Ch. 27: Echoes

"Tomoko! Tomoko!"

"'Noru?"

"There are big scary men at the door. Tomoko? Where are you going?"

"Stay here, Minoru."

"What? Don't boss me around! You're not Momoka-nee-chan!"

"Stay. Do you understand?"

"Fine."

I didn't wake up screaming or in a cold sweat, but somehow, this nightmare was worse than the rest. It threw me off so badly that I nearly had my half of my hair and my neck shorn off when we were training that afternoon. I kept hearing the echoes of the dream, of Noru's voice saying "Tomoko, Tomoko," over and over and over again. Then that awful feeling where you know you're not going to make it in time, where you know you're too late and you can do nothing but watch helplessly-

I stopped dead in the middle of a sparring session with Kazu and Deki, hands clutching my head. I had been about to go into a spin, but I missed my footing at a yelled "Tomoko", choked up, and childishly shouted, "Shut up!" at the voice only I could hear.

My knees gave out and I sat down hard, shaking, barely missing having my body and my head separated by Kazu and Deki's combination taijutsu. Kazu and Deki slid to a stop and immediately made sure I was unharmed. Deki started to reprimand me, but I heard nothing but "Tomoko-Tomoko-Tomoko" in Noru's voice until I cut into Deki's tirade.

"Guys?"

"Yeah?"

"What!?"

"You know the- her- you don't like to talk about?"

"You mean Miki?"

"No, Kazu, the her you have that was born the same year as the her Deki has."

Deki looked at me questioningly.

"You don't mean-"

I let myself imagine a shock of long, tangled blonde hair blowing in the wind, its owner turning away, and Deki froze up.

"Kazu. The her you were always jealous of and yet the her you pitied."

Kazu sobered at Deki's words. I cleared my throat uncomfortably.

"Yes, well- I have a her as well," I whispered. "Her name was Momoka. She was older than me by a few years. Some men came to the house one night when I was eight. Noru, who was six, was the one who noticed them first. He came to me because he couldn't find his Momoka-nee-chan. I was second place. I was just Tomoko. I rushed outside to find the men beating her up, completely breaking her, stabbing her, killing her. She looked up at me, and I was staring at my own face. I hid behind a bush.

"When the men did what they came to do, they left. Momoka released the henge as soon as they turned the corner, but not before Noru saw her. He saw me, beaten up, turn into his Momoka-nee-chan, about to die.

"I still don't understand why she did that, but what I do know is that Noru only ever calls me 'Tomoko'. He never calls me sister." I looked up, grinning crookedly, fingers digging into my thighs to keep the shaking at bay. "That's why Naruto makes me so happy. He calls me Tomoko-nee-chan, like he's proud that I, Tomoko, am his sister."

Deki nodded sagely. "Well, if you're not going to stop abruptly and get yourself killed, time waits for no one and we've got to train."

I nodded and jumped up, taking a defensive stance.

"Come on guys, let's go!"

Kazu stood up as well, eyes burning with anticipation and we looked expectantly at Deki, who had just sat down. Kazu looked to me and I shrugged.

"Can you hear me?" I looked to Deki.

"...Yeah," I nodded. "Why wouldn't I be able to?"

"Because."

He looked up and spoke but his mouth did not move.

"It works."

He grinned.

And I understood.

Nice...

Thank you. Won't this be fun for messing with Haru...

"Poor guy," Kazu spoke aloud.

Deki stayed silent until Kazu and I both looked at him.

"What? Don't expect me to be a chatterbox. I don't 'gab', 'chat', and anyway, this takes chakra because I'm still not used to it."

I stared at him.

"What?"

"That was almost the most you've ever said willingly for next to no valid reason."

Deki groaned and face palmed.

I grinned and tossed a kunai towards a target nailed onto a tree. Then a hand plucked the kunai from midair and sent it flying back.

"Who are you?" Kazu asked the strange character.

He had a shock of silvery-gray hair, a mask, and used his forehead protector to cover up one of his eyes.

"Someone," he answered offhandedly.

"What are you doing here?" Deki inquired.

"Wanted to see if the rumors were true," the stranger quipped.

"I don't know... you seem like a stalker to me."

"And why would that be?"

"You look suspicious," I deadpanned.

"Aren't all shinobi?"

I nodded after a moment's consideration.

He had a point.

Deki continued trying to discern the man's identity, but I really didn't care too much. I focused instead on the plant life, hoping to make a large-scale "genjutsu" by actually changing the position of ferns, tree branches, and protruding roots. I meditated and focused on spreading my chakra out in a net instead of strands in order to cover more area at a single time.

I nudged a root to the tree behind Kazu over and shifted the branches of the tree to a different position. I changed the arrangement of the branches of the tree the man was leaning against, lengthened the weeds by Deki's feet-

Then I hid a grin as inspiration came to me.

I very carefully fed my chakra into the tree's network. Then, as the man stepped forward, I made the whole trunk shift completely to the left, making the man stumble backwards when he leaned back.

Heh.

I carefully moved the tree back to its original position and quickly retracted my chakra, fingers digging into my thighs to restrain the exertion-induced need to pant.

Then Mr. Strange turned to me and tilted his head to one side.

"Interesting... so the rumors are true. There really is a girl with an affinity to chakra itself. I'll be seeing you, Nisi-san, Shimi-san, and Riku-san."

He nodded to each of us in turn before teleporting off to God-knows-where.

"Weirdo."

"Creep."

"He's a shinobi," Deki remarked.

"Good point."