The Waking

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Ryoko opened her eyes blearily. The light burned and she groaned.

"Ah the kitten awakes!" a familiar voice growled well naturedly.

"Kisa-kyoshi!" She tried to jump up to greet her old teacher, but gasped and nearly passed out from the pain that cut across her back, and the dream like memory of her fight with Zabuza commenced. She remembered the wound she took before she entered the cursed form and whimpered.

"Hey there Kitten, you're alright." Kisame smiled and helped her stand. She blushed a little at the fact she was wearing her bindings, bandages and nin pants, but remembered that her Kyoshi had seen her in worse many times after training sessions. "Guess what Kitten, that jacket of yours was returned fixed with a very interesting note." Kisame helped her sit and handed her a piece of brown paper with an envelope attached. The note read: My Pet, you must be more careful. Due to the distance that separates us, I cannot always be there to rescue you Hime. Please be more careful. –Sabaku no Gaara. It was like she could hear his gravely warm voice whispering in her ear and her breath hitched. She opened the envelope to find 9,943,000 ryo. She gasped then winced in pain.

"That's a lot of Ryo. But why?" Ryoko breathed. A horrible thought reached her head, what if Gaara felt he had to pay her to be his?

"That is the bounty for killing Zabuza." Kisame's voice was flat. "Gaara dealt the death blow, but you weakened him."

"I'm sorry Kisa-kyoshi… I know you two were once friends." Ryoko placed a hand on his arm.

"He went bad… it was his consequence. Now, there is a beautiful woman downstairs cooking food for you. And I think either Gaara has a sister or he's good at sewing, because that jacket looks perfectly new." Ryoko looked at the jacket, and pursed her lips. It was new. And exactly the same as the old one, except for a dragon wing etching on the back that bladed due to the fact that the etching and the fabric were nearly the same shades of black. This was an expensive jacket.

"Yeah. Good as new…" she trailed off and slipped on her mesh armor then her jacket. She picked up her scythe, frowning that the back edge had been slightly chipped. She had wanted to add some to it, but was advised to wait untill she had the money for the dragons bone, since she had received the bounty for Zabuza. She decided she would wait untill the chunin exams.

"Do you need help fixing Inuhane?" Kisame voiced her concerns.

"No. I was planning on adding more to it, something to make it more deadly, but I'll wait till the chunin exams." At this Kisame looked puzzled. Ryoko answered his unasked question: "I would need to infuse a lot of chakra into the new bones to graft them perfectly to where ever I'm adding the extra, and I am still a young gennin, and Lord Jashin hasn't granted me the ability of perfect immortality yet, I haven't completed a perfect sacrifice of a tainted soul. I don't want to risk what the draining might do to me." Ryoko doubted her Lord would allow her to die, considering she had been born under his hand, but you should never underestimate the God of Death. ((A/N: I know Jashin is Evil but for my purposes, he is Death, and Hidan is tainted.)) The large fish-man nodded and leads her down stairs to the scent of fish.

"Really…. Fish?" Kisame raised one blue brow, causing Ryoko to giggle hysterically.

"Thought you were a shark, Sushi!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, I apologize Kisame-sama; the fish is for Princess Mitsuri." The woman blushed, "I made you dumplings and rice."

"Oh that's kind of you Tsunami-chan." Kisame smiled at her, toning down his jagged smile a little. Ryoko growled,

"Don't, call me princess. Do I look like a Jashin- be-damned princes?" her voice was a snarl, and then he gasped, pain vaulting through the still not healed gash in her back. She grumbled something about finding Kakashi and the boys.

"Wh… what did I do wrong?" Tsunami asked Kisame.

"Ryoko-Hime is special. She is the last female of the Mitsuri clan, and her father was the clan leader. After he died, she renounced her position, having never wanted the title of clan head anyway. Her goal since she was nine was to become an exchange nin and leave to Suna. I have heard that something odd went on between the Kazekage's son and her. She is bound to the Demon Boy as his mate." Kisame explained. Tsunami looked highly puzzled and thought of her little boy and couldn't fathom him bound to a desert rat like that.

Ryoko was limping into the clearing, and found Naruto and Sasuke at eachother throats as usual, and even more regular- Kakashi reading his smut. Ryoko pulled out a kunai and threw it, breaking up foxy and emo's fight, and skewering Kakashi's book. But the Cyclopes perv just tossed it to the ground and pulled out another copy.

"Ryoko-Hime/Meisu!" came the double cry. Sasuke's was more surprised than relived.

"Hey boys. She smiled leaning against her staff. She charged a little chakra into it, and the long poison coated blade hidden in the end of the shaft dug into the ground, and she sat against the staff on the ground.

"Meisu? I thought you were… hurt really badly." Sasuke mumbled.

"Awe Teme said a more-than-one-syllable sentence. And for me? How SWEET." Ryoko purred. "Actually, if it weren't for Lord Jashin then I would be dead. I should have died, but it was my partial immortality as a follower of Jashin that saved me.

"Oh thank who ever that it! Ryoko-Hime is ok! Can you train? I need help with my Tee Walking. Please? I know you know how!" Naruto babbled. Ryoko smiled,

"Oh Kitu-kun. Get me a solder pill and I can." She stood, her legs shook slightly. She walked to the tree and stepped on as Naruto gave her the pill. She crunched it and felt a rush of energy of which she sent to her feet. She walked up only a few feet out of fear she could fall and re-open the gash on her back.

"See the glow at my feet? If you evenly distribute the chakra at your feet, they will adhere to the bark. But if you use too much, lie you are likely to due to your large chakra reserves, the tree will break, if you use too little like Teme is likely to due to chakra control, you will fall. It is mainly your chakra control that decides if you can or cant. I will show you to water walks soon." She explains. "Maybe Kisa-kyoshi can teach us some water elemental justu. If Teme doesn't piss him off to much."

"That's the blue man who had to retrieve Inuhane right? He said we couldn't touch it." Sasuke said. Ryoko nodded,

"Kisame created it, so it won't hurt him."

"Hurt him? But it's just a scythe." Naruto mumbled. Ryoko shook her head. Eventually, he would understand Custom weapons.