NARUTO
Nox Noctis Ingredior
Wake Up Call
That night…
Far outside of Konohagakure, deep inside one of the many forests in the Land of Fire, there was a scuffle. Foreign to the noises of crickets and owls, there were the sounds of clashing metal, and flashes of light shooting through the trees as two unknown combatants fought it out in the tree tops. Beneath the light of the moon and the darkness of the night sky, the figures were shadowed, their identities and village affiliations unknown. However, in their eyes, they could see each other as clearly as they could in the day time.
Clashing blades in mid-air, one of the figures was thrown downwards in the grapple, flipping through the air and eventually skidding across a large tree branch on his feet, crouching at the corner where the branch met the trunk. The battling ninja, weary and bruised, gritted his teeth and looked skyward, where he saw the shadowy impression of his opponent flying towards him, the black cloak he wore fanned out, giving him the menacing appearance of a huge, winged creature.
Shouting in surprise, the ninja perched on the branch stood up and swung a kunai out from behind him. A loud clang was heard all round as his blade clashed with the attacker's, and he was pushed up against the side of the tree as the shorter fighter pinned him against the trunk in yet another grapple.
The ninja dressed in white, wearing a strange headwear that resembled some sort of animal, with odd purple markings under his eyes, growled as he pushed the shorter foe back a bit, while at the same time glaring hard into his opponent's eyes. Unfortunately, he could not see them, since he wore a hood that overshadowed a plain mask with slits for eyeholes, and half of it white and the other half red. Not to mention most of his opponent's body was covered in a black cloak, with the only thing protruding from under it was his right arm, revealing a weapon he had never seen before. A silver, curved blade was sticking out from under his sleeve, with two more blades layered on top of it, like the blade itself extended. It resembled that of a falcon's talon, but much bigger and sharper.
Growling, the rogue ninja known as Kajika from the Village Hidden in the Mist roared and pushed the freelancer ninja back, his strength still being a bit above his opponent's.
"What the hell do you want from me, assassin?" the man roared, unable to find any head band or symbol to identify who this person was. The freelancer dressed in black though, did not speak, nor did he emit any growl or murmur. "Are you from the Hidden Mist? Or are you from Konoha? Speak!"
Without a response, the figure dressed in black then suddenly vanished, Kajika stumbling forward when his foe suddenly vanished. Growling, he got back into a stance and looked around him wildly, now starting to get pissed at this ninja's way of fighting.
"He keeps appearing and disappearing! Is he that fast… or are they clones, or does he teleport?" Kajika thought. "I'm physically stronger then this guy… but I can't land a hit if he keeps disappearing and using substitutes!"
A zip through the air caught his attention, and he spun around, just in time to receive a kick to the side of his face and he was thrown off of the tree branch. He spun and tumbled through the air, back landing against the side of another tree and him bouncing off it. However, in slow motion, just as he was a foot off of the side of the trunk he flew into, three more of the cloaked ninja he was fighting suddenly flew through the air and kicked him simultaneously in the chest, and sent him straight through the tree. With a yell, muffled by the sounds of crashing wood of cascading trees, Kajika was sent straight into the ground, where he rolled and bounced, before coming to a stop at the side of a creek.
Coughing up blood, the rogue ninja sat up, using his hands to support him and crane his head to look up. Above him, he saw what he counted were about a hundred clones of his opponent, all perched on branches or hanging off of them. He looked around at the flock, a little psyched that he was facing a person who was not only a professional at this, but was also freaking him out because he wasn't talking at all.
"KAMI DAMMIT! You are so annoying!" Kajika shouted, slapping his hands together and performing a large number of quick hand seals. "Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"
A roar of force and rumbling erupted and in the blink of an eye, the creek behind him erupted into a high column of water, which quickly shaped and formed into a massive dragon. The water thrashed through the air, mimicking the actual beast's movements, before propelling itself towards the treetops and towards the clones. With a roar from both the dragon and the raging waters itself, the technique crashed headlong into the trees, bashing them about while consuming and knocking about all the clones, which vanished into puffs of smoke.
Seeing his technique successful, Kajika laughed, slowly getting to his feet.
"Not so fast now are yah… huh?" His eyes caught onto something through the cascading water of his dissipating technique, and dashing through the downpour of water, his opponent appeared, cloak being thrown off of his shoulders. In the blink of an eye, the masked assassin was upon him, and Kajika frowned, responding with a kunai swipe. His opponent ducked under and slid right between his legs. In a quick move, the attacker pushed off of the ground and back-flipped over the man, swinging his right hand around for a finishing blow, but was caught off guard when the man spun around and side-kicked him in the chest.
The strong blow sent the ninja flying and spinning through the air, before crashing into the side of a tree with a loud yelp of pain. Kajika chuckled as he watched the assassin fall to the ground, seriously wounded, and dusted himself off.
"Nice moves. You're lucky you're so small. I would have had you right then and there," the missing Nin exclaimed, before beginning to walk towards the boy, crossing the drained stream. Behind Kajika, the damage left behind in the wake of his Water Dragon Technique clearly showed; the canopy of the forest torn wide open and tree trunks littering the forest floor. Approaching the fallen assassin, Kajika continued to gloat, now about five meters away. "For a kid, you are quite quick. I know this because I have never met an adult ninja your size and able to take me on. You are strong, I'll give you that."
Stopping right above his would be assailant, who was now struggling to get to his feet, Kajika grinned. He cracked his right fingers as he extended them, and held them up towards his downed opponent.
"Play time is over now… you're dead!"
Before he could deal a finishing blow though, a small shadow out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, but he was too slow to respond when a swift mass of weight shot through the air and struck him in the side of the head. Staggered, Kajika growled and looked up to see a falcon fly up into the treetops and land on a branch high above. The bird turned and shirked at him loudly. A large gash was drawn on the left side of his face, blood dripping over his left eye.
"Pesky pigeon!" Kajika growled, drawing a couple of shuriken and preparing to throw them. However, his eyes widened when he heard more movement and turned to see his opponent, surprisingly back on his feet. Reacting quickly, he tossed the shuriken at him instead, only for his masked assassin to leap right over him, flipping in the process. While abseiling over Kajika's head as he was leaning in, in a throwing motion, the boy brought his right hand up and, holding out his trigger and middle finger, struck out, hitting the spine where it connects to the head through Kajika's hood.
Kajika seemed to stiffen at the quick-jab blow, and coughing up saliva in response to the sudden paralysis shock to his body, keeled over forward, hitting the tree in front of him, before slumping to the ground. His assassin landed behind his fallen body, turning towards him and walked over. Tilting his head, the masked attacker put his foot under the sprawled out body and rolled him over onto his front, glaring into the stunned face of his opponent, his body jerking and trembling.
"W-What… what did you…do to me?"
The small figure, wearing the black jacket with the fur collar with the hood over his masked face, shrugged a bit before reaching up and removing his mask. Tossing back the hood revealing spiky blond hair, Naruto decided to show his face before finishing off his opponent. He glared down at the stunned Kajika.
"Seisui Hikou; the One Finger Kill technique," he said, his cold blue eyes flashing in the night, showing his serious streak. That familiar fallen look his friends had glimpsed every now and again had come back into play for this secret mission. "The ki to the Keiraku is rerouted to the Cerebral Cortex and viola… dead in ten days."
"Y-You brat!" Kajika growled. "Catching me… off guard… like that!"
"You should count yourself lucky I'm going to give you a merciful death," Naruto replied harshly. "Your lackeys are dead and I collected their weapons as souvenirs. Now, all who I have left to deal with is you. But before I do, I want information."
"A-About what?"
"I'm looking for Akatsuki members, the people who are looking for jinchuriki hosts and sealing them away for some unknown purpose," Naruto stated. "I know this because two men came looking for me specifically for that purpose, one by the name of Itachi Uchiha and the other Kisame Hoshigaki. Kajika; you are a former ninja of the Village Hidden in the Mist, so you should know the man named Kisame Hoshigaki…"
Kajika glared up at the blond as best as he could, sweat pouring down his face as he tried to remain conscious, the welling pain starting from the point of the boy's attack spreading and growing.
"Y-You… want to know… where that piece of t-trash is hiding… d-do you?" the man choked up. Naruto nodded, bringing his right arm up. With a quick flick of his wrist, his straight hidden blade appeared, flashing in the moonlight able to break in through the huge hole in the forest canopy. At this point, the water to the stream began flowing once again, the trickling of water blending in with the returning sound of crickets and the light wind.
"Make it quick…" Naruto hissed.
"I-Info… I'd gladly…GAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!" CRACK! CRACK! SNAP! Kajika's body suddenly convulsed, and began thrashing about, his bones and neck twisting, with his head and limbs following his movements. The sounds of his body twisting and breaking drowned out everything else, with Naruto stepping back in shock at the sudden reaction.
"What the… what's happening?"
Kajika continued to cry out in agony, and writhed around until his bone structure had returned from its twisted state back to normal. For a moment, he seemed to lie there, flat on his back, before suddenly rising to his feet in one fluent, bone creaking movement without any assistance from his arms or body. He simply curled his feet, and pushed up like that, rising to his feet like a zombie. He staggered forward, head lowered, with Naruto stepping back, holding his blade back in preparation for an attack from his newly arisen opponent.
However, the man stopped staggering, and after a minute of standing where he was, he lifted his head, half his face overshadowed and blood leaking out of his mouth, nose and eyes. When he realigned his sights with his opponent, Kajika's eyes suddenly flew open, revealing a blazing pair of red eyes beneath. Naruto leapt back in shock.
Those weren't ordinary eyes…
They were Sharingan, no question…
But, instead of their usual black tomoe and pupil, with red irises highlighting them, they were the reverse, with the three tomoe being red and the iris black as night.
Kajika's breathing became incredibly loud and heavy, and came out in drags, as if his wind pipe was being restricted. Nevertheless, the man grinned and began speaking, body twitching.
"We… have a common interest… assassin…"
"So it seems, accept I don't decide to suddenly possess another person's body while they were still kicking," Naruto replied calmly, raising an eyebrow at the walking corpse. "Who are you? What do you want?"
"The same thing… you do…" the voice spoke again, echoing with Kajika's voice in the background. However, the voice in foreground was completely different.
"That's a girl's voice? Who the heck is this?"
"I am searching… for Akatsuki…"
"Well tough, because I can't get any more information out of him, thanks to you," Naruto replied, his glare becoming even stronger.
"Don't bother… looking for Akatsuki. They will come… find you…"
"That's what I want to try to avoid; those guys coming into my village and knocking on my door," Naruto replied, stepping around a bit, still assumed in a fighting stance. "You obviously got to this guy before me, so you must know something about the Akatsuki…"
"Locations of members… unknown… they keep moving… off the grid…"
"That's just great," Naruto said, flicking his wrist and retracting his hidden weapon. He straightened up, still frowning and feeling even more disappointed. "I thought I could coax something else out of this scum, but he's apparently already been done over."
In a blink of an eye, the corpse suddenly staggered again and lunged at Naruto, in a blur of movement appearing behind the blond. The young ninja glanced behind him, watching with caution and nerves of steel as the former Kajika glared at him from over his own shoulder.
"You remind me… of them… the first two to ever show me… any compassion…"
Naruto smiled, turning his head towards the walking dead-man. "I'm flattered. Perhaps we can meet each other face to face sometime, so I can see who you are."
"Perhaps."
With that said, the corpse then slumped over. A spark shooting off of the man's back caught Naruto's attention, and reacting quickly, he leapt away. However, he just barely managed to evade the explosion that occurred a second later, and he was knocked away by the blast wave, and sent flying into a far off tree. Slamming against the trunk hard, the boy slid down its side, and rested on the ground. Dazed and knocked a little senseless, the blond looked up to see the flaming remains of his former opponent. Furrowing his brow, he watched the charred remains of the corpse fall to the floor, with a couple of his limbs scattered here and there. When the remains hit the ground, they fell to pieces, the ashes scattering on the winds.
Groaning, the boy staggered back to his feet, rubbing his arm. He winced, realizing he had dislocated his arm, but quickly shook it off and, wedging it between his legs, gave it a pull and twist, a loud crack resounding from the movement. With his arm back in place, the boy sighed in relief and stood back up, pulling his hood back over his head and slipping his mask back on.
"Just another day in paradise," he thought.
The next morning…
Sakura woke to the sound of a rather inappropriate yell coming from the hallway, and with a groan of annoyance, sat up from her incredibly comfortable mattress. Having set it up next to the bed Haru was sleeping in, the pink haired kunoichi was actually pleasantly surprised at how well she slept on the makeshift bed. With a smile on her face, she rubbed her eyes and looked around, her bed hair clearly framing a tired face.
"Hmm… what… was that…?"
"Damn it all!" the voice clearly belonging to Naruto came echoing from the bathroom, bouncing around his small apartment. "Next time… wear padding… maybe even ANBU armor…"
"Must have been out training again," Sakura thought with a shrug. Getting to her feet, she stepped over a still dozing Hinata and waddled over to the bathroom, her attire for the night being a pink oversized t-shirt and panties. When she arrived at the bathroom, she found that the door was open and that there was steam coming out of it.
The girl's immediate thoughts were that Naruto was probably using the shower, and had forgotten to lock the door since he was so used to living alone. However, instead of announcing his little blunder, the girl couldn't help herself, and went over to the door to take a peek. Whether it was her drowsiness or her crush on the boy she didn't know, but all she wanted to do was take a look to see what all the commotion was.
When the girl looked through the door, she found to her utmost surprise and joy that the blonde was sitting beneath a still running shower head, naked on a stool, and was busy lathering his back and hair with a sponge. His athletic body defined from years of training really showed, and even though Sakura had seen this before in the springs, it was he first time she had really seen him from the back.
The blond was clearly uncomfortable about a particular fact of his physic, but what it turned out to be was not inadequacy or attire, but something that further caught Sakura's eye.
A massive purple bruise was shown on his left shoulder and side, accompanied by a multitude of scars that had clearly been healing over a long period of time. The pink haired girl, put her hand to her mouth to muffle her gasp, as she had never seen a body in such a state before.
"Oh my Kami, what has he been up to all this time? Wait… scratch that… what the hell has he been through?"
Naruto's head perked up when he detected a familiar presence, and glanced over his shoulder.
"Not a pretty sight, is it Sakura-chan…"
Realizing she was caught, the girl stumbled into the bathroom, all a blabber of words.
"Oh umm… uhh… Naruto-kun! No! No. Not at all… it's just… well…"
"Whatever you want to ask about the scars, wing it… I don't mind," the boy replied, turning back to his business of washing up. "But the bruises… well… that's a story for another time…"
"O-Okay…" Sakura replied, walking over to the by and crouching behind him. Concerned for the boy's wellbeing, she ran a hand over his largest bruise close to his shoulder, to which Naruto visibly winced to. "But… I still have to heal this. It should be fine though, no problem…" Bringing her hands up, they a lit with a familiar green aura, and she began healing him. Running them over his wounds, the girl began identifying the areas of inflammation and injury, the pink haired girl nodding her head every so often, and murmuring incomprehensible words. "Geez. What did you do this time?"
"I fell…" Naruto replied.
"Oh really? How many times?" Sakura asked with a giggle.
"A fair few…" Naruto replied, before pointing out a faint scar across his shoulder. "That one came from a wind-kunai blade when I was attacked by a rogue ninja from Sunagakure. I was barely able to beat him…"
"I can see you've gotten into a fair few fights in your life…"
"You don't know the half of it," Naruto said, sighing as he felt Sakura's hands work their magic. She truly had remarkable healing hands, as a medic ninja in training now; she was learning a lot of interesting techniques in her spare time. Not to mention she was increasing her strength in unique ways, the prospects being terrifying in comprehension. "That gash on my right side; that was from Nibi…"
"Nibi?"
"Oh… sorry… Yugito Nii; jinchuriki of the Two-Tailed Monster Cat from Kumogakure…"
"What happened between you two?"
"She and I had a rather… unpleasant encounter," Naruto said, visibly shivering at the memory that came to mind. "I met her in a ramen bar outside of this village, somewhere in Kumogakure… I can't remember how many years ago it was though. As far as the story goes, she poured my steaming hot bowl of miso ramen on me as a joke, and in retaliation I called her… crap… what did I say? Anyway, I woke up several hours later in a daze, with bandages wrapped around my side and Pervy Sage carrying me…"
Sakura snickered, watching as the bruise on his back slowly vanished. "I assume you weren't as vagrant back then as you are today."
"I learn from my mistakes," Naruto said, nodding his head in affirmation of this statement. "From that day forth, I vowed never to make a girl angry ever again…"
"Which explains why you are so nice to everyone else, and you try to make everybody around you happy," the pink haired kunoichi pointed out. "You tried to cheer me up, and you kept smiling even though I was angry at you, right?"
"Heh… I guess so…" Naruto replied with a smile, turning to look at his pink haired teammate. "How're the bruises?"
"You're healing remarkably fast for someone with such a big wound," Sakura said, watching as the purple faded and was gone. She smiled and removed her hands, admiring her handiwork. "I'm not sure about the other scars though and what I can do for them."
"Leave em'," Naruto replied, bringing his sponge back up to lather his arms. "Every scar to me is a medal and a reminder. I know it seems petty, but I think it makes me almost devil-may-care… so to speak."
Sakura chuckled and shimmied over, unexpectedly wrapping her arms around the wet, bare-ass teen and nuzzled his cheek. Naruto blushed at the sudden move, but smiled back in affection. He may have been teammates with her for a short time, but the young kunoichi was really warming up to him.
"I think you're fine the way you are, naked guy!" Sakura stated teasingly.
"You're planning on staying with me forever, aren't you?" Naruto asked, seeing the grin appear on the girl's lips, and she leaned into his head, placing her temple against his.
"Perhaps… but it all depends on your proposal."
"Aww… what a sweet… touchy moment…"
Naruto and Sakura gasped and looked up and around them wildly, that last voice obviously not coming from either of them. After looking around the foggy bathroom for a minute or so, from roof to floor, the two Genin, at the same time, then turned towards the area where the bathtub was, its view obscured by curtains.
Not hesitating in the least, both of them reached out and ripped the curtains to the side. Much to Sakura's surprise and Naruto's embarrassment, the pair found Ryoko lying in the tub with a sly smirk on her face, but ultimately gazing at them with tired eyes. The way she looked and how ruffled up she was in her laid-back position, the two youngsters could only come to one conclusion.
"Hey, Naruto-chan!" Ryoko exclaimed in her usual greeting to the boy. The spiky haired blonde raised an eyebrow.
"What the heck are you doing in my tub?"
"Oh… porcelain keeps my clothes from wrinkling," Ryoko replied, pointing out her obvious sleeping garments. Amusingly enough, she went to sleep in a pink nightgown with a white frilly collar, red hearts patterned all over it, and her hair let down. Compared to her usual, badass appearance, she looked pretty strange in her nightwear.
"Wait… you were sleeping in my bathtub the whole night?"
Ryoko nodded. "You bet your fine ass I did…"
"But… why?" Sakura asked, now very amused and very concerned. Ryoko snickered, and then put up a very cute, very disturbing face that was her equivalent of 'adorable'.
"Well… the first bed was too hard, and the second bed was too soft…" Ryoko spoke in a very whiny voice.
"Please stop!" Naruto groaned, lowering his head in distress.
Ryoko laughed, at the same time checking out the naked person sitting in front of her, with the pink haired girl still attached to him. The red-headed swordswoman smirked and shook her head.
"You know, you two are really something else," she exclaimed, rubbing the back of her head.
"You should see us when we're fully dressed…" Naruto replied.
"Or naked…" Sakura exclaimed, playfully nibbling Naruto's ear, causing him to squeak in surprise. Ryoko sighed and laid back a bit, smiling at the ceiling.
"I wish I had a life like you two have now," Ryoko stated quietly, reminiscing about her past back in Kirigakure. Out of most of her life, she could only find sadness, depression, anger and loneliness, with only a few moments in her life where she felt truly happy; not from any intended action, but through unintended moments of peace. There was the time when she inherited her sword, when she was given the honor of being one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, and then there was her birthday when she was able to find a nice quiet spot atop of one of Kirigakure's many mountains, and just gaze across the horizon, watching the sunrise in the distance.
Naruto and Sakura looked at her as she stared blankly at the ceiling, wondering what she was thinking. Of course, the blond was no stranger to a bad history, a history which may be comparable to the red-head's own past. He understood very much the look written on Ryoko's face, but chose not to act on his own thoughts. Instead, the three of them remained quiet, the shower still running next to them.
About a minute later, Ryoko smirked and peaked over at the blonde, her gaze running him up and down for a few seconds before a wide grin spread across her lips.
"I may be the youngest of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen brat… but I know a big package when I see one," Ryoko exclaimed, licking her lips.
Naruto, blushing to the roots of his hair, folded his legs and tried to cover up his shame… as best as he could. Sakura giggled and tried to take a look, but failed when the blonde managed to pick up a towel and cover himself. Getting to his feet, he turned off the shower taps and glared over at Ryoko, who was still smiling smugly at him, albeit a red face.
"Why are you really sleeping in my tub, anyway? My couch has vacant space available…"
The red-headed swordswoman snorted and pointed out the bathroom and down the hall.
"Go see for yourself…"
Raising eyebrows at each other, Naruto and Sakura left the bathroom side-by-side, and headed for the lounge room. When they got there, they were able to identify the source of the couch problem. Apparently, Team 7's sensei was a little too full, exhausted and couldn't be stuffed going home last night, and had instead decided to crash in Naruto's living room. Anko Mitarashi was sleeping awkwardly across the couch, covered in a blanket, and the clothes she was wearing thrown everywhere, including her bra. The pair were easily amused by their sprawled out sensei, but were a little uncomfortable about the fact she was sleeping naked on the living room's main seat.
The Jonin mumbled in her sleep, drooling as she moved around.
"Mmmm… dango…hey… give it… uhh… back…Laverne…FLYING MONKEYS!" were some of the incoherent words falling off of her tongue. All the while she seemed to toss and turn a little, which was quite a hilarious sight. Naruto snickered, whereas Sakura locked both hands over her mouth to keep herself from laughing.
"There you go," said a now fully dressed Ryoko, wearing her camo pants, turtle neck, scarf and socks, with her hair once again done up. Arms folded, she propped herself up against the door frame and watched as the towel clad Naruto and still freshly awoken Sakura tried to wake their sensei up. "Out like a light… yet still managing to flicker…"
"Does she usually sleep naked?" Naruto wondered, poking his teacher in the cheek, but pulling back when her head turned and tried to bite it off. "Well… at least her reflexes when she's unconscious are still good…"
"She must have been drinking again," Sakura said, pointing out the two empty bottles of sake on the coffee table, and the hundred sticks of dango sticking into the surface next to them and Anko's t-shirt. Artistically, the purple-haired woman had arranged the sticks so that when you looked at them from above, formed the Hidden Leaf's symbol on the headband. Sakura tilted her head at the artwork and nodded her head, impressed.
"She's practically you in a nut-shell," Sakura, turning back towards Naruto.
A few more persuasive pokes to the face from Naruto, Sakura and even Ryoko roused Anko from her sleep. The purple haired woman woke up, groggily looking around first before yawning. Rubbing her dry eyes out, she looked up at her two students, and then up at the red-headed swordswoman on the other side of the couch, who was admiring the woman's bare upper-body.
"Morning all!" the snake-mistress exclaimed while stretching and thrusting her chest out. "I trust we all had a good night's sleep?"
"Apparently you did, sensei," Sakura commented, shaking her head as the woman got up, not at all fussed about her partial nudity. Naruto on the other hand turned and left intent on getting himself dressed. "You sure can hold your liquor."
"It's training…" Anko exclaimed, sitting back down on the couch and rubbing the back of her head.
"For what: a birthday-bash where people will be having a drinking competition to commemorate a late friend, pet or significant other?" Ryoko chuckled.
"Nope! It's to up my alcohol endurance level, in preparation for the highly unlikely case that an enemy ninja might capture me and put me into a drunken state of mind to get information out of me… and yes… maybe to win my next drinking game against Ibiki and his buddies the next upcoming get together," Anko replied, putting her bra back on. By the time she got her tube top back on, Ryoko was smirking at the woman, rubbing her hands together deviously.
"Hey… maybe I can come along and help you put your friends into that comatose state also known as 'happy land'?" Ryoko exclaimed. "Out of the seven swordsmen… I was drinking champion seventeen times running!"
Anko looked up at the red-head, smirking. "You think you can take me?"
"Absolutely…"
"Alright then, you're on!" the Jonin replied, shaking hands with the swordswoman.
The rest of the morning was spent cleaning up from last night, and making breakfast. Since Naruto made dinner, it was someone else's turn to make breakfast. Since it was Anko who busted into the home first, she decided to treat them to some fried egg on toast with scrambled eggs. Hinata woke up with Haru not too long after Anko and Naruto got dressed, and soon, the entire group who had crashed at the jinchuriki's apartment was around the table, eating a lovely, home cooked breakfast.
While they were eating, Ryoko showed off the photograph of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist from the copy of the ninja hand book she carried around with her to the Genin sitting around the table. Of course, since Hinata was sitting next to her, with Haru on her other side, the two of them became very curious, and leaned in to get a better look.
"It's an old picture, but I believe it's very accurate in portraying our old group," the red-headed stated. She first pointed to the middle of the picture, with Hinata and Haru showing expressive interest, since they have stopped eating to look. "The tall blue guy in the back wearing the grey and white camouflage cloak is Kisame Hoshigaki, with his sword Samehada on his back."
"Hey… h-he really does look like a shark," Hinata exclaimed light-heartedly, with Haru clapping her hands in amusement.
"Shark soup! Shark soup! Shark soup!"
Ryoko laughed. "Well… maybe I'll make some for you tonight…"
"YAY!"
"Kisame was one bad apple; they called him the Monster of the Hidden Mist. He was the one that really gave the Seven Ninja Swordsmen their fearsome reputation," the red-headed swordswoman said. She then pointed to the two ninja crouched in front of Kisame, first to the one on the left of Kisame. "That one with the two Lightning Fang Blades on his back is Raiga Kurosuki; Thunder of the Hidden Mist, still wearing his Jonin uniform and mask. He wasn't the strongest of us, but he did have that ruthless and merciless tenacity that earned him a place in our group. Strangely enough, he and I were the only members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen that didn't have that weird, shark like grin." Ryoko bared her teeth at the group in emphasis.
"I remember when I first met him, he didn't have those sharp teeth," Naruto said, swallowing the food in his mouth. He smiled as he poked his knife in her direction. "Was that picture made before or after he began carrying Ranmaru on his back?"
"Oh… he left the moment he picked the boy up from that village, so it was before," Ryoko stated. She then placed her hand on her chin in thought, looking up in clear body-language mind searching. "How is Ranmaru anyway?"
"He's doing great," Naruto replied, going back to his food. "He's actually an apprentice now, learning how to make curry…"
"Now that's a great career choice," Sakura exclaimed from her side of the table next to Anko, whom was stuffing her face with her fried egg sandwich. "I'm sure he'll be happy doing that."
"Anyway…" Ryoko continued, tearing everyone's attention back to her cook. She turned it around so that it faced everyone, and pointed towards the other man crouching beside Raiga on Kisame's right side. "That guy with his head bowed and hair tied back into a ponytail, that's Kariya; Hurricane of the Hidden Mist. He was the Mizukage's most loyal and trusted bodyguards whenever Kisame was out on missions. This was him wearing his Jonin uniform before he started wearing those ghastly sunflower-patterned samurai robes. He was stronger then Raiga, and used a sword called Unlearnt, a weapon that could impinge airstreams, and utilize water and dust to attack enemies. He was quite proficient at using it, but sadly died at Zabuza's hands." Ryoko shrugged and let out a sigh. "Oh well… I don't miss him. He was kind of a snob."
"Woot hapuned u is shword…" Anko asked through a mouth full of bread.
"Please choose to either eat or to speak, sensei," Sakura said, shaking her head at her master. The purple haired Jonin sighed and swallowed the food in her mouth, wiping away at her lips before turning back to the swordswoman staring at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Excuse me… what happened to his sword?"
"Who knows; maybe it's still on display in the Mizukage's office waiting for the next generation to pick it up," Ryoko replied. "So far, I don't think anyone has replaced him yet." Turning back to the book, she then pointed to the person standing left of Kisame. "That one with the arms crossed; that's me. My hair was a lot smoother back then, and I still had my left eye safely tucked away in its socket."
"You're quite tall compared to the others," Sakura pointed out, leaning across the table to get a better look.
"It's the way the photo was taken, Raiga and I were positioned much closer to the cameraman, who took the photo from the ground up to capture the heights of the others," Ryoko continued, before moving to the ninja standing behind her in the photo to her left at the very end. "That's Tsukahara; Tsunami of the Hidden Mist, a couple years before he was replaced by Chojuro, who was his student at the time. He was the original wielder of the sword known as Hiramekarei, which could manipulate air currents and chakra to form and shape other weapons from its blade, as well as extend the range, strength and effectiveness of its attacks. When Tsukahara used the weapon, he was able to create shock waves so vast, that it could even form tidal waves on any water's surface, causing considerable damage to the surroundings. He was a prideful bastard, but he was at least kind and generous." She then moved to the big guy standing to the right of Kisame. "That guy with the gauze mask and the huge Executioner's Blade on his shoulder, that's Zabuza. His specialty is the Hidden Mist Jutsu you all know, and preferred direct attacks then using ninjutsu. This ability made him extremely dangerous, since very little of us could detect where his attacks would be coming from. He was third strongest in the group, closely followed by the guy standing on his right."
Ryoko then pointed towards the tall guy in front of Zabuza. "That guy with his hands on the hilt of his sword, that's Hikita; Ghost of the Hidden Mist. Next to Zabuza and me, that guy was something else. Out of all of us, Hikita had this stubborn tendency to get himself killed in battle. But somehow, he managed to bring himself back to life each and every time, even when he had his head chopped off. Hikita had this astounding ability to control separate parts of his body at will when they were severed from his body, and use a special translucent jutsu to mold the parts back together."
"That's kind of freaky," Anko said, tilting her head at the man with the long black hair on the far left of the picture. "That's one nasty scar on his chin…"
"It's a permanent mark Kisame made on Hikita when the guy challenged him for the right to lead the group, but ultimately got his butt kicked," Ryoko stated. "His sword is called Deity, the fifth largest sword of the group, and third strangest. Aside from Samehada which had a life of its own, and my Siren blade which could talk, Deity had its own gravitational pull. Literally, with every swing, he would tear apart his surroundings or the body if it got too close, and the way he used it was quite incredible."
"H-He looks angry…" Hinata said, pointing out the obvious disapproving gleam on the man's face in the book.
"He was a funny guy in the head, and power hungry to boot. More times then once he tried to steal our swords," Ryoko said. "But each and every time we got back at him by slicing his head off in his sleep and burying it somewhere in the village just to piss him off."
Naruto, Sakura and Anko laughed, while Hinata was a little disturbed. Haru just laughed along with the others, not really getting the joke, but having a good time nonetheless. While Anko and Sakura were still holding their sides in amusement, Naruto wiped his eyes of shed tears and grinned at the smirking Ryoko.
"If it wasn't for the fact that you were committing manslaughter on your own teammate each and every time, that would be even more hilarious," Naruto exclaimed.
"Yeah… I was even considering slicing off something even more valuable on his body and hiding it somewhere, but then that would just be mean," Ryoko said, coaxing even more laughter from Anko and a blush from Sakura.
With a few more laughs and talking about the Seven Swordsmen, the group eventually got back down to finishing their breakfast, and cleaning up. Before long, Team 7 was dressed up and ready for their next mission. Leaving Ryoko in the care of little Haru, Naruto, Sakura, Hinata and Anko then proceeded down to the Hokage's Office to collect their mission specifications, looking forward to what the day had in store for them this time.
TO BE CONTINUED…