold on him. "Why?" she heard a mumbled question from the blonde, she pulled away to face him. "Why? Why, what?" she asked him confused. Naruto looked up to her, his face still marked with tears. "Why do you want me as your ashikabi? I'm nothing but a stupid kid, you barely even know me." He looked down, depressed. Haihane huffed in annoyance and pulled his face in for yet another forced kiss. But this time, her wings of light showed themselves. Naruto just sat there, dazed and confused; he thought he dreamt this part, but no. Haihane had wings, beautiful silver wings of light.
She pulled away with a smirk at his stunned expression. "You took in a perfect stranger from the streets, who – not even a few minutes before had torn apart seven villagers. You gave me clothes, food, and a place to sleep. You even tried to lift my spirits when I told you that Sekirei couldn't fight anymore. You didn't do those things out of pity either; you accepted me, when others would run and hide at the sight of me. I may not know you very well Naruto Uzumaki, but id like to." She looked him straight in the eye to see his reaction. "Thank you haihane, I'm really glad I met you." Naruto rubbed his eyes of his tears. Haihane gave him another hug before getting out of bed and leaving the room so Naruto could get dressed.
-Konoha Market Place – Minutes Later-
After their little heartfelt conversation, Haihane and Naruto left to get some breakfast at Ichiraku like naruto promised. Naruto was in his basic clothes minus the orange jacket, as it was currently in use as by Haihane as a barrier from wandering eyes. Her clothes were still dirty from the night before, so she was still borrowing Naruto's clothes until she got hers cleaned.
"So, Naruto-Kun. Does this place have good food?" Haihane asked innocently. While she enjoyed eating the ramen Naruto prepared, it still didn't exactly fill her stomach. Naruto grinned at her question and replied with his always upbeat attitude. "You bet! Ichiraku makes the greatest food in fire country, maybe even the whole world." He let out a boisterous laugh.
'Fire Country?' the term was completely foreign to Haihane. When she was taught about earth, she was told nothing of such a place. How far different was this world from her own? She didn't have time to wonder as they quickly approached the stand with a sign that read 'Ichiraku Ramen'. 'This must be the place' she thought with glee.
Naruto rushed to the entrance and lifted up the panel that concealed the inside of the stand. He motioned for Haihane to go in first. She thanked him for holding the panel up for her and ducked her head to go inside. It wasn't much, by the looks of it. A long table separated the customers from the kitchen with barstools set up to sit on. Haihane took a seat and picked up one of the menus on the counter.
Naruto took a seat next to her and yelled to the back of the kitchen, where the workers were most likely cooking since it was still pretty early in the morning. "Hey! Old man Tenchi! I got a new customer for you." An older man emerged from the back, dressed in a white uniform, including an apron and a chef's hat. He seemed excited to see Naruto here. Ah! Naruto, were ya been. I've missed my favorite customer. And who's your friend." He looked over to haihane questioningly, probably because she was still dressed in Naruto's clothes.
"Sorry about that. I had to avoid the villagers all day yesterday." The old man looked a bit solemn at that statement, but naruto continued with his explanation. "This is Haihane, she's new to the village and I thought it would be a good idea to let her try the best food in Konoha." Naruto didn't mention the part about her saving him from those drunks, or how she skewered them with her claws. Tenchi gave haihane an once-over, trying to find anything to worry about. She was too busy looking over the menu, drooling as her eyes passed over all he new food open to her. Tenchi just saw a hungry customer ad a new friend to Naruto. "Well, thanks for bringing me a new customer kid. Tell you what, first round is on the house, but only the first round." He emphasized the last part knowing how much food Naruto could put away.
"Wow! Thanks old man, alright for starters how about a miso ramen." Tenchi smiled gratefully, that was always his first dish. "Comin' right up! And for you miss?" he looked over to Haihane who had snapped out of her trance and smiled nervously at the older man. He was obviously very close to Naruto, so she wanted to make a good first impression. "Um, B-beef ramen please!" Tenchi nodded in acceptance and went to the back to start on the food.
While Tenchi was preparing their food, Naruto took this opportunity to talk to Haihane a bit. "So Haihane, what do you think of Ichiraku? It's cool right." He needed to know she liked his regular place to eat if they were going to be … whatever they were? "I like it. It's simple and homey. We had ramen last night though; do you like it a lot?" Tenchi let out a laugh that was loud enough to startle her. "HA-HA-HA! Like it? I don't think Naruto could go one week, let alone one day, without his ramen." Naruto pouted in annoyance. "I can to! I just don't want to." He turned his head away in annoyance. Haihane just chuckled at Naruto's immature behavior.
"Alright, Order Up!" Tenchi set the two orders on the table. "Itasakimasu." Naruto did his eating ritual and immediately dug into his meal. Haihane copied his prayer as best she could, not used to the custom and took a bite of her meal to test the quality. Her taste buds erupted in delight, it was delicious. She had never had something so good in all her life. She soon devoured her food in a matter of minutes. Once she was done she let out a small belch and quickly covered her mouth in embarrassment. "Scuse me."
After they had their fill, Naruto and Haihane went out to see if they could get some clean clothes for Haihane or at the very least a place to clean them. Unfortunately, they never got the chance. Before they got even five feet from Ichiraku, they found themselves surrounded by several men in black ninja uniforms wearing white armor, and all their faces were adorned with animal masks. Haihane grew disturbed as she saw their current situation. "Naruto? Who are these men?" She asked her Ashikabi hesitantly. "Anbu." Naruto growled out the name of the enforcers around them. Anbu, a specialized ninja squad that carried out top secret missions for the village under the direct order of the Hokage. Naruto stood his ground in front of the masked assailants knowing why they were here.
"Naruto Uzumaki, stand aside this is none of your concern." The leader, bearing a mask that resembled an eagle, asked. Naruto fixed him with a glare that would make a normal man run and hide. It had no such affect on the Anbu. "Haihane didn't do anything wrong, she was just protecting me." He tried to protect her, but they wouldn't hear of it. The eagle masked Anbu pointed to Haihane objectively. "This woman has been reported as a murderer, killing seven villagers and putting three others in a state of near death. She's coming with us whether you like it or not fox-brat." He spit the last word face in disgust; Naruto grew enraged at the insult and charged at him. He was quickly caught by one of the other anbu and restrained him so he wouldn't interfere. Bad move.
After Naruto was restrained, the leader turned to Haihane completely oblivious to her wrath as she seethed in silence, her hair hanging in her face to hide her rage. "Now then, let's get you to a nice, cozy jail ce-OW! Before he could continue, he received a fierce uppercut kick to the face, knocking his mask in to the air. The other anbu tried to stop her but she was too fast. In the blink of an eye she was gone in a silver flash of speed. She re-appeared only seconds later nailing a fierce punch to one of the anbu, straight in the solar plexus.
The others scrambled to stop her or catch her, but they never stood a chance. She kept disappearing again and again, only to show herself when an opportunity presented itself to send another blow their way. It was all a blur of silver flashes of light and powerful attacks filled with rage, carnage, and love for her Ashikabi. In less than a minute Haihane had proven herself the victor as she stood while the anbu remained motionless on the ground, knocked out stone cold. "No one hurts Naruto-kun." She went up to the leader still stunned at her barrage of attacks. She emphasized her point by picking him up by the scruff of his uniform and raising him off the ground. "Understand." He nodded dumbly, so she let him fall from her grasp and went over to see if Naruto was ok.
But he was more than ok, Naruto was amazed. The way she moved like that, quicker than anyone could catch up with. And then those devastating blows she dealt them. Naruto ran up to Haihane as she approached him and glomped her on impulse. "That was Awesome Haihane-Chan! The way you beat those guys so easily, you're amazing." Haihane a bit startled when Naruto tackled her like that made her feel wanted and accepted. She held him close to her body and thanked him for his words of appreciation. They went on their way to the market, sure that the anbu wouldn't try and follow her. For now at least.
Hokage's office - several minutes later
Hiruzen Sarutobi, 3rd Hokage of the village hidden in the leaves, sat patiently in his office waiting for his Anbu squad to retrieve a woman who had killed several villagers last night. This didn't bother him in the fact that the people who reported these deaths mentioned that the silver-haired woman was 'protecting the fox brat' as they put it. It was obvious that this person, whoever she was, simply wished to protect Naruto from yet another annual beating; and for that he was thankful. His only real concern with this matter was the way in which the villagers were killed. The coroner described it as some of the most vicious work he'd seen in months. The dozens of claw marks over the bodies showed that she held no mercy for her victims. If someone this violent and dangerous was with Naruto, he should at least see her and decipher her intentions to the young blonde.
He waited for maybe 5-10 min., filling out paper work in the mean-time, before the squad reported back tom him. They appeared in a silent shun-shin, and when he lifted his head, expecting to see the restrained woman with them he got the shock of a lifetime. The whole squad was beaten black and blue, several of them leaning on each other for support. None of them were seriously injured, which meant that she didn't have the claws she used to carve up the villagers, but they were still barely standing. The leader collapsed to one nee in shame. "Report." Hiruzen gave his command already knowing they had failed. The leader gritted his teeth in aggravation, but answered him in remorse. "The mission was a failure. Even without the weapons eye-witnesses reported to see her with, she was retaliated to our capture attempt and got away." He seemed to avert his eyes at that last part. "Tch." One of the squad members clicked his teeth in resentment. "Got away my ass, she beat us in a blink of an eye. We had to run with our tail between our legs." The Hokage looked angrily to the leader and back to the rest of the squad. "Is this true?" He asked the question in a demanding voice expecting nothing but the truth.
The team described the encounter, including various description of her attack strategy, or what they saw of it. From what they described, her speed would be only surpassed by the late 4th Hokage's special technique. And the way she attacked was superb, using such incredible speed to add to the momentum of her attacks and deal devastating blows; as seen by the many deep bruises left on his Anbu team. He dismissed the team after giving a punishment to the leader for falsifying a report.
After the squad left, the Hokage dug out his crystal ball from under his desk. Normally he only used this to watch over some of his favorite ninja's or hopeful future Genin. Or when he was bored. But he thought it would be best to observe this new friend of the blonde Jinchuuriki from afar. So he activated the old relic and focused his chakra and thoughts into locating Naruto and this mysterious new guardian. The ball filled with smoke before revealing Naruto and the woman walking through the Konoha market, the young girl receiving several stares from passerby's due to her short clothing. 'Oh, well at least the boy is getting some attention.' A perverted laugh rang through the office room.
Scene change
Back to Konoha market place
Naruto and Haihane continued their search for someplace that would either be to a)be willing to clean Haihane's blood stained clothes, or b)sell them cheap clothes until they could get the sekirei's clean and blood free. As they walked, Naruto continued to praise Haihane on how she defeated that Anbu squad so quickly. Haihane asked him to stop, saying that it wasn't anything great, but the red on her cheeks told otherwise. She scanned the market, the various stands and stores offering a variety of products from food, to clothes, and what she assumed were souvenirs for tourists. But her eyes stopped on one specific stand that made her stop in place and go wide-eyed.
Naruto continued on for a phew feet before realizing he'd been left behind. He stopped and saw that his Sekirei was staring at one designated area. He dragged his eyes to were she was starring and found a stand with a single female attendant smiling happily at attention. The large banner over the stand had no words, only a large symbol. It had a bird with a yin yang underneath with four beads surrounding it. He tried to remember where he saw that symbol, when he got a flashback of when he met Haihane. That symbol was on the back of her kimono. Maybe it was a clan symbol to the Sekirei.
They walked up the stand silently, curious as to why the Sekirei mark was printed on the large banner. The woman at the stand smiled brightly at the two new customers. She had long, brown hair tied off at the side with a rubber band. She was rather well-endowed and had a great body, something Naruto tried to avert his eyes at and focus on her face. She wore a pink shirt purple on the shoulders and sleeves and a yellow star in the center of her chest. And she wore jeans that stopped above her knees.
"Hello, welcome to Sekirei Stitching. My name is Uzume, Sekirei No.10; how can I help you?" She gave them a happy greeting, smiling brightly. Haihane thought she was way too nice and mentally barfed.
"You're a Sekirei!" Naruto exclaimed surprised. He had never met another one beside Haihane, so it startled him a bit to meet another so soon. He looked at her again and found nothing of similarity between his Sekirei and this one. Well except for the fact that they both had great bodies and were very beautiful, each in their own way.
She nodded happily smiling at the young blonde. "Yep! And I'm guessing since you know what a Sekirei is, you must be an Ashikabi." She pointed to Naruto. "And you must be his Sekirei." She moved her finger to haihane, who nodded confirming her statement. "My name is Haihane, Sekirei No.104 and this is my ashikabi Naruto." The reaper Sekirei made their introductions showing no emotion, trying to read this Sekirei so she could identify her as friend or foe.
"Nice to meet you both. I'm guessing you guys are here for new clothes right." She giggled as she looked at haihane in Naruto's smaller clothing. Haihane tried to cover her body with the blonde's jacket, slightly embarrassed now in front of a fellow Sekirei. Naruto just smiled nervously.
"Yeah, we are. And sorry to ask this, but do you clean clothes cheap. Were kinda low on cash." He asked innocently.
She nodded happily." Actually we have a special offer for first time customers. We take in your old clothes, and give you some new ones - exactly like the original outfit. You only have to pay for the cleaning of the original outfit though."
Naruto was ecstatic. This was a great deal, and he could make up the money later no problem. He just needed to do some chores for Iruka-sensei or old man Hokage. "How can you make a copy of my original clothes? It's a very specific material made for battle and extremely light-weight so it doesn't hold me back." Uzume gave a light laugh in delight.
"Actually, it's my Sekirei ability. Wanna see?" Naruto nodded instantly eager to see what other Sekirei were capable of. He still loved Haihane's amazing speed, but it would be cool to see something else too.
Uzume grinned and did a small spin. As her body twirled, her tight shirt and jeans morphed into a beautiful white silk. The fabric wrapped around her breasts to make a top and around her hips to create a small skirt that barely went down to her middle-thigh. A long, thin veil was hung over her shoulders and wrapped around her wrists.
Naruto had a slight trickle of blood flow from his nose as he gawked at her outfit. Haihane gave him a slight elbow to the ribs that snapped him out of it. He scratched the back of his head embarrassed for starring and apologized.
"My power let's me change the shape, color, density and material of any fabric I touch. Cool right!" She gave them both a victory sign showing off her ability. Naruto nodded dumbly and haihane just shrugged.
"Uzume! What did I say about showing off." Everyone grew startled at the yell and looked to the direction of the shriek. A young blonde girl with her hair in a pony tail. A purple top and skirt with wrappings around her waist and legs. She stood off to the side, scowling with her hands on her hips.
Uzume looked down apologetically and bowed in shame. "Sorry Ino-chan, I-i couldn't help it. And besides their like us, an ashikabi and a Sekirei." Ino looked to the front of the stand and saw Haihane and -
"Naruto!?"
"Ino!?" They both exclaimed each other's name surprised so see the other person with a Sekirei. Uzume crossed her arms pointing in opposite directions. "So you guys know each other?" She asked confused. "Yeah, me and Naruto go the academy. We have the same class." Ino answered awkwardly, Naruto and her didn't really hang out much at the academy. They were friends when they were kids, but she pretty much forgot he existed when she started liking Sasuke and hating Sakura.
"So you're an Ashikabi too, cool. This is my Sekirei, Haihane." She waved at her slowly a small smirk on her face. She was loosening up now that she new her ashikabi was friendly with this girl.
"Um, hi. So are you guys going to buy something or not?" She asked angrily.
Naruto nodded and took Haihane's bloodied clothes from the backpack he brought. Initially Ino grew a little disturbed at all the blood on the black clothes. She looked to Uzume, but she took the clothes without a care in the world and examined them closely.
"How did you get so much blood on that? It couldn't have been yours, there's way too much." She looked at the reaper Sekirei skeptically, and a little bit scarred. "Its not out place to judge Ino. Besides, we've seen a lot more blood on this, remember that grey-haired Sekirei." Uzume was still examining the cloth, laying it out on the table on the back.
Ino shuddered at the memory. "Don't remind me, she was so creepy. But at least she paid well." She gave another side glance at Naruto and his Sekirei as they watched Uzume work. Haihane still gave her that creepy vibe, but she was Naruto's Sekirei, so she couldn't be that bad.
Uzume was unrolling some black cloth from one of the columns and layed it next to Haihane's bloodied kimono. She layed her hands over the material and started concentrating her power. The rolled the fabric in her hands, shifting it and willing it to take shape. Nearly five minutes later she held up the new kimono, an exact match to Haihane's old one.
"Tada! What do you think?" She showed off the new kimono to them before haihane snatched it from her hands to examine it. The grey-haired Sekirei looked amazed, it was an exact copy of the kimono MBI gave her. She looked back to Uzume who was awaiting an opinion on her work.
"It's perfect Uzume-san. Thank you so much!" Haihane gave her an upbeat smile, deciding she wasn't so bad after all.
Uzume basked in the glory of a job well-done. "It was nothing. Now, your original clothes will be clean within a week so come by and pick them up. You don't have to pay till then, but you need this to get it back." She handed them a small slip of paper with the Sekirei symbol and a serial number on it.
"Great, well see you then. Nice meeting you Uzume and I'll see you in class Monday Ino." The blonde and his Sekirei walked away from the stand, Uzume waving back enthusiastically while Ino simply gave a half smile and an awkward wave goodbye to her classmate.
Naruto and Haihane decided to head back home so the Sekirei could try on her new kimono. She held on to it tightly to her chest, making sure nothing happened to this new one. Naruto was silent for a bit before he remembered something Uzume said when she introduced herself.
"Hey Haihane-chan?"
"Yes, what is it Naruto-kun?"
"Uzume said she was Sekirei No.10 when she introduced herself. What does that mean" he asked.
Haihane snapped out of her happy trance to look at Naruto curiously. "Its like I told you last night Naruto. There are 108 aspire, all of us are designated numbers in the order when we were...'born'" that was the only word she could use to describe the demise waking from their embryos, without going into how Sekirei were aliens. She didn't want to freak him out. "My number is 104." She wanted to clarify her title.
"So if Uzume is number 10 she must be older than you, does that mean that she's stronger than you too?" He asked curiously. Haihane chuckled at the innocent question and shook her head in amusement.
"No way. The order of the Sekirei numbers don't mean squat in terms of power, age or experience. Each Sekirei have their own strength, whether their more powerful than another Sekirei is decided by how much they train themselves to be." She had a determined look in her eye as she said this.
Naruto was inspired by how she talked, but grew worried when she saw haihane had grown a bit sad a few seconds later. "W-what's wrong Haihane." He asked
she looked to him and smiled solemnly. "For most Sekirei, their numbers don't matter. But for the single numbers, it's a totally different story. They're so much stronger than us regular Sekirei, it seems pointless to try to match their strength." She imagined a woman smiling with long grey-hair tied into a pony tail. She knew that the woman Uzume and Ino were talking about was her. Karasuba, the black Sekirei.
Naruto hated seeing look so sad, so he tried to cheer her up. "Don't worry Haihane-chan. Tell, you what. Since I'm your Ashikabi, I'll train with you and make sure that you become as strong as a single number."
She gave another solemn smile, happy that Naruto was such a kind Ashikabi. She leaned down and gave him a small peck on the cheek, giggling at his blushing face. "Alright, well train together. I'll help you become a great ninja, and you help me become a great Sekirei. Promise." She held her pinky out to him, something she remembered learning from human culture.
Naruto looked to her pinky, and immediately hooked it with his own, and gave her a wide, fox-like grin. "You bet! Promise of a life-time and Naruto Uzumaki never breaks a promise. Believe it!" Haihane gave another chuckle at his antics. She broke the pinky hold and grabbed his wrist dragging him with her to 'their' apartment.
"I'm really glad I met you Naruto." She said as they walked on.
"Same here." He broke his wrist from the grip and held onto her hand with a nervous look on his face. Haihane was a bit surprised but smiled gratefully at him with a small blush on her cheeks.
'I hope you can keep that promise Naruto-kun. So I can be as strong as a single number. So I can protect my Ashikabi.'
-End-
Not much for this one. It was pretty much just a little more development in Naruto and Haihane's relationship. Introduced another new Sekirei at least. Next chapter will have more on Sakura and Mutsu, then a training montage until the story progresses to the start of the series.
Anyway, thanks for reading!
Please review!