Apprentice of the trickster– Chapter five: Close Connections

Summary: Sheikka finds Naruto and Mizuki in a confrontation and watches, but soon finds herself getting involved in the fight, which can't be a bad thing when it puts her into a perfect position to manipulate the situation to better suit her own plans.

Author: Adameia Kirantro

Rated k+: no cussing, or innuendos or pairings, has minor violence

Disclaimer: I did not create, and do not own the characters from Naruto, They are owned by Masashi Kishimoto, and I may borrow them for your possible and hopeful enjoyment. But I DO own Sheikka, she is mine so do not steal (note: I also own any other OC's I may post, you will know them as they will all have something to do with Sheikka).
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Author's note: sorry about the wait, for those of you who don't have me on your author alerts I have started posting chapters for a bleach fic, that if you are into that fandom I recommend you check it out, it is going to turn awesome in the next few chapters... But I will be splitting my time between the stories and am glad for you devotion, enjoy!

Chapter five: Close Connections

I have had this ominous feeling all day, and it's starting to bug me. I know I should have gone out to meet Naruto after school, after all… it is his graduation day, the day of his next step as a ninja, but, I just can't bring myself to reveal my presence in the village since secrecy is crucial for my kind, and I am not sure how people would take to the fact that he has a sympathetic caretaker at the moment. I mindlessly curl a loose lock of my flame-red hair around my finger as I once again try to concentrate on the book I'm reading. Well, it's more like a journal, the journal of Minato Namikaze who just happens to be Naruto's dad, and the infamous forth Hokage of Konohagakure and was so famous that even us, the very isolated changeling society has heard of him and has records, no matter how minor about him, he did do some impressive seal work in his time after all, it was sure to catch our attention. But hey, even I know not to tell him yet, –maybe after he meets his team, he does deserve to know, it is his lineage– my thoughts reasoned. –oh, well can't be helped now can it? I might as well go scout around to see if I can find Naruto anywhere, he should have been here by now... –I concluded and soon left the house and took to the air as a crow, even though I had once sworn to never take that shape for reasons I'd rather not think about, it was the best bet for not being unusual around this area, I don't want to draw too much attention to myself.

-Time skip-

I felt rather than heard or saw a disturbance coming from the clearing that I was approaching. So, with skill that didn't suggest my lack of excess of experience in the flying department I swooped gracefully into the branches of the trees, resting on a high enough branch that I won't be easily seen, and yet low enough that with my changeling vision, I will easily see anything going on, shadows or no shadows as that being my element it will never inhibit my ability to see clearly anything and everything that might be going on. I watched on as I finally rested my eyes on what seemed to be a rising conflict, and narrowed my eyes as I recognized that once again, Naruto was in the middle of it, and I know that someone-and soon- was going to get punished severely if any harm came to him (I was of course going to let him give this conflict more of a try before I intervene) at all. I watched on as Mizuki, the silver haired teacher seemed to be talking to Iruka and Naruto from his perch in that tree and iruka seemed to panic, I grinned at his words and Naruto's boisterous laughter at his attempt to rile him.-This is going to be fun no matter how it turns out, on one hand Naruto gains some confidence on the other… I get to let my more sadistic side enjoy tor- I mean teaching a lesson to the snobbish ex-teacher…

I watched patiently as Naruto handled the situation with surprising finesse, he taunted Mizuki into letting his guard down and didn't lose his cool when iruka got hurt and actually led Mizuki away from the area in his fight to avoid more injuries for the unconscious Nin, impressive. I continued to follow them, but in a more human form to have an easier time traveling in the dense trees, unconsciously pulling the shadows closer to me to keep me hidden from view.

My eyes widened. Naruto got hurt, I knew that he couldn't compete with a chunnin, but I had lost track of his slipping advantage with my thought of praise and now… if I didn't do something, Naruto's going to pay the price for my inattention… but not on my watch.

I felt my eyes turn completely black as I reigned in my protective instincts and rage as I rushed onto the scene. Without even a seconds notice I appeared in front of the passed out blond, slitted black eyes glaring at the white haired nin in front of me, making him freeze in his tracks with my killing intent alone. "That's enough trouble out of you, why don't you go turn yourself in… unless you want ME to dish out your punishment for hurting my charge…" I playfully spoke, my voice dark and heavy with restrained sadism as I smirked evilly at the perpetrator of my adoptive Otouto's pain. He would pay.

Mizuki's eyes widened with pure terror, and I realized that I probably gave off a pretty intimidating image, what with my glaring black eyes, my blue-black outfit, and threateningly open large black wings. I curiously reached out and felt his mind a little with my telepathy, -w-what the heck is that? Is it some freakish angel of death, or demon that has come for my soul, and my life? No... it's probably a genjutsu that I can't seem to break, I can beat her, I am a chunnin after all, and my master has helped me…- I pulled away from his thoughts as his eyes gained a gleam of resolve, and he charged. I tucked in my wings and materialized a blade from the shadows that still surrounded me as he brought out his own sword, that was hidden somewhere I actually didn't manage to catch and blocked his attack with such ease I could have yawned… or read a book and still managed it (somewhere a certain silver-haired Cyclopes sneezed). My grin turned feral as I spun around and in less than a second I delivered a slash to his shoulder and side before I let my sword de-materialize back into shadows and dusted off my hands.

I turned to go back to Naruto, but I failed to calculate that he had more outside help than I thought, for I turned after hearing a feral growl to find that Mizuki had somehow turned three quarters behemoth-sized tiger… now that isn't a pretty combination at all. I raised an eyebrow, at the almost comical sight, since I was still in my rage induced "black" as my sister so aptly named it, I saw him as no real threat, and he seemed to notice that as he furiously charged yet again at the simple gesture. I could feel my fingers growing claws as I let myself continue my change, until my skin had an almost scale-y texture to it. He swiped his claws at my side and I lazily brought an arm to block it, he didn't even break the skin.

I turned my narrowed, slitted eyes into his and said simply, "playtime's over kitty, time for your nap." And as soon as I finished saying it, the battle was over, Mizuki was on his back, in his normal form after that blow I delivered to his head and the visible claw marks on his cheek and shoulders from where I had grabbed him to slam him into the ground were definitely not going to heal any time soon. I smirked, my eyes returning to their greenish silver color I have been adopting, and my black hair faded into my usual red, as my feathered wings dissolved into feathers and then particles before they disappeared completely as I finally made my way to where Naruto's unconscious body lay.

I sat, and picked up his head and carefully let it rest in my lap as I petted his surprisingly soft spikes soothingly, he had a rough night, I only wish I knew the cause, if it maybe had been something I did wrong that brought this on, I should have been more careful with him and should have intervened early on, not when it was almost too late. –oh great, I turn around and I've gone and got myself attached to a human of all creatures… again– I thought, not sure if I was upset with that fact. As I came out of my musings, I noticed that Naruto was beginning to stir, and I looked down hopefully at his face.

His eyes opened, and he blinked around drearily as he asked, "What are you doing here Sheikka?" I smiled, of course of all the things he could have said, he asked why I was here, –at least he didn't say 'did someone get the number on that cart?' or something as equally stupid in an attempt at humor. – I thought, smiling internally.

"Saving you of course, you don't think I would sit back and watch you get killed now… right? Now how about you tell me how you got into this mess, and I might just help you out of it completely." I said a little playfully at the beginning, but turning stern at the end. And so he told me, everything he had been keeping from me, including his failing. "you know that now, I am not going to be easy on you right?" he nodded, "I will start working with you on this, if you had come to me like I had asked you to, we could have solved your problem from the start, but, according to some sources, you inherited your stubbornness from your mother… how typical." I half-ranted, blowing off some steam until I noticed my slip, –oh well, I guess I no longer need to find out when I'll tell him, because there is no way he's letting me back out of this– I thought seeing the gleam in his eye.

"You know who my parents are don't you." I knew it wasn't a question.

"yes, and it is time you knew, I wouldn't have been able to keep it from you for long, my people consider lineage to be a critical thing, and it would be considered a crime to keep it from you for long, but you have to understand, they were both famous ninja, and you should probably not go yelling about your parentage before your strong enough to defend yourself from their enemies" his eyes were wide at this point, but he calmed down and agreed with my analysis, so I continued, "your mother was Kushina Uzumaki, once known as the princess of whirlpool, and later when she joined the leaf, she was known as The Red Death. Your father on the other hand, was even more famous, in fact you know him pretty well… just not as your father, and his name was Minato Namikaze, The Fourth Hokage AKA the Yellow Flash." I finished with a smirk as he fainted on the spot, it was almost a comical sight at how instantaneous it was after he heard who his father was, but I guess it would be normal for someone to faint if they suddenly heard their idol was their father. I pulled him towards me and cradled him as I rested my back against the tree behind me and sighed, I knew he was going to lose consciousness, this was big news, so I sang softly, a lullaby my mother used to sing to me as a child as I made sure he had an easy sleep. Once my song drew to a close, I finally acknowledged the presence I had felt listening into my conversation and said, "you can come out now, iruka-san, and Hokage-san, he is pretty much asleep and I knew you were there the whole time" I called out, just loud enough to make sure they heard, and smirked when I heard them jump slightly in surprise. –this is going to be fun. – I thought as I watched the two figures approach my position in the clearing, both looking nervous and weary, almost like they thought I could be an enemy, I huffed internally at the thought, – they don't know who they're dealing with.. But they'll soon figure out that I am not someone to anger... hopefully – and I watched them with an analyzing gaze before I began to speak.

Authors note: hi everybody! Like my chapter? I decided to add a couple polls to this chapter.

One, do you want me to describe some of Sheikka's training of Naruto or do you want me to skim over it or possibly flash back to bints of it at convenient times later on?

The second poll is about another inspiration I have… I… actually came up with a completely original world (as in not fanfiction related) for Sheikka and her fellow changelings and am planning on writing some of it, I was wondering what you thought? Do you want to read it when I write it? Do you like the idea? Do you think I should keep it to myself? Or something else I didn't mention? Please write to me about it.(if I do decide to let people read it I will post it on Deviantart and add a link on my profile as well as ANing it in here as that would be a major boon (in my opinion) to all of you, my dedicated readers)