Disclaimer: None of the characters in Naruto belong to me yadda yadda yadda, etc.
A/N : Thank you to all who reviewed and added to story alert/favorites I really appreciate it! Especially since this was never supposed to be published. I'm glad it's appreciated.
Chapter 2
The minute Sora walked into the dimly lit, empty room, she was mobbed by small children that came barreling out of the only door on the far wall.
"Thunder-onee-san! Thunder-onee-san! You're home!" a small boy with brown hair squealed and latched himself to her leg. Three other children followed suit. The tallest reached up to her waist.
"You should have seen me, Thunder-onee-san! I kicked Hisoka's butt!" the same little boy said tugging on Sora's pants. He looked up at her black eyes wide and endearing.
"Nu-uh! I totally would have won, but you cheated! Kazuo is a cheater, Thunder-onee-san, a cheater!" Hisoka pouted and let go of Sora's other leg with one hand to swat at the gloating child. Hisoka looked similar to Kazuo with the dark hair and eyes but the Kazuo had freckles adorning his cheeks while Hisoka did not.
"Now, now munchkins, there's no such thing as cheating when you're fighting. I like to think of it as resourcefully using your environment." Hisoka pouted more and Kazuo laughed. The other two children hugged her tighter. Wakata laughed and maneuvered around Sora to head deeper into the training facility/head quarters.
"Yes, I know you're there Taro, and you too Seiko. How's training coming along, Seiko? I hope the Doc ain't being too much of a terror."
"I brought a frog back to life yesterday! He was dead and cold and gross and I was just like concentrate. And I did! And he's alive!" the lighter brunette girl smiled up at Sora and clutched on to her waistband of her pants. She was the tallest and oldest of the four there and the only girl. It was only natural to Seiko that she be taught by one of the women that was at home base; she chose Suzume as her mentor.
"Wow! Good job, I bet Doc's super proud huh?" a blush spread over her face and she beamed up at Sora, "Should I call you Frog from now on?" The girl laughed and shook her head furiously.
"I don't even like frogs!" Sora grinned and ruffled her hair. She turned to the youngest of the group and smoothed down his turbulent ebony locks.
"What about you, Taro? What you been up to?" the child gripped her pant leg harder and jumped up and down, squealing excitedly.
"Up, Thunder-onee-san, up!" Sora grinned and scooped the lightweight child up in her arms, bouncing him a few times.
"So what's been happening kiddo? What kind of mischief have you been into?" the child giggled and buried his fingers carefully in Sora's hair, fascinated with the color. He had once grabbed a braid too hard and sliced his fingers open on the spike strips. Taro learned his lesson: be nice to other people's hair.
"Made Thunder-onee-san a present!" Sora gasped and held onto Taro with one arm, pressing her other hand to her mouth in surprise.
"A present? For me? Ah, you shouldn't have, kiddo!" Taro grinned at her and tugged on a spike free piece of hair, before shoving his small, dirty hands into his pockets. He wrestled with items in his pocket, precariously leaning back to be able to wiggle down to the very bottoms of his deep pockets. Sora was able to adjust her hold on him and support his wriggling body with ease. Giving a shout of triumph, Taro pulled free his hand and presented it to her with enthusiasm. In his hand was a necklace made of several strands of black string braided together and in the middle, a small lightning bolt charm dangled and gleamed happily. It was bright yellow with thin white trim at the edges.
"Wow, it's so pretty! Did you make it all by yourself, Taro?" the little boy shook his head and pouted a little.
"Doc-onee-san helped. Put on?" he held it open towards her, the latch undone. Sora unbuttoned the neck latching part of her armor.
"Go ahead." The small boy leaned in close to put the necklace on her. As his hands pressed around her neck and the string pushed against her skin, she stiffened slightly. Sora closed her eyes and took a subtle deep breath. This was a small boy putting a necklace he made around her neck, not somebody trying to strangle her.
"Done!" he exclaimed and pulled back to see his handiwork. Sora felt the small weight around her neck settle to rest on her collarbone and she opened her grey eyes.
"Well? Does it look pretty on me?" She asked the children bending down to let them get a better look of the charm on her pale skin. Taro squealed as he was held hovering about the ground dangerously. He gripped onto Sora's armor, smiling as he was lowered even further.
"It looks so pretty, Thunder-Onee-san!"
"I want one, Taro!"
"Me, too! I want a raincloud to match Thunder-Onee-san!"
Sora chuckled and looked up, sensing someone approaching. It was a woman that looked nearly identical to Sora except for the darker, sapphire eyes and longer hair. The woman also wasn't as tall or as battle hardened. She wore a plain blue t-shirt and jeans. Boots similar to Sora's adorned her feet and she knew by experience that there were knives tucked into the sides. Just because she was a healer, didn't mean that she wasn't to be prepared.
"Hey Doc, would you like to adopt a child?" the children around Sora giggled and a smile twitched at the ginger's fuller lips. Good, at least Suzume wasn't insanely mad at her.
"Dinners ready, go eat. Thunder and I will join you shortly." Suzume said in a soft voice. The children nodded and ran off. Taro squirmed to be let down and Sora complied. He gave her leg one last hug before scampering off to sit with the rest of the kids. Sora watched them race inside the other doorway and into the dimly lit room.
"You didn't even tell me you were skipping out for a while." Came the huffy response. Sora turned to her younger twin and shrugged.
"Didn't think that you'd mind. I just went patrolling around the levels, makin sure everything was ok." her sister ground her teeth together and grabbed Sora by the arm hauling her into another room.
"Well you neglected to make sure that you were ok. What if you had run into a Shinobi and you haven't recovered from breaking your arm huh? What happens when you tried to block the blow and your arm shattered even more? Do you ever think about the consequences of your actions, Sora?"
Sora was promptly dragged into a ridiculously white room that smelled of cleaner and antiseptics. It made her gag. The room had a desk in the far corner and there were cabinets and countertops lining the walls. The only places that didn't have the countertop/cabinet combo were where the desk was pushed up against the wall and where the beds were. There were two of them parallel to each other and the headboards were against the wall. The beds were empty and so was the room.
"I think sometimes, I was just cooped up and needed something to do. You know how I get when I'm on bed rest, Suzume." The woman sighed and nodded. She did know; it was nearly impossible to get Sora to rest without sedating her.
"Sit down and let me look at your arm." Suzume motioned to the bed closest to her and Sora sat on the opposite bed to spite her. Suzume turned from reviewing Sora's medical file and rolled her eyes at her older sister's childish antics.
"And yet I'm the younger one." She crossed the room and grabbed Sora's right arm. She turned the arm in circles, watching the fluid movement of the limb, and then turned it palm up to remove the armor that stuck to the top half of the limb. There were three black bands that kept it in place on her arm and they had to be unsnapped to remove the garment. There was also a clasp that attached it to her corset like under armor that held it together at the shoulders.
The arm piece fell away and Suzume began to slowly feel her way up the bone. She pushed her energy through the skin and layered it onto the bone, testing for weak spots. Suzume continued this process all down her sister's arms, listening for gasps of pain and feeling for a lack of dexterity in the bone.
Sora's grin grew wider and wider as Suzume pushed harder and harder, obviously aggravated that she wasn't finding any brittle spots in the hard bone. It was obvious that the limb had healed sufficiently.
"Ya know, you're going to break it if you push any harder." Sora commented, her Cheshire expression widening as her sister released her with a huff.
"I'm tempted." They shared a grin, knowing that she wouldn't
"So, am I fit for duty?"
"Yes, but I'd rather you didn't go. I have a bad feeling about this one, Nee-chan." Sora shrugged, buckling her armor back into its proper place and sliding off the bed.
"It's the chance we all take. Besides you'll know if something goes wrong anyway." She reminded her little sister as she lowered the top of her pants, revealing a bony hip and a circular, black seal on the dip beside it. All the members of Ghost Corps had a matching one and with it they could tell if each other was injured or healthy, alive or dead.
"I know I just feel like I'm going to lose you, for real this time. I mean, how many close calls can one person have before-" Suzume's voice cracked slightly and she turned, unable to finish her sentence. The taller ginger in the room walked over to her sister and forced Suzume to look her in her the face. Suzume had tears forming and spilling from her deep sapphire eyes. Sora wiped at her cheeks with her thumbs, brushing away the already spilt tears.
"Listen to me, Suzume. I will not leave you willingly. I will fight till my very last breath to stay with you. I watched over you when you were little and I plan to keep watching over you until I'm old and batty. Got that?"
Suzume nodded and embraced her much taller sister. Sora rested her head against Suzume's as they hugged.
"Sora?" Suzume whispered to her from the hug.
"Yes, imouto-chan?" her sister fidgeting and Sora held her back a ways so she could study her sisters face. She looked almost embarrassed.
"Do you ever…I mean, wouldn't it be nice to be protected for once instead of always protecting? Do you ever think you're going to find someone who can protect you?"
"Are you asking if I'm ever going to find someone to shack up with permanently?" She asked in confusion, her scarred eyebrow shooting up into her hairline. Suzume blushed slightly.
"You say it so vulgarly, Sora. Honestly love is not like that at all, it's wonderful. You think about him all the time and you want to share everything with him. Your day goes by and you laugh thinking about all the things that happened and ask yourself ' What would he have thought' or 'What would he have done'. You feel alive and you feel full of energy, you tingle from toes to head with the force of it." Suzume closed her eyes in bliss. Sora's eyebrows stayed put in its sarcastic expression.
"That sounds completely obsessive and borderline stalker-ish. I think I'll stick with one nighters, dearest." Suzume's eyes shot open and she contemplated the thought for a minute and how to explain it better.
"It's really not that obsessive with everyone I suppose, but it truly is the greatest feeling in the world."
"Uh-huh and this wouldn't happen to have anything to do with Wakata, now would it?" Suzume's color just about matched her hair.
"Where did you- who said- how do you-" she spluttered as Sora grinned and waved her hand.
"Oh, Nee-chan has her ways, Suzume. But never fear, sister gives her approval. Wakata has been thoroughly warned and threatened. He knows the risks."
"Nee-chan," Suzume groaned covering her blushing face with her hands. Sora patted her back and headed towards the door.
"Come on, dearest. Dinner will all be gone and I still have to pick out those to go on the raid tonight." And with that Sora exited from the hospital room.
Dinner was served in the mess hall. The mess hall was a skinny room that was filled with one long table and benches. The kitchen was connected to the mess hall, allowing for the cooks to bring the food in with minimal contact with other people. What had happened previously was that the kitchen was in the center of all the rooms and dinner was devoured before it got to the table. So two bedrooms were broken down and the kitchen replaced them.
The benches were filled with an assortment of men and women, all dressed in various forms of battle gear, eating and talking. Sora grinned at the noisy room as she entered, Suzume at her back. A large man with piercing golden eyes, black hair, and tattoos outlining his skeletal frame glanced up and did a double take as he saw the twins enter. He grinned and forced the skinny woman next to him to scoot over and make room. Sora sat next to the man and Suzume went around her to sit next to Wakata. He had been subtly, or attempting to subtly, making eye contact with the younger twin. Sora didn't mind her sister's absence at dinner; Suzume didn't like Bones very much anyway.
"Hey, Thunder, where'd you disappear to this mornin', eh? We were all waitin' for you to pick your raid party." The man handed her a plate full of meat and some greenery. Sora took it gladly and didn't even mind when Bones purposefully brushed his large hand against hers. She had slept with him multiple times before to rid herself of 'The Bug' and didn't mind skin contact with him to a degree on a normal basis. The Bug was the stress and anxiety that was often felt by the raid party after coming into contact with Shinobi. The jittery-ness went away after days if left alone but usually a night full of hard romping shortened the recovery time.
"I was patrolling. And don't worry Bones; I'll need you on this raid." The yellow eyed man grinned. Sora grabbed a fork and dug in, shoveling the meat into her mouth at breakneck speeds, barely chewing before she swallowed. Bones let out a deep chuckle next to her.
"I do like a woman with a big appetite." He said trailing his finger over her right hand. Sora felt all the muscles in her right arm clench from the skin on skin contact. Ok that was a little too much and a little too familiar for her.
"Back off or you won't ever get to enjoy a woman again, Bones." Sora growled at him between mouthfuls. Bones respected her wishes and removed his hand from hers. It wasn't wise to test Sora, the results were never good. Bones had a few scars on his body to prove it. The skinny woman that Bones had pushed over leaned around him and watched Sora eat, waiting for her to be done.
"Sumpin ya wawnt?" Sora garbled around her food at the woman. The pale, reptile like woman nodded.
"This raid is tonight. Have you picked party members yet?" Sora nodded gulping down her food with a bit of difficulty.
"I've got what I need planned out; I just have to finish picking out the particulars. I need one with speed, two with brute strength, one long range fighter, one close range and one scout. I got Bones here for my close range and I wanted Big Man and Mutt for their strength and Runner for scout." The woman furrowed her brow and tapped her fingernails against the wood table.
"Runner was critically injured on the last mission he was on. He might spook."
"That's why I wanted you to come, Lizard, as my other speed and to help stabilize everyone. I'm not going to lie, I heard this shipment was big and there is going to be ninja guards, but this is a huge shipment of medicinal goods, the good shit like energy pills and whatever. This is important and they aren't expecting any resistance because we've being laying low. And Doc said that she was running low on supplies and civilians keep coming in with injuries. We need those supplies." The woman closed her dark eyes and contemplated the scenario for a minute before nodding her head, eyes flicking open.
"I will go if there are two long range fighters, both Monk and Arrow." She said taking a sip of her drink. Sora groaned.
"Why Arrow? If anyone is going to be spooked it's him. He's bolted twice on raids that I've been on with him. "
"Arrow is going because he is an excellent long range fighter. He has a gift with wires." Sora rolled her eyes
"He also has the gift of being a pussy and a douche," Sora sighed as Lizard gave her a pointed look, "Fine, Bones go round them up for me and meet me in the hallway at dark." The man rose from his seat and sauntered off, shrugging a muscled shoulder.
"Whatever you say, boss woman," Sora rolled her eyes at his retreating back and continued eating, ignoring the world around her as she focused on her food.