Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Harry Potter
Warning: There is swearing/crude language in this story from this point on. (Just thought I should give a heads up) Oh, also that I can't and have never spoken or written the Japanese language, so I'm gonna apologise in advance for the inevitable butchering. If anyone finds really bad mistakes, I'd be happy to fix em' up.
Posted: Friday, 27 November 2009
The Hidden Countries
Chapter 2
•◊ΰ◊•
Run.
Run as fast and far as possible.
Run for your life.
Eyes widen as they focus on the path that they are taking, discovering that there is no way to avoid the imminent collision with the large man standing in the middle of the street.
//Crash!//
The spectacle catches the eyes of all the people nearby and they watch as the small black-haired, green eyed boy struggles to quickly extricate himself from the tangle with the man.
The young boy yells "Sorry, jijii!" At the man before he stares back over his shoulder and yelps when a large man rounds the corner with an outraged expression, shaking his fist at the boy and shouting, "Get back here ya no-good thievin' gaki! When I get my hands on you I'll…"
Apparently the boy didn't want to discover just what the shopkeeper would do to him as he tucked the loaf of bread under his arm and shot off down the street, this time paying more attention to where he was going.
An impassive face from the rooftops had been watching the scene, facial features never shifting and with no emotions to speak of. He disappeared with this information to report to his leader.
The man that had been bowled over would just assume he had misplaced his money while shopping when he later noticed it missing.
•◊ΰ◊•
The black haired boy managed to slip away from his pursuer and made his way to the place that had been as close to a home for him lately – the top of the Hokage Monument. It was a fair distance, especially for a civilian, but the boy had long ago adjusted to such long runs, more for survival than anything.
He sat down on a large stone that was a little ways away from the edge of the large faces, enjoying the view.
He thought that everyone should go up there, but more often than not the villagers did not have the energy or inclination to travel the long road up to the top of the mountain, and he gathered that shinobi had better things to do than sit around and stare at scenery – not to mention they seemed to find the big stone faces something like a religious symbol to them, and he'd never seen any ninja accidentally hit it with one with their attacks like happened all over town at one point or another – everyone in Konoha knew that where there were ninja property damage would ensue.
This boy, by his count, had recently turned five years old. His earliest memory was of living at the Konoha orphanage, and that was where he had gotten his name – they called him Shimizu Kai.
Kai had found himself to be – for lack of a better word – smarter than the other children; more able to understand what the adults were talking about where children twice his age would be confused as to the conversations.
About two months ago he had heard that recruiters for the shinobi academy would be coming to the orphanage to look for children with 'promise', and Kai had seen the way the old woman's eyes flashed to him at this sentence, and then the way the old man had nodded in response.
That was what had prompted his escape from the place.
If there was one thing Kai didn't want to be, it was a ninja.
Oh sure, kids his age generally held high hopes in being accepted into the shinobi academy and he could see the way they jumped about and squealed in anticipation of maybe being picked; how they had dreams of rescuing princesses, exploring the hidden countries, seeing the ocean and deserts and becoming famous for their exploits.
But he was anything but normal, and he could see the reality of that naïve dream that the other children held. Shinobi were trained to kill. That was what they did, that was the only thing they were trained to be, and that was the only life they would know – most likely a short life, full of paranoia and hardship.
He should know.
That was why he escaped; slipping through the cracks in the system and running away from the possibility of being a shinobi of Konoha – that was not the life he wanted for himself.
Kai sighed and leant back against the rock, sunning himself and sporting a lazy grin.
Although life was hard and he often found it difficult to get food enough to feel truly full, it was a simple way to live and in his mind anything was preferable to becoming a shinobi. He had been able to exploit the system by getting out of sight – there were so many orphans lately that there were not very accurate records and the kids were frequently switched between them as they progressed in education levels and were sent to learn different things – essentially training so that they could get on their feet when they left the 'civilian' academy.
He was able to volunteer to run errands for shopkeepers to get money most times, but other times he had to fall back on thievery and his own cunning, although those talents reminded him of what shinobi were expected to do.
He wrinkled his nose at this thought but quickly banished it – the sun was shining, the birds singing and there was not a soul around – the perfect day, in Kai's experience.
But an arrival would change the course of Kai's short life towards something that he never wanted to be; taking his choice for the future out of his hands and making it unavoidable.
He would find out that day that some things were unavoidable, and Fate was sometimes something that was impossible to circumvent – and a malicious bitch, when it came down to the wire.
His green eyes opened as he felt a shadow pass over him, and he stumbled up and backwards in an attempt to escape the darkly clad figure that stood in front of him, staring blankly like he was carved out of stone.
This impression held in the young boy's mind until the statue's lips moved and the sentence that would dictate his future was uttered. "Shimizu Kai, you have been chosen to be a part of Root, one of the elite shinobi under Danzo-sama."
The voice was a monotone, showing not a hint of human emotion and brooking no argument.
Kai went white. He spun around with the intention of escaping, but he only took a few steps before he felt an impact in the side of his neck and his world went black.
•◊ΰ◊•
Kai's eyes fluttered open to a dark room, and he was instantly alert. His mind scrambled for some explanation of why he was in this particular setting – after all, he had been outside the last time he could remember.
He paused as a horrifying thought came to him. Or rather, memory.
He groaned and let his head fall back against the hard wooden floor as he realised that yes, he seemed to have been recruited as a shinobi, just not for the Hokage – for someone called 'Danzo'. He hadn't heard of anyone called Danzo, or anything called 'Root' but could guess that it was probably similar to some kind of elite branch, possibly going against the Hokage's wishes as the person that had appeared in front of him had not said anything about being recruited into the Hokage's shinobi force.
Something that he knew was not allowed.
His head started pounding and his fingers trailed up to rub his temples.
Whatever kind of organisation he had been kidnapped by, it seemed he was to be a shinobi – the one occupation that he did not want to be within two feet of.
"You are awake."
Kai nearly jumped out of his skin when a monotonous voice spoke clearly from above him – he hadn't even heard footsteps!
Kai turned his head slowly to see what would probably be able to fuel a normal kid's nightmares for months. He thought it was the guy that had just walked up and knocked him out, proclaiming he would be a ninja, but he wasn't exactly really trusting of his memories right now – he wanted to hope for the chance of having a hallucination or even being caught in some kind of sick genjutsu – he wasn't picky.
The tall black-clad man with the emotionless face and toneless voice stood over him like some kind of psychotic killer (Kai carefully avoided the fact that, as the man was obviously a shinobi, this was probably an accurate assessment) and he had ample amounts of intimidation factor around him, that made Kai flinch back a little in an attempt to put some distance between them.
Kai frowned, "Two questions." He said, in a voice that sounded like he was on the edge of hysteria. He held up to fingers to emphasise his point as he asked, "Where am I, and why the heck am I here?"
The ninja stared at the five year old boy with an intense calculating gaze, and Kai forced himself to not fidget while holding the man's gaze. The minute stretched on and finally the shinobi seemed to tighten his lips as though he likened answering the question with getting his teeth pulled, "You are at the Root training facility. You are here because Danzo-sama allows it."
Kai growled, although it can be said the effect was somewhat humorous to the hardened shinobi (had he been capable of such emotions) rather than portraying even an ounce of fear-inducing intimidation. Kai jumped to his feet and pointed a finger at the tall robot-man whilst drawing in a deep breath. The resulting explosion was far louder and more vehement than the root-member predicted; "WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN?! I NEVER ASKED TO BE KIDNAPPED OUT OF MY LIFE WITHOUT SO MUCH AS A BY-YOUR-LEAVE AND YOU TELL ME THAT IT IS A PRIVILEGE TO BE HERE?! YOU'VE GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME! I DON'T WANT TO BE A STUPID SHINOBI AND I NEVER WILL BE, UNDERSTAND?! SO YOU MAY AS WELL JUST LET ME OUT SO I CAN GET BACK TO MY LIFE WHILE YOU SHOVE YOUR SHINOBI EDUCATION UP YOUR ARSE!" Kai was shaking with rage and panting lightly when he finished, and his cheeks were slightly flushed and his hands clenched.
Kai felt a deep cold settle into his very bones and he flinched back from the cold glare the trained professional levelled at him. He couldn't help the kind-of-but-not-really wish that the robot-like blandness came back while he took in the very threatening person's expression.
The shinobi scowled at him like this for a few minutes, waiting until the small boy's breathing was under control before he spoke with a measured slowness, carefully setting the words out for maximum comprehension by the obstinate five-year-old. "Listen, gaki. You may as well get over yourself right now and learn to do as you're told, or else your life is about to get real bad real quick. For instance, you will not be leaving this room nor will you have contact with anyone other than myself until you can draw on your chakra easily. If you do not accomplish this, there are much easier and more satisfying ways of getting rid of you than releasing you back onto the streets."
Kai gulped in obvious fear as his blood ran cold – it didn't take a genius to hear the glaring threat in the shinobi's words and how they would be 'getting rid of him' if that happened.
Black eyes weighed the terror on the kid's face and became eerily neutral once again.
Kai stumbled backwards as the shinobi obviously reached for his weapon pouch, but he relaxed a little when a scroll was withdrawn.
Kai didn't even think as his hand reacted instinctively by grabbing the speeding scroll out of the air, inches in front of his forehead. He stared at his own hand weirdly for a second – he hadn't thought about that; hell he hadn't even seen the shinobi throw the thing! – but he quickly shook off the reflex action, examining the scroll curiously although reluctant to open it.
If the silent shinobi was surprised by the sudden show of reflexes, Kai missed it. The shinobi drawled patronisingly, "I'm assuming you can read…"
The green eyed boy stared flatly at the shinobi, refusing to answer what he deemed a stupid question, not to mention that he was silent and starting to come into the terrifying realisation that basically, if this guy wanted to kill him nobody would care overmuch – he was essentially viewed as 'cannonfodder' by whatever this 'Root' company was and nobody knew him that would send out a search.
The shinobi nodded as if expecting this. "Good. Complete everything on that scroll."
The statement brooked no argument, nor did the ninja hang around long enough to leave room for one.
•◊ΰ◊•
Kai was pacing the tiny room with all the agitation of a caged lion. His face was set in a fierce scowl (well, for a five year old) as he glared vehemently at the bane of his short life – something that may very well be the decider of whether he reached the age of six or not.
The tiny room, not containing anything resembling a bed (Kai counted himself lucky that he had found a camouflaged door that led to an equally miniscule bathroom) and was completely bereft of any thing resembling 'comfortable'. He had been forced to try to pick a cosy spot on the floor without a blanket to sleep – he was used to sleeping outside, but he had usually picked grass which at least had some element of softness to it, nor did Fire Country ever get as cold as it did in this damn cage – and was driven to new heights of frustration as he thought over his advances of the past however long he'd been stuck in the hell-hole.
Kai made to punch the wall, but his fist stopped just short of the wood. His fingernails made crescent-shaped marks on the inside of his palm as he forced himself to calm down.
He started pacing again, making his strides as long as he could. He counted the ten paces that would get him from wall-to-wall, and continued to do so, making another circuit of the room.
An outside observer would no doubt wonder just what could drive such a young boy to such heights of frustration.
Kai looked at The Scroll in askance, forcing himself to calm down – after all, anger had gotten him no where so far.
He abruptly dropped down to the ground, grabbing up The Scroll and flipping it open with the now-practised ease that portrayed familiarity that he'd rather not have.
He briefly threw his mind to the task of guessing how much time had passed in his battle to learn what the scroll explained about drawing chakra and he realised that it had been somewhere between seven and ten days, although he was going by the cycles of when the light would suddenly disappear from the room and he'd been forced to go to sleep due to the lack of light to see by.
Sure, The Scroll explained it easily enough. 'Meditate to find your chakra. Focus on the steady, warm feeling inside of you and then force it to go where you want it to go through your body.' Kai knew the words by heart, and all he'd found out was that he was pretty sure he didn't find anything remotely resembling a 'warm, fuzzy feeling inside which was steady.'
Kai wondered if he should be insulted that the scroll was obviously directed towards an audience of abysmal intelligence, but decided that he couldn't care less. He was unsure whether his inability to use chakra was something about his secretly persisting dream of avoiding becoming a shinobi or not. Kai rubbed his eyes wearily and slid them shut once again, focusing on 'not thinking, just being. You must attune yourself to the your physical and mental balance and contact your inner energy.'
Kai snorted. Really, it sounded too strange to him.
And not at all what happened when he closed his eyes, as well. He sighed out an explosive breath and felt a brief disorienting sensation as the world turned upside down for a split second before righting itself once again.
His eyes opened, and there was a drastic change to his surroundings. He couldn't find himself shocked at the change so instead he rose to his feet somewhat gracefully and started to pace around and examine his new surroundings once again.
It was illogical and totally impossible, but he had found himself on a large expanse of grass, which was loosely dotted with young trees with trunks that he guessed it would take two or three of himself to wrap around them all the way.
It was tranquil; much better than the windowless room that had become his prison for the last while, and he found it was an escape from reality – even though he didn't understand it.
He didn't see the root protruding from the grass before it was too late and tripped over it. He moved his arms to land properly but was shocked to see the forest shudder and melt away.
His eyes widened and he darted up from the ground, glancing around warily. The blurred surroundings sharpened and his jaw went slack at what he saw…
It was a bright day and Konoha was looking peaceful. Civilians were looking at the stalls that were carefully guarded by the vendors, and one could hear bird song and the sounds of children laughing in the distance.
A large figure cut a path through the crowd, a small boy hurrying to keep up with the long strides. It was apparent he was not succeeding in his efforts. The black-haired boy spoke, "Midori-san? Could you… please slow down? I can't keep…"
The small voice trailed off as the threatening man suddenly stopped, the young Kai barely managing to avoid running into his round girth. The man loomed threateningly over the now distressed boy and hissed, "You will only speak when spoken to! Don't you remember that nobody wants you? If you don't obey the rules, we'll kick you out – it's not like we couldn't do with the extra space! You have been chosen to learn to cook. Shut up and learn gaki!"
The green eyed boy went white and frantically nodded, going into a quick job and silently following the caretaker at the orphanage.
The surroundings shuddered once again and melted away, and Kai was left staring in the direction that he'd just seen a younger version of himself scampering off after the borderline abusive man that had been one of the people acting as overseer for the orphanage that he'd been sent to when he was three for a long few months.
A finger came up to massage his temple softly as he tried to make sense of what had just happened.
Firstly, he actually hadn't remembered that particular incident. That somewhat disturbed him, but he quickly left that feeling alone – he also had the strange feeling that what he had just seen was almost to be expected in this weird place.
He looked down at the ground and gazed suspiciously at the protruding tree root. He crouched down and prodded it, quickly stumbling back in surprise as a small version of what he had just seen played again.
He stood up again and started pacing.
Ok. What did he know? Well, he knew that he got to this forest when he focused on meditating. He also knew that what he had just seen must have been some kind of memory, but one he hadn't been consciously aware of before it played out before him in live action. Maybe…? Yes, that would certainly explain how in the hell he'd gotten into that weird forest…?
Kai rubbed his forehead and glanced around the clearing from a wholly different perspective. He ran through the quickly tossed together checklist.
Can't be real?
Check.
Weird stuff happening?
Check.
Nothing else around?
Check.
…Actually, now that he focused on it, there were none of the usual sounds that one would hear when close to nature, but it didn't make the forest feel oppressing like total silence in an unfamiliar place usually would.
Kai was tempted to bash his head against one of the trunks, but had no idea how much it would hurt hitting what was essentially his own mind.
Yes, you heard it correctly.
Kai scowled. Just how had he managed to get into his own mind? He'd heard vaguely of the Yamanaka mind-techniques, (who hadn't?) but he hadn't thought that there was a way for a ninja to get into their own mind voluntarily and without assistance from the aforementioned clan.
Much less poke around at memories while they were at it.
He crossed his arms and focused on getting the hell out.
To his immense relief, he experienced that peculiar sensation once more and felt himself once again sitting cross-legged on the unforgiving wooden floor. He immediately stretched out his arms and legs to stave off the beginnings of stiffness that was settling into his muscles and stood up, stumbling just a little in the process.
He glanced around before remembering that there was nothing in the room to indicate the passing of time – Kai thought it was probably some kind of torture technique, them not even letting him know how much time had passed – but guessed that he had probably been still for a while.
He resumed his pacing, subconsciously counting the ten steps from wall-to-wall as he riddled out exactly what he should do.
He caught a glimpse of The Scroll – the one that was causing all this trouble for him and was quite possibly going to be the cause of his death – and scowled. He almost exactly back where he started before the exercise, the only thing that had changed was the guess that the forest was a representation of his mind that he could somehow get to through meditation.
He spun around a kicked the dull wall viciously before swearing explosively and hopping around on one foot for a few minutes in an attempt to smother the pain.
"Kuso!" He mumbled a fair few others before dropping down to the floor, reaching for the infuriating scroll once again.
He looked at the description, scowling fiercely at the last sentence that dealt with tapping into chakra. The one sentence that had been pissing him off for the last week.
'It usually takes around five hours for a young child to first gain access to their chakra. It should take a further three to four weeks to be able to have the necessary conscious control over it to make use of it in any helpful capacity.'
His scowl twisted into a worried grimace. It was easy enough to guess that four weeks was his deadline.
And it had already been at least a week, possibly more. And he still had no idea how to even access his chakra!
Which meant that if he didn't make some breakthrough soon, he was in deep shite.
•◊ΰ◊•
Heya my honoured readers, welcome back! I know full well that Kai is way advanced intelligence-wise, but there are very good reasons for this buried in his past and you'll just have to wait until it unfolds! Heh, this is gonna be a lot of fun for me. :)
Oh, about the last name 'Shimizu' – well, I chose it cos it's a common last name in Japan (according to the net) and if you wanna know it means 'pure water' although that was coincidental – I just thought that someone would give him a generic name to fit him in with the villagers.
Skyflyte12