Hullo everybody, welcome back to The Moonlit Third Eye. Please enjoy yourselves and review.
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS
The Land of iron was an icy, snow-covered country. A large mountain in the shape of the head of three wolves with their mouths open was situated in the middle as its main landmark.
The Six Kage summit took place in this country because it was well know for its neutral political matters. Never had it participated in any of the ninja wars. On top of that it was not even ruled by shinobi; instead the Land of Iron was a home of Samurais.
Mifune, the General of this country stood at the roof of his mansion, which had been chosen for the Kage Summit.
He was a middle-aged man with a long Chinese style beard and moustache. He wore a traditional samurai outfit and had a sword hung on his back. He also wore a white turban. His hair reached till his lower spine.
"Mifune-Sama, when are they expected to arrive?" Asked a man from behind him.
"In fifteen minutes or so one of them should be here" said Mifune grimly not removing his gaze from the three wolf head mountain.
"Is it true that there are going to be six kages?"Questioned another man from beside him.
"True, the Tsukikage has just been installed a month or two ago, she will also be attending the meeting" said Mifune.
"But how can you just become a kage, don't you have to be selected by others? And how will the other kages react to this?" inquired the first man.
"To answer your first question, the country in question was in ruins, this girl sat three days without eating or sleeping to resurrect it putting her own life at stake, or so the story goes, it also seems that before its fall, the present Tsukikage's ancestors were the rulers of the land, so its natural that she should continue" replied Mifune.
"But how are the other kages reacting to this?" asked the second man.
" The Mizukage is her ex-teacher so she doesn't mind, the Hokage has formed an alliance already so she must trust the Tsukikage, the Raikage obviously trusts her or he wouldn't have invited her to this meeting, I don't know about the Tsuchikage or the Kazekage" said Mifune finally removing his gaze from the mountain and facing his men.
"Can we really trust her?" Asked the man.
"Yes we can, I happened to have been acquainted with her grandmother, a wonderful lady, I'm sure we can trust Kimiko Tsukiga" said Mifune.
Just then a young woman burst in, "Mifune-Sama, the Kazekage has arrived, he wishes to see you before retiring to his room" said the woman.
Another woman burst in, "The Tsukikage has arrived as well" she shouted as Mifune rushed down to greet the two kages.
When he got to the main hall he saw the guards of both the kages glaring at each other but the kages themselves were cool and relaxed.
"Welcome to the Land of Iron, I am Mifune the General of this country, it is an honour to meet you both" said Mifune bowing.
"The pleasure is all mine Mifune-San," replied Kimiko bowing politely.
Gaara merely nodded and turned away.
" Before you both retire you your respective rooms I have one rule to denounce, there will be no use of ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu or any kind of bloodline ability while the meeting is in progress, this rule has been created so that there is no violence" said Mifune.
Just then there came a clatter and the Mizukage got out of the carriage.
"Damn you beat me here Kimiko" said Mei coming up and smiling at Kimiko.
Kimiko smiled back and she caught site of the Mizukages two guards.
"Ao-San, Chojuro-Nii, how are you two?" she asked.
"I'm fine thank you, long time no seen, Kimiko-Sama" said Ao.
"Yeah, it's great to see you again" said Chojuro going up and hugging her.
While Kimiko had been Mei's student Chojuro had been a great support to her and she had come to see him like an elder brother.
Meanwhile Gaara, Temari and Kankurou simply observed as the two kages before them chattered away like old friends.
Mifune arrived again and announced that the rooms were ready and they could go and rest now.
Kimiko caught Gaara, Temari and Kankurou staring at her and gave them a big smile before being pulled away by the Mizukage.
"Strange girl" said Temari as they made preparations to go to their room.
"Yeah but she's cute" said Kankurou.
"Of course that's the only thing you notice, did you see her chakra levels? Equal to a chunin, I bet we could beat her easily" said Temari.
"Don't be foolish, that is a very common trick, to make others believe you're weak and striking at full power when they never imagined" said Gaara.
"Oh then you must have been observing her very careful little bro" said Kankurou suggestively.
Gaara merely stared at him like he had never seen him before and walked into his own room.
The evening had fallen over the Land of Iron, The remaining Kages had arrived and everyone had settled down.
Kimiko had left Mei, Deidara, Ichijo, Chojuro and Ao playing cards and had stepped out for a breath of fresh air.
She stepped out and took in the icy air with full jest.
Suddenly feeling someone's eyes on her she swung around and threw a kunai.
The kunai met sand and fell to the floor.
"Ah! Its only you Kazekage-Sama, I thought it was an enemy or something" said Kimiko sounding relieved.
Light Turquoise eyes met a deep blue as Kimiko and Gaara had a staring match.
"Gaara, so that's where you ran of to, "yelled Temari when she noticed there was someone else there as well.
Gaara moved forward and stood in front of Kimiko, "Battle me" he said plainly.
"What?" asked Kimiko looking as surprised as Temari.
"Battle me" repeated Gaara.
"Oh no, umm how could I just start battling you like this" said Kimiko hesitation as a sand shuriken flew towards her and she barely dodged it in the nick of time.
"Let me see how strong you are" said Gaara.
Kimiko straightened up, a serious look coming over her face.
"Very well, but I am a ruthless warrior, no blame for scarring or bruising" said Kimiko.
"Gaara, is this really nessecary?"Asked Temari as Kankurou came up.
"I want to see her potential" said Gaara.
"Well then lets begin" said Kimiko.
Both the kages simply stared at each other for a while when Kimiko performed her first hand sign, "Tsukigan" she said.
Gaara showed no surprise but a wave of sand formed around him and blasted in Kimiko's direction.
"Sand Imperial Waterfall" he said as the sand got closer and closer to Kimiko.
"Fire Release: Bath of Boiling Oil Jutsu" said Kimiko producing a huge amount of oil from her mouth before breathing fire onto it.
A huge wave of liquid fire rushed and clashed with the wave of sand.
The corrosive power of the flame was too much for the sand and it destroyed the wave and flooded the area.
The noise of the fight had drawn out Deidara, Ichijo, Mei, Chojuro, Ao, Mifune, Tsunade and her guards.
"Hey what are you doing, Kimiko, hm?"Asked Deidara.
"Stay away Deidara, this is just a friendly match" said Kimiko smiling as the flames subsided to reveal a sphere of sand.
"Impressive, not many have the ability to avoid that flame" said Kimiko.
"The garden is destroyed" cried Mifune.
"I do apologize, I'll fix that later" said Kimiko, "How about we make this an aerial battle, Kazekage-Sama?"
The sphere gave way a small hole enough to shows Gaara's face, he nodded and the sphere lifted itself in the sky.
"Summoning Jutsu: Dragon Art" said Kimiko summoning a powerful looking dragon with large wings it and flew up after the sand sphere.
In the sky it was very cold seeing that it was an ice country.
"Let's heat this up a little" said Kimiko throwing many exploding tags on the sand sphere that would explode on command.
The sphere dissolved and Gaara appeared to float on a large chunk of sand.
The kunai all fell down to earth.
"Ultimate Sand Spear" said Gaara forming a dangerous looking spear that looked as if it could pierce through rock.
While the sand prepared itself Gaara threw shrunken at Kimiko which turned into small spears as they were about to hit her but a huge gust of wind from her dragon blew them all away.
"Summoning Jutsu: Dragon Art" said Kimiko summoning another dragon.
"Fire Style: Triple Inferno Disaster" cried Kimiko spurting oil from her mouth.
The first dragon breathed fire over the oil and the second dragon blew wind on it enhancing it all the more.
Soon the sand spear and the Infernos clashed and a devastating pushing match began
At first the spear began to pierce thought the flames but after sometime it numbed away and fell into grains and the flames subsided.
A huge explosion caused by this hit both Gaara and Kimiko.
Kimiko at once used her healing jutsu and healed herself. Gaara had used his shield of sand.
The shield began to make hole out of which spears started flowing out.
"Ok I've had enough, "Moon Style: Deadly Reflection Jutsu" cried Kimiko a silver portal opened before her and sucked in the spears and after 5 seconds shot those back at Gaara who deflected them with a wave of wind.
"Impressive Technique" said Gaara.
"Thank you, but I think this battle has gone on long enough," said Kimiko entering into Sage Tsukigan mode.
"Moon Style: Four corner Barrier Trap" said Kimiko as a huge invisible wall was created all around Gaara.
"And now for the final Touch, Storm Release: Heaven's Rage Jutsu" cried Kimiko as large torrents of water, lightning, huge cracks of thunder started being attracted towards Gaara.
Due to the huge torrents of rain and the heavy lightning Gaara's sand levitation could not hold and he started falling.
Everyone below watched in shock as the fifth Kazekage began to fall.
"Gaara" yelled Temari rushing into the rain.
"Noooo" yelled Kankurou.
The sand rushed to pull him back but each time it attempted it got wet due to the rain and could not levitate.
Suddenly a silver barrier formed around him and floated lightly to the ground like a bubble. The rain and lightning stopped. Kimiko descended on her dragon smiling.
"You almost killed him" yelled Kankurou.
"Well I saved him didn't I?" asked Kimiko.
Gaara got back to his feet and moved towards Kimiko.
Immediately Deidara and Ichijo moved protectively around her but subsided at a glare from Kimiko.
Gaara went up to her and held out his hand.
"You're a good fighter" he said as she shook his hand denouncing their truce.
When all was over and the garden was restored to its original form Tsunade, Mei and Kimiko decided have a girl's only party in Kimiko's room.
"How did you become so powerful in fire based jutsus?"Asked Mei, "I always thought your specialty was water based jutsus"
"Training is the answer Mizukage-sensei" said Kimiko pompously.
"Oh really?" Asked Mei chugging down a huge bottle of Sake.
"But it's true, training does take you to levels that no one can imagine" said Tsunade drinking an equally huge bottle of Sake like water.
"You know, it's strange, one should follow their destiny but if their destiny is their doom then should one really follow it?" Asked Kimiko suddenly.
Both Mei and Tsunade stared at her blankly.
"I had a weird dream last night," said Kimiko.
"Let's hear it" said Mei looking a little concerned.
" I dreamt that I was in the clouds, it was a very warm feeling I got, like everything was happy around me, and suddenly a woman wearing a white robe appeared in front of me, she smiled and pointed to a waterfall, when I got their I say many small animals like rabbits, mice, deer, puppies, kittens, then I saw three more of those white robed people appeared, they told me my destiny was with Ophania and that I had to find Ophania if I wanted to live my life fully" said Kimiko staring out of the window.
"Ophania? I've never heard of such a name before" said Tsunade screwing up her forehead.
"Nor have I, but it was just a dream right?" asked Mei.
"Yeah that's what I thought, but when I woke up I found myself clutching a small baby rabbit with a note saying, Seek your destiny" said Kimiko.
Mei and Tsunade sat up at this.
"You actually found a rabbit? Are you sure you didn't have it before you went to sleep?" asked Mei.
"No, I'm quite sure, besides rabbits aren't found in Tsukigakure" said Kimiko.
"Where is it now? Have you brought it along?" asked Tsunade.
"Yes, I just felt like I would be doing a mistake if I left it back there" said Kimiko going over to her bags and taking out a large cage, inside was a very small, white, baby rabbit.
Kimiko opened the cage and it jumped into her arms. It was so white that in the dark it would have shone.
"It's pretty cute" said Mei stroking it.
Tsunade was observing it very carefully.
"Yes but it has strange eyes, "said Tsunade as Kimiko and Mei looked at the eyes.
The usual red colour of rabbits eyes were a deep purple and its pupil was yellow, a very strange combination.
"That right, I've never seen anyone with yellow pupils before" said Mei.
"Nor have I? Come to think of it, all the animals in the waterfall area had the same eyes" said Kimiko.
"This is strange indeed" said Mei as the rabbit began to nibble on the leaves Kimiko gave it.
"I've named him Cherubim" said Kimiko.
"That's a strange name. Why did you choose it?" inquired Tsunade.
"Because the four people told me the names of all the animals there and this cutie was called Cherubim" said Kimiko as the rabbit snuggled in her arms.
"This is a strange matter indeed, I'll go back after this meeting and see if I can find something about this so called Ophania" said Mei.
Tsunade said she would do the same.
And on that note the drinking resumed and very soon loud laughs and hiccups could be heard from that room.
Deidara, Ichijo and Chojuro sat in the now restored garden and were chatting trying to ignore the drunken laughs coming from the room above them.
"They're really going all out" said Ichijo sighing.
"Bother, it's a bother putting Mei-San back to bed when she's drunk like this" said Chojuro.
Deidara and Ichijo looked slyly at him.
'So you put her to bed?" asked Ichijo.
"Only when she can't do it herself, that is to say every Sunday" said Chojuro not realizing what the others were implying.
"Wow you do it that often, hm?"Asked Deidara winking at Ichijo.
"Do what?" asked Chojuro blankly when light dawned on him.
Going beet red he turned the other way, "Well it appears that you two are sadly ill-informed, there is nothing like that between me and Mei-San"
"Define that would you?" asked Ichijo enjoying teasing the younger man.
"Find out yourself" said Chojuro going even redder and getting up, "I've got to get a breath of fresh air" saying so he jumped up on to the roof to join his fellow guard, Ao.
Gaara stood quietly as the cool water swept over his thin body.
It wasn't he needed or wanted to take baths but this time Temari had been absolutely firm.
"You will take a bath or you will sleep outside this room, is that clear" she said.
It was one of those rare moments when Gaara failed to intimidate his sister.
Wrapping a towel around his waist, he stepped out to find the room empty. A fresh change of clothes and two notes lay on the bed.
It read:
Gaara, after you are done with the bath put on these clothes and join me in the dinner hall in an hour, if you want to sleep in that room tonight you'd better be here
Temari.
"That troublesome creature" growled Gaara to himself picking up the second note.
Hey Bro,
I'm going exploring around ok? You know check out the geography, check out the maids and the works, if Temari asks tell her I'm training ok?
Thanks
Kankurou.
"Another troublesome creature" growled Gaara again putting on the red shirt with black flames over it and the black pants.
"Both of them are irritating" he thought before slipping on the new designer's jacket that Temari had bought before they left for the Land of Iron.
He walked out of the room and ignored the gawking looks he got from the maids.
As he was entering into the dinner hall he passed Kimiko who gave him a smile and a nod.
"Why is she holding a rabbit?" he thought before entering the hall to find Temari, Kankurou (with a swollen ear), Tsunade and Mifune.
"Ah come in Kazekage-Sama" said Mifune welcoming him in.
Temari smiled at nodded at the fact that he had obeyed her orders.
All the maids, she noticed seemed struck by Gaara.
After dinner was over Gaara walked up to the terrace where he planned to spend most of his night.
There he felt two chakra signatures and immediately lowered his own.
"You brought that rodent along? I told you not to, hm" cried the voice of the killer-guard as Gaara liked to call him.
"Don't call him a rodent, his name is Cherubim and yes I brought it along because it's just a baby, if I had left it there Yuji would probably have forgotten it or would have given it to Yusuke and then god knows which heaven my darling Cherubim might have been" came the replying voice which Gaara realized was the Tsukikage.
" But what purpose will it serve at the kage meeting, if one of the unknown kages see it they'll kill it for sure, especially that creepy Kazekage" said Deidara.
Gaara stiffened and his sand half rose.
"Are you telling me that the Raikage, Tsuchikage or the Kazekage will try to kill a rabbit? That's a hilarious headline, Three Kages Gang Attempt at murdering a baby rabbit" came the mocking voice of Kimiko shaking with rage, "And don't call anyone creepy or anything, it's like people calling you freak when you're not one, and I can see that he's a bit lonely"
"Hey, what's got you so riled up today, hm?"Asked Deidara again.
" It's just, I feel something terrible is going to happen, and for some reason or the other Madara Uchiha keeps coming back to it" said Kimiko.
"Don't worry, Madara had gone, he can't possibly return from the dead" said Deidara.
"Yeah I guess he can't" said Kimiko.
After Deidara had a long talk with Kimiko and left Gaara thought it was time he left.
Just as he was going to leave Kimiko spoke, "Are you leaving now Kazekage-Sama, I'll come too, it's quite cold up here" said Kimiko as Gaara stared at her.
"She must be a skilled sensory ninja if she could sense my chakra" thought Gaara.
Kimiko seemed to have guessed what he was thinking and gave him a small grin. The rabbit was fast asleep in her arms now.
"How did you guess I was lonely?" Asked Gaara.
"Its like an open book, you're words, your expressions, your eyes, they all show that you're lonely.
"Is that so? "Was all that Gaara asked before arriving at the hallway where they parted.
"Yes, but you know Kazekage-Sama, always believe and trust in yourself and you will come out all right in the end, Goodnight" said Kimiko leaving a shocked Gaara frozen.
"That's just what that Priest told me when I was small" thought Gaara entering his room where Kankurou was already snoring.
"Very interesting girl, Kimiko Tsukiga is indeed a very interesting girl" thought Gaara trying to sleep.
That's it. Don't worry; this won't turn into a GaaraxKimiko fic. But I am planning something big for this particular pair. See you next time.