Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein (BtVS, Naruto, SM, Ranma). They are the rightful property of their respective creators and associated companies. I make no profit off of this whatsoever. I write because it's fun and because there are those that enjoy reading my stories. Therefore I would appreciate it if no one took legal action against me because I can guarantee that whatever you get from me won't cover even half of your legal fees.
A Little Past 1A.M, Team Anko's HQ/Home, Anko's POV
"She's asleep?" she asked as Xander-kun entered the living room.
It had been a little over an hour since he'd radioed the rest of the team telling them that he'd hooked up with Faith and had managed to defeat Kakistos with the help of two of the Chinese amazons. Neither Ayeka nor Hana had exactly been pleased with that turn of events but realized there wasn't a lot they could do about it since it'd already been done. She'd ordered him back to their HQ along with the rest of her team but had been surprised upon arriving at the dojo outside of town to find the potential Slayer being carried into the residential room. She'd asked him why he'd brought her to their home outside of Sunnydale and the response he'd given her had given her something to think about.
'She needs a home. I intend to give her one.'
That had left Hana going to the kitchen for a snack, Ayeka going to the targeting range to vent her anger at the amazons scoring points against her and, as for her, she'd gone to the living room to watch some TV. She had waited and, while it had taken twenty minutes for Xander to show up, it had been time she'd used to decipher his statement. On the surface it sounded innocent enough in that he wanted to give her a better place to live then some trashy hotel room that was open to vampires. Plus, if it was a temporary thing until the potential Slayer got relocated with a new watcher, then she had no trouble with curtailing her team's training until the girl left.
However she suspected that there was more to it than what was on the surface.
Everything she'd learned so far about Faith Lehane told her the girl had gotten the shitty end of the stick way more than the laws of probability should've allowed. Unknown father MIA more due to the fact that the mother had been too stoned or drunk to remember the fucking that gave birth to the potential. Her own sources had been able to dig up info on the mother, one Rebecca 'Revy' Lehane, and it personally made her want to find the waste of space so she could try a few tricks Orochimaru had taught her. Indeed, if she knew where her former sensei was, she was sorely tempted to stuff Revy into a crate and send the monster one more specimen for his experiments. The woman had a history of substance abuse and, as a result, tended to associate with scum in order to feed her addiction. It was her belief that the only reason the woman hadn't abandoned her daughter immediately is because she saw her offspring as a future source of income.
She knew that Xander didn't even have one source outside of his friends but the boy had a knack for seeing more than most people did and she wasn't referring to his Sharingan.
The young Uchiha probably saw enough from how Faith acted and moved to draw up a pretty accurate idea of what her life was like back in Boston. Considering her student's own family history, something else she had her sources look into on a whim, she had every reason to believe that he saw the potential Slayer as a kindred spirit. If that was the case, then his White Knight complex would compel him to do everything in his power to make sure she got a shot at a good life no matter what. That could prove problematic if Xander wound up doing what she suspected he was going to do.
"Yeah. Probably won't be up an' about until noon," Xander replied before sitting down on a vacant chair. "Tonight really wore her out."
"Not surprising with all the running and the fighting she did," she said, imagining how hard it would've been to someone with little combat training to endure such an adventure.
"Yeah. She's lucky she managed to make it through." He looked out the window to the darkness outside, "With all those vamps there, I couldn't do much without going ninja on their butts. If Lotion and Perfume hadn't been there, I'd have had to cross the line Tsunade-hime set for us."
"It's a good thing you didn't. I might not catch more than glimpse of that ANBU the fossils assigned to us at a time but I know he'd rat us out in a heartbeat if we went too far," she said reminding him of the vultures that were waiting to exploit their mistakes.
"I hope he's more reasonable than that or there's going to be trouble."
"What do you mean?" she asked, almost dreading the response.
"I plan on teaching her how to fight." he replied without any hesitation.
"No, you're not. You know the rules of us being here and the treaty we have with the Council," she said firmly, hoping to nip this particular problem in the bud. "No one outside of the team is to learn anything about our techniques outside of what they figure out on their own."
"Yes, I am. There are plenty of techniques that every village knows and uses," he said without any sign of rethinking his choice. "I'll only teach her those and a bit about how to use her chakra to be stronger and faster. As long as they aren't Konoha specific, Tsunade-sama and walking corpses shouldn't throw up too big of a fuss."
She had to admit that he had a point.
There were quite a few techniques that every village used with the only differences being cosmetic at best. One example would be bunshins or clones. Sand ninjas made theirs out of sand and ninjas from the hidden mist village used water. If Xander did stick to such techniques, as well as basic chakra enhancement techniques, then Tsunade-sama should be able to keep the old war hawks off of the Uchiha's back.
Still…
"Make up a list of the techniques and moves you're going to teach her. I look it over with Hisoka and make sure they're safe to teach her. No matter what ones get X'ed out, you will stay away from them. Good enough?"
"Good enough," he said with a grateful grin. "Honestly I thought you'd outright tell me no but it's nice to see I was wrong."
"I've gotten to know you pretty good since you were assigned to my team, Xan," she said with her usual smile. "Even if I'd threatened to kill you if you taught her, you'd still do it. This way at least I'll have some say in what Faith is taught."
"Smart," he said with his usual lopsided grin.
"Damn straight, kid, and don't you go forgetting that!" she said with mock seriousness in her voice. "Now don't stay up too late. I know firsthand that teaching takes a lot out of ya until you get used to it."
She walked out of the living room and went to her bedroom to catch some sleep. She also knew from past experience that it'd require a lot of energy to convince Hisoka to let her second in command to teach the potential Slayer anything, even if it is just the basics. Hopefully, though, if she said something like 'even if she masters the moves, a genin fresh from the academy would still kick her ass', it'd be enough to get him to agree. Indeed it would take years of training and real in the field experience for the potential Slayer to become anything remotely resembling a security risk to Konoha. By that time, hopefully the old fossils would be worm food and Tsunade-sama would be able to relax the restrictions enough to allow the further training she had a feeling Xander would give Faith.
Then all they'd have to worry about were the old farts in the Watcher's Council trying to use the girl as a means of stealing shinobi secrets.
That would be when things would get complicated.
The Next Day, Team Anko HQ, Morning, Ayeka's POV
"What's with all the yelling?" she asked, half asleep as she entered the main living room of their HQ.
"Xander got a little pissed at the ANBU but it's all good now." Hana said from her position leaning against the wall.
"Pissed? About what?" she asked finding it surprising that the ANBU Hisoka actually came out of hiding.
"Turns out Wannabe's going to teach that Boston Slayer some jutsu," Hana replied sounding somewhat annoyed.
"WHAT?! But Tsunade-sama would have a fit if he did that!" she exclaimed, unable to believe that her future husband was defying the Hokage like that.
"Yeah, that's what I though,t but according to Anko-sensei he's limiting it to stuff that every village can do. Nothing Konoha specific." Hana explained, still not quite in a good mood about it all. "Xander was yellin' because he and the ANBU were arguing over what he could and couldn't teach Faith."
She thought about that for a moment and she was mostly okay with it. If the ANBU was willing to sign off on it, then Team Anko wouldn't get into trouble once they made it back to Konoha. However she had to wonder what had brought this on in her inevitable spouse since he'd only known the girl for less than a week. Sure, she sorta felt something for what the east coast girl had gone through with her Watcher and everything but going from that to teaching her basic shinobi techniques as a bit out of left field from her point of view.
Well, since it's something he's decided to do, then I guess I'll let him do it for now. she thought as she turned around and began to head for the kitchen for some breakfast. If that Southie bitch tries to put the moves on my man, though, she's gonna learn the way of the ninja the PAINFUL way.
Going about what had become her normal routine since coming to Sunnydale, she took two slices of bread out and popped them in the toaster before getting the frying pan ready for her eggs. As she did so, she began thinking about what she'd be doing today but thankfully it was the weekend, so pretty much anything was doable for her. She'd probably stick around HQ for a little while to see how Xander's training of the potential Slayer went and, if it got boring, she'd check out the local mall. While the clothes she wore back in Konoha didn't entirely stick out, she'd seen the need for a more American look. A few odd looks walking down the street had made it clear that there were enough differences between her and the locals for people to notice. Since one of the key skills of a ninja was being able to fade into the background, she needed to get a whole new wardrobe so she could blend in perfectly.
Of course it wouldn't hurt if a few of the outfits she picked were sexy enough to catch Xander's eye and hold it for a few minutes.
They unofficial date at the Bronze when they'd first spotted the Boston potential had been good for gaining ground into his heart but she wasn't content to let it stop here. She'd keep going until he had no choice but to openly call their little outings dates because, once that happened, she'd officially be able to lay claim to the title of girlfriend. That'd put her far ahead of those Amazon bimbos and, by the time that they managed to come up with anything to catch up, she'd be walking down the aisle in her wedding dress.
Hmmmm. That's something I'll need to start thinking about now if I want everything to be perfect on the big day. She thought as she cracked open the shells of the eggs she'd chosen, Traditional Konoha wedding or American wedding?
She'd given her wedding some thought ever since she began noticing guys in a romantic way but had never gone past the basics since she wanted to wait until it looked like it'd really happen. She knew her mother wanted her to wear a wedding kimono that had been passed down in their family for five generations but she was a little wary of that since she'd seen the thing and it was getting a little… worn looking. Sure, when it'd first been made it was probably something pretty but all her eyes could see were the loose threads and the signs that it'd been washed many times. She'd seen a few kimono's that had been just perfect but one look at the price tags had pretty much forced her to put thoughts of purchase on hold. With her own income as a shinobi mixed with what she'd gotten through other means, she just didn't have enough.
Not if she wanted more than JUST the kimono.
Since Xander's gotten every ounce of Uchiha property signed over to him, though, I can start thinking more high class with my wedding plans. she thought with a smile as her imagination began to show her images of what could be.
With that in mind she went back to her thoughts on what kind of wedding they would have together. Her initial instinct was to have a traditional Konoha wedding, with everything being the best money could buy, but then she considered the potential legal work. Sure, if they got married back in Konoha it'd be legal there as well throughout the shinobi region but what about here in America? Xander would likely travel back and forth between his two homes frequently, so it would only be natural that their marital status be made official in both locations.
Maybe we can have two weddings! she thought as a smile blossomed across her face.
She couldn't help but giggle with happiness as her mind showed her images of herself in both types of wedding dresses, Xander standing by her side wearing a matching outfit. It would without a doubt be the greatest two days of her life and she'd do just about anything to make the images in her mind a reality.
Even if that meant some less than ethical tactics against her rivals, the Chinese Amazons.
Filing away her happy wedding day thoughts, she considered the various effective yet not really harmful options she had at her disposal. There were quite a few to choose from since she'd learned early on that eliminating potential rivals was just as important as making herself irresistible to the man she'd set her eyes on. She knew just what to do to put an unsightly rash on an enemy's face and just how to slip something into her foe's food or drink to keep the girl in the bathroom for hours. Naturally there was some margin for error since each person was different but not once had someone she'd eliminated from the running required serious medical attention. A few pills? Yeah. Some medical cream? Sometimes. Anything involving surgery or potentially life threatening procedures? Not a chance.
She'd need to gather a few ingredients and, while they would've been easy enough to get back home, she'd have to do some searching around here in Sunnydale. Once she had a better idea what she had to work with, she could begin to formulate some plans of attack.
Hearing footsteps, she turned to see her future husband enter the kitchen looking a little annoyed still but not as much as the yelling earlier had made her think he was. Seeing him go to the cupboard, she knew he'd be going for that obscenely sweet cereal she'd given a try once but then had a moment of inspiration that she seized with both hands.
"Why don't you let me cook something for you, Xander-sama?" she asked politely with a smile that'd fit on any wife's face. "If you're going to start training Faith, you're going to need something a little more filling than cereal."
For a minute he paused, obviously thinking it over, but after about half a minute he reached the decision she'd hoped he'd make. "Okay, but keep it simple. I plan on getting Faith up in an hour to start her training. Assuming she lets me, of course."
"I'm sure she will. After seeing you in action last night, she'll probably be very excited once you tell her."
Personally she hoped that the potential Slayer turned down her future husband because, if the girl from Boston said yes, then the training sessions would seriously cut into her seduction schedule. The worst part of it was that she couldn't think of many ways she could cut into such sessions to apply her wiles in an effective manner. Sure, she could offer to help with the training but that'd require that she focus most of her attention on Faith rather than the head of the Uchiha clan.
Here's hoping Lady Luck smiles on me later.
Eighty-Five Minutes Later, Faith's POV
I wonder what he wants with me. She thought as she walked to the doors at the end of the hallway, Probably what most guys want.
Indeed, it was safe to say that her opinion of guys was somewhat jaded but she preferred the term realistic. While there were some that weren't too bad, none of them could escape certain impulses that were hardwired into them. As far as she was concerned, genuinely nice guys were nothing more than a myth, a hypothetical possibility, and that the only ones she'd ever run into were of the half nice variety. Those were the sort that, while nice for the most part, still fell victim to their dicks the moment a girl flashed them some skin and would sell you out so long as the price was right. Seeing as how he helped her take down Kakistos, she figured this little meeting of his was to hand her the bill and that meant either money or being his fuck toy for a couple of days.
If it was the former, she might be willing to pay depending on the amount. If it was the latter, she'd tell him the same thing she'd told every other guy who thought he could make her put out: she'd tell him to go screw himself.
She just hoped that this little meeting wouldn't end like some of the worst of the others had or this was going to be yet another memory she'd have to suppress and yet another man added to the list of those she'd extract payback from if she was Called in the future.
Pushing the doors she'd been directed to open, she was a little surprised to find that it was a dojo straight out of a kung fu movie, complete with wooden practice dummy and wooden weapons. Sitting at the far end of the room was Xander looking, for all intents and purposes, like the master of the dojo, clothes and all. He looked to her as soon as she set foot in the dojo but looking into his eyes, she was somewhat surprised to not see any lust there or any cruelty. However she believed this was merely because she didn't know him all that well or that he simply was quite good at concealing what he was really thinking from others. "The others said you wanted to see me."
"Yeah. I've been thinking about the fight last night," he said with his tone of voice betraying nothing. "You did pretty good against those vamps but you could still get a bit better with the right training."
Here it comes. She thought as she felt the buildup to the 'cost' beginning.
"While I don't know how long the Council is going to let you stay in Sunnydale, I'd like to help you get stronger while you're here." He rose to his feet, "I can't promise I'll teach you everything I know but I'd be willing to teach you what I can while you're here."
"Oh yeah? What'll these lessons cost me?" she asked, her skepticism and lack of trust leaking into her voice.
"Nothing. I'm offering to teach you for no other reason than I don't want to see any Slayer, potential or otherwise, die any sooner than necessary." His reply had no tells showing indicating that he was lying or trying to manipulate her. "Besides… I have a feeling that if we compared pasts, we'd come up even in the crappy memories department."
"Yeah, right," she snapped as she saw that he was taking the 'I know what you are going through' route to get into her panties. "Like you have anything that comes even close."
"Well how about I tell you and then you can decide if I've had a great childhood or not." He had no anger but his eyes did narrow a bit, "My step-father was an abusive drunk and for as long as I can remember, he's used me as either a physical or emotional punching bag. Thanks to him I have a medical file at the hospital as thick as most state phone books. Thanks to his drinking, I had to make due with whatever I could afford at the local thrift store when it came to clothes and when I wanted to buy my best friend a birthday gift, I had to sift through the cushions on the couch to afford it.
"On my sixth birthday my parents hired a clown as entertainment but the asshole came to the party drunk, terrorized me and then threw up all over my birthday cake. I can't take my dad anywhere because, whether it's parent teacher or a friend's bamitzvah, he'll ruin it for sure by saying or doing something crappy," Xander explained with more and more emotion leaking through into his voice. "For most of my life my mother was an apathetic doormat who pretty much did whatever my Dad wanted and never once told him where he could stick all his bitching and complaining. She spent most of her time at work, seeing as how my Dad couldn't hold a job to save his life, and most of the time she spent at home was completely taken up keeping the place from violating several health and safety rules. So you tell me Faith, did I have it easy compared to you?"
For a few minutes she simply stood there while her mind tried to figure out if he was bullshitting her or not. It wasn't impossible that she was being fed a boatload of crap but something told her that what he had told her was the truth. That didn't mean he wasn't like other guys, though, and she refused to let down her guard even if she did sorta sympathize with what he'd probably gone through. After all, if all the psycho-babble she'd heard was true, then abuse was a cycle, which meant it was probably only a matter of time before he started acting just like his old man.
Still, it couldn't hurt to see if he had anything worth learning.
"Maybe not, but who says anything you've got to teach is something I want to learn?" she asked with a bit of toughness in her voice. "D taught me some pretty kick ass moves and she was a Watcher. You saying you can top her?"
"Oh, I think I might know a few tricks you'd like to know." Xander replied before walking towards the nearest wall.
For a moment she thought that he was going to punch the wall or maybe get something from it but what happened next was something she never could've predicted. Without any pause or preparation, the teenager who'd offered to train her while she was in Sunnydale began to walk up the side of the wall. Up the FREAKING WALL! It didn't stop there, though, because as he ran out of wall, he began to walk on the CEILING! By the time he came to a stop, he was upside down on the ceiling not ten feet from her.
"So what do you say, Faith?" he asked her with a lopsided grin on his face, "Is this something you'd be interested in learning?"
It took her a moment to regain her wits but when she did she asked, "You mean I… could do that?"
"It'll take some time and training but give me a month and yes you should have no trouble walking on the ceiling," he replied with a confident smile on his face. "We just have to get you used to moulding some chakra first but that shouldn't take took long."
"Then let's get started!" she exclaimed without even thinking about what would be best.
To her it looked like a whole new set of options had been placed before her and with them futures that were enticingly uncertain.
They were much better than the inevitable futures that she'd thought would be with her forever.
Sunnydale High School, Monday, Noon, Xander's POV
"So how was patrol last night?" he asked Buffy as the Scoobies sat down in the student lounge.
"It was pretty normal. A couple of newbies and some kind of cat demon," Buffy replied before taking sip from her can of Pepsi. "Nothing I couldn't handle. You?"
"I ran into something odd but couldn't get a very good look at it before ran off." he replied, thinking back to the thing he'd saved Jeff Orkin from.
"You didn't follow it?" she asked with a bit of surprise.
"I did for a while but it apparently dove into an open manhole cover," he shrugged with a faded bit of frustration. "You know what the sewers are like around here. I could've searched them for hours and not found the thing."
"True," she said before taking another sip.
The truth of the matter was that he was a little angry at himself for not at least giving it a try. Even if he didn't know the layout of the sewers, he still could've tracked it further before giving up and with a trail that fresh, the only thing that might've gotten in his way would've been a demon or group of vamps. His only consolation was that the thing that'd almost killed Jeff hadn't been very big and apparently hadn't been crazy about being spotted. Just as there was a pecking order among vampires and intelligent demons, there was also an instinctive balance that existed between those with more animalistic mentalities. The feral demons knew instinctively when they faced something stronger than themselves and therefore knew to defer to the strong since doing anything else could prove fatal. If this unknown creature saw him as something higher up the pecking order and was one of the more primal minded demons, then it made sense that it'd flee.
Hopefully the thing'll also keep its head down for a couple of days.
On his second pass he smiled as he saw Oz approaching because he knew how happy it would make Willow once she spotted him. The two of them could be disgustingly cutesy when they wanted to be but it made him happy to know that his best bud had found someone special. In the few short years that the two of them had become friends with Buffy, the redhead and grown quite rapidly away from the mousy teenager she'd been. While she still had some insecurities and issues, they weren't nearly as pronounced as before, giving him hope that by the time she hit twenty, people would be surprised if they were told what she used to be like.
"Hey," Oz said as he sat down next to him.
"Hey yourself," Willow said with a smile before giving him a little peck on the cheek. "You give Debbie your biology notes?"
"Yep," Oz replied in his usual stoic way.
"Good." Willow said with a smile.
He couldn't help but grin a bit at what he saw and wonder if he'd ever find someone who'd inspire such lovey dovey feelings in him. That thought, however, brought him face to face with the three women currently after his affections, with only one of them being even remotely close to getting them. While he might have initially been a bit wary of her aggressive methods, he had to admit that his relationship with Ayeka had come a long way and might be going in the direction she'd wanted all along. The time they'd spent at the Bronze before Faith had shown up had been odd but he'd found himself enjoying the experience more than he would've thought. It wasn't quite like hanging out with the gang but he wouldn't call it love just yet, more like an undefined feeling that had him wanting to experience it a few more times so he could properly define it and put it in its proper place in his mental filing cabinet. Whether the definition did indeed become love rather than the sort of affection that existed between friends or teammates, only time would tell.
He was about to bring up the topic of Faith when a feeling came over him that he recognized from his time in Konoha: killer intent. Normally people only felt it in a vague sort of way, like a feeling that cannot be defined but still compelled you to take action, but for shinobi it was possible to sense it with clarity equal to feeling the elements. When the wind blew, you knew it was the wind. When you saw the flickering light of a fire, you knew it was fire. While his senses weren't as acute as someone who'd been raised in a ninja village, they were good enough to know that someone was looking in the Scooby gang's direction with hate in their eyes as well as murderous intent in their hearts. Instead of obeying his first instinct to quickly look around, he tried instead to do so covertly in a manner that wouldn't tip off the person looking at them.
Too bad his covertness needed some work, because no matter where, he looked he didn't see anyone giving them the evil eye. Whether they were skittish and bailed the moment he turned his head in their direction or were just doing an excellent job of concealing their glaring, he didn't know. Whatever the case, he'd keep an eye out for the next few days or so to see if anyone made a move on the Scooby gang. He couldn't think of anything they'd done recently to piss off someone capable of infiltrating the school but considering all he'd experienced he couldn't say there weren't ways to do so.
Guess I'll have to use some of those observational skills Ayeka taught me to try and pick Mr. Mad-an-Bad out of the crowd. He thought as he rose from his position on the couch.
"Where you going, Xan?" Buffy asked from her seat.
"I just remembered I wanted to talk with Giles about the people that supply him with training gear," he replied without completely lying about his reasons. "I have a few things I'd like to add to the dojo that I'm hoping they have in stock."
"See you in class, then." Willow said, accepting his reasons for leaving their little gathering.
With that he began to move away towards the library but, the moment he thought that they'd stopped looking in his direction, he changed his destination to the hallway where he believed the angry observer must've fled down. While doing his best not to appear too obvious about it, he scanned the crowd with his eyes looking for the slightest anomaly or someone who was uneasy at his approach. He thought for a moment about using his Sharingan in spurts to look for inhuman energy but decided against it. Even if he only flashed them on and off quickly, his eyes would still be seen by the students, making trouble for him later when they began talking about it.
For the next half an hour he searched the school for any sign of someone with ill intent towards him or the Scoobies but no one fit the bill. Thus he was left with no other option but to get to class and continue his search later when he had more time. Given that the Scoobies had pretty much all their classes together, he'd be able to watch out for them there without difficulty.
Well maybe a little difficulty since Lotion and Perfume will be there giving me a headache with their seducing ways, he thought, remembering how far the duo had pushed things even with other people present.
While not quite in the realm of exhibitionists, they were definitely willing to do things that often shocked his classmates and were quite good at concealing their efforts from the teachers. Sure, the students had tried a few times to get them in trouble with the teacher but the Amazons had the innocent transfer student routine down to a science. Eventually the teachers started to punish the ones telling the truth, meaning that by now no one would bother trying to put a stop to it and would instead choose to be quiet. That didn't bode well for him since it meant that so long as it didn't make enough noise to catch the teacher's attention or last long enough to be spotted when the instructor turned around, there were a lot of options available to them now.
Especially since Miss Thompson in the next class is partially deaf, he thought with a roll of his eyes since he remembered just how loud you had to speak for her to hear you.
Personally he figured that one of the warrior women would have to cause a small riot to get the teacher to even realize that something was going on behind her back.
The only thing he had in his favor was the fact that the duo wouldn't stoop so low so as to actually try to make out with him in class. They were proud warriors so being seen in anyone's eyes as sluts would be unthinkable to them.
Perfume's POV, After School on the Rooftop of the High School
"He's looking for something," she said as she watched her future husband cast his eyes about the school's courtyard. "Or someone."
"Yes, but what?" Lotion asked standing at her side.
"Something that is hidden beneath the surface, I believe."
"Then it is our duty as his future wives to find it for him and find it quickly," Lotion said with a smile at the opportunity this turn of events provided them with. "Let's go."
They began to search the area for anything that even hinted at being the reason for the Uchiha's surveying of the place of education. As she did so, she had to believe that she and her fellow Amazon were reaching a turning point in their pursuit of their future husband's affections. Since their arrival in Sunnydale, Lotion's mother had been diligently working to improve their grasp of the English language and, thanks to being surrounded by it at school, they were learning quickly. The only thing they were having a bit of trouble getting a handle on was the various American slang terms that existed, if only because of how numerous they were. Then, of course, there was the problem of figuring out which ones their future husband knew about and understood as opposed to the ones that would leave him utterly confused. She'd thought about watching all the most common movies liked by guys but doing that possessed the downside of making her sound like a dumb parrot. When added to the fact that some lines just didn't even work outside of the fictional settings they originally debuted in…
American English is much more complex than the language of my people. Nevertheless, it is a challenge I will rise to meet and overcome.
As she continued to survey the area, something moved just at the periphery of her vision and she almost ignored it but the atypical path it seemed to be following prompted her to give it a second look. What she saw immediately stuck her as odd since, at first glance, it looked to be just another teenage boy but the way it seemed to be advancing on a particular window was not normal when compared to what she'd seen in this town. Stopping, she crouched down and looked at the scene developing below her. When the boy reached his destination, he seemed to be peering into the window at someone with unusual focus. This focus, however, didn't remain stable for long as her eyes could see signs of increasing agitation in his body. Nevertheless, what happened next was something she could not have anticipated and instantly she knew that she had found the threat her future husband had been seeking.
With little warning the teenage boy began to shake all over and as he did so his body began to change, with veins bulging out along with his fingernails became claws. By the time the changes seemed to finish, the form her eyes were fixed upon was no longer completely human but neither was he what she'd classify as a demon. She wasn't given more time to think on it because the half-human creature leapt forward, crashing through the window to what lay within. Knowing that whatever the transformed human was up to it couldn't be good, she leapt from the roof and ran for the shattered window, knowing that Lotion would notice this and follow.
By the time she reached the shattered window, she could already hear sounds of violence coming from within, causing her to reflexively leap inside. What she found when she landed was an African American man she recognized as the school counselor on the floor bleeding from several claw marks across his chest. Standing over him was indeed the teenager who'd crashed through the window but the boy looked to be a twisted parody of what could be considered normal. Indeed, his current form reminded of the last time she'd seen Olay before she'd been banished from the tribe, implying that this young man had ingested some sort of performance enhancing potion. While that made her take him a bit more seriously, it also provided her with a possible way to end this.
As with most things ingested, in time it ran its course and was either expelled from the body or simply broke down into nothingness. It was the same with Olay's potion: pushed hard enough for long enough and the dishonored former Amazon's body used up the liquid, withdrawing its effects quickly enough to result in severe withdrawal symptoms. If the same proved true with the foe before her, all she needed to do was push him to his limits and keep him there until his body burned out whatever he'd used to change himself.
With that in mind she quickly crossed the distance between the two of them and executed a kick intended to force the teenager away from his chosen prey. With only a little surprise she watched as her adversary managed to partially evade her attack but it still had the effect she desired as it sent him into the nearby wall. Watching as he shook off his momentary disorientation, she immediately placed herself between the injured man behind her and the inhuman teenager before her.
"Stupid bitch! This didn't concern you!" the teenager exclaimed as he looked at her and considered his options. "Now I'm gonna show you what happens when you piss me off!"
With that the fool charged her head on, his mind full of anger, and for a moment she almost shook her head in disappointment but, as her sensei had taught her, she maintained her focus. Even when facing an inferior opponent, a true warrior must never lose their focus for if they do then even a fool might succeed in landing a fatal blow. Thus she took every attack the enemy launched seriously and evaded with the best of skill before attacking when an opening presented itself. A blow to the stomach followed by an elbow to the back dropped the moron to the ground gasping for air, struggling to rise again. Did he not sense the gap that existed between the two of them? Could he not see that no matter how many times he attacked her, he would never succeed unless she let him?
Probably not and such was the weakness of those who relied on anger and dishonorable methods to achieve their goals.
With this in mind she delivered a kick to the fool's head, rendering him unconscious but not doing any permanent harm. As the one at her feet slipped into unconsciousness, she watched as he spasmed back into a more human form and it was through this that she recognized him as a student at the high school. She didn't remember him from any of her classes but she'd seen him a few times in the hallways with a young woman she presumed was his girlfriend, based on how close they appeared.
It didn't change what she needed to do now, sadly.
Picking up her unconscious foe, she slung him over her shoulder so that she could carry him to her future husband and his allies. They would know how best to deal with someone that normal law enforcement officials would be incapable of handling on their own.
"Where…a-are you taking him?" asked the wounded member of the faculty.
"Where he will not harm anyone else," she replied as she began walking towards the door to the office.
"The police?" the counselor asked, as though he was mostly certain of her answer.
"Those with the authority to deal with such people, yes," she allowed, hoping that the mild vagueness of her response would be enough to keep her out of trouble later.
"G-good…" the counselor said before losing consciousness.
For a moment she worried that, by the time she dropped off her unconscious foe at the library and returned, the man would be dead but thankfully the sound of someone else entering the room took care of that.
"I will take the counselor to the infirmary." Lotion said as she moved to match action to her words.
"Good."
As she began to walk down the halls, she couldn't help but continue to grin as she imagined how this victory would improve her standing with Xander. Two threats dealt with thanks to Amazon intervention while her rivals were nowhere to be see in either battle.
She could feel the lead she and Lotion had growing and, by year's end, she was confident that none would be capable of overcoming it.
No one!
Sunnydale High School Library, An Hour Later, Anko's POV
"Just what the world needs!" she said with disdain as she finished putting up a barrier up to reinforce the book cage. "Another Orochimaru!"
She'd only arrived a little while ago but what she'd seen had been enough for her to put the basic facts together. The kid in the cage had concocted some kind of potion for an unknown purpose and it had resulted in twisting the teenager's mind enough to attack others savagely. It was good luck that the Chinese Amazons Perfume and Lotion had been around to keep the punk from actually killing anyone. Now, though, they had to decide what to do with their prisoner and soon since keeping the attempted murderer in the library for too long would only attract unwanted attention.
In her opinion they should purge the kid's system of whatever he'd taken in and then drop him off at the local police station. Even if they were as incompetent as Xander-kun made them out to be, with Platt as a witness they'd be hard pressed to find a reason to let him go free. From there it would only be a matter of searching the young man's locker for the formula and anything else connected to the enhancement so that they could destroy all of it. However she would wait for the entire group to have their say just in case someone else had a better idea of how to deal with this.
"You give this guy too much credit, Anko-sensei," Xander-kun said from his position by the main library table. "He might've figured out a way to turn himself into Mr. Hyde but he's nowhere near Snake Face's league of freakiness."
She couldn't argue that but she could definitely count that as a possible future if the boy hadn't been caught.
"Maybe, but I still think the little freak needs a reality check," Hana said before curling her nose a bit. "I might not know what this shithead drank or ate but I can smell it coming off of him. Whatever it was, I seriously doubt it'd be healthy for him in the long run."
"Is there any way to cure him?" Willow Rosenberg asked, showing compassion for the person she barely knew.
"I have some experience with poisons and getting them out of the system but it'll depend on how deeply rooted the stuff is," she replied as she began to review the jutsu's in her mind. "If he's been taking it for a while, going cold turkey too quickly might kill him."
"Then let us hope that this is a recent venture the lad chose to undertake." Rupert Giles stated, sounding quite disappointed at the young man's stupidity.
"Looks like we won't have to wait long to find out," Slayer Summers stated as the faint sounds of the prisoner waking up filled the air.
Looking over, she saw the blonde's words to be true as the young man was beginning to push himself to his feet. It didn't look like he realized where he was at first but, by the time he was halfway up, the truth hit the kid like a ton of bricks. Immediately the potions amateur became more energetic and began to look for a means to escape, only to find none save the slight hope of the door to the book cage. Predictably the teenager tried to force it open but her barrier automatically flared into existence, showing him how futile as well as painful it'd be to attempt such a thing.
"Ahhhh! What the fuck!?" cried the young man, whom she now recalled was named Pete as he backed away from the bars of the cage.
"That's something I think we'd all like to know, kid," she said, putting her best 'you are in trouble' voice into play. "Mind telling us why you tried to kill Platt and what you've done with yourself?"
"What? Who the hell're you!?" Pete asked, going defensive at first before changing to defiance. "I don't have to tell you shit!"
Deciding to show him just how much danger he was really in, she turned her back to him, walked a good five or so feet away and then whirled around while throwing both her hands at him. "Sen'eijashu!" Three snakes flew from within her sleeves towards the bar-obstructed face of Pete, stopping just half an inch from the barrier.
Slowly she recalled the serpents, smiling in a moderately bloodthirsty way, and once they'd disappeared into her sleeves she menacingly began to approach the young man's position. She could tell that her move had greatly compromised his courage and that, with a little more prodding, he'd probably tell her everything she wanted to know. "Now, what was that about you not having to tell me shit?" she asked in a menacingly friendly manner. "If you don't speak up, I just might have to open the door and come a lot closer. Close enough to… bite!"
This was enough to cause the little fool to back as far away from her as possible, making it clear he knew what she was threatening all too well.
"I…I just wanted to make myself better and s-so I did some research and came up with a mixture that would maximize my body's potential," Pete replied shakily, fear propelling his words onward. "I didn't want Debbie to leave me! If Platt and Jeff had just stayed away from her, everything would've been fine!"
Not the most pathetic excuse for trying to kill someone but it comes pretty close. She thought with mild disbelief at the explanation.
"So you went all Hyde on people just so your girlfriend wouldn't dump you?" Xander asked rhetorically in disbelief. "You couldn't have just bought her a couple of nice presents or something?"
"You could never understand… to have something so great come into your life but know that it could be snatched away at any time." Pete protested with a voice barely above a whisper.
"Everyone knows what that's like, Pete," Xander-kun said with conviction. "It's called having friends, family and good times. Everyone knows that these things can be taken away in an instant but you don't see them turning themselves into monsters to stop it."
Silence reigned after that before she decided to move things along a bit.
"Right now you've got a choice before you, Pete," she said in a no nonsense tone of voice. "You can either tell us where to find everything about that potion of yours so we can destroy it or you can keep quiet and we find a more… amusing way to make sure you never try something this stupid again. Your choice."
Minutes ticked by and she could see his fear of losing his precious potion warring with his fear of what she'd do to him for amusement. At the moment neither fear was strong enough to outright defeat the other but, given enough time, she was confident she'd get what she needed.
Too bad Hana wasn't in the mood for 'eventually'.
"Look, asswipe, I don't have all day waiting for you to rub two brain cells together!" Hana growled as she got right up next to the cage, her more feral features becoming more pronounced, "Now either you tell us what we want to know or I turn you over to my girls as a chew toy!"
The Inuzuka girl's three canine partners looked at the boy in the cage and bared their teeth, growling in an effectively menacing manner. She had to admit that the sight was quite intimidating but it proved to be a bit over the top since, instead of caving in and answering the questions, the boy instead fainted due to the overload of fright.
"Guess this means we have to search for his potion gear the old fashioned way," Xander said with a bit of disappointment in his classmate's loss of consciousness. "I'll check his locker while Hana takes her girls around the school to see if she can sniff out any other places he might've stashed stuff."
"Good plan. Bring anything you find back here," she ordered, taking on a mindset more appropriate to the head of a shinobi team. "Once I get a look at them, I'll have a better idea of how to treat the idiot, as well as make sure he can't do it to himself again. Get going!"
With that order her team left the library, along with the rest of the youngsters, in search of the materials needed, leaving only her and Giles behind in the library.
"Would you like some tea, Ms. Mitarashi?" Giles asked as he moved to the entrance of his office.
"Sure. I could do with something to drink before the other get back," she replied with a thankful grin as she sat down next to the main table.
With a little luck it'd relax her enough so that she could use her jutsu on Pete and purge the unnatural elements from his body once she had a better idea of what they were.
Despite her low opinion of his intelligence, she would help him as best she could in the hope that he wouldn't repeat past mistakes.
Team Anko HQ, An Hour After Sunset, Xander's POV
"I hope that idiot learns his lesson," he said as they settled in the living room of the HQ. "If what you found out from his notes is right, Anko-sensei is right then he could've easily killed himself with that stuff."
"He should be alright. Giles is already speaking with the suppliers of the mystical ingredients of Pete's formula," Anko-sensei said with confidence in her voice. "They'll be warned against selling the little idiot anything else."
"What about the non-magical stuff? Couldn't he make something out of them?" he asked, unsure about whether or not everything had been tied up in terms of loose ends.
"Nothing like what he made to turn him into that twisted form," she replied without hesitation. "Scientists the world over have tried to come up with some sort of super soldier serum for centuries. They've never been able to do anything big without borrowing something from the supernatural."
He supposed that made sense.
It was somehow hard to believe that one academically bright could manage what hundreds of men and women before him had failed to accomplish with far greater resources. He knew that pretty much every government on the planet, both past and present, funded projects of various levels morality in order to come up with weapons both offensive and defensive centered. Among those projects were, no doubt, efforts to increase the combat potential of the troops, with some of them being specifically set up without humanity or morality even being considered, much less required. Given that he had yet to see soldiers capable of anything even approaching Buffy's level of strength, it was safe to say that no significant progress had been made on that front.
When you added that to the fact that the majority of the world wasn't in the know about the supernatural and that meant that the likelihood of them acquiring mystical ingredients was pretty slim.
"Good. The only Mr. Hyde I want to see is the ones made by Hollywood," he said with a nod of satisfaction in the fact that Pete's problem was satisfactorily solved.
Anko-sensei opened her mouth as if to say something when her expression changed to that of a professional shinobi perceiving a threat. Seeing this he followed her example and stretched out with his senses to see if he could pick up on what had caught her attention. As seconds passed without anything of note, he decided he'd up things to the next level and activated his Sharingan. It was then that he spotted a mass of chakra in humanoid form leaping over the wall of the HQ before walking at a sedate pace towards the main building. Instantly he could see that it wasn't a normal person's chakra due to the sheer strength he could see in it and that told him it was a ninja he was looking at. However he knew where the rest of the team was and the ANBU hadn't shown his face since their little 'negotiation session', so it was doubtful that Mr. Mask was deciding to put in an appearance. With the possibilities dwindling, he decided to err on the side of caution and with careful movements reached beneath the cushions of the couch to the hidden compartment containing four kunai. Wrapping his fingers around the hilt of one, he got ready to bring it up to defend or attack the moment he managed to figure out if the approaching person was an ally or an enemy.
Hearing footsteps approaching on the walkway that wrapped around the outside of the main building, he prepared himself for the possible confrontation to come. As the door began to slide to the left, he wondered who might have decided to pay them a visit and prayed it wouldn't be anyone too tough.
The person that was revealed was the last person he'd expected to see and, at the same time, he knew that a visit from this man could very well mean bad news.
"Yo! Anko-san. Xander-kun." Said one Hatake Kakashi in his usual laid back manner.
"Kakashi-san! What are you doing here?" Anko-san asked with moderate surprise at the new arrival.
"There's been a development that Tsunade-sama believed you should be informed of." Kakashi replied as he stepped inside and closed the door behind him, "Especially Xander-kun, since he is the recognized head of the Uchiha clan."
It didn't take a genius to figure out that whatever the jounin had to tell them, it had something to do with either Itachi or Sasuke or both.
"Well spit it out then," he said, his concern clear in his voice.
For a moment the copy ninja said nothing, almost as though he was trying to think of the best way to convey what he had to say, but it didn't take long for the man with the Sharingan eye to come to a decision. "Uchiha Sasuke has left the village to join with Orochimaru." Kakashi revealed with traces of regret in his voice.
"WHAT!?" was pretty much the universal question asked by both him and Anko-sensei.
That one sentence he'd just heard had been enough to blow the rest of the world away, leaving him with nothing but the words that made it up in his mind. Images both of his cousin and of the psycho serpent man flashed in his mind but, no matter how he tried to connect the two, it was inconceivable to him that the two would ever join forces with one another. At the same time, though, he didn't think that the man would lie about something like this and therefore more information was greatly desired.
"What happened?" Anko-sensei asked with a voice that was for reports.
"As you know, Sasuke has been obsessed for a number of years with exacting his revenge on his brother Itachi for the massacre of the Uchiha clan. Everything he's done since that night has been meant to aid him towards that end," Kakashi explained as he told them of the youngest Uchiha. "I'd been a little worried when he was first assigned to me but, as the missions went by, I thought that he was beginning to let go of his hate. Then the Chuunin exam came and with it, Orochimaru.
"You know most of what happened, how Sasuke had attacked by Orochimaru and infected with the Cursed Seal, but what you don't know was that when he faced off against Gaara, he saw the Sand shinobi as a test." Copy Ninja Kakashi said with eyes that were no completely in the present, "A test to see how far he'd come in his training and how close he was to being ready to seek out his brother. Despite using the power Orochimaru gave him, it was Naruto who defeated Gaara in the end and this angered Sasuke."
"Why? Naruto's his teammate, right?" he asked, not wanting the situation to be as bad. "Shouldn't he be happy that his pal is getting stronger?"
"I had hoped that would be the case. However Naruto has long had the reputation of being a poor student in the Academy and no one save a few have believed that he'd ever amount to anything." Kakashi replied, continuing with his explanation. "To be outdone by someone who has never excelled at anything didn't make sense to Sasuke and made it look as though his training was meaningless. It didn't help that Itachi defeated him so easily when they met soon after. I'd still hoped that I could keep him from going down the dark road he'd set foot on and probably would have if Orochimaru hadn't sent five of his Sound ninja to fan the flames of hatred within him."
Anger began to cloud his features as he could all to easily see how Snake Face had probably waited for just the right moment before using his cousin's vendetta to his advantage. More than before, he seriously wanted to find the freak and tear him to pieces for poisoning others for his own ends, even though he knew he'd die in the process. Sasuke had been the only family that he had remaining that wasn't a wanted rogue ninja and, thanks to the snake's manipulations, his cousin would be lucky if all that happened was a lifetime of imprisonment.
"Whatever they did to him, it was enough to motivate him to finally leave the village for good. According to Sakura, who spoke with him before he left the village, he'd become frustrated with his lack of progress and believed that if he was to get his revenge, Konoha wasn't the place where he'd gain the power he needed," explained the copy ninja as he continued with the briefing. "He knocked her out before she could alert the rest of the village and, by the time she regained consciousness, he was already far away. Tsunade-sama assigned the task of retrieving him to Naruto, Shikamaru and the others but, while they were able to defeat the five sound ninja, they failed to bring Sasuke back to the village. Some of them almost died in the attempt."
Remembering the energetic blonde kid and the young man who'd become chuunin with him, he hoped that they were well and hadn't suffered too much thanks to his cousin's foolish vengeance. While he hadn't had much time to get to know either of them while he was in Konoha, he'd been able to tell within a few minutes of meeting them that they were a lot like he was where it mattered. Sure, they'd grown up in the shinobi region of the world but they were still young teenagers where it mattered, with a few ninja bits added on for flavor. Thinking of them beaten bloody on the floor of a forest or wrapped in bandages in the Konoha hospital did not agree with him at all.
"They all survived and, when I last saw them, they were going about their lives. Nevertheless, Sasuke is by now being instructed by Orochimaru in all manner of forbidden jutsu and, with his near fanatical devotion towards his quest for revenge, he will not care what he loses in the process." Kakashi explained with a fearful tone of voice. "Indeed, if what Naruto said is true, then Sasuke is to be Orochimaru's new vessel in a little over two and a half years."
"Vessel?! What do you mean vessel!?" he asked, not liking the term.
"Orochimaru's Fushi Tensei technique, the jutsu he's been using to extend his life, allows him to transfer his mind and soul into another's body. It is his goal to transfer into Sasuke's body, thereby obtaining Sharingan without the flaws that transplanting the eyes into his own body would cause," Kakashi replied with seriousness now dominating his voice. "Fortunately Naruto and the others were able to delay Sasuke long enough that Orochimaru was forced to transfer his spirit into another host body. From what we've been able to determine, he needs to undergo this transfer once every three years but we have no information to even theorize why this is."
"B-but why would Sasuke let him do that?" he asked, barely able to comprehend the horror of what Snake Face intended to do to his cousin. "If Orochimaru does that then it won't be him taking out Itachi, it'll be old Pale Face!"
"I don't think it matters to Sasuke if he's the one who kills Itachi or if it's merely his body so long as the last thing his brother sees is his face glaring down at him." Kakashi replied with a bit of sadness over the mindset of his student.
Didn't care that he'd be taken over by a monster!? Doesn't care if he ceases to EXIST!?
He was partially shaken by how far his cousin was willing to go in order to avenge the deaths of all those Uchiha Itachi had slain but with that came growing anger. What kind of fool was his cousin? To willingly throw away everything that made life worth living just for the sake of ending the life of one person? Madness! While he might not feel the loss of his mother's family as keenly as Sasuke probably did, he did know what it was like to hate someone or something enough to seek revenge. He hated vampires like few other things in the world for what had happened to Jesse and it was that hate that had played a strong role in his decision to help Buffy fight. It was a hatred that was fueled by the experiences he would not be able to share with the guy who'd been his brother. It was a fury that was stoked every time they came upon a victim of a vampire attack too late to do anything but silently promise to be quicker next time.
Through all that, though, he knew that if he ever had to choose between his precious people and revenge then it'd be no choice at all. He'd choose his loved ones.
So why couldn't Sasuke see that? Why couldn't his cousin realize that there's no point to revenge if you threw everything else away?
The more he thought about it, the more pissed he became at the utter stupidity of his cousin and he knew that if the former student of Kakashi walked in right then, he would probably kick the crap out of him until morning. He would yell at his relation and do his best to make the fool realize how big of a mistake it was to sacrifice everything just for one single moment of revenge. He was sure that both Anko-sensei and Kakashi could see the anger on his face but they didn't deserve to be the receivers of his rage or endure a ranting session by him. "Thanks for coming here to tell me this yourself, Kakashi-san," he said, reigning in his anger as best he could. "I know that Konoha must have a boatload of missions more important than this that need doing."
"It was no trouble at all, plus it was the least I could do for the head of Sasuke's clan." Kakashi said formally but with a hint of sympathy.
"Will you be staying long?" he asked, figuring that since he owned the place he'd best act like a proper host. "We have a few empty bedrooms so we can put you up for the night if you want."
"Thank you. My flight back doesn't leave until noon tomorrow." Kakashi replied, nodding in acceptance of the offer.
"No problem. Now I'm sure that you and Anko-sensei probably have a few things you need to talk about, so I'm going to head to the dojo for a bit and train." he said as he got up from his seat and walked to the door that'd lead to the hallway. "See ya!"
With that he closed the door behind him and began to move towards the dojo, where he hoped a little light training would take the edge off of what he was feeling at the moment. It wasn't just anger at his cousin's foolish quest for revenge but also sadness that the last of his blood kin was now considered a criminal by Konoha, if not the shinobi region at large. He knew that Sasuke wasn't exactly a people person and that he was a bit cocky, but he was also family. After seeing his mother's true self, he'd been so hopeful of meeting the rest of her family since he wanted to believe that they would be far superior to the Harris'. When he'd arrived in Konoha and learned that, aside from Sasuke, the rest of his clan was either dead or considered to be the worst of outlaws, he'd taken solace in the fact that there was at least one link to his heritage left.
Now he had no links to the past of the Uchiha clan.
Even if his cousin returned to Konoha tomorrow, he would still face harsh punishment for allying himself with Orochimaru and even if death was evaded as a punishment, imprisonment would almost certainly replace it.
Opening to the dojo, he moved over to the wooden training dummy in the corner of the room and began to go through the patterns he had stored in his mind from Halloween, as well as what Anko-sensei had taught him since officially becoming a part of her team. He started out slow, as he'd been taught, but then began to speed up after every successfully completed set until he was going as fast as a person could go without having something extra. Then he began to channel chakra into his body in order to increase its speed even more but did his best to make sure that he wouldn't be sacrificing technique in the process. It'd been his intention the moment that he'd left the living room that perhaps by doing this his mind would become so focused on the movements that, for a time, he'd be able to block out what he'd learned minutes ago. It was twenty minutes before he had no choice but to accept that simply working out wouldn't be enough to clear his head.
Slamming his fist into the wood one more time, he tried to come to a decision about what to do with what he was feeling, with what he'd learned, but it all came down to one thing.
He wanted to wrest his cousin from the grasp of not only Orochimaru but also the obsession that revenge had become for Sasuke.
He knew it'd be impossible for things to go completely back to the way that they were before the idiotic decision had been made but, if he could just free his cousin from darkness that plagued him, that'd be enough. While he might not have an idea about how to manage prying the claws of vengeance out of his relative's heart, he did know one way of making Sasuke realize that he'd made a mistake hooking up with Orochimaru.
He knew that Sasuke went to old Snake Face because he probably thought that the criminal could teach him techniques much quicker than normal Konoha training methods allowed. It was also likely that his cousin was willing to allow the chalk-faced freak to perform procedures on him in order to accelerate the growth of his personal chakra capacity. If he could train his ass off for the next few years and come out of it just as strong, if not stronger, than Sasuke when they met next, it'd be all the proof he needed to make it clear to his cousin that he could've staying in Konoha to become strong. It'd take proof with all the impact of defeat in a sparring match to break through his cousin's foolish way of thinking.
With that in mind he had a new mission set before him along with his duties as head of the Uchiha clan: To become as strong as he could within the next two to three years so that when he saw Sasuke next, he'd pound the truth into his cousin's thick skull, whether the emotional Uchiha wanted it or not.
He would NOT lose another precious person to the darkness.
Ayeka's POV, The Next Day
Something's wrong. She thought looking at her future husband perform a series of kata's at high speed on the platform in the courtyard.
It was the first thing to come to mind when she first laid eyes on him and, no matter how much she tried to use the facts of yesterday to explain, nothing fit. Whatever had happened, it was driving Xander-sama to take his training to a whole new level. Not that he hadn't taken the training sessions Anko-sensei put them through seriously but he'd always treated what he was being taught as though it was something he'd learn when he learned it. Now, though, he looked as though he wanted to master the lessons he'd been taught as quickly and as efficiently as he could so he focused as much of his attention on what he was doing as he could.
What had happened in the last twelve hours to change him so?
Deciding it'd be best to ask Anko-sensei first before stumbling into a conversation with the man with whom she'd be wed, she went to the kitchen where her teacher was reading the local newspaper while sipping on her morning tea. Despite being in Sunnydale for only a short while, they'd still fallen into a routine already and were comfortable at their HQ just as they'd be back at the village.
"Sensei? Do you know what's up with Xander?" she asked casually enough, coming to a stop at the side of the table. "He looks a little too serious with his training."
As her teacher looked up at her, she could see immediately that something serious had happened and as a result the jounin looked conflicted about whether or not to answer. With a brief moment where both eyes were closed, her teacher seemed to reach a decision on the matter and so looked her right in the eyes before speaking.
"Last night we were visited by Hatake Kakashi on orders from Tsunade-sama," Anko-sensei replied with the utmost seriousness in her voice. "He came to let us know of a development that had occurred back in Konoha."
"Development? What development?" she asked, surprised that a shinobi of such fame had come to visit them.
"Uchiha Sasuke has deserted the village and joined with the S-class criminal Orochimaru." Anko replied with a trace of anger as she spoke the name of her former teacher.
From there her instructor told her everything that they'd been told by the copy ninja and, when there was nothing more to be said, she thought on what she'd learned. Knowing what she now did and seeing it in context with Xander's current actions, it all became clear to her what was going on. Her future husband would be greatly bothered by what had happened to his cousin and would either seek to bring Sasuke in himself or prove to his cousin that he'd made a mistake. Either possibility would require that the head of the Uchiha clan become much stronger than he currently was and that meant serious training. Knowing this, she knew what she would be doing when she wasn't trying to forge a place for herself in his heart.
With resolve in her heart, she quickly went about preparing her usual breakfast and, once she'd finished eating, she returned to her room to get into suitable training clothes. Not her usual mission clothes but rather something that she could afford to lose while never letting him forget what she could be for him. A pair of loose fitting pants along with a tight fitting sleeveless shirt that would make it impossible to getting a grip on anything while accentuating her curves nicely was her final choice. Picking up her ninja gear but not strapping it on just yet, she left her room and made her way outside to the platform where she'd last seen Xander. Helping him to train would be an excellent way to get closer to him and put her in a special category that the Amazon bitches wouldn't be able to match.
However when she finally arrived, she saw a sight she didn't expect: Hana was on the platform with Xander, sparring with him.
As far as she'd known the Inuzuka girl had still been in bed and so it was not expected at all that she'd beat her to the role of sparring partner for the Uchiha. Seeing them exchange blows, she could see they were allowing light contact but nothing that'd leave anything more than light bruises or shallow cuts behind. It was an interesting pairing, their two styles of fighting, but the thing that had her increasingly concerned was that Hana actually seemed to be having fun going a few rounds with 'Wannabe'. Not the sort of fun the feral fury would have in kicking the ass of someone she didn't like, nor was it quite the sort of fun one would have taking on an interesting challenge. As she tried to classify it she remembered a few times in the past where her teammate had behaved in an unusual manner in connection with Xander-sama. Could it be that Hana-?!
Bullshit! She doesn't think of him that way! She thought, rejecting the possibility before it could take hold.
Still, as she watched Xander get knocked to the ground after a series of successful hits by Hana, it would be best to insert herself into this little training session sooner rather than later.
"Xander-sama! Mind if I join in?" she said as she tossed her equipment to the side of the platform before leaping onto it.
Watching him get back to his feet, she took a moment to admire how the light sheen of sweat made him look before letting the moment pass. She hoped that at some point during the course of the training he'd lose the shirt for one reason or another so that she could gaze upon his developing form. She knew that his training with the weights he'd gained from Gai-san had helped melt away much of the fat and that the other forms of training helped to tone the muscles beneath. While she didn't think he'd ever have muscles so large and defined as some of the more strength-oriented ninja had, she was sure they'd be impressive nonetheless.
"Sure. The more help the better," he replied with a half grin on his face. "Just let me have another twenty minutes with Hana here and then you can tag in."
"Sure," she said, not wanting to sound selfish or bratty by trying to force herself into the role of partner.
Moving off to the edge of the platform, she sat down and resolved to watch Xander-sama in preparation for her match with him. She would examine how he fought, see what moves he favored and when it came time to fight she would be ready to push him to his limits. True, she was proficient in mid-to-long range combat but she wasn't a complete slouch in the area of taijutsu and, with enough preparation, she was sure she could give him a real workout.
Minutes passed as the match between Inuzuka Hana and Uchiha Xander continued but it was time well spent as she could see her future husband gradually getting better. While he still got knocked down from time to time, he soon became quite good at not being knocked down the same way twice and capitalized on any openings presented. Not that her female friend wasn't giving as good as she got but the fact that Xander was making progress on the fly was impressive.
By the time the twenty minutes were up, the two of them had managed to work their way into a stalemate of sorts, with neither ninja managing to gain a respectable advantage over the other.
"Thanks for the warm up, Wannabe," Hana said with only minor signs that she'd been given any sort of workout. "You keep training hard and maybe I'll even have to put some effort into sparring with you."
"Oh, please! You're sweating up a storm right now," Xander-sama said derisively with a half-smile. "I had you working hard and you know it!"
"Don't delude yourself, Xander! I've got twice the amount of experience you do and twice as much training," Hana said, confidently crossing her arms across her bosom. "You're still a few years away from being MY equal!"
"Hai, hai! That's enough of that," she said, getting in between the two of them. "You'll never get anywhere if you let distractions like this keep popping up. If you'll get out of the ring, Hana, my sparring session with Xander-sama can begin."
"Whatever!" Hana said as she casually walked to the edge of the stone platform, hopping off.
The Inuzuka girl didn't leave the area like she'd hoped, instead choosing to sit down on the ground from 'ringside', but that wouldn't affect her plans all that much… at least not until Hana started running commentary on the match, but she'd detonate that bridge when she came to it.
"Alright, Xander-sama! Let's see if you can handle Mishima Ayeka!" she said with a tone that implied hidden meaning.
She wondered how long it would be before he worked out what those other meanings were.