A/N: Sorry this took so long. I got stuck about halfway through on how I wanted to connect things and I was despairing but then it came to me and all was good. I hope you guys are still reading.
Chapter 5
I wasn't sure why but the Kazekage himself was at the training grounds the next day. He just stood there with his arms folded across his chest and an unreadable expression. I was just on time but jogging up to the small area I felt late under the calculating eye of the Kage.
Gaara was the first to speak when I stopped in front of him. "No one can know about your Bloodline for the time being, so for practicalities sake you will be trained by myself and my siblings. None of us are your sensei. Not in an official way at any rate. As things stand, I will be assisting you in taijutsu and weaponry, Kankuro will be helping you with chakra control and Temari will be going over ninja basics."
He paused and I nodded in understanding.
"Please watch carefully then. I will go through the katas of Suna's basic academy style."
But as I watched something altogether new happened and again that strange dual vision occured. My body seemed stuck between rigid and fluid states but the oddest thing was that my eyes, which remained open and unblinking felt extremely unusual. It was like they were throbbing.
All I know was that I had been watching the katas intently but as I watched I began to try to figure out what the next move would be. All of a sudden my mind began to branch off over and over. Every possible future that could happen popped up from the last kata I saw and then from each of those visions all of the futures attached to them also came forth. Futures came faster and faster, some fizzling out some becoming more prominent. Not only did I see the whole kata for the Suna basic academy style but I saw futures where I branched off and started practicing different styles.
In the end I collapsed having seen several months in advance of taijutsu training.
Three days later I woke up in the hospital and Temari was summoned by the nurse tending to me as the Kazekage requested upon my awakening. "You scared us pretty good there, kid." She said cheerfully. I just looked up at her, not quite sure what to say. The nurse left when Temari sent her a look and the fan user sat down on the edge of my bed. "So, what did you see?"
I took a moment to really make sense of things. What had I seen? "It was almost like scan." I told her after some time. "All of a sudden I could see failures and successes not only for me learning basic taijutsu but also as I continued on into more advanced forms."
"All the success and failure?" I could almost feel her confusion.
"It was kind of like a growing tree." I tried again. "Each event would branch into other possible events which would show the continuations that could occur from those situations over and over sometimes the branch would stop or fade away…I think that was if the situations lost relevancy to what I originally wanted to know, but it felt like those were still possible futures."
Temari's eyes widened. "So it's a wide array of things that could happen. Is there any definite way to discern the future with this ability?"
"I don't know. On first glance, however, it seems unlikely." I frowned. "I think I should say though... I am almost confident I learned the different styles just from that. I think I can use the taijutsu from those futures. I might need some time to commit it all to muscle memory to be fight ready, but I am not sure if my body needs that or not. It might already know how to fight."
The kunoichi's eyes widened almost imperceptibly for a moment before narrowing again. "Do you think that that would work for anything?"
As much as I wanted to be able to say 'yes it could,' I didn't know so I just shrugged before correcting the rude habit. "I think I would have to be able to activate it first. This is not something that has happened before."
"Work on that first then." Temari said tersely. "We will figure out useful applications once consistency has been established." I tried not to show my distaste for the reminder that I was essentially a military asset and little else but at the slight narrowing of my eyes Temari huffed. "Right now I have to be Temari: Advisor to the Kazekage so I have to say it like that. I don't think either of my brothers think that way and neither do I. Gaara has been worried the whole three days you've been out and Kankuro is all sorts of jumpy."
"They still don't know how far it's gotten right?" Since Temari was the only one who saw the aftermath of the dreams I begged her each time to keep the rapid decline a secret from the already busy Gaara and also from Kankuro who was already feeling a disproportional and misplaced guilt that my health was so dangerously affected by the energies of this world.
"I haven't said anything to either of them, or anyone else." Temari bit her lip in a calculated effort to show she was hiding something. A kunoichi with as much experience as she had would not let such cues show without meaning to. Of course that also meant that if she was giving hints like this she couldn't just come out and say what was on her mind. Two months ago I would not have picked up on such an act but I like to think I learned quickly.
The question is: what was she hiding? It wasn't that they knew. There would be no reason to keep that from me. Was there still no hope for a solution? Was there a solution coming? I couldn't begin to guess without running the chance of getting my hopes up. All in all she was most likely displaying this unease to assuage her own sense of guilt at having to keep a secret about me from me. That or she was screwing with my head for fun. That kind of seemed like a Temari thing to do.
As quickly as the show of hesitation appeared it was gone and Temari was up from her perch and calling the nurse back in for clearance that would let me leave the hospital. The nurse came in with a grumpy frown and gave me a once over with hard eyes before jerking her head in a wordless command to get the hell out.
I followed Temari out of the room, down a short hallway and out into the arid heat of the desert but walking down the sandy main road at any time was just asking for stares and try as I might I couldn't ignore the almost burning glares shot at me by a handful of different people, ninja and civilian alike. Somehow it seemed worse than usual and the assumption that this treatment stemmed from the fact that I was an outsider was losing face. The problem was I didn't even know anyone to make an enemy out of or because of.
Then again the academy students I 'fought' mentioned that lovely, lovable Matsuri was being unkind and running her mouth. I mean yes, technically I was freeloading but it was more like I was an invited guest.
The other villagers seemed to be extremely fond of, and in fact borderline devoted to, the woman so if she wanted them mad at someone I don't think many would question it. The problem I couldn't figure out was her motives. I barely spoke to her. Hell I barely spoke to anyone. Just Temari, Kankuro and still only sometimes I would exchange a few words with Gaara…who I didn't call by a respectful title…
God damn it!
Hey Matsuri, junior high called. They want their drama back. This was ridiculous. I had to be wrong on this. First off how old was she? I mean I don't know an exact age but really, at least twenty now right? Aside from that and despite how many people shipped them back home unless she and Gaara were being sneaky for some ungodly reason Matsuri wasn't snagging her dream man anytime soon.
"Um, excuse me…" The small, mouse-like voice interrupted my thoughts a second before a light hand tapped my shoulder hesitantly.
Behind me stood a woman who could only be described as average. She was not short but she was not tall. She was not skinny but she was not thick. There was some muscle to her but not a lot. Her brown hair was pulled into a high ponytail and the grey eyes that gazed a bit too intently at me for someone who was so timid held a hint of gentleness that seemed too soft for a kunoichi. The woman displayed a Hitai-ate across her forehead though, so she was definitely not a civilian.
"Um, are you Harper-san?" Her voice seemed ridiculously timid as she avoided eye contact.
"Yeah, how can I help you, Kunoichi-san?" At that she caught my eye for a brief moment before looking away again.
"My name is Sena, but – um…I am an assistant sensei at the academy and there are several students in the class I assist that talk often of the new villager that they fought but couldn't land a hit on. The students don't work well together but they seem to be uniting in the cause of defeating you." She paused and glanced at me apologetically and I had a feeling she wasn't here to warn me. Unexpectedly she bowed to me. "Please, for the sake of the future generation of Suna's forces, come spar with them regularly so that they may learn teamwork against a common enemy. Uh, if that's ok."
I almost didn't expect this woman, Sena, to string that many words together coherently but really I was thrilled at the notion. It would help me improve my sight to hand to eye coordination and give me some sort of interaction with someone, even if it was just a bunch of snot nosed kids.
"I would love to." My sincere smile seemed to startle her and I wondered what sort of reputation I was gaining through the voice of another. "We should get the Kazekage's if you haven't yet," I said after a moment of thought. "Last time was spur of the moment and it seems Matsuri-san thought I was attacking the children."
I was relieved when Sena huffed before looking around nervously. "That girl!" Her tone was as scathing as I think she could manage. "Should we go submit a request now then?"
I chuckled inwardly at how quickly she switched back to the nervous but proper woman again. "Lead the way please.
I was trying to relax much later that night when a soft knock sounded on the door to my borrowed room. I wasn't skilled at all in identifying people by their chakra signatures and it would be rude to just yell 'come in' so I slipped off the surprisingly comfortable bed and padded to the door. A small glimpse of who would be standing there made me hesitate but in the end it would be inexcusable to make him wait.
"Hey Gaara," my voice was casual as I swung the door open. "Is my music too loud or something?"
He gave me a long confused look before titling his head as if to catch the sounds flowing from my iPod dock. "This is music from your home?"
"Yeah. There are all sorts…rock, rap, country, classical, R&B…you name it though just hearing the names of different genres is probably confusing, but this is only a selection of music I really like." But of course, as I said that a song I was not overly fond of came on. "One sec." I told him before flitting off to change the song that was too slow for my mood.
As it turned out a few songs played through before either of us spoke.
"Temari told me about the new ability that blossomed." He told me in a gentle tone.
I paused, unsure. "Was that a play on words, Gaara?" When he just stared at me somewhat contemplatively I sighed. "I told Temari a stupid analogy about a tree and you said blossomed." Still no reply. Either he thought I was an idiot or he was laughing inside at my expense.
The sudden realization that a blatantly sexual song was playing in the background of our conversation had me jumping to change it, blushing the color of a ripe tomato. It probably was not wise to be sitting in a room alone with someone I used to fangirl over (granted I didn't know he was real at the time) with a song that playing for any reason.
"Your dimension is interesting, I'll give it that." Gaara mused and I knew now that he was highly amused. "Are such explicit songs truly considered entertaining there?"
"Sometimes," I admitted begrudgingly.
"There was another form of entertainment that Kankuro explained to me. A form of moving drawings called 'Anime.' He led me to believe there were stories about this world available through this art form." He by no means sounded like anything but the Kazekage; gone was the friendly word play and hidden amusement in favor of an aura as cold and hard as steel.
While the transition was a bit startling I gratefully took the conversation change. "I have the series, it is called Naruto after the main character of the show, on my computer. It would be a long time before you watched everything there though and," here I paused. How was I supposed to deny Gaara, who was most definitely standing here in his official rank as Kazekage, the use of my computer because I was tired? I want to concede to his wish because aside from the minor fangirl flutterings I found myself suppressing he was the leader of the village I found myself in. Defying him in any way was suicidal.
Gaara was not stupid though. "If it would be acceptable I will watch quietly and you may rest. I have reason to believe my hearing is far more acute than yours."
At that I blushed. To me it was a subtle pointed remark at the music and how loud it got from time to time but all in all I might have been reading into it. As it stood I couldn't deny him. If I tried to think of anything else he could at least feign insult to the insinuation that I didn't trust him to be in my room while I slept. I didn't know much but he wasn't the type to accost a woman and if I had to say one way or another he seemed too socially awkward to know how to do something like that.
My computer was positioned near the single window in my borrowed room and as I waved at it unceremoniously at it I realized that Gaara did not know how to work the machine. And so as I booted the computer up, (it couldn't stay running because it would drain power) a realization that I should have changed my background made me cringe. It still had the Gaara love kanji image.
That's embarrassing. But he didn't seem to notice or mind and instead listened as I gave him a rundown on double clicking and silently prayed to any god that might exist in this dimension that the screen saver did not pop up.