Hey! I'm glad to be giving you my first Naruto fanfiction. Just so you know this fic was written by me and a friend who doesn't have an account. For now I'll go with her nickname Karma. I'd also like to thank my friend Bunny-chan for Beta-ing this story for Karma and me. I hope you enjoy the story.
Chapter I
The odd trio walked up the dusty road in a companionable silence, their thin sandals and flats beating down on the dirt in a solid rhythm that can only come with years of long hours of travel together.
The girl on the right, the tallest with chin-length purple hair and lavender eyes, had long, teal-ended sleeves that completely concealed her hands from view. A short skirt with short shorts under it was held up by a pale purple hitai-ate just beneath a sheer blue-green material that showed off her slightly muscled stomach. On her feet were violet flats and just over knee length teal socks made of the same fabric. Cream tipped cat ears swiveled on top of her head as a long sinuous tail twitched from the heat.
The other female on the left had on a green-and-white school uniform with a red kerchief on her shoulders. There was a cheerful smile on her face as extremely long, bushy, coffee-colored hair waved and twisted like it had a life of its own. A pure white hitai-ate showed through the wildly swaying hair around her forehead over chocolate eyes. She was almost skipping with happiness.
If that girl was happy-go-lucky and untroubled, the other was enduring and still smiling, then the boy in between them was anything but.
His hands were shoved deep in the pockets of his black cargo shorts, his mouth set in an inherent scowl. A dark shirt with graphic skulls on it was cut by a thick leather strap that held a heavy double-bladed scythe that peeked out over his right shoulder. Shaggy pitch-black hair in need of a trim fell into intense eyes that constantly shifted through different shades of green. But when he saw both his companions grinning at him, his somber face brightened considerably.
The wild-haired girl beamed as she thought up a challenge. "Race you!" she declared, and took off at a dead run.
The boy and the other girl exchanged a knowing glance, smiled at each other, and followed.
The five guards at the gate to Konaha village were everything but prepared when the three ninja blew through like they owned the place. The poor men didn't even see them as they went about their rounds.
They all slid to stop as they came to the first intersection in the street.
"Which way?" the girl with the cat ears asked, flipping her tail like a curious kitten.
The dark-haired boy opened his mouth to reply when he was interrupted by a pink haired ninja with sea-green eyes in a red outfit that stood on top of a nearby building. "Who do you think you guys are?" she demanded as her eyes cut to the boy's crimson hitai-ate tied around his right arm. The band showed a symbol that was two swirls, one just slightly above the other, that barely touched in the center of the metal.
All three of them failed to answer as more ninja and commoners alike gathered around them, every one gawking at the strange new arrivals. The shorter girl's hair fell over to cover her as the cat-eared one hid behind the boy.
"Oh, come on Neko. Tell them why were here," he growled over his shoulder as she cowered in his shadow. "You know I don't like to talk."
She slowly slid out from behind him, shuddering slightly as the pink-haired shinobi's gaze fell on her. "We'refromtheShuuyoujovillagewayouttotheeastandTsunade-samasentforusforamissionsothat'swhywe're here…" she trailed off and scuttled back behind her friend.
The boy sighed as his hand came up to pinch the bridge of his nose to translate. "She meant to say that we're from the Shuuyoujo village and that we were called up here for a mission by your Hokage."
"You really understood that?" someone from the crowd asked in wonder. "I couldn't even hear her."
Neko popped her head up over his shoulder to make a crude face at whoever had said the comment. "Of course he can! He's the living incarnation of Karma! You know, the mystical force—"
"Neko," he said calmly, only a slight twitch in his finger giving him away, "I'm going to kill you if you say anything else."
The cat eared girl hastily backed out of his shadow and went to hide behind the mound of hair to their left. "Save me Ceris!"
"WHAT IS GOING ON OVER HERE!!" a woman's voice screamed suddenly from the north side of the mob. A few of the people and ninja around the three gave them one last questioning glance and grudgingly went on their way.
A tall, blond pig-tailed woman with a loose fitting kimono materialized out of the crowd to jump up and stand beside the pink-haired ninja. "Sakura, what's wrong?"
The shinobi glared pointedly down at the trio. "Tsunade-sama, they said that they're from a village I haven't even heard of and his hitai-ate has some strange marking on it I haven't seen before. I didn't know what else they could be but spies…"
Tsunade finally looked at the three of them for the first time. "What village?"
"Shuuyoujo," the boy answered when he saw that Neko wasn't going to. "We're the team you sent for."
"You can't be," she started incredulously, her eyes widening. "I sent for their best squad of Jônin that've been together for over twenty years!"
Neko snorted daintily as she came back up to the guy's side. "Only twenty? We're over two thousand years old, and they told you twenty?!"
"Ceris is a hair-demon and Neko's half cat-demon," the boy explained as his scowl deepened, ever patient. "The village isknown for our… unique history."
The cat-eared girl —somehow ignoring the giant scythe— threw her arms over his neck and managed to pull him into a hug from behind. "And his name is Karuma! He's a supernatural being! We've been together for like fifteen hundred years as a team. But we look like we're still seventeen…"
A blond shinobi in a gaudy orange and black jacket and pants appeared next to the girl called Sakura. "Who are these guys?" he asked when she didn't even notice him. "Are they new?"
"No Naruto, you've just lived in the village your entire life and you've never seen them!" Sakura half-growled as her hands clenched into fists. Neko could almost see the imaginary flames swirling around her.
Naruto sighed, scratching a place between two of the blond spikes on his head. "Was that supposed to be sarcasm, or did you really mean it?"
She was saved from needing to answer when the curtain Ceris's hair had become parted for the first time since they'd gotten to Konaha. Her bottom lip stuck out as her arms crossed. "Neko, I'm hungry."
"Do you like ramen?" Naruto asked eagerly, jumping down to meet her.
One of Karuma's hands immediately left his pocket and darted up to the shaft of his scythe as the ninja took another step toward them, but met resistance when he tried to pull the weapon off his back.
Neko's fingers were wrapped around the dense ironwood just above his. "I'll watch her," she assured him in low voice she knew was impossible for anyone other then them to hear.
"Ramen? I love ramen!" Ceris yelled, oblivious to the near decapitation of the ninja. She turned to Neko and Karuma, who had unerringly returned to their original positions. "Can I go? Please!"
With a poof of blue-black smoke, Neko's body was transformed into that of a creamy white kitten. The cat leapt to Ceris's shoulder and mewed as the girl looked pleadingly to the last member of the trio.
Karuma shrugged. "Just stay out of trouble and come back to Tsunade's office when you're done. You know what happened last time I left you two on your own."
Ceris gave him a dazzling smile and whirled around to face Naruto, taking his hand. The ninja blushed as she pulled him in the direction he'd pointed out before and launched off into the story of their journey from Shuuyoujo with the manila kitten adding a few meows of agreement.
"Shouldn't we go after them?" Sakura asked, coming to street level. "I don't think that demons should be allowed to just leave—"
Karuma silenced her with a glare as Tsunade followed the ninja down. "They won't hurt anyone here unless they're attacked, so you have nothing to worry about."
The Hokage seemed satisfied enough by this. "I'll find somewhere you can stay in the meantime. Make sure they get to my office by tonight."
He nodded to Tsunade with a small grin and with evident coolness toward Sakura as he calmly walked away, his hands slipping back into his pockets as he made his way in the general direction of Tsunade's office.
Sakura shivered as light reflected off the double-bladed scythe on his back and thought, He was really hot! Maybe I can ask Tsunade-sama to let me show him around the village tomorrow… And this time Ino-pig isn't gonna get near him.
By the time that Karuma found Tsunade's office, only five minutes had passed, so he decided the most practical thing for him to do was sit down and wait. Inside.
He found a few buildings that got progressively taller and made his way to the top of one, relishing the fact that he could walk on their roofs at all. Back in Shuuyoujo, all the houses had thatched roofs, so it was almost impossible to put your weight on them without risking a cave-in. Neko had learned that the hard way. He would never forget that hilarious little squeal she'd made on the way down, or the way she'd landed on all four feet and hissed at him when he'd tried to follow her.
He'd reminded her of it almost constantly afterwards. Neko, one of Shuuyoujo's finest assassins, had fallen through a straw roof and woken up almost everyone in the village.
Karuma brought himself back to reality and found an open window, silently sliding into the room to meet the two people already waiting for him inside.
Neko —back in human form— grinned at him as he closed the glass behind him. Balanced between her ears was a steaming bowl of ramen. "Hey, Karuma! We brought you something to eat!"
He just stared, unable to do anything else. Finally he asked, "Why is there a bowl… on your head?"
The delighted expression on her face instantly turned annoyed as her eyes narrowed. "I bring back your dinner and that's all I get?"
"Of course not," he answered quickly, backing up to the edge of the window in case he needed an escape. You never knew what Neko would do when she got angry. "It was just… different. Thanks."
She sniffed, obviously deciding that she hadn't forgiven him yet as Ceris's hair lifted the bowl off her head and passed it to Karuma's hands.
"Neko…" he began in a pleading tone, setting the bowl on the opposite side of the desk behind him.
There was no answer as she turned away.
"Please?" She knew how much he hated it when he wasn't forgiven by her.
She looked at him slowly, a deliberate smirk spreading across her face as she thought of something. "You know Karuma; I haven't gotten a kiss since we left Shuuyoujo…"
Karuma couldn't stop the rush of blood to his face as Ceris giggled and hid behind her hair. "Do you really think we should do that in a Hokage's office?" he muttered halfheartedly.
"Then you can forget about it." But as if to contradict her words, she came up to him and knocked him back onto the desk, pressing herself up against him. A wave of heat traveled down his spine as she nuzzled the hollow where his shoulder met his throat. Then her weight was suddenly gone as he heard footsteps outside the door.
He hastily straightened so it looked like he was casually leaning against the desk and fought to control the blush sitting on the back of his neck and ears as Tsunade walked into the room.
"You're all here already?" she asked like she already knew what the answer was. She made her way through the room until she was sitting behind her writing table.
Ceris beamed through her curtain of hair. "We eat fast."
Karuma's piercing emerald gaze found Tsunade as soon as she was situated in her seat. "Are you here to brief us?"
"This is my office, you know," she retorted. "And no, I can't brief you because there are ninja on alternate missions that I would like to accompany you."
"Then why are we here?" Neko complained, throwing up her hands. "We made it all the way from our village for you in a day! If we would've known we had to wait, we could've taken at least four days to get here!"
Tsunade covered her face with one hand, leaning forward so her elbows rested on the wood. The bowl of uneaten ramen steamed merrily in front of her. "It wasn't my plan for you to get here so fast. The others should be back in about three days."
Ceris and Neko sighed; Karuma's mouth turned farther down into its trademark scowl. So they were stuck here until the rest of the shinobi arrived. Had she known Shikamaru yet, Neko would've said, How troublesome.
Tsunade smiled at their glum expressions. "The good news is I've found you a place to stay. The ninja that owns it is out on an extended assignment at the moment, and said he wouldn't mind if I used his apartment."
When they finally got to the building on the other side of the village, Ceris's legs felt like they were about to fall off. How much walking had they done today anyway? Certainly too much for her. So when Neko finally found the door and produced the key Tsunade-sama had given her, Ceris felt delight exploding in her heart.
As soon as the door was open, she tried to rush in, only to have the back of her shirt grabbed by Karuma. "Don't," was all he said.
"He's right Ceris," Neko grudgingly agreed, brushing past them. Once inside, she yawned and stretched like —well, what else— a cat. "We should rest. I bet that lady'll want to talk to us again tomorrow and we'll need to survey the area around the house anyway."
Ceris frowned as Karuma went through the apartment, finding an unadorned bedroom and a living room with one black couch. Further in were an artist's studio and a huge, fully stocked kitchen.
Neko immediately claimed the bed, Karuma, the couch because they knew that the soft fabrics would never stand up to Ceris's demon hair. She was stuck on the hardwood floor of the living room.
When Neko finally turned in, Karuma removed his scythe, setting carefully against the wall, his shirt, throwing it beside his weapon, and took one of the pillows on the end of the couch under his head, crossing his arms over his chest.
Ceris lay awake in her spot on the floor, unable to sleep. Then she had an idea. She watched until she was sure Karuma's breathing was completely deep and slow, then quickly stole up beside him, stealing his shirt to use as her pillow.
Her hair instantly took it into its tangles and basically plastered it to her face as she curled up again. Only then was she able to sleep as soundlessly as the others.
Hope you enjoyed our story! Oh. So everyone knows Shuuyoujo means asylum and karuma means Karma. The characters are slightly based off of some of the crazy things bunny-chan, karma, and I all do when just being ourselves. You'll probably be told why we named the village so in a few chapters. ^_^ BYE!!!!!! If you have questions or comments let me know if not then yay we did our 'job' right when writing this.