Sorry it took me a little longer then a month to update… I've been having some trouble with my PC lately… to be honest, I had to start this chapter like three times… sucks. But I finally managed to do this and so I'm updating. Hope you'll be satisfied after such a long wait.
Well, most questions were about that 'war' Naruto mentioned at the end of the previous chappie… well, this probably won't make you happy, but that statement was all I meant to reveal for the time being… to find out more, you'll have to wait for the kids to finish the Academy (it won't be THAT long… their first year ends with this chapter and the other three won't take long).
To those of you, who were a little disappointed about the fact that the kids didn't manage to defeat Hebiru on their own, I can only remind you that they're still just eight and he was AT LEAST on the jounin level… but don't worry, they'll get their chance to shine yet (Academy years arc is mostly an introduction to the characters and their relationships), you just have to be patient.
And now, without further to do, I believe it's time for the next chapter:
Chapter #5: Blind Girl's Tale
Title Page: Hitomi is walking through the beach with sandals in her hand ad is observing the water
The day after the scroll incident turned out to be a big surprise for the heroes of last night. Toramaru had no idea how the information reached their classmates, but everyone seemed to be aware of their little adventure and battle with Hebiru.
"Hey guys, is that really true?" asked Choumaru totally excited as he jumped near them. "Did you really fought Hebiru-sensei last night? Did you guys win? What was it about?"
Naraku only took a single step backward, sweat dropping, as Shunrai lowered her head, blushing slightly. Toramaru threw Garou a quick glare and seeing him shaking, he knew perfectly what was coming…
"It's was awesome!" yelled the dog ninja excitingly. "We so kicked butt! Especially I shown off my skills! You should've seen my Tsuuga! I simply wipe the ground with him! He was practically begging me to stop, but I…" at this point he was interrupted by the white-eyed boy, who was tapping his finger on his shoulder. "Excuse me…" he said to the chubby ninja and turned around with a whisper: "What?"
"I was just wondering…" replied the blonde. "How much truth are you gonna tell him?"
"You have to bend the truth a little, to make the story more interesting…" responded Garou.
The blonde didn't reply. He just left out a loud sigh and left the two boys talking about the last night's events as he sat in the front row next to Naraku and Shunrai. The blue-haired girl giggled slightly as she observed her friend and the moment Toramaru sat in his seat, she bended over to him and announced: "Garou-kun sure is lively for someone who complained about the pain in his back only few hours ago…"
Hearing that comment the white-eyed boy laughed quietly and threw the kunoichi a wide smile making her face redden slightly once more. Just then Naraku noticed his sister coming inside the class and waved to her to gain her attention.
The female Uchiha gave him an annoyed look and walked over to her sibling with the same, emotionless face the boy knew all too well: "What are you so cheerful about? You think that things changed between us? You're still a wimp and I don't care what pops said, there's no way you're equal to me… and if you think that you are, then it just proves how stupid you are!" and with that she walked further, sitting down few rows back.
"Well, there's no doubt that we're one, big, happy family…" Naraku sighed with a sad face as he observed his twin sister walking away. "And I really thought things will be at least a bit different then before…"
"She needs time…" Toramaru assured him. "Girls just tend to be weird…" and when he said so, they both heard a loud 'ekhem' coming from behind the blonde. The white-eyed boy turned around and gave Shunrai an apologizing smile while scratching the back of his head.
As all three of them started laughing, Kumo walked in an sat right next to Naraku. All of them instantly looked in the direction of the sunglasses wearing boy and the young Uchiha even lifted his hand halfway to greet their classmate, but noticing that the heir of the Aburame only threw them a quick glare from behind his glasses and then turned them to look at the blackboard as usual, he lowered the hand again and faced his friends again: "Maybe, but would it really hurt her to at least say 'hi' or something?"
"Well, you still can consider yourself lucky…" responded Toramaru. "You have no idea how sick MY family is…" and with that he let out a sigh as he turned towards Hitomi, who only threw him a short, death glare, before returning to talk with her friends. "So what else is new?" the blonde thought to himself sweat dropping.
Just then they all heard Shimiru's voice, coming from the hallway: "Gain way dudes!" and in an instant the blonde boy rode on his skateboard into the classroom, smashing against Garou hard, making both of them fall to the floor.
"I figured that after such a long time practicing, Shimiru knew how to stop…" stated Naraku, sweat dropping. "But at least he managed to quiet Garou down a bit…" and with that last comment all three started laughing again.
---Later that day---
"Mom, do I really have to do this?" whined Toramaru as Hinata, dressed in a yellow kimono, decorated with blue palms all over it walking with him down the streets of the Hidden Leaf Village. She had a dark blue ribbon tied behind her back, used as a belt and the symbol of the Hyuuga clan was visible on both sleeves of her dress. "Iruka's older, he should go…"
"Your brother is currently on an A-rank mission…" replied the woman simply, but smiling warmly to him. "And your father has important, Hokage business he has to take care off… even if you think you're too young for this, you have to come with me since I won't let you stay at home by yourself…"
"But I'm gonna die of bore…" announced the blonde. "Hyuuga meetings are long and boring… and besides, you said it yourself that it's unfair for only the Main family members to participate in them…"
"Yes, I did say that…" nodded the head of the Hyuuga. "In a way that's the reason I must come to this one… because I finally managed to do what your grandfather tried to achieve all those years…" and the moment she said so, they reached the gates of the Hyuuga estate.
In an instant Toramaru noticed another pair coming that way. The man, who was about his mother's age, he recognized immediately: long, black hair, grey top with wide sleeves, dark blue pants, Konoha hitae-ate covering the forehead and completely white eyes. The man who taught him most about the gentle fist, Hyuuga Neji. But his eyes almost went out of orbits as he saw who was walking beside his uncle: it was a girl his age with long, black hair, clipped into a bun, white eyes and wearing a brown kimono with black flowers all over it and the headband located in the same place where the man had it. It was Hitomi.
"Neji-niisan, I'm glad you came…" announced Hinata, bowing slightly towards her cousin and then turning to his daughter: "And it's good to see you too, Hitomi…" and with that she smiled warmly to the young kunoichi, only to see her bow out of duty. The head of the Hyuuga's face turned sad instantly at the sight, yet she regained her posture immediately. "I thought you was going to bring Hashira…" she turned towards the man once more.
"Well, that was what I was planning…" admitted the man with a smile as he placed his hand on the girl's head. "But I figure this meeting will be more… useful to Hitomi…" and with that he turned towards the blonde. "I see you came here as well, Toramaru-sama…"
"Not by choice…" replied the boy, making Neji laugh for a moment. The Hyuuga genius calmed down after a short while and then spoke to Hinata again: "Shall we go in then? On such a day we shouldn't make the elders wait…"
"Yes, you're right…" nodded the woman and then looked at her son: "Toramaru, please show Hitomi around while your uncle and I will take care of the clan's business…" and with that the elder Hyuuga walked into the estate, leaving the two kids standing in front of each other.
For a long while none of them moved an inch nor made a sound. Finally the blonde decided to break the silence: "So, how about we go see the gardens first? There are some, interesting flowers growing there, so I figure…" but he instantly shut up as Hitomi walked pass him and through the gate with 'whatever' escaping her mouth.
The boy stood there for a moment before following his cousin: "I knew that this whole meeting thing will suck out loud the moment I heard I was going…" he thought to himself as he ran after the girl. "Look, it's not my fault I was born into the main family and don't think that I like how Hyuuga…"
"Save it…" Hitomi interrupted him as they reached the garden. It was a round area surrounded with high trees and thick bushes on the edges. In the middle there was a small pound with a fountain and a sandy route that circled around it and around it there were hundreds of flowers, which shown all the colors of the rainbow. Two, stone branches were placed in front of each other on two sides of the pound. "The main family always tries to find some excuses… like the fact that every member of my family is burdened with that cursed seal, by saying 'it's to protect our bloodline limit'…"
"Hey, not everyone is like that!" announced Toramaru a little ticked: "My mother never…"
"It doesn't matter… the fact is that the main family is afraid of making all Hyuuga equal, because they know the branch family is stronger and bigger in number… try saying this is not true… even an eight-year-old like me can see this…"
"Branch or main, what difference does it make?" asked the blonde. "Since when birth state whether someone is strong or not? Maybe it's true what you said, maybe it's not, why should this matter? We're family and as such we should stick together! That's why my mother…"
"Stop talking nonsense!" demanded the girl angrily. "No-one from the main family is going to allow something like that! Even if Hinata-sama truly wishes to make both families equal, do you suppose she'll manage? Some things will never change… Just like the fact that you're so naïve…"
The blonde's eye twitched as he heard that and Hitomi smiled under her nose noticing that: "You wish to deny it? It can be easily prove… fight me here and now…" and as she said so Toramaru's eyes widen: "What?"
---That time, elsewhere in Konoha---
"So, tell me…" began Garou as he swallowed more noodles. "Since when Toramaru skips on free ramen? I said it was my treat…" and with that he looked at Naraku and Shunrai who sat right next to him in the Ichiraku.
"He had some… clan business as he called it…" replied the young Uchiha putting away his bowl. "Some important, Hyuuga meeting…" with that he shrugged. "But you should be relieve, just for him you'd pay more then for the three of us…" he joked, making the blue-haired girl giggle slightly.
"I see losers are enjoying their time together…" they all heard a voice coming from behind and as their turned around, they saw Gaki and his gang standing right in front of him.
Garou's face turned into a bored one as he spoke up coldly: "Great, now it's not only in school, you have to hurt our eyes with your ugly face outside the Academy too… this is a public place so I won't ask you to leave, but neither of us have any desire to talk to you, so do leave us alone…"
"Well, since you asked so nicely…" replied the bully with a smirk. "Then no… we will talk whenever I want to… unless you wish me to beat you up like the last time…"
"Yeah, five on one, that was a fair fight…" the dog ninja shoot back with anger showing on his face. Noticing that placed her head closer to her shoulders a little nervous and Naraku instinctually moved his hand nearer his shuriken hostel.
"Kinda like you guys and Hebiru-sensei last night…" stated Gaki with an evil smirk. "Don't play the victim, you know that shinobi life got nothing to do with knighthood… you do anything you can to survive… and so I wanna check out what people who fought against a chuunin are really capable of..." and with that his face became grim: "I will never accept that those losers can be consider stronger then me… I'm gonna prove her and now that they're just a bunch of show offs…"
"Get lost…" replied Garou as he turned his back at the bullies and grabbed his chopsticks again, only to get pulled by the collar from behind and land on the floor with his eyes set on Gaki who was the one to pull him of his chair.
"I'm not taking 'no' as an answer… you don't have to fight back if you don't want to, but rest assure that I'm not gonna leave just because you don't feel like fighting… either way, you'll be send to the hospital today…"
In an instant Naraku lunched a kick at the bully's head and Gaki reacted immediately by throwing his fist towards the young Uchiha. But to everyone's surprise, before any of the attacks connected, Akumo appeared between them and grabbed Gaki's hand and Naraku's leg with his hands.
"Quite impulsive, aren't we?" he asked no-one in particular. "Chill out… this is not the time nor the place for something like this… and Iruka-sensei wouldn't be pleased when he'd find out you guys had a fight even if it was outside the Academy walls…"
"Stay out of this, weirdo…" demanded Gaki through clenched teeth. "This is none of your business… unless you want to get on my blacklist too…"
"I don't…" assured the glasses wearing boy. "I'm pretty sure you'll get a lot of occasions to try yourself with them in a way that won't get you in trouble, so why don't you just calm down and leave it for now?"
The bully narrowed his eyes and kept staring at Akumo for a moment before he let go of Garou's collar and headed towards the exit with his gang following him. Naraku let out a sigh of relief and Shunrai smiled slightly as she turned towards the glasses wearing boy: "Thanks you, Akumo-kun…" she said shyly. "It was nice of you…"
"Don't mention it…" came a quick response. "But you guys really should stop getting in Gaki's way… he's not a nice guy and once he'll set his eyes on you, he won't let you live…"
"Yeah, we know…" the dog ninja assured him, getting back to his seat. "Say, you wanna eat with us? We're kinda missing one person anyway…"
"No thanks…" replied Akumo after a short moment with no emotions showing on his face as always and then he left Ichiraku as well. Naraku glared after their classmate for a while before turning back to his friend: "He's really a weird type…"
At that time Gaki and his followers reached the end of the street. The bully looked at the wall that stretched along the street, holding back his anger. He clenched his right fist which suddenly got surrounded with chakra circling around it. In the next moment he punched the wall with it, making the brick wall go into pieces as he breathed heavily.
"Those losers…" he said, still holding back his anger. "There's no way I'm gonna let them surpass me… I won't allow anyone to surpass me! Never again… will I make that mistake, father… I'll be the strongest there is…"
---Back at the Hyuuga estate---
Hitomi lunched another attack with an opened palm, aimed at Toramaru's chest, but the blonde managed to side step the assault and grabbed the girl's hand the moment it went pass him with his left hand.
In an instant he lunched his elbow into the girl's face, but the young Hyuuga spun on her foot and in stead it was her that manage to hit the boy in the back of his head (A/N: not with the Jyuken though).
Toramaru let go of Hitomi's hand and bending his knees slightly, he spun around, lunching two attacks at the girl's chest (A/N: now this sounds like he's a pervert hehe), but the young Hyuuga managed to deflect both assaults by hitting the blonde's wrist the moment his hands came close enough, thus changing their route before they reached her.
The girl acted immediately and seeing an opening, she threw a kick, aimed at the boy's chest, but the blonde managed to block the incoming attack with his own knee, by raising it up and placing it in the way of Hitomi's leg.
Instantly Toramaru placed both his hands on the girl's leg and used it to lift his feet of the ground. The young Hyuuga was so surprised, that she didn't manage to act in time and received a powerful kick in the chest, which send her flying back a few meters before landing on her feet.
The moment her feet touched the ground, she felt to her right knee and grabbed her stomach. The blonde eyes widen as he ran towards the girl a little worried: "Hitomi, are you okay?" he asked, but the second he got near her, the young Hyuuga got back to her feet and lunched an attacked with an opened palm into his face. The boy was so shocked, he didn't even managed to make a move in order to block the assault and was send flying back a bit, landing on his back.
In an instant Hitomi appeared next to him and held her kunai near his throat. "You see?" she asked with an emotionless voice. "Once naïve will always be naïve… even, if the act like they did, people can't change… and because of that, Hyuuga won't change… by stating that 'things will be different'… were you really trying to convince me… or yourself?"
"You're wrong…" announced Toramaru calmly. "People can change…" and the second Hitomi's Byakugan noticed, the blonde's body emitted chakra, pushing the knife away from the boy's neck and as the Hokage's son rolled on the ground, the kunoichi got blown away.
Immediately Toramaru bounced off the ground by placing both his hands on the surface next to each other and pushing back at the same time. As he got back to his feet, he saw Hitomi landing safely and preparing to lunch herself at him again.
In an instant he charged at the girl and as she held out her left hand, he grabbed her. As Hitomi's eyes widen, Toramaru spun on his foot and when he had his back turned towards the kunoichi, he threw her over his shoulder, making her land hard on the ground.
Without letting her hand go, he stated: "The change may not always be visible… and maybe they can't change completely… but they can change… they learn and thus they make choices… branch or main family… everyone makes their own choices…" and with that he lowered his sight. The girl stared at him as he continued after a short while: "My father told me about a fight he once had with your own dad… Neji-san was once quite similar to you… but you know, complaining and crying never changed anything… in stead of waiting for things to change, you should do what is in your power to make the difference… just like my mother and your father are now…"
As he said so, Neji walked out of the estate and noticing some dirty on the children's clothes, he asked: "Did something happened?"
Hitomi just threw a quick glare at the blonde and then, turning back to her father, she replied: "Nothing really… just a little sparring match…" and after that she hesitated. Hyuuga genius's eyes narrowed slightly as he waited for her to continued: "Did… did you convinced them?" she finally asked.
Neji let out a sigh as he gave his daughter a little sad glare while bending his knees. Smiling warmly to her, he placed his hand on her head and announced a little quieter then before: "No… things are gonna stay the way they did for now, I'm afraid… but don't worry, neither Hinata-sama nor I will stop trying…"
"What's the point?" asked the kunoichi disappointed.
The man looked at her for a moment. His face sadden slightly, before he replied: "I know how you feel… coz when I was your age, I felt the same… but someone tough me that just sitting there and whining about it won't do change a thing…" the moment he said so, he threw Toramaru a quick glare, smiling to the boy slightly. "Our future is in our own hands… the only thing we can do, is to do what we can, to make it look the way we want it to… that's why I'll keep on trying… that's why you should do the same…" and with that he stood straight again: "Toramaru-sama, please tell Hinata-sama that I thank her for today… I believe Hitomi and I will take our leave now…" and so he bowed and headed towards the gate.
The young kunoichi stayed behind a little and throwing the blonde one, last glare, she ran after her father, with a thought flying in her mind: "People cannot change… no matter what everyone says, I know they can't… but since that is so, I'll do what I can, to change them!"
And so another day in Konoha ended…
And along with it, another chapter… hope you enjoyed it… next time there's a time-skip and you'll get to see the shinobi wanabies in their second years of the Academy! So tune in again next time! See ya!
No jutsu this time… but there's always character profile and this time around it'll be about one of my, personal favorite characters, Shunrai… but before that I bit of an add-on to the names from the first chapter. One of the reviewers drawn my attention that 'Hyuuga' means 'in the sun'… and after searching a little more, it turned out that he's right, so I figured some of you would like to know… thanks Brian… and now to the profile:
Name: Shunrai
Family: there's really no information about her family… all that's known is that she originally came from the Hidden Cloud Village, but was found on a battlefield when she was just one-year-old… a single mother from Konoha took her, but she also died, leaving the young kunoichi on her own… at this moment Hinata is the one who takes care of her by dropping at the girl's house and making her something to eat along with cleaning
Bloodline limit: no information
Clan's Abilities: electric jutsu
Birth date: 2nd of November
Age: currently 8 years old
Blood type: 0
Favorite food: none… she prefers meals with no meat though
Favorite quote: none
Favored fighting style: ninjutsu
Village: Konoha (Hidden Leaf), previously Kumo (Hidden Cloud)
Rank: Academy student
Team: not assigned yet
Techniques (used so far): Raiton: Denryuu no Jutsu (Lighting Element: Electric Current Skill)
First appearance: 1st chapter
And this is it for this time. Hope you liked it and that you'll keep on reading.
Best wishes and until next time, hopefully.