Sorry I lied about not posting. Mom got a new laptop and I'm getting to use it so late I'm tired hope you love it Juura I've decided to keep you.
8-26-11 3:18 am Couldn't sleep-
So I gotta stop thinking about going back to drinking. Really, it's beginning to fry my nerves and that's the last thing I need right now. Ever since last week, Naruto, Gaara, and Neji have been at my place.
Kakashi and Iruka took Shikamaru to see some people in America for help. Supposedly they did some jobs and now the government owes them over there. Kiba and Hinata went home to tell Tsunade the news in person, and nobody's heard from Sakura since she 'went out for a drink' last Wednesday.
I think she decided to investigate by herself, but Gaara and Neji won't call her. They say it's her business. Kamurou and Kao are holding down the cafe, and Junko's minding the music shop while Stone's home with the four of us.
Naruto still hasn't woken up completely. He eats and drinks and I think he goes to the bathroom, but he's not awake. Not really. He cries sometimes in his sleep and never says anything...it's like he's a shell. No insides, you know? At least none he want's to let us know about.
His hair is strange. It isn't a dye, but it keeps changing. First it was orange, like fire, and then blonde. Now it's a dark red color. There doesn't seem to be a reason it keeps changing, but his eyes haven't healed either. Researching him, I found some pretty crazy stuff. Scary crazy. But nobody'll say a harsh thing about him or Sasuke. I guess if your friends think so highly of you, rumors are just rumors, huh? But what do I say when rumors are more than rumors?
I guess it's good I know when to just be quiet and let things go. I don't like when people ask things about me, so why put them in my shoes?
The city's calmed down again, ever since the freak out at the Tower Fair. I guess people think it was some sort of new tech from a huge company, but no more news casts have mentioned the freaky crap that went down.
I remember the snakes in the close space and watching, helpless, as we were quickly taken out, and Sasuke vanished. Then waking up. God, the first thing I thought of was those two horrible snakes and the darkness wasn't dark enough.
I could see Naruto crying silently, texting, but his eyes were purple and the tears were bloody and glowing and his nails were sinking into my shoulder and there was pain but suddenly he was gone, leapt inhumanly up, through the gap in the ceiling. Then, following slowly, I caught a glimpse of him clawing his way up the metal wall. I didn't question.
No- dropping back to the tiled floor, I waited in the dark for someone to save me. Because nobody would just leave an elevator in the middle of the building, right? Right?
Oh well. I guess I should start the coffee...
Juura-
Juura POV
Everything used to be just hunky-damn-dory, but I can't blame anyone but myself for getting involved. Not that I regret it. Mostly. Usually now I get up around four and start the coffee, turn on the television, and fall asleep again until seven.
But by then everyone else is gone and only Stone, Naruto, and Neji are home. Gaara works down at the cafe with the twins most days, and I give them a place to stay while they wait for news. They're taking the rest of their classes online at their school's site since they wanted to stay with Naruto.
Breakfast is whatever they get from the store down the street, and usually consists of cheetos, burgers, and cokes. It feels like there's all this energy, building up everywhere, but nobody has the motivation to do anything with it. It feels...sluggish.
Coffee keeps coming throughout the whole day, until dinner, which has been pizza four times, chinese twice, sushi once, and mexican six. One night it was toaster waffles with ramen.
Stone goes out of the balcony to smoke midday, and I call Kakashi and Hinata at five to check up. It feels like we should be doing something, anything, but we don't know what. Sasuke would know. That's what everyone seems to think, anyways. It's always there, like he was some kind of leader. But Shika makes sure to keep us in the loop by e-mail, giving us all the clues and data in case we have any ideas or know somebody they're investigating.
But it keeps turning up with dead ends. We have stuff pinned all over the living room walls, and some days Gaara just comes in and looks at it. Naruto wakes up like clockwork at noon and eats and drinks, watches the wall for twenty minutes, and passes back out. Every day, this is our life.
Until today.
Today someone called and wouldn't give me his name. He asked if I had his kid, and described the way Naruto used to look. I said why and he hung up.
Now, as I get up to answer the door, I have this twisting in my stomach. Not bad, but refreshingly new.
Opening the door, I'm bowled over by a man mid-age, with spiky white hair and a backpack hanging from one shoulder.
"Kid! Naruto, wake up. It's me, Uncle Jiraiya! Kid?"
I yanked him away long enough to find out he's Naruto's godfather, and explained our situation.
"What? So you guys aren't actually doing anything useful?" he sounded stunned, and I shrugged.
"But what can we do? It's not like we're ninja, or something.(A/N: lol. I had to) We don't have any 'connections'." He was already shaking his head.
"First off, where's Sakura? I haven't scared her off have I?"
"Uh, nobody knows," I said lamely, and told him about her break off with us and going it alone.
"What the hell? Everything falling apart. Can't I leave these kids alone for six years and just come back to find everything fine?" he said this non-chalantly, I might add. Freaking hypocrite.
"Six years!" he didn't pay me any attention, instead giving Naruto a cursory glance and looked around for the first time.
"Where is everyone? I thought you said Neji and Gaara were here?"
"Oh. Gaara's at the cafe and Neji's picking lunch up for Naruto and me. He should be waking up soon. Always does," I sighed, and collapsed, suddenly exhausted, into the brown La-Z-Boy by the couch, brushing my hair from my face.
The man sighed too, and sat on the floor by Naruto's head, shrugging his pack off.
"I'm Jiraiya, by the way, kid. Sorry about that creepy phone call."
Oh. So it was him. Good, that's a relief.
But maybe I should be asking about how he knew Naruto was here, and how vulnerable we were-
The blonde woman frowned deeply and groaned, hefting herself away from the big, ugly chair and said slowly, "How'd you find him, anyways?"
Shaking his head, he smirked. Or maybe it was a grimace.
"Too easy. Much too easy. I asked around this town. Your street. And it led me straight here. We've got to move him. I have a place. As soon as we can. Sooner, actually. Much too easy to find this place," he laughed wryly, and Stone came in, stopped, looked at Juura, then at Jiraiya, back again, and shrugged, going into the kitchen and pulling out a soda from the fridge.
"This is Stone. He's helping with...whatever we're doing," Juura chewed her lip and grunted, "Stone this is Naruto's godfather, Jiraiya. He's come to help too. Have you heard from Kakashi or Shikamaru, then?" she switched to the white haired man quickly, but he nodded faster.
"Yeah. Right after I got into town. They called and made sure I wasn't going to do anything rash. Probably wetting themselves sicne I hung up on them before promising."
As if on cue, the phone rang.
"When did you get into town, anyways?"
"Ten minutes ago. Flight from Russia."
Stone got there first, and said, "Yellow? Hey Shika. No, he's here. Yeah, we're okay. No, he's still asleep right now. Yeah. Uh-huh. Sure. Here," he tossed the cell to Jiraiya, and slurped his coke, hat shadowing any emotion while he listened.
"He-ey, Shika-no. Stop shouting, Kakashi. I wasn't going to do that. Hey-No! That was the one time, no wait. Twice. Okay fine. Yes, you had to eventually pay for it. I'm sorry. Yes, I'm here. Yeah, I know pretty much what happened. What have you found out?"
He listened for awhile before saying, "No. He's no good. Already dead. And Kakuzu and Deidara aren't taking sides, I've heard. Want to stay out of it altogether this time. Yeah, I know."
Juura POV
I wasn't sure what they were talking about, or who was dead, but Naruto woke up right then and stood, and Neji appeared in the still open doorway, white bags and a drink carrier in his fists. Static buzzed in my head, hurting my ears and pounding behind my eyes.
"What the hell? Jiraiya? Juura, what's going on here."
Too much. God-too much. I held up a finger for -one sec- and reached into the side table drawer, withdrawing a silver flask and unscrewing the lid, downing the burning liquid inside before Stone could stop me.
Ice raced down my viens and I got up, calmed down somewhat.
"So. Neji, sit down. I'll explain after I feed this one," I barked out, motioning both to the chocolate-haired man and Naruto, going and snatching the bags and a coke from him. Then, sitting by the now-awake Naruto and tossing him a foil-wrapped cheeseburger, shuffling another to Stone and taking the others out before dumping all the fries in the bottom of the bag for all of us.
It was ritual.
Jiraiya waved at Neji, grinning, and nodded, mm-hming to Kakashi and Shikamaru. Then, standing up, he took his phonecall to the balcony and I could he him gesturing wildly through the glass. Now that we were eating, everything seemed to slow down, like is was back to before.
But it wasn't, I kept reminding myself. It's not the same. Because now we're in danger and Naruto's godfather is here to help and we might actually start to do something. Now that I'd had a drink, the nervousness from before was morphing into quick excitement. I couldn't wait to do something. Anything but sitting here and being in the same tracks day after day after day by schedual.
"So! Stone, get the backpacks we bought from the hall closet. I'll get the flashlights and other stuff we need," I snapped as soon as we were done wolfing down the food. I took a sip, and waved away any questions.
Heaving myself into my room, I shuffled through the stacks of paper on my desk and opened drawers, grabbing our passports and the two black metal flashlights I'd gotten for blackouts. They needed batteries. Grabbing a full pack of them, I surveyed the rest of my room, grabbing three shirts and my stash of private credit cards, saved for an emergency. Ha.
Then, going to my backroom, I opened that closet and grabbed my only real weapon. A long, bat, with two dents on one side and an assortment of small to medium-sized nails sticking out of it on the other. I'm not sure why there's holes in only one side, or how the nails got there, but I don't like to look a gift man-in-a-pawn-shop-of-questionable-background-with-two-evil-eyes-and-a-shifty-face in the mouth. That's how people get shot.
But anyways, dumping everything into a sports weightbag, I added bandages, our toothbrushs, boxers of all sizes, and two packs of my hair scrunchies. Just to be sure.
Then, going around my room, I put everything else that I normally kept safe and sound into the only safe I had. It was small and black and under my dog leash. Aruheitō, my dog, was still asleep, curled up on her pad in the corner. She was an Akita Inu, and dark grey, almost black but not anymore, with large, soft blue eyes. There were many grey hairs where her muzzle and body used to shine black as tar, and she had no collar, her bushy tail over her nose and face. (1)
Whistling lowly, I called her over, tossing the leash in the bag too. Stuffing pictures and my Season Set of Bleach into the safe, I shut it and tucked the key under it like usual.
Meanwhile, Aru had meandered into the living room, and was wagging her tail at Neji, begging for a good scratching. He complies, and Stone dumps the load of backpacks on my bed next to the duffel.
"Whatever it is, I'm in. Whaddya need me to do, Boss?" He pulled his finger-less black cloth gloves tight and leaned on the edge of the bed. I smiled wryly, and sighed, looking around a few more times and saying softly, "Can you get a...well something sturdy to drive from Noir?"
His face darkened, and I understood. Noir wasn't exactly what you'd call trust-worthy, but we had no choice. Noir was also the best.
"But-"
"You said you were in. In, is Noir. I'm sorry. I know you guys..." I looked down, but Stone just mumbled, "Kay. What else?"
"We're leaving Jinko and Mizuru out of this one. Mizuru has finals and Jinko is finally off the drug. No stress. Got it? Don't even tell them about this. Kao and Kamurou have to come, since they've got the tech skills. Fill up one bag with stuff you'll need personally or things you think might come in handy. Fake IDs, money lying around, stuff like that..." I trailed off, thinking.
Stone, sensing he'd been dismissed, took a backpack and left, into his own room down the hall, and shutting the door. Neji came in and plopped down on the bed.
"What do I do? I know Gaara and I are coming-"
"No. You're not-"
He jumped up and started to shout, but I cut him off with a cold glare, with a little twinkle in my eye," You're not. Coming with us. But...you are going to do something for us."
Before he could say anything, I whispered, "There's a small shoebox under my bed on that side. Get it."
Once he had to old, battered up shred of memory, I said, "Open it. There's a notebook under the bullets and keys. Move the pictures out of the way."
Even without looking, I felt everything, every texture, like I'd put it there yesterday.
"Shift the medal off and lift up the false bottom. There. Beside the gun. Open it tp the page it falls to."
I wasn't even watching now, a lump in my throat as the visions rise up like bile and bitterness in my heart.
"Who's-"
Don't read it aloud. Everyone who's name isn't crossed off-call them and tell them I need them to come meet me. They'll understand."
Silence for a moment, and Neji whispered, "Who are you? Who are these people? And why is there a picture of you holding a machine gun in here?"
I didn't actually answer, instead re-inforcing, "Call them. I gotta pack. Get out."
And I went back to shuffling around for another duffel bag, digging it out from under my bed as the door clicked shut. My chest was thrumming and my hands were shaking so badly the strap slipped from my hold.
Flashback - 6 Years ago
"Ren, maybe you should reconsider. This is too dangerous," the teen said, her short spiky hair buffeted by the wind as the copter hovered over the dead space of ruin under them.
People were screaming, and the wings attatched to the blue-haired teen's back seemed fragile to her critical eye. But the pilot shouted, "Now or never. I've gotta get out of the fire-zone!" over the roar of the engine and the gunfire everywhere.
And he jumped from the open door, soaring onto a building far below, and giving her a faint shout, that was lost in the overwhelming noise. Swerving the machine, Kitty took them back to the landing pad a mile or so away, killing the engine as so as the rails touched down and flipping the door open.
Unhooking her safety harness, the younger girl hopped out right behind her, machine gun strapped to her back, steel-toed combat boots crunching on the gravel and bullet shells. Her dyed-red tufts poked out everywhere, blonde roots peeking out from the top.
"Hey-Runt! Aren't you gonna ask if he's checked in yet?" a gruff yet feminine voice asked from the cockpit of a small fighter jet off to one side, the tall, sexy brunette jumping out and tossing her the headset, an easy grin on her pretty features.
"Juura? That you?" Ren's voice came in clearly, static buzzing afterwards as she held the button and replied, "Yeah. You made it to the bomb yet?"
She chewed her lip as static held sway, and almost collapsed in relief as he came back in, "Yeah. But I gotta focus. Be safe."
"You too!" she whispered, even though she knew he'd already shut it off again.
"Now, for our part of this," Nani yelled, starting up her jet and motioning for Juura to get started. Locking the headset into place, she ran to the bunker and hopped in the tech control seat, giving everything a once-over and making sure everything was hunky-dory. The tracker said Ren was about half-way to the half-way mark, and Nana was on her way back. Nani, the 'nice twin', was just leaving, having re-fueled to take her sisters place.
Lia and Max had already been taken out on the way here, and thier dogtags was hanging on the young blonde's neck, next to her own, keys to thier fighters attatched. Juura's own read "Julia" on the front, and "Runt" on the back, next to a random serial number. From her place on her mat, the big black dog barked and wagged her tail.
"Good girl, Aru. Stay there."
Then, typing in a code, She sent the chat box over to Nana and quickly sent her a message, "R almst 2 drp point. Swtch off w/ N2 and rfuel."
They all called her Runt, but she was in charge of everybody except Max, and Max was dead. So they all took their orders from Juura. She'd been working for all kinds of people since she was twelve, and had more experience than most of them.
No family, no ties, and only allies she fought on a regular basis. The Twins included. Thier younger brothers, also twins, were living in Japan. Ren was new. He'd come recommended from America, and actually knew a thing or two about freefall and bomb deactivation and creation.
But the air was suddenly alive with explosions, and the main hub blew up, countless data chips smoked. Aruheitō was at her side in a millisecond, hackles raised, training kicking in. She got Juura through the hot, dead-smelling air and through to the ammo shaft, where she reloaded, grabbed a katana, slung a rail of shells through her belt and grabbed everyone else's key and dogtags, stuffing them in her pockets.
Then the bomb hit and everything went dark-
Juura POV
I shook like a leaf, but grabbed the full duffel, slinging all the slack bags over my shoulder and dragging both everything into the living room. I could hear Stone negotiating in the back, and Jiriaya was still waving his hands back and forth, thoguh a little less angry now.
Naruto was asleep again, and Neji was nowhere to be seen, probably on his way to the cafe to tell everyone what was going on.
I knocked on Stone's door, and called, "I'm going to the store. Be back in thirty minutes if Jiriaya asks.
Then, grabbing my own ratty backpack, I ran out, the bags on the La-Z-Boy waiting to be filled with water bottles and "Provisions".
Kyuubi/Naruto POV
It's dark, but bright as day, and we're in the dark dorm room, safe and sound, unmoving while Sasuke breathes. We count down the moments to daytime, when we know it will come. Then, as the memory goes, we wake up and laugh at Sasuke, hissing in hurt and the pain all over. It's back in the beginning, and now we recognize the looks Sasuke gives us-joy and love and depth.
Now we're in the car, driving to Sasuke's house and singing to the song playing on the radio, the raven next to us, rolling his eyes but mubmling the words under his breath.
Then it's dark and the fire around us is burning and we're roaring and people scream and katana slice at our arms to no avail. Nine long, blood-orange tails sweep through the trees, flattening hiding people and our energy encourages the flames to scorch higher and stronger and we scream for all the world to hear and be afraid of us. A kid runs out in front of us but before we can see her a barrage or pinpricks tell of us a katana being swung into our flank.
We are curled in the dark, sleeping in a cold, wet place that drips water and smells of memory and sadness. Anger and frustration, but a newly aquired softness too. We sigh, and are wrapped in warmth as our mate hold us close, human-noise in the background but our hands are clasped and I shift closer but soon we can feel the ache of emptiness and the end of the memory is getting closer, and the cycle starts over but before we can wake up we're suddenly aware. Awake.
In a whole new way.
(1)-Look up Aruheitō on Google Translate
Sorry, but Ed and Ryoumen aren't part o this. Gettin intense, guys! So grab yo popcorn, fools!