Scroll 22: Into the Unknown
Meiko smirked to herself as she lifted her body out of her underneath root hide-away. It had been minutes since Jack had managed to sink into the dirt like water. She finally had the guts to go home now to take the rest of her punishment.
"I'll be watching out for you, Jack, so beware!" Her statement was pointless, meaningless and directionless, as she skipped towards her home.
Midway there, Meiko would spot Barokendo just standing off to the side of her intended traveling path, looking around. When he spotted he walked over, his footsteps pounded towards her, loud and scary as usual. The large man could only recognize the young girl by the feature she shared with her older sister, Yukari – her red eyes.
"Which direction is the Takimoto compound?" The giant's tone indicated he wanted an answer immediately.
"!" Meiko turned to look at the largest man she had even seen in her life; the surprise in her red eyes real enough to cut butter with. "The…Takimoto compound…uh. I think it's a quarter…mile from the Hokage's office – if you face it and turn left, you should walk until you see their colors: lime green and tan." Meiko's face took on a pale complexion as she stared up and up at the giant of a ninja.
"C-co…cool outfit." The girl's pale face slowly changed into one of pure adoration. The black, ragged suit that Barokendo wore was the stuff of angry, gothic legend in Meiko's head. She wanted to look as terrifying and tough as the mass of body that stood before her. The way that the hem of Baro's suit was cut; tattered and ragged, appealed to her dark, gothic fetish. "I love it!" She climaxed her voice to a crescendo; lifting her arms in cheer. "Your outfit is perfect!"
He would nod and start walking away, stopping when she started to fan-girl gush.
"This? I wear it so people can't see the spikes that have been shoved through most of my body. The suit is just cloth, everything else comes from us." He said, indicating the spikes poking out of the suit in various places. When he said 'us'; the shadows in the area got a lot less malicious, as though something left them. He continued on his way, hoping he would make it to the Takimoto compound to collect the promise Hani had given him earlier.
Meiko, having her fists clenched closely to her face – a face that shone with admiration for the large man – nodded like an idiot as Barokendo stomped his way away.
"Kay! Bai! Take care and have fun where-ever you are going!" Meiko added dumbly. She watched until he was out of sight with a turn of the corner; and then moved her body in accordance with the subconscious towards her home. If Hibachi-dono – her father- verbally beat her for shirking her punishment, she wouldn't care. Her head was in gothic fantasies of black, torn outfits and angry, scary ninja.
XXX
Ebisu nodded towards the young Hyuuga girl and gave her a smile.
"If you are set on that then I will continue, but our reuniting will happen no matter what. I would not deny him the chance to...thank you, Hyuuga-san."
Ebisu hadn't met her before; he'd just gotten a basic report of who else had miraculously recovered in the same room as his brother. He opened the door fully and continued in after Crystania gave up the room; kneeling enough to be on eye level with Abisu as they spoke. There wasn't anything too significant in their exchange, just questions of how the family was, how well Konohamaru was coming along, and a few others things.
"They tell me that you will be able to come home soon, possibly tonight or tomorrow. I will make sure everybody is waiting for your return, it will be a most joyous celebration, Abisu-nee-san." Ebisu then leaned in and whispered something into Abisu's ear, before getting up and making his way out. All in all, the exchange hadn't taken too long given that Ebisu had to continue to answer his call of shinobi duty.
Crystania gave Ebisu a passing look as she had re-entered the room. She then flopped down on her bed, dragging out a worn, pastel colored dragon plushie that looked old enough to – in all honesty – explode into a mass of cloth and stuffing. Time had been unkind to the plushie and it showed.
"So that was your brother, huh? He doesn't look unique; he looks like an administrative nin. Plain and boring." She sighed; not knowing enough about the social situation to be aware that her statement could be taken as an insult. "He does have those glasses and head wrap, though, so I guess he's different."
"Haha, our clan has gotten those comments on occasion. But not all ninja can be as unique as the major clans. My brother told me that some must simply fulfill their duty to the best of their ability, even if they were not born special. Besides, if everybody was special then the normal people would stand out. My older brother is Konohamaru Sarutobi's private tutor so I think that makes him a little different." He had heard these kinds of things on many occasions, having learned to be a bit more easy-going and not take them to heart long ago. "What of your own family? Will any be coming now that you are better again?"
"NO!" Crystania sat up violently and fisted her hands. "I mean, I hope not! They don't care about me. I'm glad!" Her left white eye shimmered with raw, negative emotion. They're the ones that made me a freak; even among the branch family: one eye with a sealed bird curse and a useless other. I couldn't face even the lowest of branch members like this." She fumed on. "I will stay here, and be hidden."
Abisu smiled, reached out, and gave her a pat on the shoulder. "I am sorry to bring up old wounds, but there is no need to be angry. None of the other Hyuugas are here. My brother did inform me of your situation, saying to tell you that you can stay with us if the hospital is too confining now that you can go other places. My family may not have genius ninja, but we are exceptionally kind people…most of the time." he laughed, remembering a few of the incidents where he'd angered his brother.
Crystania blushed this time, when Abisu placed his hand on her shoulder and showed his kindness. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you, Abisu-kun. I just don't like my clan at all." She paused; pondering something in that white-tipped black-haired head of hers. "I would love to see where your clan district is. If it's not too much to ask – I really don't have a home if I get kicked out of this building."
The newly reformed Hyuuga body flexed its arms as Crystania gazed down at her fingers – fingers that could be deadly, lethal killers or blessed, miracle healers. "It would be great to go outside again."
"That it would, Crysta-chan, that it would." Abisu nodded in agreement.
XXX
Meanwhile, three rooms down from where Crystania, Ebisu and his young brother were occupying, was a single bed unit. Lying in that bed unit was a platinum blonde figure that was lithe, young, male and awake. If one would look at a glance, it could be said that the younger surviving Uchiha had gone and dyed his hair blonde. However, this boy wasn't Sasuke Uchiha; nor was his clan in any danger of being killed off.
Yuro Maso had physical mannerisms and hair-style similar to Sasuke Uchiha; only the blonde boy was more prone to happy emotions facially – or was prone. Since he had just recovered from his coma and into a world of confusion, Yuro's mouth was set in a frown. Not only was there a strange, busty, glorious vision of a woman staring down at him, he was in a medical bed. To further his confusion, his body – a body of an exercised genin ninja of fair value – was weak and low on muscle tone; looking like he had starved himself to mere skin and bones. For all that Yuro thought; he just couldn't come up with a reason of how his body could have come to this weakened state.
To add more to his troubled mind, the blue-eyed genin male was unable to visually see the other 2/3rds of his ninja team: Yukari Uzaruki and Sudokari Murosaki. With those two without of sight, Yuro struggled to make heads or tails of his situation.
XXX
The trio of kids along with clone-Yukari, would slowly make their way to the wheel camp, Gilligan staring back at Jack as he disappeared, leaving the real Yukari to stumble off like she had been hit in the head. Gilligan wasn't quite sure what Jack had told the kunoichi, but Gilligan didn't like the way real-Yukari reacted. She turned back towards the rest, smiling like always, happy to be wherever they were. Looking at their face, her worries seemed to just wash away, and the voice in the back of her head was easier to ignore.
Next to her, Sheena would be act a little irritated and worried about her brothers' – all three of them – sudden appearance. She suddenly wanted to find her older brother, Barokendo, and hoped he was back at camp.
XXX
"Hey Skimi-san...ever get the feeling that things are about to go HORRIBLY wrong?" Shozaku looked up from his bowl of ramen and at the large, cooking friend of his. It was seconds after Shozaku's comment on his bizarre, spine-tingling feeling that clone-Yukari bounced up into the Wheel-Nin camp; trailing the now oddly-acting kids behind her.
"HIYAS! Shozaku-chan!" clone-Yukari would make that fan-girl impression with her body language and smile. "Whatcha eating!" If Yukari had been blonde, this is how she would have acted; ditzy, loud and bubbly. "HUGGLES! It's great to have time to embarrass myself when I'm a kage bunshin!"
Indeed, the clone would make a small leap and plaster herself onto the gambling, eating ninja; hugging his neck. "I brought back the kiddies!"
"Oh h-HELLO THERE." The gambler choked out, coughing up the ramen in his mouth as he got tackled by clone-Yukari. "Hmmmm…it…might be worth I-" Shozaku didn't finish the sentence. As the gambler's hand had made it halfway up clone-Yukari's shirt, Skiminachi reached over and placed a giant hand on his friend's face, making Shozaku stop his groping of Clone-Yukari.
"Thank you for returning our precious little ones safe and sound. Assuming your business here is done, I suggest you dispel before Shozaku takes this horrible chance and does something Yukari would regret." The cook used his other hand to wave the little trio back into the rest of the camp, where they just found a table and sat down at for now.
There the trio stood, locked into a will of who would give way first; Shozaku, clone-Yukari or the Cook.
XXX
Meanwhile, the real Yukari would have made her way to her pad, still in a daze as she replayed events that dated back from the moment the tiny teddy-bear had bitten Kakashi's thumb until just mere minutes ago - all in her befuddled head. Nothing that she could pick out betrayed the fact that, yes, all of them were girls. First; Yukari had thought both Sheena and Gilligan were male; as she was used to the Rookie Nine teams being boy, boy and girl. Then, it was startling to see that, beneath the chains, Sheena was indeed a girl. Now it exultantly screwed with her head to discover that all three of them were girls. In addition, if the information that the Darkness boy-trio had given her, the three children were going to break hell loose if Yukari's hunch of her mission being escort was on the mark.
"Meko, it's going to be a long, long mission." The red-eyed girl sighed with a smile as she hoisted the travel-pack onto her shoulder and tied – dramatically – her Konoha-leaf depicting nin headband on her head. "Take care of the fort while I'm gone, and such. You stupid cat."
Meko, still not revealing that he was a nin animal, merely looked up from his tightly curled position – one that had all feet and tail tucked underneath him as he laid on his stomach. With a fanged yawn, the black and white cat closed his yellow eyes and lowered his head to bask in the sunbeam that had positioned itself nicely through the window.
