Please read and enjoy.
I landed on a small building with a soft thump. The sun had risen and I was supposed to be heading towards the training grounds to meet Kakashi, but there was something I wanted to do first. I crept towards the other side of the rooftop and peered down at the group of genin before me. Gaara was flocked on either side by a blonde girl and a boy dressed all in black. I reached out to the mind of the girl, trying to discern her relation to Gaara. Her name was Temari and the boy in black was Kankuro. They were Gaara's older siblings. That took me by surprise.
Kankuro said something stupid and I watched with mild amusement as Temari hurriedly covered his mouth and said, "He didn't mean that, Gaara. He's just fooling around, being an idiot." Gaara said nothing, as if he hadn't heard anything. He's distracted this morning, Temari thought. "Is there something wrong, Gaara?" she asked instead. I could tell that she did have a slight concern for her younger brother, but mostly there was fear of him killing her and her other brother. As I read through her memories, I learned Gaara was more unstable than I had originally come to suspect. He needed help, and soon. Sadly, I knew I wasn't the one to give him that help.
"Someone's following us," he said with a sigh, looking over at me. I didn't bother trying to hide. I stood there on the rooftop, hands on my hip, staring down at them. I had told him I'd be watching. Temari and Kankuro immediately went into a defensive stance, ready to protect Gaara if need be. He had obviously become important to his village.
"Who are you?" Temari called up. "What do you want?" I smiled, shrugged, and flipped my midnight hair over my shoulders. My hair was probably too long for my own good but I normally tucked it behind my headband that still rested on my waist. Still, it was starting to get down to me knees. Not very good for a ninja who relied mostly on taijutsu to attack.
I looked towards the sun, hearing the arrival of Kakashi's squad at the training grounds thanks to my connection to Sasuke's mind. I'd stop listening in on him eventually, but minds I had already touched before were a lot easier to find. I left the sand shinobi without a single word and headed to where I was bid. I could still hear Temari's thoughts demanding an answer to my identity. She wouldn't be getting one any time soon.
I ran towards the training ground and retrieved my staff, which I had hidden in a tree before leaving Kakashi the night before. Then, I dropped from a tree, right in front of the three genin that made up Team 7. "Who are you?" the blonde boy asked with a crude look on his face. A pink haired girl studied me with an intense curiosity, and Sasuke simply glanced at me.
"My name is Nari…"
"And she's here to help you train," Kakashi finished for me, dropping in. He had a book in his hand and was reading it even as he spoke.
"How is a little twerp like her supposed to help us train?" the kid declared. I simply laughed, not offended in the least. I knew I didn't look like much. I was creepy looking, that was all. Especially since I had slits for pupils like an animal instead of the round ones of a human. I definitely didn't look like a ninja. I was too small and frail looking for that. In fact, I could hear the girl of the squad thinking I was probably the definition of the boogeyman. Even Kakashi found me unnerving.
"Of all the people here, you'd probably benefit the most from me helping you train," I told the jinchuriki.
"Yeah? How so?" he demanded, hands behind his head.
"I can't tell you all the reasons," I said simply as if it wasn't all the important. "But there are some obvious ones I'm sure even you're teammates can agree you have issues with. One, never underestimate your opponent. You'll die that way. Two, you want to study and learn the most you can about your enemies, not talk them up like an idiot and annoy them. And three, in a full fledged battle, a matter of life or death, I'm probably the only person here that can beat you. With that said, it's blatant that you can learn the most from my visit."
"Naruto, beat Sasuke or Kakashi-sensei," the girl laughed. "That's absurd." Kakashi, on the other hand, was thinking, So she knows what Naruto is, does she? And of all of us here, she probably knows his capabilities best. If she thinks Naruto can beat me in a full fledged battle now, I'd hate to see what he could do with a bit of extra training.
"Finally!" Naruto exclaimed. "Somebody who believes in me! My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I'm going to be Hokage someday! Then everybody will believe in me and respect how great of a ninja I am, just like you do!"
"Naruto, if this girl thinks you can beat Kakashi or me, then she's an idiot. Having her believe in you is like being believed in by a monkey," Sasuke said simply. "I bet she couldn't even beat Sakura. She has no room to talk."
"Apparently you underestimate your enemies, too," I muttered.
"Or maybe you're the one who underestimates Kakashi and I," he retorted. A smirk lifted my lips.
"You'll learn," I said simply. "Or you'll die. It doesn't really matter to me either way. Just don't underestimate Itatchi when you finally face him," I warned, knowing full well that this was the only survivor of the Uchiha massacre and that he'd want to avenge his clan. "He's not going to spare you over and over again." Sasuke glared at me, his hands balling up into fists. This girl, I heard him growl inwardly. What does she know about Itatchi?
"Alrighty then," Kakashi intervened. "Instead of arguing, why don't we all get to know each other before we fight?"
"Well, you've already met Naruto and obviously you know more about Sasuke than I do so I'll go first. My name is Sakura Haruno. I'm just an average kunoichi."
"As I said, I'm Nari and I'm here to help you train."
"But don't you want to tell us anything else?" Sakura added. "Like your likes and dislikes, and why you became a ninja."
"I became a ninja because I was born to be a ninja. I'm not particularly found of being used and I like…" Bone marrow, my mind thought automatically. Truly, it had become a favorite food of mine but that would probably freak the genin out. "Challenges," I said instead.
"What's your favorite food," Naruto demanded. "I like ramen and…" They're asking for it… I sighed inwardly.
"Remember, you asked," I warned. "Bone marrow. That is my favorite thing to eat." They all froze, slightly horrified. I am what I am, I defended myself silently. Kakashi was surprised although he chastised himself for not expecting it.
"You eat… bone marrow," Naruto concluded slowly. I nodded.
"Not human marrow, of course. But hogs' and mountain lions', they're decent."
"That's creepy…"
"You asked."
"But…Why? Why would you…?"
"It's in my nature," I answered, shrugging. Part of me was hoping he'd understand but I realized that the demon within him didn't seem to have as much of an influence over him as Gaara's had on Gaara. He was just as arrogant and confident as the majority of nine-tailed foxes but that might just be a coincidence.
"In your nature?" Sakura contributed. "Like your clan or something?"
"Eh… Sure. I guess you could put it like that. Not much of a clan though…"
"What do you mean," Sasuke added, finally jumping in. Kakashi was pretending to be reading but, in truth, he was observing our conversation with a deep interest. He wanted to know more about my personality. What exactly my presence in the village entailed.
"Well, I guess you could say I'm the last of my clan, too. In a way. It's complicated. There's a possibility that others exists or could come to exist but…"
"How can you be the last of the clan if more of your clan can come to exist? Other than the obvious."
"Like I said, it's complicated. Ever hear of a jinchuriki?"
"No," all three answered in unison.
"Oh. Then I don't really know how to explain it. You have to have at least a basic understanding of jinchuriki if there's any hope of you understanding what the hell I am."
"Then explain what a jinchuriki is," Sakura offered.
"We'd be here all day," Kakashi muttered. "All you need to know about Nari at this point is she's as close to a demon as it gets without meeting the real thing."
"That's not true," I snorted. Kakashi looked at me in surprise but I didn't elaborate. He must have thought that nine-tailed ninja were half-human, half-demon. The fool. That thinking might just get him killed if he wasn't careful.
All this talk about demons and bone marrow, Sakura thought. What if this girl actually is a demon? Is that even possibly? Can demons take human form? At least Sakura was smart enough to try and piece things together.
"Anyway," Kakashi said before anyone else could revive the conversation. "Let's train. Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, you will battle Nari. Nari, please don't kill my squad." The three genin were taken aback, a little more hesitant now. "Just to give you three a guess of how strong Nari is, I'm going to temporarily classify her as an elite jounin. An elite jounin? What is up with this kid, Sasuke thought. "Meanwhile," I'm going to watch and tell each and every one of you what you're doing wrong. Even you, Nari." I shrugged. I didn't mind being criticized.
Squad 7 formed up with Naruto in lead, the two flocking him. Kakashi leapt out of the battle field to watch from the side. They attacked me head on, still underestimating my strength. I hit each of them with one quick blow to the gut with the butt of my staff. They flew back and hit the ground. "What the…" Naruto exclaimed.
"Remember, she's an elite jounin. Head on attacks aren't going to beat this ninja," their sensei sighed.
"Even a jounin can be over powered," Naruto declared, standing up and forming a hand sign. "Shadow clone jutsu!" he exclaimed. Fifty or so clones appeared.
"Naruto," Sakura scolded. "Kakashi-sensei said…"
"I don't care," he interrupted her, charging me again. I smiled and formed my own hand sign.
"Say hello to my secret jutsu," I muttered. Nine tails formed of tree roots popped out of the ground. Every time a clone tried to attack me, the tails simply hit them and made them disappear. That's an interesting jutsu, Kakashi averred.
That defense appears to be impenetrable, Sasuke thought to himself. But there has to be some way around it. Of course, that'd be easier to do if I knew where they came from. If her chakra is what controls them, then it's going to be more difficult than I'd hoped. But if their just regular tree roots with a jutsu cast over them, I might be able to destroy them. Sasuke charged next, throwing shuriken and kunai knives. The roots deflected the weapons. When nothing he did worked, they regrouped to try and devise a plan. For nearly an hour, they attempted to get around my defense to no avail.
"This is impossible," Sakura complained.
"Now, now, Sakura. Nothing is impossible," Kakashi denied, despite that he was about to deem the same thing. He couldn't see a way that his genin could attack me. That was sad. If they couldn't get around this simple defense, they were hopeless against Gaara. I hoped they didn't have to face him. "Here's some motivation," Kakashi threw a small bell at me. I let it get around the tree roots and caught it. "The first person to get that bell will get to go out to lunch with me buying. The other two will remain here and train with Nari."
"You're turning us against each other again," Sasuke stated in disbelief. Kakashi shrugged.
"Yes, but this time it isn't a trick. Whoever gets that bell doesn't need as much training as the other two. In fact, I doubt any of you will manage to get it." I grinned and tied it to my headband. Naruto sighed and glared at me.
"Well, if she'd come out of that thing and fight us then we could get it," he declared. I quirked an eyebrow at him.
"You asked for it," I warned him. Naruto gulped uncertainly as I let the tail defense drop away. As he went to perform the shadow clone jutsu for the umpteenth time, I mirrored him. He produce twenty, I produced 120. Sadly, I didn't manage to do it without incident. I cursed myself as six of the surrounding trees were grounded. Kakashi was just barely able to escape one's path. Squad 7 was thrown back several feet before they recuperated and saw what I had brought for them.
"You just had to say something," Sakura growled.
"So what? They're just shadow cloned and now there's 121 bells."
"Only one of which is real," Sasuke reminded him. Naruto just shrugged and came to attack. My shadow clones took care of his easily and beat him back. He was sent flying towards the others within seconds. Sasuke and Sakura sent out a duo-attack of shuriken and kunai knives, trying to eliminate some of the clones. The targeted clones simply used their staffs to deflect the attack.
"We're never going to get anywhere like this," Sakura pointed out.
"I know," Sasuke growled. He put his hands together and made the tiger seal. "Fire style: Fireball jutsu!" he roared. I couldn't react fast enough to protect all of my clones but I did manage to form an earth wall in between me and a dozen or so clones. Part of me itched to use my firestorm jutsu in retaliation but I bit back the yearning. I'd only kill the genin if I did that. Instead, I cast a genjutsu over them. I made it look as though I had completely disappeared. As they were trapped in the genjutsu, not realizing what it was, I attacked. I kicked Sasuke in the gut and punched Sakura. Then me and my clones melted into the woods. Just in time too, because they released the genjutsu.
"Is it a second genjutsu?" Sakura asked.
"No," Sasuke muttered. "She's hiding." Naruto was still incapacitated. He sure did give up easily. Silly boy. "Come out, you coward!"
"Coward?" I growled, marching out of the forest, my clones in tow. "I have been called many things in my life but no one has dared call me a coward. Who do you think you are, Sasuke Uchiha, to call me a coward? If anyone's a coward, it's you!" I yelled. Kakashi was there in a flash, grabbing my wrists before I could form all of the hand signs. "I wasn't going to kill him," I mumbled. "It'd only leave a small scar." I glared over at his left eye, which had now been revealed to me for the first time. It was oddly red, with strange markings around the pupil. I recognized it as the Sharingan.
"Hot tempered, aren't you?" Kakashi replied. I yanked my hands out of his grasp and crossed my arms over my chest in defiance.
"Bloodline trait," I excused myself. He laughed. In his mind I saw that he was guessing that was where Naruto got it from.
"What was that jutsu anyway," Sasuke dared to ask. "I've never seen those hand signs before."
"That's because I created the technique. I was going to send a burst of concentrated chakra at you. If it had hit its mark, it would've scissored over your body until you were a bloody pulp. It's not a pleasant process, but it wouldn't have killed you."
"Sounds like something you'd create," he spat as if he knew me. "What annoys you so much about being called a coward anyway?"
"You insolent boy. I've talked to every Kage known to existence, I've fought alongside and killed rogue ninja that were triple my size. I've killed mountain lions with my bare hands. I smart mouthed a member of the Akatsuki, not that I'd expect you to know who they are, and went on to punch him in the face for insulting me. I've looked demons straight in the eye without faltering. If there's anything I'm not, it's a coward. You can call me a traitor, a monster, a heartless fool. But don't you evercall me a coward. Is that perfectly understood?"
"I'm surprised you haven't gotten yourself killed yet," Kakashi and Sasuke said at the same time. I smirked.
"I'm not a fool either. I don't go around upsetting people. People upset me. Besides, I've always given people the respect they deserve. I just don't like to be insulted." The Akatsuki, hmm? Kakashi wondered. She probably just barely managed to escape with her life. Of course, they may be saving her for later. They're in search for power and she has a lot of it. Not wise to destroy the very thing you seek.
Yeah, well those freaks aren't going to be getting their hands on me, I thought. I didn't know why I bothered to respond. It's not like he could hear me.
"Anyway," Kakashi muttered. "I think that's enough for today. You all worked hard and I wouldn't want anyone's temper going over the edge. Tell you what; I'll treat all of you to a meal for your hard work. Of course, I can't get you bone marrow, Nari." I laughed, my bad mood whisked away.
"I wouldn't dream of it. That'd just be weird." I walked over to Naruto and kicked his side until he stirred. Sakura and Sasuke were already waiting with their sensei. "Come on, kid. We're gonna go eat." Naruto groaned as he pushed himself up. The first thing he saw was the bell at my waist. He reached up and grabbed for it. I let him take it and he collapsed back down.
"I – I got it guys." I laughed again and looked him over.
"Seems I hit you a bit harder than I had meant to. Sorry about that." I reached out my hand and helped him up. He looked like he had gotten run over by a bull.
"And she thinks he can beat Kakashi," I heard Sakura mutter.
"Not a life or death situation," I remarked. Sakura looked back at me, surprised I had heard her. After Naruto was steady again, we walked back towards Konoha's center. We went to a small ramen bar and sat down. The others ordered but I refrained from doing so.
"Aren't you going to eat?" Naruto asked, looking at me. We were sitting next to each other. Kakashi was on his other side, and then there was Sakura and Sasuke.
"Probably not."
"Why not? Don't you like ramen?"
"Never had it before." Three genin jaws dropped. Sasuke recovered first, acting as if he didn't care although he was wondering what was wrong with me. Sakura was next, just because Sasuke didn't seem to care. Even Kakashi was slightly shocked. Apparently, I was doing a good job at keeping the jounin on his toes.
"What do you mean you've never had ramen before?! What kind of psychopath are you? It's the best food in the entire land!" Naruto went on and on with his little speech. Finally, I agreed to get a small bowl just to appease him. Naruto may have been a nine-tailed fox jinchuriki but he didn't really seem to be struggling with the beast. I wondered if he even knew Kyuubi was there.
When our food came, I looked down at the bowl with distaste. I had never been particularly fond of cooked meat to begin with and the strange, stringy food that made up the majority of the meal looked slimy and nasty. "Just try it," Naruto ushered me. I sighed and puffed at my bangs. "It's best when the noodles are still warm." Noodles, huh? Is that what this stringy stuff is? I glanced down at the eating utensils and sighed. Chopsticks… It had to be chopsticks.
I picked up the sticks and tried to position them without any help. Naruto was already devouring his dinner while I continued to fidget with the tools. Growing up in the wild meant there wasn't a whole lot of time to spend on preparing proper meals. Usually, I just ate strips of cooked meat. I had actually never eaten anything other than meat before. No matter how hard they tried, no rogue could get any form of fruit or vegetable down my throat. Nine-tailed foxes ate animals, not plants.
"Are you having issues, Nari, or are you just playing with your food?" Sasuke mocked me. Oh, forget this, I decided. I dropped the chopsticks and held the bowl up to my lips. I tipped it forward and let the warm, yellow liquid fill my mouth. It tasted strangely of pork and something else. Well, a lot of something elses. There were tastes I didn't even have a name for. Not just vegetables and noodles, but some other thing. Perhaps a spice of some sort?
"What is this," I demanded. I got shot weird looks and some worried ones from the shopkeeper.
"It's ramen, Nari," Naruto explained.
"No, what's in it? What's this ramen made of?"
"Barbeque pork, carrots, onions, chives, and some other spices," the shopkeeper informed me softly, hoping that I wouldn't get angry with him. I glanced down at the bowl, my eye brows furrowing together.
"What is barbeque?" I asked.
"You've got to be kidding me," Naruto exclaimed.
"Have you ever eaten a proper meal before, Nari?" Kakashi asked me.
"Well, um… For me, yeah, but… No. Not really."
"Do you know what a noodle is?"
"It's the stringy stuff, right?" Kakashi nodded.
"What, were you raised in the forest?" Sasuke mocked again.
"The forest, the desert, in the snow. Never been in a city or village more than a night and never had coin to buy anything. I hunted my own food."
"Then where did you get your clothes from?" Sakura asked. "And your headband?" I glanced down at myself. I was in a skin tight, black shirt with netting for sleeves that ran all the way down my arms. I wore a loose, black skirt that was opened on either side. Beneath the skirt was a pair of super tight, black capris that stopped just below my knees. The bottom of my legs were covered in netting as well. My shoes were black sandals, much like Naruto's blue ones. My outfit was in decent condition for being a month old and it was obviously meant for nighttime camouflage.
"Well, the rogues dressed me. Couldn't very well have their student running around naked." So she was serious about fighting alongside rogues, Kakashi realized. She was probably raised by them. Passed from one rogue ninja to another. That's a horrible childhood.
"But they didn't feed you?" Naruto said.
"I could hunt at that point. Why would they waste money on what they could get for free? Besides, we didn't really go into villages." I wonder why she never stayed with any of the rogue, Sakura thought sadly. Isn't that better than being alone? I sifted through her memories and pulled up the one when I told her I didn't like to be used. She nodded in understanding, not realizing that I had helped her.
Naruto was smart enough not to ask anymore questions and showed me how to use the chopsticks to eat. The ramen had a peculiar taste and it wasn't bad, but I still preferred raw meat. After dinner, as I was about to head off in search of Gaara, Sakura called out to me. "Do you have somewhere to sleep tonight?" she asked softly. I saw in her thoughts that she sympathized with me. Even Sasuke pitied me for what my childhood must have been.
"Well, actually…"
"You can stay at my house tonight. I know my mom won't mind and we have a spare room." I wanted to deny her, to explain that I didn't plan on sleeping but I didn't have the heart to. No one had ever gone to help me simply out of the kindness of their heart since my first sensei. I didn't count Gaara in the mix because I still didn't know his motives, or whether he had actually protected me during the night or if I had just gotten lucky.
"Um… That's very nice of you, Sakura. I – I guess I could. Just for tonight." She beamed at me and grabbed my free hand, towing me away. I had to hold my staff completely off the ground because of how fast she was going.
Isn't Sakura just so sweet? Thanks for reading and please review!