Yea, it took me forever to get this chapter done and I'm sorry if it's not super great. D':
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO! MASASHI KISHIMOTO DOES! I also do not own any of the OCs introduced, except:
The Tsukuyomi Clan
Nero
Hajin
Ayano
Zoki
Daiki
Botan
Miyuki
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Chapter Three: I Saw the Devil…!
"So, how the hell are we going to bring him down?" Akira asked as we hunched in a circle on the same branch, which surprised me since it didn't break.
"He's your brother," Nero muttered, kneeling on the branch, "Don't you know his weaknesses?"
"Even we don't share our weaknesses sometimes." Akira huffed stubbornly, sitting on his hunches with his elbows resting on his knees. I was the only one sitting crossed legged nice and comfortably, my arms crossed.
"We know his strengths," I pointed out, "He uses water and wind elements. Just don't use anything that can strengthen those. So, Akira, don't use any of your wind attacks and Nero, don't use fire attacks because he'll easily douse them. There's no point in me using water attacks either…"
"So all we're left with is your guys' lightening attacks." Akira concluded strategically.
"Right." I agreed.
"How the hell does that help us, though? Kazuya's great with long range attacks." Akira groaned. Nero frowned, slowly getting to his feet.
"Hn, then we'll just have to have someone get close to him… Someone who's good with taijutsu and then someone else can attack him from behind, then we'll both depart so Ruriko can attack with her long-range." He explained.
"Nero," Akira stated confidently, "You're the best at taijutsu. Just face him head on. I'll get him from behind."
"Sounds easier said than done, though." Nero muttered. I stayed seated, looking up at them as they both stood.
"Kazuya will be able to push you back, though, Nero," I pointed out, "You're good at taijutsu, I'll admit that, but Kazuya's just as good at forcing people into a long-range situation…"
"So what do you suggest then?" Nero asked, folding his arms over his chest, his chains jingling. I stared at the chains for a moment thoughtfully, then glanced at Akira, who was glancing around the trees as if expecting Kazuya to jump us. I shrugged and pointed to Nero's arm bands with the chains.
"Those things," I said, "They jingle a lot when you move and that's how I know where you are when we train. What you need to do is take that thing off. Give it to Akira and he can distract Kazuya so you can come up behind him and give him a few good hits. You guys'll know when to jump back for my attack because I'm going to use one of the big ones… That sounds about right, yes?" Nero and Akira shared looks and nodded. Nero snapped the cuffs and chains off, tossing them to Akira, who easily snapped them on his bare arm before shooting off quickly. Nero unhooked his maul from its place on his back. He thrust his hand out to me to help me up.
"Good plan," Nero told me under his breath, "I'm surprised you weren't thinking of eating this time." I smirked at him.
"I was thinking of food… That's why I want to hurry this whole thing up." I replied. Nero smirked, then moved into place. I followed close behind him through the trees, then stopped to find a hiding place as Nero went ahead of me.
That's when Akira jumped out of his hiding place to Kazuya, who was just coming into the clearing. Kazuya whipped around and flung a kunai in Akira's direction. Akira easily ducked and swung his hand up, catching it by the hoop at the end of the handle, flinging it back. Kazuya dodged to the side, just as Nero came from the trees on that side. He slammed the maul's heavy side into the ground, causing the ground to rumble and crackle apart. Kazuya made a yelp sort of sound, not one to ever hide how he was feeling, and leapt into the air, doing a flip and landing on safe grounds.
Nero immediately went after him, swinging his weapon around. Kazuya barely managed to dodge that hit and was making hand signs faster than Nero could jump back. I saw Nero curse as Kazuya shouted the name of the jutsu, being the show off that he was.
"Water Style! Hurricane Bullets!" Globs of water seemed to seep up from the ground, forming huge sharp shapes before hurling themselves at Nero, who winced and leapt further back. I saw Akira's hands moving quickly and he used a wind jutsu to block the attack from Nero, who gave him a quick nod before bursting through the shield and bringing his maul down again. This time, I saw Nero make a hand sign with one hand while shouting.
"Lightening Style! Thunder Clap!" He stole my favorite jutsu, the jerk. I smirked anyway watching as his maul collided with the earth, shaking it worse than before and sending a million shocks of blue electricity shooting through the air and along the ground. Kazuya jumped up, doing a back flip, only to duck as Akira swung his leg out to kick him in the back.
Nero then pushed off the handle of his maul, skidding across the dirt and kicking Kazuya good and hard in the chin, knocking him backwards. Akira swung his foot upwards into Kazuya's back, sending him into the air.
Unfortunately, the duet worked for only a bit before Kazuya burst into a puff of smoke, mud falling to the ground in clumps. I winced when I heard a sloshing sound behind me. I ducked as an explosion of water shot over my head. I whipped around to see Kazuya jump from the trees, a smirk on his face.
"I figured you'd come up with something like that, Ruriko! You never want to fight head on!" He announced and made a few hand signs.
"Water Style! Sea Needles!" Water seemed to take the shape of thin little senbon shapes, shooting at me. I winced and made quick hand signs, sliding backwards off the branch so I was falling. It was gonna hurt when I landed, but oh well! I bit into my lip as I finished the last hand sign, thrusting my hands upwards to release a huge flow of black fog.
It swirled around and coated the training field. I was expecting to hit the ground, but I found myself falling into Nero's arms. I winced and glared at him for it, but he was too busy training to make a smartass comment, thank the gods. He easily let me down and Akira joined us to look up through the dark fog.
"Nice job, Ruriko. That'll buy us some time." Akira muttered.
"Got any plan Bs?" Nero asked me. I frowned, studying the trees, listening carefully. The only sound I could pick up was the whispering of the black fog.
"I got it." I stated and made quick hand signs.
"Ruriko…!" Akira protested, watching my hands zoom through the hand signs. I smirked and ended it off, by thrusting my hands upwards.
"Lightening Style! Electrical Storm!" Spider webs upon spider webs of electricity spun outwards like crawling fingers, shooting through the trees and piercing the fog, causing it to shrink back. Even Nero flinched at my side when a spark of electricity lit up in his face.
"You're askin' for it." He muttered to me. I shrugged.
"He said it was training." I replied. A loud snap made us all jerk our heads upwards to see Kazuya burst from the flurry of electricity and fog, causing it all to flood away from him as if he was some kind of demon. I could see black scorch marks on his body and clothes, indicating that I had gotten him with my jutsu.
But it wasn't over.
No way.
Kazuya was making hand signs quickly.
"Scatter!" Akira ordered and we all leapt away as an explosion of water roared toward the ground. I skidded across the dirt, grimacing.
"Ruriko! Use a jutsu!" Akira yelled. I was already on it, making hand signs and sending several bolts of electricity zooming across the field. Kazuya easily dodged them, ducking and jumping as he made a hand sign.
"Wind Style! Tornado of Death!" I winced as the wind around us started to pick up, whipping at us and bringing about a flurry of cuts all over us. Pain ripped through my head more than the stinging cuts on my body. I hated wind jutsu… I noticed Nero keeping himself easily in place by jamming his maul into the ground. Akira was wincing, covering his face with his arm, which was practically getting shredded to strips of flesh. I grimaced and looked up as Kazuya released the jutsu, putting his hands on his hips.
"I think it's time you guys gave up." Kazuya stated, folding his arms over his chest. I blinked and stomped my foot, thrusting my finger at him.
"I'm sorry about this, but shut the hell up, Kazuya! We're not finished yet!" I yelled and slapped my hands together quickly. Kazuya gave me a weird look before quickly moving backwards as I held out y hands, allowing for another electrical storm to burst forth. He easily managed to dodge them, but missed when Nero raced forward, punching him in the gut. Kazuya winced and flew back, slamming into a tree hard enough to send bark flying. I beamed.
Wow, that felt pretty good, even if Nero was the one doing the hitting. Akira was just staring now, his useless arm dangling at his side. Nero went at Kazuya again, who was ducking most of the blows, getting hit a few times. I wondered for a split second if Kazuya was holding back on us. Eventually, Nero had Kazuya on his back, his maul easily rested on his shoulder.
Again, I wondered how strong Nero really was.
"We win. You're down."
Later…
Kazuya gave us money to get ourselves some food for beating him during the training session and we soon found ourselves back at the dinky ramen shop in town.
"Well, this is fun," Akira ranted, wincing as he leaned on his bandaged up arm, "We get to go into the Chuunin Exams with a bunch of band aids on us!" I rolled my eyes and continued to slurp my noodles loudly, watching the juice jump over the bowl. Nero just stared into his half empty bowl tiredly. Akira always had the energy to open his big mouth…
"Will you shut your trap already?" I demanded as I finished my third bowl and slamming it down, making Akira jump a little. His expression screwed up into one of annoyance.
"You can't tell me you're not the slightest bit peeved." He insisted, stabbing his chopsticks into the counter. I frowned for a moment, then shrugged. So maybe I was a little pissed. Kazuya shouldn't have made us work that hard right before the exams!
"If you're going to whine about this, maybe we shouldn't even be here." Nero said at last. Akira spewed his ramen all over the counter, making me wince and jerk away from him and closer to Nero.
"What the hell are you talking about?" He yelled obnoxiously, slamming his fists on the table. He was attracted unwanted attention to us, so I just shrank down in my seat when Nero glared at Akira, clearly aggravated.
"If you think your arm getting torn up like that is bad, we should just drop out. Do you think the exams are gonna be easy? Akira, I hope you're not forgetting those jerks from the Rain Village… You think they'll stop because you said Ow?" He demanded. Akira frowned. I looked at Nero's expression and he really looked kind of peeved. I don't know if it was lack of sleep, like me, or if he was just tired of Akira complaining… Either way, it was kind of creepy.
"What about you, huh? I heard you mutter a few times. Think you can handle the chibi brat and his henchmen?" Akira challenged.
"Better than you." Nero threw back. They were both glaring, so I took this chance to grab them both by the back of their heads, clenching their hair in my fists before I slammed their heads together. Not hard enough to crack their skulls, duh, but enough to earn a yelp from each party.
"Shut up, ya babies! You're both stressed from the training exercise. Let's just go back to the hotel and get some rest, all right?" I demanded, folding my arms over my chest. Both Nero and Akira rubbed their heads, groaning and muttering 'whatevers'. I sighed and heaved myself to my feet, hopping off the stool, only to smash into somebody. I immediately leapt back because of an eerie feeling I got when I hit this person. I looked up to find myself staring at a rather tall shinobi. He hid under a dark purple hood, his dark aqua green shirt hanging at least a foot past his fingertips with a matching pair of dark purple pants that seemed to change to the color of his shirt somewhere near his knees. All I could see was the glow of his pure white snow eyes, only a black ring separating his iris from the white of his eye. Strands of pale teal hair was hanging in his face and his expression seemed almost blank. I couldn't stop myself from staring at him.
"Ruriko, speak!" Nero's voice snapped at me. I jumped. The guy in front of me smirked and he laughed the weirdest laugh I had ever heard. It was an odd combination of high-pitched and scratchy. It reminded me of a hyena's laugh.
"Hehehe~ Sorry, little girl. All Botan's fault. He apologies!" He giggled childishly, clapping his hidden hands together. I grimaced, getting a really bad vibe off him. His snow white eyes were glowing and I'm not kidding. However, a woman came up beside him. She wore her white headband around her eyes, her dark magenta hair cut in a bob, save for two long strands over her temples. She wore a flower printed white jacket that only covered her boobs and pair of white pants that were bunched up into her tall, high heeled boots. She didn't speak, though, and put a hand on this guy (I'm assuming his name was Botan)'s shoulder.
Botan jumped, giving a squeak and whipped around to see the woman, his eyes twinkling.
"Nya! Miyuki, you scared Botan…! Such a meanie face." He muttered, but was grinning all the same. The woman turned her face to me and I stiffened. Even though she had a headband over her eyes, I felt like she was piercing me with a hard glare.
"Let's get out of here." Akira muttered, tugging on my sleeve, pulling me off. Nero was coming after me, but Botan whipped back around and made an odd cat-like cry and grabbed onto Nero's sleeve, which in turn made Nero yelp out loud.
"Waitwaitwait! Don't leave Botan! He wasn't done talking to you!" He protested. I could feel Nero stiffen beside me as Botan gripped his sleeve, tugging like a child begging for attention.
"Botan really wants to talk to Nero, he's so cute! Look at him, Miyuki! Botan said he was cute, yes, yes?" Botan giggled. I could see a flash of hot pink on his face as he pulled at Botan's grip, not speaking. Botan's white eyes flashed as a sly grin crept across his face.
"So very cute, indeed… Botan wants to keep you, yes? Botan would feed you and cloth you and bath you and-"
"Botan, let him go." A voice ordered. Almost immediately, Botan gave a that hyena laugh and jumped away from Nero as if he had touched fire. The excitement and violent look in his eyes faded and he seemed to shut down as he hung beside Miyuki, making way for an older guy, about the same age as the woman.
His silver, gold hair was tied in a loose ponytail, his eyes a deep dark gray that matched his yukata like top and hakuma. He also wore a silver coat with black square flaps over his chest and upper back. He looked oddly familiar, especially his eyes, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
"I'm sorry," The new man said, seeing Nero's terrified expression, "He has trouble controlling himself sometimes… Did he harm you?" Nero wasn't speaking. I think he was too scared to talk, so I jumped in.
"He's fine, thanks, but next time keep your dog on a leash." I snapped. Akira flinched and Nero snapped out of his daze, his aqua green eyes going wide before wincing. The new man smirked and reached out, pulling up the short sleeve on Nero's cloak to reveal a red mark on his bicep where Botan had grabbed him. I stared in awe.
How did that get there? I could have sworn that guy didn't touch him, just his sleeve!
"Sorry again," The man placed his hand over Nero's bicep, "He's a disobedient pet sometimes…" He slowly removed his hand, the red spot completely gone. I stared and blinked before looking up at the man, who released Nero's arm gently. The man had an amazing healing power, that much I could tell. However, Nero didn't bother apologizing. Instead he just flinched like he was going to be smacked and gave my vest a tug.
"Let's get out of here." Nero whispered to me, turning his face away from the older shinobi.
"Nero! You should thank that guy for fixing your arm." Akira hissed at him, elbowing him. Nero shook his head vigorously and didn't even look at the guy, who was smiling at us calmly.
"Pardon my rudeness… My name is Daiki… These are my teammates, Miyuki and Botan…" The man greeted with a bow of his head.
"Name's Tsukuyomi Ruriko," I replied, watching his eyes twinkle, "This is Nero and my brother, Akira." Daiki smiled.
"Ruriko… That's a lovely name… It's a pleasure meeting you three… I take it you'll be taking the exams?" He asked. I didn't know if he was trying to flatter me or if he was being honest, so I ignored the compliment.
"Yea. What about you three? Aren't you a little old to be taking the exams?" I asked. Daiki chuckled.
"No, we're not here to take the exams… We're here to watch. We're big fans of the exams." He replied. I noticed that Botan was giggling to himself as if he were hiding a big secret. He was rudely elbowed by Miyuki.
"Well," Daiki announced with a big smile, "We'll be off then… We hope to see you soon." He bowed his head and started walking away. Miyuki and Botan followed close behind. My eyes flicked after them just in time to see Daiki grab a hold of Botan's hood, probably also grabbing a handful of hair with it. I frowned and looked at Nero, who was looking pretty shaken up.
"Nero, what's wrong?" I asked.
"Yea, you're acting like you saw the devil." Akira agreed with a slight grimace. Nero gripped his arms as if to hug himself.
"I did."
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A/N: Kinda short… D': I've got ideas, but I'm having trouble how to work up to them, so just bear with me for a bit and then the juicy parts will come. :D! Ah, I rushed the ending, I noticed. Lol… I was excited to bring Botan in. o-o Making crazy Ocs is fun, gimme a break. :D! I'mma try and draw a better picture of him and post him up~ Anyway, thanks for reading, your OC entires are not forgotten, and your reviews are greatly appreciated!