Adara woke up in the morning, to her alarm, 5:00 am, what the hell was she doing up at 5. OH yes, her dear hypocrite of a brother. "You need to train, but I don't I don't have to do anything I can just lay around and watch clouds and then have everyone kissing my ass!" urgh, how could he be so!!!! She needed to talk to Keiji! Keiji always knew how to handle these situations, but no not only was he on a mission, she had to go train with her actual team Lee and Hinabi, there just oodles of fun. Not to mention Neji sensei and his amazing sense of humor! So much fun: D. she wouldn't have had to do anything to day, if it weren't for her brother confronting Neji. Then Neji was like "Adara you need too blah blah blah blah blah blahhhhhhhh" she wasn't really paying attention. She never paid attention to him, and it wasn't her fault, his voice grated on her soul. Lee and Hinabi weren't much help, Lee never said anything, and Hinabi thought Neji was like a gift from god. Adara was the only sane one, well Lee might be sane, but he never expressed anything. Fun group to go jogging with 5:00 in the morning! Adara just loved it, Yamato never made his team wake up 5:00 in the morning, but noooooooo Neji sensei felt it was imperative. Group building, Adara was sure that he would have added fun if he knew what the word meant.
Adara got up took a shower and left, as she stumbled out of the house she fell over. Oh great! She thought to herself wiping herself off, ahh the morning paper, she should lay it out, and make sure she tore up the whether section. It was the only thing Shikimaru read, and anything that caused her brother pain right now was good. She went into the kitchen and a small article caught her eye. Poet vandal strikes Again, this time "Why the Cage bird sings by Maya Angelo! Oh again, since her party somebody had decided to piggy back off the girls success and continue spraying. Adara had talked to Kristi it wasn't her or Chouni and it couldn't be Hinabi, it was Hinabi she would never spoil the Hyuuga name on continue something so petty, and Zaki had told her it wasn't her, so it must be some others. Tearing away the whether Adara finally went out the door.
On the second morning Yamato had to wake up, luckily everyone had a some what decent night sleep; Yamato had to yell in Kaida's ear to wake her up. She was a stone when she was sleeping. Zaki was an incredibly light sleeper surprisingly, the way she sprang up when yamato reached for her was, unnerving. She was shaking; it was warm whether, so it wasn't for that. Perfect cloud watching day, he bet Shikimaru would be happy about that reading the whether report in the morning paper. She was probably just nervous, he knew he was. Keiji was just regular; he seemed to be a happy in-between with everything. The twins were grudging about the bad food.
"Hey you two, we've talked about this. Eat your food." Takashi commanded. The two stopped complaining.
"Yeah we should all be thankful for what we have." Suike said.
"Especially cause it's somebody's last meal." Added Sasuke, his sister and Takashi shot him glares.
"What?" Asked Kaida, her brows furrowed.
"Somebody's going to die today." Sasuke continued.
Kaida opened her mouth to say something but Zaki interrupted. "Who say's somebody's going to die today?"
"Fate." Sasuke shot back; he didn't like how these people where being so rude to him, a Daimyo's son!
"You believe in fate?" Zaki scoffed.
"I take it you don't." Takashi said, looking intently at Zaki. Zaki's eyes flashed.
"Somebody's gotta take responsibility for what happens, and I'd rather it be somebody who could get punished, then some invisible force from above." Zaki said, this conversation was no longer in the dominion of the kids. It was between Takashi and Zaki, Zaki glaring at the Nanny and Takashi looking curiously at the girl.
"They say people, who don't believe in fate, have issues with making decisions." Takashi said nonchalantly.
"No we just actually put thought into what we do, because we know we have to take responsibility," Zaki voice was low and on edge. Yamato had never seen her that way. It disturbed him, and made him wonder how the Nanny could put her on Edge so much.
"Some people are born to do something for the world, why do you think we have prophesies." Takashi asked.
"Prophesies are self fulfilling, and that kind of logic sounds like Uchiha logic." Zaki spat.
"And what prey tell is Uchiha logic?"
"Logic that makes it so you are not accountable for anything," Zaki confirmed, Keiji rolled his eye brows. He hadn't really grown up in the dregs but he heard the conspiracy theories about their death. 'Itachi is innocent, it was the government,' that was a bunch of hogwash. He silently growled to himself, he couldn't take this, He missed Adara too much. Zaki continued, "You know, 'it is my destiny to be an avenger and then go and get ass raped by a pedophile' that kind of logic" Zaki looked kind of angry.
"We need to start now, and no talking it slows us down." Yamato ordered.
Neji waited for his team, rubbing his throbbing eye, He never knew Shikimaru could punch so hard. He had never seen Shikimaru that angry either. He had had fire in his eyes, like Lee or Naruto when they were talking about protecting people.
Neji was sitting at the ramen stand talking to Ten Ten about training schedules. When he felt a tap on his shoulder turning to see who it was, his face met with a fist.
"HEY sensei!" Adara chirped walking up towards him. Her dark brown hair tied up in a bun like her mothers. Lee was right behind her, Tall and tan his dark eyes roamed around the clearing. Hinabi stood up Neji noted more sluggishly then usual she had been quite tired.
"Hello Lee, Adara." He said, Hinabi gave them a nod. "Well be doing 5 laps around Konoha, and 7 days we will be doing 6 laps and every week doing one more lap." Neji informed, Lee kept his face stoic, Hinabi did the same. Adara's eyes bulged, her mouth was agape. "A problem miss Nara?"
"………no……..did I hear you right? 5 laps AROUND Konoha? Like the entire city?" Adara asked.
"Do I look like I'm joking Ms. Nara?" Neji asked.
"No…..that's why I'm worried."
"Let's get going, you three I want it to be done, by 8:00 when we get better I expect us to be done by 6:00." Neji told them; at this all of their eyes bulged.
"Let's get going," a low voice said, it was Lee. And so they were off, the three of them following their sensei.
Adara was swearing in her head this was all Shikimaru's fault!!!
They stopped for lunch at 3:00 in the afternoon. Yamato sat in between Takashi and Zakuro. Zakuro chewed neatly never paying attention to anything but the food. Takashi gazed across the isle examining her in a curious light. "So how long will the gorge rout take?" Takashi asked.
"If we hurry up we will be at the manor by 12:00 midnight, that's if we don't stop for any breaks in between." Yamato told the Male nanny. "I suggest we rest for the night and get there early in the morning. It will be better for everyone with a good nights sleep."
Takashi nodded in understanding, Suike pulled on his sleeves, "are we going to go through the canyon part now?" She seemed scared about that her voice rose a little.
"Yes, but everything will be all right." Takashi assured running his hands down her hair.
"This is where we are going to meat the red eyed man!" Sasuke was scared now too.
"Red eyed man?" Kaida asked she had seemed a little disturbed by these little kids preaching death. Kaida didn't know what to believe. "Didn't the Uchiha's used to have red eyes?"
"Yeah they did, if lets say hypothetically we were to run into a person with red eyes, it would either be Uchiha Sasuke, or Uchiha Itachi. And the first, what's he going to do? Emo us to death, and the second is a cool guy. I doubt he would kill any of us." Yamato spat out all of his lunch.
"Itachi Uchiha? He would be the nice one to meat? I don't know if you know this, but he killed his clan!" Yamato chocked.
"Itachi was set up by the government, they had him wipe out his clan, cause they were planning a big mutiny, like taking over the government. I mean they were running the dregs like their on little crime center to gather money, so they could finance anything if a war broke out. Itachi was the descent one and his head secured on his shoulder, too bad he couldn't off his little brother." Zaki explained.
Keiji rolled his eyes, "That's a typical conspiracy for you; Itachi is a maniac he was working under his own directions. I knew the third ok; he wasn't capable of ordering the destruction of an entire clan." Keiji said.
"Really, sure be a government puppet." Zaki spat, "stop thinking bye yourself all together."
"You are way to touchy about these subjects Zaki, you need to get over it." Keiji shot back.
"Sure yeah I always get defensive when I here people persecute an innocent man. I'm crazy like that." Zaki shot back, Keiji relaxed his shoulders.
"Even if he didn't kill his family, what he's done sense then makes him guilty." Keiji was so tired of this. Zaki always wanted to be contentious; he was sick of her, and her sarcastic comments. He was really sick of her flaunting her nicotine and alcohol addiction to everybody. She was giving their team a bad name. Keiji was sick of Yamato letting her do it. He was sick of Kaida and her eyes always talking to loud, always asking stupid questions. He was sick of it all. Zaki lit up a cigarette and before she could light it, Keiji took it out of her mouth and snapped it.
"Don't do that it's a filthy habit, it not only gives you a bad name but our team. Your making us look cheep." Keiji didn't yell but his voice had an edge to it. Zaki flinched at the word cheep.
"What is up your fucking ass today?" Zaki asked.
"Will you stop with the language; there are children around, some people want to set a good example." Keiji continued. "The way you conduct yourself, is irresponsible and horrible. It makes you look cheep, it makes our team look cheep and it makes Konoha look cheep. You always complain that people judge you from where you come from, but no it's how you act that reflects how people judge you." Keiji was fuming. "And stop spouting this Anti-government crap, it pisses me off."
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Yamato shouted. He calmed himself down, Keiji looked sour, and Zaki looked like she was going to cry. "I don't want any talking for the rest of our journey do you two understand that?"
"Yes sir." Zaki whispered she then started to pack up.
It was 8:00 they had just finished their laps, Adara was heaving greatly. Right now she just wanted to go home and die slowly. Lee looked just as exhausted as her, and hinabi was practically dead. Neji looked bored. "Ok now for some sparring." He said. The whole team gasped. You can have a 30 minute break before hand. Adara crawled over to be with lee and Hinabi where they were sprawled on the ground.
"I don't want to move, for the next day or three." Adara said as she flopped on her stomach.
"I never knew the ground could be so comfortable." Lee agreed, in minutes his breath was even and features worriless as he dreamed of his beautiful bed at home. Adara looked at her other team mate. Her mouse colored hair spread out, her eyes heavy her arm right next to Adara's face. Something caught the younger Nara's eye; Red paint was on her hand and arm. Red paint, where did she see that color before?
Adara just figured it out, Red was one of the colors the vandal had used to spray paint the academy building last night. Hinabi had been awfully tired this morning.
"Hinabi," Adara said, ouch she ached all over.
"Adara as much as I prize our friendship; if you make me talk right now. I will get up the energy to kill you." Hinabi threatened.
"Go to the bath room with me." Adara said.
"Adara, I believe you can go do your bodily functions alone." Hinabi cried.
"No I can't come with me," pouted Adara, she had no dignity when she was this tired, and forcing Hinabi would be troublesome.
"I'm not wiping your ass for you."
"Pleaseeeeee."
"Fine!" Hinabi said giving in and getting up, Adara got up too. Her body protested about her movements. But curiosity always got the better of her.
Itachi waited patently for his partner to get into position. They were here to stop a Nanny and two kids from going any where, permanently. "I can't believe we have stooped this low to be doing a mercenary job for a civilian." Kisame complained.
"He's paying us a very handsome sum to kill the Nanny and two children, and Kakuza says we would get even more money if we kill the nanny then ransom the children. And Akatsuke needs money. Plus there has been a report that this is the mission the 9 tail fox container was assigned too. So we might get our jinchuurick after all,"
"Well aren't we just the luckiest fellows ever." Kisame chuckled, "Even if it isn't the 9 tail fox we can still kill Konoha shinobi." Itachi shifted a little under that comment.
"Hn"
"Ok we are getting to the canyon; Takashi, Sasuke and Suiki stay on the inside away from the ledge, and are careful. It rained a couple days ago so the cliff is very unstable." Yamato ordered. Everyone moved to their spot. Ever since the tuffle between Keiji and Zaki everything had been eerily quiet. Keiji had continued like nothing had happened, but you could see he was somewhat disturbed. And Zaki seemed to have controlled her self, for a while she looked like she was going to burst into tears. Kaida seemed more disturbed then anyone though; she seemed lost in her own thoughts frowning. Yamato decided to have a team chat after the mission was done with.
They continued along the gorge, Keiji up front. Takashi and the twins in-between Keiji and him self. Kaida was on the inside protecting their flank from the left, and Zaki on the right skimming the edge. She seemed dazzled and perplexed at the vastness below. The canyon had a bigger drop then the valley of the end or the Hokage Mountain; maybe if you put the two together they would equal this drop. Then a raging rapid would meat anybody who did fall. Zaki had a weird look on her face.
"Hey Zaki are u ok?" Yamato asked.
"Peachy!" Zaki replied shrugging.
"Yamato sensei do you see that?" Keiji asked squinting ahead. Two figures stood in the middle of the nearest path to the end. They looked like they were in cloaks waiting, but they couldn't see them well enough.
"Be on guard they look like they are just travelers. But get your weapons ready for an attack." Yamato told him. Suike rushed over and held her brother.
"Here it comes," Sasuke said his voice a merciless monotone.
"SHUT UP Sasuke" Kaida ordered, her face was flushed and she was shaking from nerves, a strong mist descended on them.
"Should we wait for them to come or just attack now?" Kisame asked.
"Attacking now would give us tactical advantage to take them by surprise." Itachi said.
"But it wouldn't be any fun, the chakra signals we are getting from there are extremely low, you have one trained Jounin, and maybe a really low level chunnin team. The nine tails is not their. I say we slack off a bit and play with them, maybe some cat and mouse games."
"Hn," was all the response from the Uchiha. The team approached them. At the front was a teen he was incredibly tall for his age, he mustn't be over 14. Behind him where the targets, two girls were on the side of him, one was about 13 and grey hair. The other looked only 6, and a Gennin. It took a while to compute that.
"Look Itachi a girl after your own reputation. She looks even younger then you. She might be 6 weren't you only 7 when you graduated from the Academy?" Kisime snickered. "This is going to be way too easy."
Yamato's eyes widened, 'KEIJI GET BACK!" He ordered. Moving to the front, doing a couple quick hand seals making small wooden baskets for the twins. "Get the Twins in here. Keiji and Kaida you stay with them and make sure they don't get them. Zaki I'm going to trust you too cover my flank, you know when to tag out." Yamato told her. "Take the one that looks like a shark, his chakras massive and his sword cuts through your chakra, Kaida power up and as soon as possible Help Zaki." Yamato was crapping his pants, AKATSUKI! No he kept saying to himself, they are just Gennin, this can't be happening to them. These people where way above their head. Yamato might be able to take Itachi, but defiantly not both at the same time. He didn't like the odds against them. He hoped to god Suike hadn't been right all along. "DON'T LOOK INTO ITACHI'S EYES."
Zaki pulled out three kunai's and flung two at Kisame he blocked it with his sword. "Come on little one give me a little fight." He teased.
"You clearly have never read Freud have you?" Zaki asked dodging the huge sword.
"Freud?"
"You know phallic imagery, guys like to carry around big equipment cause their actual package is really small. I guess why your but buddy over there is probably on top." Zaki explained dodging again, Kisame's swings got more aggressive and faster, than but still not as fast as Keiji when he berserker, Zaki had nearly got hit by the last one.
"But buddies!" The shark man yelled. The swing was to close for Zaki's comfort, she tried to step back but she was too close to the edge.
Kisame swung his huge sword to dodge Zaki had to bend over in a bridge position. While flipping herself to get her baring she said, "Oh I'm sorry, 'life partner' I don't want to offend anybody here"
Yamato kept himself steady as he gazed at Itachi's feet; Gai had taught him that trick. Breathing through his nose, clapping his feet down he made it so jets of wood struck out of the ground. He had been practicing summoning wood faster with his feet, can't see what he is going to do if he uses his feet. Itachi dodged the jets. Right now he needed to separate these two. He needed to make sure they couldn't help each other. Threat assessment, Kaida physical body could block most physical attack, you had to have an attack equal to the chakra of a rasengan. Which Kisame had, on the other hand Kaida had no defense against genjutsu what so ever. None of them had protection against that, so right now Itachi was the biggest threat. He had to get him out of there. He had to do something. Unconsciously he was dodging kunies and punches from Itachi. "Urgh," It was Zaki from behind him she seemed to have just got cut. "Ready Kaida?"
"YEAH!" The eight year old yelled, in her monster form. That towered over the shark man. She started at Kisame from the side; he dodged it to be directed toward a fire jutsu from her hands a small jet erupted from the tips of her finger, like a lizards tongue. Deflected by Kisame, he was smirking not even breaking a sweat. He had backed Zaki in a corner she had no way to deflect, swinging his sword for the final blow; it was blocked by the huge monster form. "URghhsh" came from Kaide, it had ripped her stone skin, just a little though like a bad kunai accident. Kisame on the other hand was pushed back 20 feet by the force of his chakra being reppelled, Zaki was breathing heavily. Her smoking was getting to her.
"Tag me in!" Keiji said desperately as he ran toward a position to help Kaida. Zaki nodded and ran to protect where Takashi stood holding the two impenetrable containers with the twins in them. He held them so if anybody tried to attack his body would be in the way. Keiji wasn't going berserk! It made him angry, frustrated. Control was good but right now he had to though himself into battle. Not being able to feel anything would be perfect right now, but then he wouldn't be able to think so he might start attacking his friends. GOD DAMM IT, IT WOULD be so helpful to be able to control himself if he knew his protector. But he didn't, he didn't he was useless. He threw several Kunia at Kisame, getting dodged but Kaida took the opportunity to land a punch on him. It sent the man flying knocking down some tree's. Kisame gave a harsh laugh, "Itachi she has talent, Konoha hasn't set their standards any lower sense the war."
"Don't look over here; he's trying to trick you to fall into their trap!" Yamato said, fuck he couldn't keep this up very much longer, their best action would be to take the cases and start running for the woods as fast as they can. He evaded Itachi's attack but it was hard sense he couldn't see his face. "ARGHH!" Yamato gasped, a kunai had just entered his arm.
"SENSEI!" Kaida screamed looking over at Yamato to see if he was all right, but innocent blue eyes, met a cold red stare.
"What is it?" Hinabi snapped as they staggered to the bath room on the training grounds.
Adara leaned on the counter for support of her aching arms. "Your arm it's all red, with paint." She pointed out, Hinabi had the sleeve of her kimono go down slightly.
"So?" Hinabi spat.
"So, you're the vandal who keeps spray painting public buildings! Why in the name would you keep doing that? It was a one time thing." Adara panicked, what if she got caught, and they were all blamed?
"Its…it's a stress reliever," Hinabi shrugged.
"stress….stresss? what?" Adara couldn't believe her ears.
"You wouldn't understand," Hinabi said.
"NO that's why I'm asking you to describe why?" Adara told her, Hinabi leaned her aching bones on the counter with Adara; she seemed tense and brooding about something.
"For the first time in my life, people are paying to what I'm saying." Hinabi said shaking her hands at herself. "I mean my dad talks to me, so does Neji, but nobody cares about what I say in return. The only person who has ever listened to me truly, has been Hinata. And She's more afraid of our father then I am. Father doesn't care what we say; he only cares what Neji thinks. Neji only cares what Neji thinks. At least dad's nicer to me then he is to Hinata. He doesn't want her as the heir; he doesn't want me as an heir. He wants Neji, Neji wants Neji. Everyone WANTS NEJI! Do you know what it's like constantly being compared to genius?" Hinabi asked. 'Oh you have no idea,' Adara thought as she looked at Hinabi who looked desperate.
Hinabi continued, "That poem I wrote on the wall, my sister showed that to me when I was young, by a poet I had never heard off, that's when I realized Hinata was the best thing for our clan. Hinata knows how to connect to people like no other person I know and even though I'm resorting to petty crime to be heard. I'm helping her. People are reading what is on that wall, what is in the paper, and they are paying attention. They are paying attention to our message." Hinabi's eyes were a blaze with passion. She really believed in what she was doing.
"I do understand how you're feeling a bit; I mean I constantly get compared to Shikimaru, it sucks, and you're right, sometimes to be heard you have to act out." Adara conceded. "Just if you do get caught, don't blame any of the rest of us." Hinabi gave her a week smile.
The sky turned red and the clouds started to rush past her in a dazed way. Like she was traveling forward and back ward at the same time, she couldn't move her feet. Finally she stopped, she was in a UN familre meadow, and the grass wasn't green but grey. A dull ruse color started soaking the ground, Kaida looked around to find a source. In the middle of a meadow piles and piles of dead bodies, kunia's, shuriken swords stuck from them, like a person would skewer a suckling pig. One of the bodies was still moving. Flocks of crows flew over the bodies like vultures waiting for their prey. They circled down ward and landed on the body that was trying to movie, and they started poking at him ferociously. An agonizing scream filled the air around her, but stopped almost abruptly as it began, a raven hopped up on another body holding a familure green eye ball. Kaida couldn't take it any longer she started running away from the meadow as fast as possible. She needed to run and keep on running, never wanting to look back. But she tripped on the road, over another body struggling to get away. It still made noises it was alive. She flipped them over so she could see their face.
The man didn't look like she knew him, but that didn't matter any more she needed to do something to stop his intestines from escaping his body like they were doing right now. Think think, she was taught how to do this. She should know how to fix him. Kaida tried to summon chakra, "Stay conscious its ok I can fix, I can fix. Don't stop breathing!" She screamed. Suddenly the man was no longer a stranger but Yamato sensei, then he was Keiji and then finally Zaki was there her hair sprawled in a pool of blood. Her eyes opened, "If only you weren't such a kid, you could have saved us. You wouldn't have made that mistake." The dying Zaki said.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'll never make the mistake again, just BREATH!!!" Kaida screamed her longs out as she sobbed little fast tears from her eyes. The body disappeared as a flock of crows descended upon Kaida, forming the man she knew as Itachi Uchiha. They were suddenly in the valley again surrounded by the dead. They were moaning for her to help them. "STOP THIS!" The girl cried looking around closing her eyes shaking her head, this wasn't happening it was all a dream, she was home. It was all a dream!
"No," the man said sternly, "this is what being a shinobi really is, it's about death, it's about killing or be killed. Are you ready for that, cause I can tell you right now, if your not." His hand gestured to the destruction before them. "This is what's going to happen." Kaida was closing her eyes shaking her head still crying,
"no, no, no, no," She was in denial.
"You're going to make a mistake, and you are going get your team killed, are you ready to handle that responsibility, cause if your not. Back out right now. Little miss, if you want to be a true shinobi. You need to grow up."
"Ok, ok, just make it stop! Make it stop! LEAVE ME ALOOOOOONNNEEEEEE!" Kaida shrieked.
It all happened in a second in Keiji's eyes; Kaida looked over to check on sensei, and then screamed her body turning back into a little girl, The shark man took the initiative to strike her in the air and send her body flying towards the edge, she seemed unconscious, the contents of her pack flying over the edge of the abyss. Their owner soon following with them.