Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work.

Chapter 8: Speaking and Buying

I had grown attached to the child human Naruto. That was for sure. But, he was not the reason that I was here in the human's world.

I had come here to learn about the humans, this world, and satisfy my curiosity. Not to mention that leaving Makai had long been a goal of mine. I had originally planned to just observe the humans, and maybe talk to one or two.

But now…I had discovered that I had a human form. And this would make my life here much more interesting.

With this form, I would be able to interact with the other humans, without them being suspicious of me. But there was one problem. I was still unfamiliar with this form. I would have to practice it.

I would start practicing in the morning.

In the morning, I decided to go to the room with the white porcelain objects. Naruto had told me that it was a bathroom. It had a mirror, and that was what I wanted to use. So I flew from my perch on the cabinet and headed to the restroom.

In front of the restroom, I encountered a problem. I could not open the door. And Naruto was still asleep, since it was quite early. Why do humans have to put knobs or handles on everything? It was so inconvenient.

Oh well, the problem was not that hard to solve, really. I would just have to use my human form. So I did.

I concentrated on the image of my human form. Then I could feel the changes. My wings formed arms. My legs and feet changed. I grew in size. I lost my feathers…my feathers…

Soon, the change was complete. I glanced back at Naruto to make sure he was still asleep. I would not want to scare him in this form. He had never seen me this way, after all. He would yell and run all around, and then he would be hard to stop.

I reached my...hand out and put it around the knob. Still…unsteady. I would need to work on my coordination.

And the door was not like opening the cabinet back at the orphanage. I could not pull it open. I thought for a while. What had Naruto done to open these kinds of doors? Then, I remembered, he had turned the knob.

I turned the knob on the door. It opened! Pleased with myself for opening the door, I entered the room.

Now, I had to figure out how to better coordinate myself and learn how to talk in this form. In order to talk to humans, you had to know how to talk first.

I walked over to the mirror. I was a little annoyed with how it was still hard to walk straight. The knees on my human form were not what I was used to. They were reversed. It was amazing that humans could walk, really, it was. Oh well, I would have to learn. I had to.

Once I reached the mirror, I could not help but stare at it. I looked so…different. I would probably never get over how strange humans are, from their actions to their appearance. I looked the same as the first time. Silver hair and red eyes. I had also kept the clothes I had put on before. So my transformation took the clothes with it.

I was relieved for that. If I had to put on clothes every time I transformed, I would probably forget. But humans seemed to need clothes. So therefore it would not have done to forget about them.

Now, in front of the mirror, I tried to form a word. I only made a choked sound. Failure. That sound certainly was not a word.

The human voiced box was…something called the larynx, which contained the vocal cords. They also relied heavily on their mouths to help them make sounds. That was in the scroll I had read.

Now, I, as a bird, had a voice box called syrinx. I could sing two different notes at the same time, due to the placement of the syrinx. To talk and sing, I had to manipulate the muscles in the syrinx. The syringeal muscles. Also, by controlling the flow of pressure from my lungs, I could change the volume. My own beak did very little to aid me in my speech. I could even talk with my beak closed or even with my beak full of food. That and the fact that I was not a normal bird, helped.

In simpler words, humans and birds made sounds in completely different ways. I would not be able to talk like I had before, in my real form. I would have to figure out how to speak in human form.

It was completely alien to me. How this body worked, and everything really. The scroll that had detailed humans had said nothing on how to act like one or how to talk.

I once again tried to form words in the mirror. I failed. Again. The location of the voice box confused me. I was not used to making noise from there. I tried again. Humans could not speak from anywhere else, so eventually, I should be able to get it.

Then, I decided that I would have to think of this in a different way. Perhaps I should not aim for a word yet. Maybe I should, for now, just aim for a sound that did not sound strangled and like I was dying.

So I tried again, but this time, I just tried to form a sound that did not sound choked out and strangled. I would try until I succeeded.

I had finally succeeded. I made a sound that did not sound half-strangled! Once I had figured out how to do that, I made little variations to the way to way I formed the sound. Doing that, I could make different sounds.

I now understood how to use the voice box, but I still did not understand how humans used their mouths in correlation to the voice box to talk. Another mystery I would have to solve.

Naruto was still asleep. It was not that surprising. I had woken up early. I did not need nearly as much sleep as the child human Naruto did. I decided to continue practicing until he woke up.

I kept practicing. But I would have to try again later. This was not working. I still could not get it right. I would have to try again later. I would try again later.

Outside the door, I could hear Naruto move around. He was awake then.

I turned back into a bird and flew out of the room. I had left the door open for that purpose.

"Good morning Naruto." I greeted him.

"Good morning Akarui!" He sounded really happy. I guessed that with all these turns of events, I would be too, if I was him.

"Are you going to eat anything?" I was a little hungry.

"Yeah! Can we go and eat ramen?" Ramen? Again? He just had that yesterday.

"You just ate that yesterday." He did, and eating too much of the same food limits the amount of nutrition gained.

"But I want to eat it again!" He should not though, that food cannot be that good for him. A food that looked like that…just cannot be good.

"You should eat other things, and besides, this apartment is empty. That means you have to go and buy more food. And more than just ramen. I want to try more food than just ramen."

Yes, some human foods might actually taste good. Not that ramen was bad or anything, it was just that I wanted to try more food.

"Oh yeah! I need to buy food!" Yes he did, as of now, we had no food in his apartment.

"And put all your things away." Like the clothes in the clothes bag. They should go back into one of the cabinets, I thought.

"Um…I'll do that later!" He just did not want to put them away. Oh well, as long as he did so, it would be fine.

He started to run out the door. I joined him on his shoulder.

He was heading to something he called…the grocery market now. It was a little ways away, but not that bad. He happily (and hyperactively) walked over to this…market.

When he entered, I saw that there were rows and rows of food. So much food…There were many kinds of foods, ranging from some green plants to meat.

At the sight of the green plants, Naruto scrunched up his face and said, "Vegetables. Yuck!"

The green plants did not seem to be that bad. At least, it looked healthier than the yellow…noodles he was eating before. Better too, personally. It was a more…natural color.

And speaking of the yellow noodles, he went to a row that was labeled "Ramen." Somehow, I was not surprised. He went to side of the row and began to pluck some of the things labeled "Instant Ramen" off the shelves.

"Naruto, you cannot just eat the…ramen." I was pretty sure that humans needed more variety in their diet. At least I did. And I did not want to eat ramen all the time; that was for sure.

"But ramen's the best!" He would say that, of course.

"You can get some, but please, buy some other types of food." Yes, please do. I was sure that he and I would not be able to survive solely on ramen.

"But-"

"You will only be able to grow really, really tall if you eat other kinds of food besides ramen."

That did it. Naruto's eyes widen and then he ran into one of the other aisles. He ran around the store, picking up, almost randomly, it seemed to me, food from all the aisles. He even picked up some of the green…vegetables that he did not seem to like. Of course, he still bought the ramen.

He managed to buy all the food items without a problem, using the money from his frog-demon bag, Gama-chan. That was good. I would not have to light anyone's hair on fire. Wrinkly human would not like that, I guessed.

Once he was finished, he carried out all the food items in a big bag that the market had given him.

Now we only had to go home…did I say home? Strange…I had begun to think of that place as home…

Anyway, we only had to go back to Naruto's apartment, and put all these things away. Somehow, I did not believe that Naruto was an organized person.

We reached his apartment and he took out his key and unlocked the door. He then entered. The apartment was the same way it had been when we left. That was good. You never know when someone could break in, like I did into the orphanage.

He went over to the room where food was to be prepared and open the refrigerator. I had asked him about that rectangular container yesterday. It was supposed to keep food cold, or something like that. I was still on his shoulder at this point. He put some of the things he bought, like the thing called…milk into the refrigerator.

I wanted to see the inside of the refrigerator, so I jumped onto one of the shelves inside. It was cold in here.

But, just as I was going to leave, the door shut on me! Naruto…had not realized I was in here! Oh…that human midget…child! I had to teach him how to be more observant. This was horrible, he had not realized that I was in here. I really did have to teach him to be more observant. I am sure that the skill would help him more in the future anyway, with the fighting humans that I had seen around here and all. Whatever those humans were. They seemed dangerous…

But anyway…Now, how to get out of here? It was cold in here. But, the shelves were high enough for me to take a larger form, and the refrigerator was not that crowded with food items. So I took a larger form. I then tried to push the door open. When that failed, I had to wonder what to do next.

What could I do? I could yell and Naruto would probably hear me. That was probably the best thing to do, given my situation and all. Yes, I would have to. Can you believe it? I needed help because I had been locked in a refrigerator? I could destroy the whole thing, but…it was not my refrigerator, and besides, Naruto only had one.

Yes, I would have to yell…

"Naruto! Open the refrigerator door!"

"Huh? Akarui? Where are you?" Note to self: teach him how to use his brain. He will need it in the future. Really, at this point, he was…not very bright. But he was still a child, so it was fine…for now, at least.

"I am in the refrigerator, so please open the door." Please, it was really, really cold in here.

The door opened. "Akarui, how did you get in there?" This child human Naruto…had not realized he locked me in.

I sighed. "Do not worry about it, Naruto. It will not happen again." That was for sure. No more stepping into refrigerators for me. And I was not going to tell Naruto he managed to lock me in. Too…humiliating. Really, here in this world, I had gotten caught in more embarrassing situations in two days than in my whole life in Makai.

What had I gotten myself into? What had I gotten myself into, indeed?

Author's note: Ok, so it won't speed up until Akarui learns how to talk…probably. Don't worry, Naruto will be at the academy soon.