IntrovertedKittenNinja
Active member
Chronicles of a Kunoichi Idol *Updated as of 10/9/11*
A/N: The following is a fanfiction upon which I based my bio, Suiyume Aimi. Of course, my bio doesn't possess the uh, special powers the character in this ff possess.
Also, there is content in here that touches on subjects that some may find offensive, but probably nothing your average 12 year old doesn't know about. Having said that, continue at your own risk. Enjoy~~ ^^
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Table of Contents: [Use ctrl+f to find chapters quicker.]
1. Smile.
2. Reality.
3. Rain Song.
4. Strong and Strike
5. First Mission! - Assassinate the Corrupt Politician!
6. Birds and 'Bees'. - Ai Completes Her Mission!?
7. Older Sister Mei
8. 'Rock' Girl
9. Zoe-kun and Hot pots *New chapter*
10. An Angel Sang To Me. *New chapter*
11. The Power of Kirigakure! *New chapter*
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1. Smile.
“You have a beautiful voice. And remember, you’re more than just your bloodline.”
That was what Mei onee-sama said, smiling to me way back then, in the grayness of this village’s eternal mist; looking up at her wide-eyed and speechless, not even blinking when the tiny, cold droplets of rain fell into my eyes, filling the azure pools with that silvery transparent gray.
That smile that I inspired because of my singing. It made me swear; there under the sky shrouded in an endless veil of clouds that I would not waste a single note more singing sadly, echoing pointlessly into the lonely omnipresent mist. I would use my voice to make more smiles.
She walked away then and returned to her entourage of aides and guard shinobi, not looking back.
“But Mizukage-sama—“ One of her confidants said to her, eyeing me with his one unobstructed eye. “Are you sure you just want to leave her? She’s a—“
“That one is too good for the life of a shinobi.” Mei onee-sama said, and with a wave of her hand commanded the entourage to follow obediently after her.
“Feh.” He scoffed. “In my day—“ His voice drifted out of earshot as he followed behind her.
I looked down at the small, weighty bundle of coins in my hand which Mei onee-sama entrusted to me. Enough money to eat for a month.
When combined with the meager amount I had earned singing on the sidewalk outside of a humble dumpling shop, I figured I finally had enough.
“Here.” I said, dumping the coins onto the desk of the jaded loan shark. They fell into a pile with a barrage of bright “chinks” in front of him. He blinked.
“Okay? And what do you want?” He said with an unimpressed yawn. People like him must have seen ten times this amount of money on a daily basis. It made me bite my lip.
“Get me into the ninja academy.” I said, despite the lump growing in my throat from sheer nervousness. The clerk fingered through the coins, counting a few of them in his head one by one.
“Well…” The man trailed off, “I suppose I could get you in. It’s not quite as hard to get through the bureaucracy as in the fourth’s day…” He nodded. “Fine, come back in a day, I’ll have your papers ready.”
Soon after that, I received my falsified papers certifying that I was indeed a citizen of Kirigakure and that I qualified for the Kirigakure Ninja Academy. My name was now Suiyume Aimi.
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2. Reality.
“Stop it!!” I yelled angrily at the men whose eyes were dazed and murky. I beat their broad chests with my fists which did nothing to dissuade them. One of them caught my arms with his giant hands and pinned them against the wall. I reeled in disgust as he leaned in to take a long whiff of the white-sky blue locks that fell down my slender neck. When I headbutted him he scowled and smacked me across my face.
My nose began to burn, and my skull ached after it rattled from falling hard against the cold dirt.
Why was this happening? All I did was sing. All I wanted to do was make the people around me happy.
The other man climbed on top of me, pinning me to the ground. The sharp hairs on his shaven beard stabbed into the soft flesh of my neck one by one.
I wondered why awful things happened to good people. Why the man whom I had given all my savings to had scammed me and stolen all my money when I was younger. Why I couldn’t be a strong enough kunoichi to beat two stupid men—
He pried my legs apart.
Kunoichi never cry.
I tried telling them that I was only 12. That I had a horrible life and begged them to take pity on me. I even begged them to just kill me instead. They just kept telling me how much they love me, and wanted to show it. I didn’t understand at the time.
I looked to a faraway place.
“Mei-onee sama, please---“ I breathed, my voice husky. I couldn’t stop the tears. I wasn’t strong enough, not yet.
I shut my eyes, trying to retreat into my own body—to escape. I opened my eyes again after a few moments of nothing happening. The brightness of the sun lent a hazy aura on the world at first; on the man with bronze skin who stood towering over the two now unconscious men who had assaulted me.
“Yo, you alright? If you’re going to be on your own, you oughta at least know how to fight!”
I didn’t say anything. The man walked over to me, and squatted down to take a closer look at me.
“You should be careful where you sing that song yo-- You could make the whole world fall in love with one note.”
I looked up at the man shaking my head.
“What…? And… Why do you talk like that…?” I asked. I didn’t get to hear his answer, because I passed out. As a dark tunnel closed in on the world around me, I could swear I could smell the faint, salty scent of the ocean.
But we were in a forest.
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3. Rain Song.
“Hey Bee-nii-chan.” I said, munching on a loaf of slightly stale bread one night during my travels with Bee. “How come my song doesn’t work on you?”
I looked at him over the flames of the bonfire which licked up into the chilly night. I wanted to ask why he also deemed it necessary to wear sunglasses at night too, but getting one coherent response from Bee was hard enough.
“You’re too young for me, plus, you couldn’t handle the Bee. Yeeeee.”
He laid back on the makeshift bed made of gathered leaves. I stared at him over the flames for a moment, and then held my half eaten bread in my mouth as I crawled over to his side and laid next to him, facing him.
“But, I’m more womanly than when you met me, right?” I asked earnestly, batting my eyelashes. I felt my face get warm. He didn’t answer my question, instead leaning up on his elbows and asking with his blonde goatee raised at me, “Where did you get that bread?”
I giggled.
“I may have asked the man at the bakery reeeeeaaal nicely for it…” I answered with a sly grin after finishing the loaf with one final bite.
Bee put his giant hand on my head. The weight of it pushed my head down a bit.
“What did I tell you about using your gifts for no good? You need to uplift the people, not steal their food!”
I pouted.
“Got it?” He asked, mussing up my hair. I took his thick, heavy hand in both of mine and shook it off.
“Yes! Gosh! Stop messing up my hair!!” I protested. Bee nodded.
“Good. Now, show me how much better your song’s gotten! Maybe if it’s good enough, I’ll collaborate on it!”
I nodded, “Okay!” and closed my eyes. I took a deep breath, making myself still before opening my eyes slowly and focusing on a point on the ground. And singing a soft melody that I swear even the birds paused to listen to.
You’re never lonely
As long as you have the rain—
The drops keep coming
Make you clean again—
Will you still Love me?
When the sun comes out?
Or will you leave me
Like the rain clouds…?
I stopped, and Bee nodded. “Getting there yo, but needs more soul!” He said, and laid down again to sleep. I turned to watch the fire, which was nothing but embers now, smoldering bright orange gems in the darkness, and smiled.
Bee. I thought, I wonder when the day will come when you acknowledge me as a grown woman… without my song too.
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4. Strong and Strike
I eyed each one of the five thugs circling me. Their eyes were clear, except for the occasional half-drunk. I knew they weren’t under my genjutsu because thanks to my time with Bee, I could control when my genjutsu activates and when my songs are just well… songs.
“Fans of mine…?” I asked with a sheepish laugh. “Okay, I suppose I could do a few autographs! Who’s first?”
“I am!”
How utterly predictable, it’s the goon directly behind me.
I sidestepped the swing of his club and landed a strike to the base of his skull with the blunt end of my kunai knife, retiring him face down on the dirt.
“…And who’s next?”
I spun the kunai knife on one slender finger, and rested my other hand on one hip, grinning at the remaining thugs.
…Except, I missed one, who caught me in a tight bear hug. Bee never really was a good teacher when it came to paying attention.
I used a water clone to escape into the thick foliage of the trees above them. The man growled in frustration when the clone burst into water all over him.
“The bitch is a kunoichi!?” One of the goons exclaimed.
“Sh-should we run?” Another asked.
“No way! Boss’ll be thrilled when we get him a new ***** and a bodyguard!” Another replied. I rolled my eyes, then, from the concealment of the trees focused my chakra and formed a handseal.
A thick mist began to creep into the forest.
“It’s the Hidden Mist Jutsu!!”
From there it was business as usual. Though admittedly if it weren’t for the cover of the mist I’m not so sure I’d have done as well.
After finishing up with the goons, I continued on the road back to Kirigakure. It had been five years since I had left the village, and met with Bee. Now it was time for me to return to Kirigakure, become a true Mist shinobi and work my way towards the dream I promised Bee I’d fulfill.
To be the first shinobi idol and make the world smile with my music.
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5. First Mission! - Assassinate the Corrupt Politician!
“Suiyume-chan”, The inn keeper asked me, “Our guests have arrived, please see them in.”
I dipped my head in as graceful a bow I could muster and shuffled off to the lobby. I was getting the hang of moving in a kimono, though I hadn’t known that you only wear a towel under. I walked with the constant fear of it suddenly coming undone and having to cast a Hidden Mist Jutsu or something to cover myself up, but I tried not to let it deter me. This was my first official mission as a genin of Kirigakure—I had to accomplish my missions flawlessly if I wanted to move up in the shinobi world.
I bowed graciously at the entourage of men in the Inn’s entrance, paying special attention to make sure my knees were bent at the correct angle, my chin pointing in towards my chest… flash a little of my naked wrist…
The man in the middle of the group grinned.
“And who is this beautiful young thing?” He asked the inn keeper, but kept his smirk fixed on me. Old Lady Saito bowed, and indicated towards me.
“She is Suiyume-chan. She’s new here.” She said.
I bowed again. “Honored to meet you all—“ I added.
Following the pleasantries, I led them into the Tea room, a cozy room separated from the rest of the inn. A circle of neatly folded tatami mats flanked the rich brown mahogany table, upon which the fine china was set.
I watched the man at the head of the table in the corner of my eye as I poured tea for the other guests.
Tetsuharu Tanaka—a corrupt politician who used to work with Dato from the Land of Waves. My mission was to get close to him…
…and kill him.
The problem however was in that he was known to be extremely cautious, and only those close to him would be able to pull an assassination off. I was handpicked for this mission because of my Genjutsu. I couldn’t fail.
I would never fail Mei-onee sama.
“YOW! HOT!”
I blinked, returning my gaze to the task at hand. To my horror, and that of one of Tanaka’s men, I accidentally spilled the tea on his lap. He leapt up with a yelp, knocking over a vase that was resting on a shelf behind him.
“I-I’m so sorry!!!” I said panicking, scrambling for something to wipe him off.
“Stupid girl!!” The man exclaimed, “I ought to have this whole inn closed down—“
Tanaka stood up, and made his way towards me. His gaze was intense and fixed on me.
“I’m so sorry,” I apologized again to him, bowing deeply, “I didn’t mean to—“
“You were staring at me, that’s why you spilled the tea on my friend here, isn’t that right?” Tanaka said with a smirk.
He caught that!?
“I-I…” I stammered. Tanaka looked at his associate who was still fuming.
“Go get yourself cleaned up.” He said, then turned to me. He suddenly took a firm hold on my arm.
“You can't hide it from me-- I can see it in your eyes...” He said to me in a low, hoarse whisper. I tracked his beady little pupils as they moved to look at each one of my wide, teal eyes.
“That look of lust which only the most skilled and... experienced men can differentiate from the look of someone with an intent to kill--”
Err... About that... I thought to myself. I blinked, then offered a sheepish grin.
“Y-you caught me, Tanaka-Sama...” I said, then offered another apologetic bow. “It's these.. these lewd womanly of desires of mine! Curse my being a woman!”
Did I... lay it on too thick?
Apparently not, because tea was ended early and I was invited back to his private room when my duties at the inn for the day were finished.
When men use the brain between their legs to think, they sure could be easy to manipulate. I wondered if women could be the same? It was probably my naivety that allowed me to think otherwise.
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6. Birds and 'Bees'. - Ai Completes Her Mission!?
“Hey, Bee--” I said as I followed him through the dense foliage. I ducked as a branch he forgot to hold back snapped backward at me.
“Sup?” He said succinctly.
“Uh... what exactly is a '****'?” I asked. I bumped into him when he stopped suddenly.
“Why'd you stop--”
Bee broke out into a hearty laugh. “Yo Eight-tails, you hearin' this?” Bee said to his bijuu.
“What's so funny? It was just a question--”
He turned around to face me, looking down at me, then, with a raise of his gold goatee he asked, “Where'd you hear that?”
“Eh?” I tilted my head. “Some guy in the village yelled at this lady to suck it. So, I figured it might be some kinda food?”
I pursed my lips, deep in thought as I tried to analyze what I had heard earlier that day.
“Most likely a seasonal kind that only appears during festivals-- like some kinda candy? I bet it tastes good!” I beamed.
Bee was on the ground, howling.
“Stop-- please, I can't take it anymore yo!” He said between fits of laughter. Then after the laughter died down he paused.
“Haha-- you sure?” He said, probably to his bijuu, then shrugged.
“Okay, Hachi here is gonna field this one. Oh man, this is going to be good.”
Bee calmed down.
“...Ai, this is the Hachibi speaking now.” Bee said.
“Hullo Mr. Hachibi.” I replied. I've talked to him a few times before. I liked how he was always calm when talking to me. He made a funny pair with crazy old Bee.
“Uhh... Well, you see--” The Hachibi began, “Sometimes, when a man and a woman--”
“A man and a woman?” I repeated inquisitively.
“Err okay, how about--” The Hachibi paused. “Okay, you see, girls and boys are like birds and bees...”
“Mhmm...” I followed along closely.
“Sometimes, when a bird and bee love each other veeeery much, the bird will sometimes do something for a bee to show how much she loves him.”
“Like sucking a--”
“Yes, yes, that's one of the many things a uh, bird can do...” Hachibi said nervously, cutting me off.
“I just realized!” I said suddenly. “I'm a bird, aren't I?”
“Yes, yes you are.” Hachibi replied matterofactly.
“And Bee is a bee! So do I--?”
“...Oh dear Sage I cannot do this anymore.” Hachibi interrupted exasperatedly.
And that was the last I ever heard of birds and bees, and things birds and bees do for each other for a very long time.
...Until during this mission, I mean.
“Y-you want me to do what, now?” I asked Tanaka, squinting at him skeptically. Later than night I had been summoned to his private room at the inn.
“Go on--” He said with a sly grin. “I'm sure you know how, this being the Pleasure district and all.”
Screw getting him with the Genjutsu-- Can I just kill this bastard now? I thought, despite giving a charming smile.
“Oh, of course I know how--” I said, “It's just ah... y'know, gotta shake off the rust. I gotta do my exercises first, you understand.”
Tanaka nodded in agreement. “Of course! You do whatever you need to do, Suiyume-chan.”
“Then, I'll be right back--” I said with a nervous laugh and ran into the bathroom.
“Okay Ai--” I said to myself in the mirror. “This is it-- it's now or never. Just gotta take out my kunai and--”
I sighed.
I realized I had never once in my life killed an animal, let alone a person.
“He's a bad guy.” I said, trying to reassure myself, “And this is for Mei-onee-sama...”
Someone knocked on the door.
“Suiyume-chan...? You almost ready?” Tanaka called on the other side of the door.
“Y-yeah! Just, y'know, sexin' mahself up...” I laughed sheepishly.
“O-okay then... I can't wait. Ehehehe.” I could hear him walking back to our room.
I hung my head.
Then I stared fiercely into the mirror. “He wants you to urkk his blehh!” I nodded. Yup. It was confirmed. The bastard was now going to die.
...Which is what I was sure of, until a few minutes later I was back in his room, on my knees, looking up at him.
He gave me a lecherous grin as he stood over me. “Go on-- take it out.” He was holding a vial of oil from some flower. No doubt some kind of pervy lube or something. It made my nose itch.
“Oh boy...I uh, can't wait to uh, dig in...” I said feigning enthusiasm. I think my mouth was twitching.
Kill him now! Kill him 'til he's dead!!!
Gah... I can't kill an actual person--
So do I have to...?
The door to Tanaka's room slid open suddenly and one of his guards burst in.
“Tanaka-Sama!! It's--" He stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the sight of me and Tanaka in this precarious position.
"Ooh. Uhhhhhh... Huh.”
He stared at us. We stared at him back. Something poked my eye.
“Y-you fool! Get the hell out!” Tanaka exclaimed, glowing beet red. The guard covered his eyes with one hand.
“F-forgive me, sir, it's just-- enemy shinobi from Iwagakure are attacking the inn! We're trying to hold them back from the first floor but-- erkkk!!”
Blood spurt from his mouth and he keeled over, and before he could even hit the ground an Iwagakure shinobi dashed in, towards us.
What happened in the next thirty seconds or so was a blur. I'll try to recall what happened as best I can.
The enemy shinobi leapt up over me, and with a kick, sent me flying backward away from Tanaka. As I slid on the slick wooden floor I reached for the kunai strapped on my thigh and hurled it at the shinobi. He ducked and the kunai buried itself handle-deep into the eye of Tanaka, the corrupt politician. With a blood curdling scream, he dropped his vial of lube on the floor to grip the fountain of blood that was his squirting eye-socket.
“Holy shi--”, was all I could manage to say before the shinobi charged at me, kunai in hand. Wide eyed, I watched as his foot caught the pool of slimy lube, causing him to fall hard, right in front of me, on top of his own kunai. He died quickly.
All this occurred as Tanaka fell in a heap and writhed on the floor for a few more moments before expiring.
I looked at the scene in front of me. The enemy ninja, who had slipped on Tanaka's creepy smelling lube and killed himself with his own kunai, and Tanaka, who had a kunai knife buried four inches into his brain through his right eye. I let it sink into my very confused mind for a moment.
“...WHAT IN THE EFF JUST HAPPENED!?” I yelled at the room.
I escaped out the window and ran back to Kirigakure, where I was congratulated for not only completing my mission, but doing it while dispatching an enemy jounin who was apparently a hero in the last Great Ninja War.
I'm not sure I'm cut out to be a kunoichi or an idol...
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7. Older Sister Mei
'Kirigakure Genin Defeats Iwagakure's “Rock of Doom”', Was what the cover of Kirigakure village's newspaper was titled.
“Eugh. With a nickname like 'Rock of Doom' he deserved to die--” Mei said as she skimmed over the article.
She folded the paper up and placed it on her desk before resting her chin on her folded hands and eyed me silently under her shiny, auburn bangs. Her lips curled into a subtle smirk that, added with a slight glint in her green eyes, hinted at a mix of pride and amusement-- either at me or her own quip.
“So...” She said in a low, sultry voice. “What to do with you...?”
I didn't answer, keeping my gaze fixed at the ground. This was the first time I had seen her since that day years ago when I had made her smile with my song. I wondered if she recognized me?
I tried my hardest not to shake, but my legs betrayed me.
Please stop-- I begged my legs, but I couldn't quite get them to be still completely.
I heard her chair slide against the wood floor, and her footsteps as she walked over to me, circling me as she looked me over.
“Doesn't she... remind you of someone, Ao?” She asked her faithful right-hand man. He was the one who had summoned me to Mizukage-sama's office.
“Mm.” He said, agreeing. “That she does. In fact, I was just thinking she reminded me of Mizukage-sama, back when she used to be young--”
The footsteps stopped.
“Ao...” She said calmly, “Say one more thing, and I'll kill you...”
“Errp!” Ao said, swallowing his words.
The way she could say such things with a smile... Mei-onee-sama could be one, frightening lady...
“Ao, leave us.” She said, and without hesitation, Ao left us alone with a simple, “Yes, Lady Mizukage.”
After he had shut the door behind him, the Mizukage sat down on her desk, crossing her legs.
“So,” She began, “Let's just clear the air here.”
My eyes flit up to meet hers for a second. I couldn't hold my gaze for long though. I stared back at the floor, suddenly feeling hot.
“Uhrm, o-okay...” I said in a voice not all that dissimilar to that of a frightened mouse.
“First of all,” Mei said, inspecting her cuticles, “Just between you and me, you didn't really kill that jounin, did you?”
“N-no...” I said nearly instantly.
“As I thought. Second of all--” She fixed her sea-green eyes on me again.
“...You've grown, haven't you?” She said softly.
I looked up at her.
“E-excuse me?”
Mei smirked. “Don't think I don't remember the cute little girl singing outside the dumpling shop for tips all those years ago...”
She began to walk towards me. Then I saw something I wouldn't have expected in a million years.
“I thought I told you not to become a shinobi?” She asked. Under those long brown bangs of hers, her eyes exhibited a kind of profound sadness. I don't know why it was there, but I could definitely see it. Hurt in those sea-greens.
Why was she so sad?
I don't know why I felt as if I was suddenly hit in the chest, like the air was sucked from my lungs, or why my eyes were starting to sting with tears I haven't shed since the day Bee had saved me.
“I-I... I want to become as strong and beautiful as Mizukage-onee-sama one day--” I blurt out in a pitifully tearful voice, “And, and I wanted to repay you for-- for--”
My voice broke.
Mei put a finger up to her lips and smiled. I quickly rubbed my eyes with my sleeves and looked down at the floor again. I could see her shoes. They were really nice. I wondered if it was hard to fight in heels. It might have been a little thing, but it made me respect her all the more.
Mei put her hands on my shoulders, prompting me to look up at her again. I was shocked at how soft and cold her hands were.
“I know. I know you do. You'll make a fine kunoichi someday.” She said in a voice that was barely a whisper.
Were my own tears corrupting my vision or was she fighting back tears as well?
I'll never forget that day when I cried in front of Mei-onee-sama.
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8. 'Rock' Girl
I pulled my thin cotton sleeveless jacket around my body tighter as the wind began to bite more at me. I smiled despite it though. Autumn was finally here, which meant shorter days and colder nights. I loved feeling so cold my skin stung.
Starting today, I was supposed to be assigned to a new three-man team. Mei-onee-sama thought it might be best because I might be targeted by shinobi from other villages, seeing as how my name was beginning to float around more and more ever since my alleged defeat of one of Iwagakure's stronger jounins. Also, it would be an opportunity to learn. That's what she said anyway. I wondered if any of my new teammates would be cute guys.
Knowing my luck, I kinda doubted it.
A kunai whistled through the chilly night air at me suddenly, and I leaned my head back just far enough for it to miss me. It buried itself into the tree I was leaning on with a hard “thuck”.
Three more kunai flew towards me and I leapt backward three times, dodging each of them. They landed in a line at my feet about a yard apart.
Ducking behind another tree, I took a kunai out from the holster at my thigh and held it backhand.
I peeked out of the tree to locate my attacker only to have another kunai whiz over my head and force me to duck again.
“Who the hell..?” I said to myself. There was no time to worry about who was attacking me. I needed to escape and report back to Kirigakure Ninja HQ. But before that, I needed to locate and identify my attacker.
I used a water clone to draw the assailant's fire while I peeked out of the opposite side of the tree to find him. Within seconds a kunai pierced my clone through the neck, causing it to burst into water which collected on the grass in little shiny dew drops.
The clone didn't last long, but I was able to spot him. The attacker seemed to be male, and he was holed up in some dense foliage on a cliff overlooking the clearing where I was waiting for my new team.
For someone to be able to throw a kunai that accurately at night with this amount of wind took a considerable amount of skill.
“A water clone, how predictable. To be honest, I knew it was a clone but I was bored of waiting for you to find me.” A voice echoed from the cliff above.
I held a kunai to the back of his neck.
“...You only had to wait a second longer.” I said to him. The other water clone whom he had mistaken to be the real me stuck her tongue out at him from the clearing below us.
“...As to be expected from the girl who brought down Iwagakure's 'Rock of Doom.'” He said.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” I replied, pressing the edge of the knife against his neck harder. “So who are you, and why are you trying to...”
His body collapsed into water which fell at my feet.
“Kill... me...?” I finished.
“Anybody can spam Mizu-bunshin no jutsu!” He yelled as he charged at me from the side. Sparks flew and illuminated the night briefly as our kunai clashed. I got a good look at his face in the light of one of those sparks. He was wearing a sly grin. His hair was midnight blue and fell over his ears to his jaw.
“...But how's your taijutsu?!” He exclaimed. With a hard push he parried my kunai and forced it out of my hand. As it flew upward and caught a glint of moonlight he landed a kick on my abdomen which sent me reeling backward. He followed it up by rushing behind me as I went, preparing a final backward slash with his knife.
I recovered in time to roll over backward over his back, pushing up on his shoulders in a sort of handstand before pushing down hard, using the centrifugal force from rolling over his back to flip over and land a hard upward kick to his jaw which, this time, sent him reeling backward.
I caught my kunai knife mid-air and rushed at him when suddenly someone appeared between us, materializing as quietly as the dew drops. A gust of wind surged through the grass like a ripple in a puddle of water as he came between us.
My kunai clashed with a strange flounder shaped sword wrapped in bandages which he held behind him. With his free hand he landed a punch which knocked the first attacker a good yard away from us.
He pushed his thick rimmed glasses up and sighed.
“Saizo,” He said meekly, “Couldn't you have greeted your new team member in a less... confrontational way?”
The blue haired boy named Saizo grinned, rubbing his chin.
“Sorry about that, Chojuro-sensei,” He said with a laugh. “I wanted to see what 'Rock' girl's got is all--” My gaze shifted between Saizo and this new person.
“New team member...?” I said, “...'Rock' girl...?”
I lowered my kunai as Chojuro turned around. He put his sword away and scratched his head.
“Errm, my name is Chojuro,” He said. “I guess starting today I'll be your new jounin master...Uh, let's all try to get along...?”
***
“I guess you're not so bad,” Saizo said after swallowing a lump of chewed dumpling. “I can see why Granny Mei recommended you.”
“Saizo-kun!” Chojuro said tiredly, “What did I tell you about calling Mizukage-sama 'granny'!? Do you want her to do, 'you-know-what' to you again!?”
Saizo dropped his dumpling on his plate as the blood drained from his face.
I had taken just about enough of this brat and this scaredy-sensei.
I stood up abruptly, slamming my hands down hard on the table. The plates rattled.
“Let's just be clear--” I said, in a low, guttural tone through my grating teeth. “I don't like you.” I squinted at Saizo, who looked up at me, bewildered.
“I don't like you, or your face-- I don't like your girly hair, how you chew like a cow, and I despise how you talk about Mizukage-sama.”
I pointed accusingly at the blue haired boy, whose back was now pressed hard against the chair.
“If you say one more bad thing about her, I will skin you alive and eat your remains, then vomit your remains and destroy them to hell. Got it!?”
My chest heaved as I breathed hard. After calming down a bit, I started to notice the horrified dumpling shop patrons staring at me. I had forgotten how I ended up on top of the table.
“Ehehehehe....” Chojuro broke the eternal silence with a very nervous, awkward laugh.
After he gave the shaken dumpling shop owners a few thousand apologies, we were dismissed for the day.
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9. Zoe-kun and Hot pots
“No, idiot--” I whispered to Saizo as we hid in the bushes together, “You throw the kunai first, then I'll charge in with the Sword of Draining.”
“Fine, fine, have it your way.” Saizo said with a hair flip. I rolled my eyes.
This was not going to end well.
I watched through the bushes as Chojuro stood in the clearing, arms folded.
“Okay, do it now!” I commanded.
“Yes, your majesty.” Saizo said, and hurled a volley of kunai at Chojuro with lethal precision. He deftly deflected each of the knives with his own kunai knife, without taking a single step. The ground around him was littered with knives in a wide circle.
“Hm?” Chojuro eyed one of the many dozens of kunai knives he had deflected. One among them was supplemented by a Five Senses Chaos Disorient Jutsu.
He was then consumed in a hazy mist.
“Ah! A Five Senses Chaos Disorient Jutsu! Oof, these guys might be a bit stronger than I thought--” Chojuro said in the mist as I charged behind him.
I gathered my chakra into my hand, forming a sword with the water from the nearby river.
“Suiton: Mizu Kuri no Yaiba!” I exclaimed as I stabbed through the mist.
“...Did we get him?” I asked. There was no way he could evaded while under the five senses jutsu. But as the smoke cleared, I could see Chojuro encased in a sphere of highly dense water, which completely protected him against my water sword.
“A water prison jutsu!?” Saizo exclaimed, “So he blocked instead of evaded... But when did he form the handseals for that!?”
Chojuro laughed sheepishly. “While in the mist from your jutsu, of course. I guess I got lucky!”
“You've got to be kidding me—” I said jadedly before he sent Saizo and I flying with Suiton: Hahonryuu.
The sudden torrent of water had Saizo and I washed up at the edge of the clearing like we shipwrecked on a desert island.
“Ughh...” Saizo said, sitting up. “He used to the highly dense water from his water prison jutsu to amplify the strength of that torrent. I told you things would have gone better if you distracted him for my attack and not the other way around!”
“Shut up!” I retorted, ringing out my soaked hair. “He can block your stupid kunai throws blindfolded! You can't expect to beat him like that!”
Chojuro materialized from a shallow puddle of water left over from the torrent.
“Hey now, it was a good try, really...” He said, trying as always to diffuse the situation. “You'll just have to work on your teamwork a little more.”
“If Saizo's timing wasn't so crappy we wouldn't have to.” I said, glowering. Saizo looked at my chest.
“I can see your boobs through your wet t-shirt. ...How was my timing on that?” He shot back with a smirk.
The thrashing I gave that boy, Konoha's Slug Princess Hokage would have been proud.
After drying off, we headed back into the village from the training grounds.
“Say, Chojuro-sensei--” Saizo said, holding a bag of ice to his swollen cheek. Chojuro pushed his glasses up on his nose.
“Yes?”
“When are we getting our first mission?”
“Well...” Chojuro paused, “Actually, we've already been given our first mission. In a few days, we're to assist Ao-sempai and the rest of the guard unit in accompanying Mizukage-sama to an island recently hit by a bad storm.”
“Probably would have been nice to let us know sooner...” I commented darkly.
“What's Gran-- err, Mizukage-sama need to visit them for?” Saizo asked. Chojuro gave a warm smile as he looked to a far off place, as if recalling some pleasant, far off memory.
“Mizukage-sama is incredibly kind,” He said after awhile, “She wants to personally go there and make sure they're getting the supplies they need, as well as assist in the rebuilding effort.”
“Hmph. Figures we need to pick up the slack that the Daimyo left.” Saizo scoffed. Soon after, Chojuro left, having to report back to Ao for briefing on a separate mission.
I was about to head home when Saizo stopped me.
“Hey--” He said nonchalantly.
“What?” I replied. My clothes and hair were still a little damp, so I was eager to get home and get out of these clothes-- maybe soak for a bit in a hot bath before taking a nap...
“Let's get something to eat.” He said. He looked quite aloof with those silver-blue eyes of his.
“Huh...? No way, I need to change clothes-- take a bath...”
“I'll wait for you.” Saizo said simply.
He'll wait for me?
“I'm going to take reaaaaally long.” I said. He shrugged.
“It's fine.”
I gave an exasperated groan. “Fine, but you're paying.”
Saizo gave a listless shrug. “Fine.”
“Suit yourself...” I said, heading upstairs to my house. “I'm going to make your wallet cry...” I grumbled under my breath.
***
“So, where to?” I asked, feeling refreshed in some clean, dry clothes. I dried my hair as best I could and tied it up in a messy bun.
Saizo stayed quiet, walking ahead of me with his hands in his pockets. It was throwing me off. Even before I left I was feeling uneasy. I didn't know why I had to check myself in the mirror so many times before leaving, or why I felt the need to retouch my makeup. It was just Saizo.
“Umm, yo?” I called to him again.
“Huh?” Saizo replied, still half somewhere else. “Oh, sorry. Here we are.”
I looked up at the sign on the restaurant.
“Ooh, Hot-pot?! I was totally craving!” I said excitedly, then added, with a hint of sympathy despite my hatred for Saizo, “You sure you're paying? It's pretty expensive here.”
Saizo gave another careless shrug. “Sure.”
“Don't underestimate a girl's appetite!” I said with a grin and ran in ahead of him to get our seats.
**
I rested my chin in my hand as I dunked a piece of chopped Shittake over and over under the simmering broth.
“Grr... Why is it taking so long!?” I groaned, stabbing a roll of thinly sliced beef with my chopstick and chucking it back into the fragrant boil.
“We just put everything in like three minutes ago--” Saizo said, blinking as some of the boiling broth splashed onto his hand. His patience only served to infuriate me more.
“I swear I'm about to eat this meat raw right now--”
“So you like it raw...?” Saizo said with a smirk.
“What?” I asked. If he was making a joke, it totally went over my head.
“Nothing...” He said with a sigh, “You're the weirdest girl I've ever met...”
I looked up at Saizo and stuck my tongue out. “I'd say the same to you, if I didn't know you were a guy. Are you a guy? If there's something you need to let me know, it's fine--” I joked with him.
Always prepared with a witty one-liner, Saizo leaned in and said, “You're not sure...? Would like to make sure...?”
“I didn't bring my magnifying glass with me, sorry.” I said, and stuck a piece of still-broiling radish into my mouth.
“Ahh--- haah! Haah!” I opened my mouth, blowing out the hot air before spitting the raddish onto my plate.
“Ugh... you can be really disgusting sometimes...” Saizo groaned, looking away.
“Stupid hot food! Why won't you let me eat you!?” I yelled at the dead radish. “I hate waiting for food! First you have to wait for it to be made, then you have to wait for it to be brought out--”
As I talked, Saizo reached over, took my chopsticks and grabbed a piece of thinly sliced beef from the hot pot.
“--Then you have to put the food in the pot, then you have to wait for it cook--”
He held the piece of beef in front of him, formed a handseal, and blew softly onto the meat.
“...And THEN you have to wait for it to coo—urkk!”
He stuffed the piece of meat into my mouth. I could taste savory sweetness of the brill fish in the shacha sauce mixed with the faint heat from the chili peppers.
“Mmm...” I said, chewing. The meat wasn't too hot, but still had the belly-warming heat that I loved hot pot food for.
“It helps to blow on it first...” Saizo said, leaning back in his seat. “Like with other things...” He said with a wink.
I took another piece of meat from the boiling stew in my chopsticks and held it in front of him.
“Again.” I said.
“It's not like you can blow on hot food too--”
“You're better at it blowing stuff.” I said, laughing. Saizo rolled his eyes. “...Because you have wind nature chakra!” I added, and prodded the meat at him again.
“Blow itttt!” I asked him again in a whiny, nasally tone. He formed another handseal and blew on the meat again.
“You know...” Saizo said as I chewed happily, “You're actually pretty cute when you beg like that...”
“Nothing you say can make me mad right now,” I said as I ate contentedly.
“Wasn't trying to make you mad.” Saizo said. “You looked fine before by the way. You didn't need to put on makeup for me.”
He sure had a knack for making me feel weird.
After we finished lunch and Saizo finished doing the dishes to make up for the portion of the bill he couldn't pay for thanks to my insatiable appetite, he walked me home. It was the time of the year when the sun went down early, and darkness fell on the village while everyone was still out and about. I loved this time of the year. There was always an air of excitement for some reason. Maybe it was the way so many people were out at night.
We arrived back at my house.
“See you tomorrow, 'Rock' girl.” Saizo said. I smiled for some reason.
“See ya, Zoe-kun.”
And for some reason, he smiled too.
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10. An Angel Sang To Me.
I stood at the bow of the boat, leaning over the railing and watching the gray, filmy surface of the ocean ripple as the boat passed through it. My face, hands and legs stung with cold, but my body was warm and cozy in my big marshmallow jacket. I kept running my fingers over the soft, fake fur lining on the hood and sleeves.
Zoe was leaning on the railing, looking aloof and cool as always as the wind tussled his midnight blue hair to the side. Tufts of his hair stuck up in soft cow-licks because of the wind. His hair looked really soft.
“Quit staring. ...Freak.” Zoe said to me, and I stuck my tongue out at him. Ao watched us disapprovingly.
“You need to teach your genins some discipline--” Ao told Chojuro, whose pale face became flushed with red.
“Y-yes.. you're right, Ao-sempai--” He replied meekly. Mei-onee-sama came up behind them, smiling as she put her hands on Ao and Chojuro's shoulders.
“Oh, Ao--” She said cheerfully, “They're just being kids. Chojuro is doing a fine job.”
She nodded to Chojuro. He seemed like he was close to passing out.
The island was slowly coming into view. It seemed to materialize slowly in the dense mist.
“We're here!” I exclaimed excitedly after we had disembarked from the steamboat that brought us here.
My excitement subsided very quickly however when I saw the damage.
Women, sobbing as they held the lifeless bodies of loved ones. Orphaned children, dazed and wandering the surreal landscape of the destroyed town. Men carrying their bloodied friends out of rubble.
“This is--” I watched the scene, mouth slightly agape. So many voices crying, calling out-- it was all I could do just to stay frozen in one spot.
Then I felt someone brush past me.
It was Zoe. He ran over to a small, frightened girl, who clung to the tatters that were her battered clothes. He knelt down next to her, quickly removing his jacket and wrapping it around her bruised and shaken frame.
“There you go.” He said with a reassuring smile. “How's that? It feels better right?”
She nodded.
I don't know why witnessing that allowed me to regain control of my body. But as soon as I did, I was rushing into the fray, helping carry whatever I could, using whatever small amount of medical supplies I always carried in my ninja tools pouch to help as many I could.
“Ao, hurry and set up a relief command center over there.” Mei commanded, pointing at a spot farther into the beach.
The day we went to help out this tiny village on a small island is another day in my life I will never forget.
**
Later on, long after night fell I was forced out of the medical relief tent by one of the medical ninja. I sat outside the command center tent, finally getting some rest. It wasn't that I was being in the way-- in fact, everyone said I had a knack for medical ninjitsu. I just think they pitied me. The way seeing so many people suffer and die sucked the life out of me; the way it was so obvious in my tired face.
I heard the sand crunch with footsteps behind me.
“Hey.” Zoe said simply. He had a towel over his shoulder with spots of darkened, dried blood. I didn't question it.
“Hey.” I said back. I didn't take my eyes off of the shore, rolling in and out with each incoming wave. I let the cadence of the waves' soft whisper beckon me into a stupor that let me escape from all the suffering.
He took a seat on the sand next to me.
“How're you holding up?” He asked, uncharacteristically concerned. I just shrugged.
“Alright.”
He didn't say anything.
“...Well, actually I feel horrible. Awful. Terrible. I didn't realize being a shinobi meant seeing the kinds of things we had to see today--” I said, nearly without realizing it. “I don't think I'm cut out to be a kunoichi--”
“You were amazing out there.” Zoe said simply. I shrugged.
“There was a man whose entire lower body was crushed under some rubble. We didn't know how long he'd been there, holding on...” I began. Zoe nodded quietly. “There was nothing I could do, so I just held his hand while the medical ninja worked on him. We all knew he wasn't going to make it.”
It felt like I was listening to someone else talk as I heard my own voice echo into the night in a soft harmony with the waves.
“As I'm sitting there, holding his hand, I just start singing--” I continued as Zoe listened on, staring at that mysterious point far off where the sea and sky seemed to meet. The ocean twinkled with reflected moonlight and mirrored the stars in the night sky.
“And when I finish he says to me... 'Are you an angel?'” I paused. “I didn't know what to say, so I just told him 'Yes.' And then he closed his eyes and died right there.”
The quiet, blue haired boy turned to me, eying me with those profound silver-blue eyes of his.
“I can kind of see it, here.” He said. I felt myself begin to feel hot. “You kind of were an angel today...”
Suddenly he eyed me intensely. It was making me uneasy.
“Z-Zoe-kun...?” I asked him nervously, before he pinned me down hard to the sand, pressing his body on top of mine. Right as he did, small bullets of water whizzed over us, impacting the sand around us and sending little shoots of sand bursting up into the air.
“What the hell!?” I exclaimed.
“You can show yourself now.” Zoe said, getting up. He took out his kunai knife and readied himself.
“Good eye!” Someone echoed from the treeline a few yards from the shore. A man stepped out, dressed like a shinobi. There was no emblem on his forehead protector.
“It helps when your enemy is crappy at hiding.” Zoe quipped. The shinobi chuckled.
“Arrogant brat. I won't need to hide to take care of you--”
“Ai--!” Zoe said to me, indicating towards the command tent. I didn't have time to marvel at how he called me by my name for the first time.
“Right!” I said, and ran off for Mei-onee-sama's tent.
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11. The Power of Kirigakure!
I burst into Mei's tent.
“Mei-- Mizukage-sama!” I yelled, she was looking at some reports on her desk when she looked up at me.
“Yes...?”
“We-we're under attack! Zoe-- I mean Saizo-kun is--”
“Right, lead me to where it is!” Mei said. I nodded and turned around, taking a few steps before stopping.
“Wait, isn't it best if you stay here where it's safe?” I asked, and turned around to face her just before she landed a stab with a kunai that would have been fatal. I dodged it barely, falling backwards hard.
“M-Mei-onee-sama!?” I exclaimed, confused. She formed a few handseals before spitting a high pressure jet of water at me. I rolled to the side to evade, sand flying up through tears in the tent's floor as the jet of water cut through the ground with enough strength to rend diamonds in half.
I leapt away as she made one final sweep with her jet, cutting the support beam of the tent and causing it to collapse. I cut through the roof with a kunai as it fell over me and jumped out, right as Mei leapt behind me and landed a hard kick that sent me flying back down hard into the ground. My back hit the fallen column of wood that used to be the tent's support beam, knocking the wind out of me and immobilizing me.
“Die, brat!” She yelled as she formed a few more handseals. Just as she was about to finish me off, a harpoon made of ethereal blue light pierced through her, and in a poof of white smoke, she transformed into another enemy shinobi. He collapsed onto the ground in a lifeless heap.
“Are you alright, Ai-chan!?” Chojuro said as he ran towards me. I nodded up at him.
“Yeah-- my back... where's Mei-onee-sama!? And Zoe-kun...?”
“Chojuro! Aimi!” A voice called from above. It was Mei-onee-sama. The real one. She leapt through the trees and landed next to us, helping an injured Zoe. Right as she landed, about a dozen of Kirigakure's most elite shinobi landed in a wide circular perimeter around us.
Ao landed in front of us, revealing his left-eye. He formed a handseal.
“Byakugan!” He exclaimed, then searched the area.
“We're safe for now.” Ao said. Mei helped Zoe lay down, then turned to me.
“Are you alright?” It took me a second to realize she was speaking to me.
“Y-yes--” I said to her. I recognized the look of honest and pure concern in those eyes of hers. She smiled.
“Good. You did a great job holding him off, Aimi-chan.” She said with a nod.
“Looks like you fared better than I did--” Zoe said with a wry chuckle before flinching and grabbing his side.
“Zoe-kun! Are you alright!? Where are you hit!?” I asked him.
“Oh calm down would you?” He said with a grin. “He just got the best of me by staying outside my throwing range is all. You can relax. You won't need to be singing to me anytime soon, Angel.”
What a jerk.
“Hmph. I told you your kunai throwing sucks.” I said to him. Ao shushed us suddenly.
“It's coming!”
At first all I could hear was a strange, faint sound that sounded like sirens. I didn't realize until long after the battle was over that they were actually the far off screams of the villagers.
Over the trees a giant, towering wall of water gushed forward at us.
Just as it was about to hit, a dome of black rock enveloped and covered us. I could hear the water crashing over us, tons of it, enough to fill a medium sized lake.
Mei's chest heaved as she breathed. It was thanks to her jutsu that we weren't crushed and drowned at this moment. However, she didn't have time to save us all. Only Zoe, Chojuro, Ao and I were able to be protected by her jutsu.
“This chakra--” Ao said quietly, “It's unreal--”
“It can only be Akatsuki.” Mei said, clenching her jaw.
“W-whoa! We're leaking!” I said as water began to seep upward through the sand.
“Tch!” Mei formed a few handseals and used an earth jutsu which cause the ground below us to push upward below us, elevating us over the water.
“He's coming!” Ao exclaimed right before the front of the lava rock-dome that protected us exploded. I braced myself for the impact of the rubble that flew forward at us, but after a moment of nothing happening, I opened my eyes to see Chojuro in front of us clashing his giant flounder-shaped sword with a freakish mass of serrated spikes in the shape of another sword. In Chojuro's other hand was another sword also in the shape of a giant flounder, which he had used to parry the oncoming rocks and debris that came at us.
“Ahahahah!” The sword's wielder cackled. “To see the Twinsword Hiramekarei here of all places! It must be my lucky day!”
Chojuro and the mysterious shinobi pushed off of each other, Chojuro landing in front of us, and the attacker landing at the edge of the cliff Mei had created with her earth jutsu. He held his free arm up, wobbling as he regained his balance and pointed his monster of a sword at us.
“You must be Chojuro, the newest member of the Seven Swordsmen.”
“Hoshigaki Kisame...” Chojuro growled.
“Something the matter? You don't look too confident!” Kisame said with a grin. Chojuro brandished his swords at him.
“Even if I know I can't defeat you--” Chojuro called to him, “You should know-- I'll die protecting my students, my sempai, and Mizukage-sama!”
“Fine with me--” Kisame said, his beady, shark-like eyes piercing through us, “Taking revenge on the Hidden Mist and taking Hiramekarei sounds like fun!”
“It won't be that easy--” Mei said, standing tall. “Don't underestimate my subordinates, or the power of Kirigakure. We're stronger than we were in 'Demon' Yagura's day!”
As soon as she finished her sentence Ao and Chojuro dashed forward so fast if you blinked you would have missed it. They flanked Kisame on both sides.
“Suiton: Koukasuijin!!” Ao exclaimed, as a spike of super condensed water engulfed his arm and crushed Kisame into the ground, through the cliff generated by Mei's earth jutsu.
Pushing hard off of the edge of the cliff Chojuro followed after Kisame as he flew downward toward the ocean.
He swung his sword down hard, as Kisame drew his blade and clashed with Hiramekarei. The two were entangled in an intense sword fight that caused shockwaves in the night air with each clash as they fell closer and closer to the water's surface.
Just as the two were about to hit the water Kisame flipped, righting himself and landing on the surface of the water, leaping backward fast enough to evade a hard downard stab of Chojuro's Hiramekarei.
Kisame skid on the surface of the water, forming handseals as he flew backward.
“Suiton: Goshokuzam!!” Kisame exclaimed and slammed downward on the water's surface with his open palm. Five sharks made from the water around him burst upward through the water around Chojuro, who leapt upwards, kicking up off of one of the sharks, narrowly avoiding having his leg being bitten off.
“Up here!” Kisame said with cackle as he appeared above Chojuro.
As Kisame cried out, water shot up in pillars and engulfed Kisame's Samehada in a whirlpool. He struck downward and smashed Chojuro with such force the water around them parted in a wide crater that shook the base of the cliff upon which Ao, Zoe, and Mei-onee-sama and I were still standing.
“Chojuro-sensei!!!” I cried out, watching from atop the cliff.
Thick mist filled the air as droplets of water fell upon them. When the mist cleared Chojuro appeared, ribbons of white bandages swirled around him.
“Don't you dare underestimate... Kiri-ga-kure!!” Chojuro cried out and parried Kisame's Samehada with blades of etheral blue chakra that shot out from Hiramekarei. Kisame flew backward, doing a backflip before landing on one knee.
He gave another cocky grin. “Not bad for a small fry!” Kisame said. “It's been awhile since Samehada's been this worked up!” The mass of spikes wriggled as if to confirm his sentiment.
I gave a sigh of relief. Chojuro-sensei was more dependable than I gave him credit for. Kisame then looked up at us, freezing me in place.
Was he looking at me!? Was I his next target!?
Suddenly Ao cried out. “Mizukage-sama!!”
He pushed in front of her, taking a kunai in the arm.
“Arghh!”
Before either Zoe or I could even comprehend what was happening, Mei threw Zoe to the side and spat a jet of molten lava at a shadow that soon disappeared and rematerialized in a cluster of black crows. The lava fell at the bottom of the other side of the cliff and caused plumes of white steam to billow upward with a loud sizzle.
The crows came together and formed the shape of a man.
“Uchiha Itachi--” Mei said, stepping in front of Zoe and I.
“Mizukage-sama.” The man named Itachi said. His eyes glowed bright red and carried within them a kind of sad malice that I couldn't help but get lost in.
“Ao--” Mei said to Ao, who gripped his arm.
“Yes, we're already inside it--” He said between breaths. Mei nodded and looked back at Itachi.
“I really do despise you Sharingan users--” She said, eying him intently. She rolled up her sleeves.
Inside it? I thought to myself. Inside what?
I'm not sure what happened immediately afterward. I can't explain it. The moon became red, the sky, black-- all the colors of the world seemed to change and become inverted and negative. I couldn't shake this sense of immeasurable dread. Pain like needles digging into the most sensitive part of my nerves--
All I remember is lying beside Zoe as the world faded away, watching Mei-onee-sama fight this strange man who could burst into a thousand crows and appear somewhere else instantly.
“Ai--” I rememeber Zoe telling me, staring at me. “Ai-- hold on!”
Hold on.
To be continued with chapter 12.
A/N: The following is a fanfiction upon which I based my bio, Suiyume Aimi. Of course, my bio doesn't possess the uh, special powers the character in this ff possess.
Also, there is content in here that touches on subjects that some may find offensive, but probably nothing your average 12 year old doesn't know about. Having said that, continue at your own risk. Enjoy~~ ^^
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Table of Contents: [Use ctrl+f to find chapters quicker.]
1. Smile.
2. Reality.
3. Rain Song.
4. Strong and Strike
5. First Mission! - Assassinate the Corrupt Politician!
6. Birds and 'Bees'. - Ai Completes Her Mission!?
7. Older Sister Mei
8. 'Rock' Girl
9. Zoe-kun and Hot pots *New chapter*
10. An Angel Sang To Me. *New chapter*
11. The Power of Kirigakure! *New chapter*
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1. Smile.
“You have a beautiful voice. And remember, you’re more than just your bloodline.”
That was what Mei onee-sama said, smiling to me way back then, in the grayness of this village’s eternal mist; looking up at her wide-eyed and speechless, not even blinking when the tiny, cold droplets of rain fell into my eyes, filling the azure pools with that silvery transparent gray.
That smile that I inspired because of my singing. It made me swear; there under the sky shrouded in an endless veil of clouds that I would not waste a single note more singing sadly, echoing pointlessly into the lonely omnipresent mist. I would use my voice to make more smiles.
She walked away then and returned to her entourage of aides and guard shinobi, not looking back.
“But Mizukage-sama—“ One of her confidants said to her, eyeing me with his one unobstructed eye. “Are you sure you just want to leave her? She’s a—“
“That one is too good for the life of a shinobi.” Mei onee-sama said, and with a wave of her hand commanded the entourage to follow obediently after her.
“Feh.” He scoffed. “In my day—“ His voice drifted out of earshot as he followed behind her.
I looked down at the small, weighty bundle of coins in my hand which Mei onee-sama entrusted to me. Enough money to eat for a month.
When combined with the meager amount I had earned singing on the sidewalk outside of a humble dumpling shop, I figured I finally had enough.
“Here.” I said, dumping the coins onto the desk of the jaded loan shark. They fell into a pile with a barrage of bright “chinks” in front of him. He blinked.
“Okay? And what do you want?” He said with an unimpressed yawn. People like him must have seen ten times this amount of money on a daily basis. It made me bite my lip.
“Get me into the ninja academy.” I said, despite the lump growing in my throat from sheer nervousness. The clerk fingered through the coins, counting a few of them in his head one by one.
“Well…” The man trailed off, “I suppose I could get you in. It’s not quite as hard to get through the bureaucracy as in the fourth’s day…” He nodded. “Fine, come back in a day, I’ll have your papers ready.”
Soon after that, I received my falsified papers certifying that I was indeed a citizen of Kirigakure and that I qualified for the Kirigakure Ninja Academy. My name was now Suiyume Aimi.
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2. Reality.
“Stop it!!” I yelled angrily at the men whose eyes were dazed and murky. I beat their broad chests with my fists which did nothing to dissuade them. One of them caught my arms with his giant hands and pinned them against the wall. I reeled in disgust as he leaned in to take a long whiff of the white-sky blue locks that fell down my slender neck. When I headbutted him he scowled and smacked me across my face.
My nose began to burn, and my skull ached after it rattled from falling hard against the cold dirt.
Why was this happening? All I did was sing. All I wanted to do was make the people around me happy.
The other man climbed on top of me, pinning me to the ground. The sharp hairs on his shaven beard stabbed into the soft flesh of my neck one by one.
I wondered why awful things happened to good people. Why the man whom I had given all my savings to had scammed me and stolen all my money when I was younger. Why I couldn’t be a strong enough kunoichi to beat two stupid men—
He pried my legs apart.
Kunoichi never cry.
I tried telling them that I was only 12. That I had a horrible life and begged them to take pity on me. I even begged them to just kill me instead. They just kept telling me how much they love me, and wanted to show it. I didn’t understand at the time.
I looked to a faraway place.
“Mei-onee sama, please---“ I breathed, my voice husky. I couldn’t stop the tears. I wasn’t strong enough, not yet.
I shut my eyes, trying to retreat into my own body—to escape. I opened my eyes again after a few moments of nothing happening. The brightness of the sun lent a hazy aura on the world at first; on the man with bronze skin who stood towering over the two now unconscious men who had assaulted me.
“Yo, you alright? If you’re going to be on your own, you oughta at least know how to fight!”
I didn’t say anything. The man walked over to me, and squatted down to take a closer look at me.
“You should be careful where you sing that song yo-- You could make the whole world fall in love with one note.”
I looked up at the man shaking my head.
“What…? And… Why do you talk like that…?” I asked. I didn’t get to hear his answer, because I passed out. As a dark tunnel closed in on the world around me, I could swear I could smell the faint, salty scent of the ocean.
But we were in a forest.
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3. Rain Song.
“Hey Bee-nii-chan.” I said, munching on a loaf of slightly stale bread one night during my travels with Bee. “How come my song doesn’t work on you?”
I looked at him over the flames of the bonfire which licked up into the chilly night. I wanted to ask why he also deemed it necessary to wear sunglasses at night too, but getting one coherent response from Bee was hard enough.
“You’re too young for me, plus, you couldn’t handle the Bee. Yeeeee.”
He laid back on the makeshift bed made of gathered leaves. I stared at him over the flames for a moment, and then held my half eaten bread in my mouth as I crawled over to his side and laid next to him, facing him.
“But, I’m more womanly than when you met me, right?” I asked earnestly, batting my eyelashes. I felt my face get warm. He didn’t answer my question, instead leaning up on his elbows and asking with his blonde goatee raised at me, “Where did you get that bread?”
I giggled.
“I may have asked the man at the bakery reeeeeaaal nicely for it…” I answered with a sly grin after finishing the loaf with one final bite.
Bee put his giant hand on my head. The weight of it pushed my head down a bit.
“What did I tell you about using your gifts for no good? You need to uplift the people, not steal their food!”
I pouted.
“Got it?” He asked, mussing up my hair. I took his thick, heavy hand in both of mine and shook it off.
“Yes! Gosh! Stop messing up my hair!!” I protested. Bee nodded.
“Good. Now, show me how much better your song’s gotten! Maybe if it’s good enough, I’ll collaborate on it!”
I nodded, “Okay!” and closed my eyes. I took a deep breath, making myself still before opening my eyes slowly and focusing on a point on the ground. And singing a soft melody that I swear even the birds paused to listen to.
You’re never lonely
As long as you have the rain—
The drops keep coming
Make you clean again—
Will you still Love me?
When the sun comes out?
Or will you leave me
Like the rain clouds…?
I stopped, and Bee nodded. “Getting there yo, but needs more soul!” He said, and laid down again to sleep. I turned to watch the fire, which was nothing but embers now, smoldering bright orange gems in the darkness, and smiled.
Bee. I thought, I wonder when the day will come when you acknowledge me as a grown woman… without my song too.
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4. Strong and Strike
I eyed each one of the five thugs circling me. Their eyes were clear, except for the occasional half-drunk. I knew they weren’t under my genjutsu because thanks to my time with Bee, I could control when my genjutsu activates and when my songs are just well… songs.
“Fans of mine…?” I asked with a sheepish laugh. “Okay, I suppose I could do a few autographs! Who’s first?”
“I am!”
How utterly predictable, it’s the goon directly behind me.
I sidestepped the swing of his club and landed a strike to the base of his skull with the blunt end of my kunai knife, retiring him face down on the dirt.
“…And who’s next?”
I spun the kunai knife on one slender finger, and rested my other hand on one hip, grinning at the remaining thugs.
…Except, I missed one, who caught me in a tight bear hug. Bee never really was a good teacher when it came to paying attention.
I used a water clone to escape into the thick foliage of the trees above them. The man growled in frustration when the clone burst into water all over him.
“The bitch is a kunoichi!?” One of the goons exclaimed.
“Sh-should we run?” Another asked.
“No way! Boss’ll be thrilled when we get him a new ***** and a bodyguard!” Another replied. I rolled my eyes, then, from the concealment of the trees focused my chakra and formed a handseal.
A thick mist began to creep into the forest.
“It’s the Hidden Mist Jutsu!!”
From there it was business as usual. Though admittedly if it weren’t for the cover of the mist I’m not so sure I’d have done as well.
After finishing up with the goons, I continued on the road back to Kirigakure. It had been five years since I had left the village, and met with Bee. Now it was time for me to return to Kirigakure, become a true Mist shinobi and work my way towards the dream I promised Bee I’d fulfill.
To be the first shinobi idol and make the world smile with my music.
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5. First Mission! - Assassinate the Corrupt Politician!
“Suiyume-chan”, The inn keeper asked me, “Our guests have arrived, please see them in.”
I dipped my head in as graceful a bow I could muster and shuffled off to the lobby. I was getting the hang of moving in a kimono, though I hadn’t known that you only wear a towel under. I walked with the constant fear of it suddenly coming undone and having to cast a Hidden Mist Jutsu or something to cover myself up, but I tried not to let it deter me. This was my first official mission as a genin of Kirigakure—I had to accomplish my missions flawlessly if I wanted to move up in the shinobi world.
I bowed graciously at the entourage of men in the Inn’s entrance, paying special attention to make sure my knees were bent at the correct angle, my chin pointing in towards my chest… flash a little of my naked wrist…
The man in the middle of the group grinned.
“And who is this beautiful young thing?” He asked the inn keeper, but kept his smirk fixed on me. Old Lady Saito bowed, and indicated towards me.
“She is Suiyume-chan. She’s new here.” She said.
I bowed again. “Honored to meet you all—“ I added.
Following the pleasantries, I led them into the Tea room, a cozy room separated from the rest of the inn. A circle of neatly folded tatami mats flanked the rich brown mahogany table, upon which the fine china was set.
I watched the man at the head of the table in the corner of my eye as I poured tea for the other guests.
Tetsuharu Tanaka—a corrupt politician who used to work with Dato from the Land of Waves. My mission was to get close to him…
…and kill him.
The problem however was in that he was known to be extremely cautious, and only those close to him would be able to pull an assassination off. I was handpicked for this mission because of my Genjutsu. I couldn’t fail.
I would never fail Mei-onee sama.
“YOW! HOT!”
I blinked, returning my gaze to the task at hand. To my horror, and that of one of Tanaka’s men, I accidentally spilled the tea on his lap. He leapt up with a yelp, knocking over a vase that was resting on a shelf behind him.
“I-I’m so sorry!!!” I said panicking, scrambling for something to wipe him off.
“Stupid girl!!” The man exclaimed, “I ought to have this whole inn closed down—“
Tanaka stood up, and made his way towards me. His gaze was intense and fixed on me.
“I’m so sorry,” I apologized again to him, bowing deeply, “I didn’t mean to—“
“You were staring at me, that’s why you spilled the tea on my friend here, isn’t that right?” Tanaka said with a smirk.
He caught that!?
“I-I…” I stammered. Tanaka looked at his associate who was still fuming.
“Go get yourself cleaned up.” He said, then turned to me. He suddenly took a firm hold on my arm.
“You can't hide it from me-- I can see it in your eyes...” He said to me in a low, hoarse whisper. I tracked his beady little pupils as they moved to look at each one of my wide, teal eyes.
“That look of lust which only the most skilled and... experienced men can differentiate from the look of someone with an intent to kill--”
Err... About that... I thought to myself. I blinked, then offered a sheepish grin.
“Y-you caught me, Tanaka-Sama...” I said, then offered another apologetic bow. “It's these.. these lewd womanly of desires of mine! Curse my being a woman!”
Did I... lay it on too thick?
Apparently not, because tea was ended early and I was invited back to his private room when my duties at the inn for the day were finished.
When men use the brain between their legs to think, they sure could be easy to manipulate. I wondered if women could be the same? It was probably my naivety that allowed me to think otherwise.
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6. Birds and 'Bees'. - Ai Completes Her Mission!?
“Hey, Bee--” I said as I followed him through the dense foliage. I ducked as a branch he forgot to hold back snapped backward at me.
“Sup?” He said succinctly.
“Uh... what exactly is a '****'?” I asked. I bumped into him when he stopped suddenly.
“Why'd you stop--”
Bee broke out into a hearty laugh. “Yo Eight-tails, you hearin' this?” Bee said to his bijuu.
“What's so funny? It was just a question--”
He turned around to face me, looking down at me, then, with a raise of his gold goatee he asked, “Where'd you hear that?”
“Eh?” I tilted my head. “Some guy in the village yelled at this lady to suck it. So, I figured it might be some kinda food?”
I pursed my lips, deep in thought as I tried to analyze what I had heard earlier that day.
“Most likely a seasonal kind that only appears during festivals-- like some kinda candy? I bet it tastes good!” I beamed.
Bee was on the ground, howling.
“Stop-- please, I can't take it anymore yo!” He said between fits of laughter. Then after the laughter died down he paused.
“Haha-- you sure?” He said, probably to his bijuu, then shrugged.
“Okay, Hachi here is gonna field this one. Oh man, this is going to be good.”
Bee calmed down.
“...Ai, this is the Hachibi speaking now.” Bee said.
“Hullo Mr. Hachibi.” I replied. I've talked to him a few times before. I liked how he was always calm when talking to me. He made a funny pair with crazy old Bee.
“Uhh... Well, you see--” The Hachibi began, “Sometimes, when a man and a woman--”
“A man and a woman?” I repeated inquisitively.
“Err okay, how about--” The Hachibi paused. “Okay, you see, girls and boys are like birds and bees...”
“Mhmm...” I followed along closely.
“Sometimes, when a bird and bee love each other veeeery much, the bird will sometimes do something for a bee to show how much she loves him.”
“Like sucking a--”
“Yes, yes, that's one of the many things a uh, bird can do...” Hachibi said nervously, cutting me off.
“I just realized!” I said suddenly. “I'm a bird, aren't I?”
“Yes, yes you are.” Hachibi replied matterofactly.
“And Bee is a bee! So do I--?”
“...Oh dear Sage I cannot do this anymore.” Hachibi interrupted exasperatedly.
And that was the last I ever heard of birds and bees, and things birds and bees do for each other for a very long time.
...Until during this mission, I mean.
“Y-you want me to do what, now?” I asked Tanaka, squinting at him skeptically. Later than night I had been summoned to his private room at the inn.
“Go on--” He said with a sly grin. “I'm sure you know how, this being the Pleasure district and all.”
Screw getting him with the Genjutsu-- Can I just kill this bastard now? I thought, despite giving a charming smile.
“Oh, of course I know how--” I said, “It's just ah... y'know, gotta shake off the rust. I gotta do my exercises first, you understand.”
Tanaka nodded in agreement. “Of course! You do whatever you need to do, Suiyume-chan.”
“Then, I'll be right back--” I said with a nervous laugh and ran into the bathroom.
“Okay Ai--” I said to myself in the mirror. “This is it-- it's now or never. Just gotta take out my kunai and--”
I sighed.
I realized I had never once in my life killed an animal, let alone a person.
“He's a bad guy.” I said, trying to reassure myself, “And this is for Mei-onee-sama...”
Someone knocked on the door.
“Suiyume-chan...? You almost ready?” Tanaka called on the other side of the door.
“Y-yeah! Just, y'know, sexin' mahself up...” I laughed sheepishly.
“O-okay then... I can't wait. Ehehehe.” I could hear him walking back to our room.
I hung my head.
Then I stared fiercely into the mirror. “He wants you to urkk his blehh!” I nodded. Yup. It was confirmed. The bastard was now going to die.
...Which is what I was sure of, until a few minutes later I was back in his room, on my knees, looking up at him.
He gave me a lecherous grin as he stood over me. “Go on-- take it out.” He was holding a vial of oil from some flower. No doubt some kind of pervy lube or something. It made my nose itch.
“Oh boy...I uh, can't wait to uh, dig in...” I said feigning enthusiasm. I think my mouth was twitching.
Kill him now! Kill him 'til he's dead!!!
Gah... I can't kill an actual person--
So do I have to...?
The door to Tanaka's room slid open suddenly and one of his guards burst in.
“Tanaka-Sama!! It's--" He stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the sight of me and Tanaka in this precarious position.
"Ooh. Uhhhhhh... Huh.”
He stared at us. We stared at him back. Something poked my eye.
“Y-you fool! Get the hell out!” Tanaka exclaimed, glowing beet red. The guard covered his eyes with one hand.
“F-forgive me, sir, it's just-- enemy shinobi from Iwagakure are attacking the inn! We're trying to hold them back from the first floor but-- erkkk!!”
Blood spurt from his mouth and he keeled over, and before he could even hit the ground an Iwagakure shinobi dashed in, towards us.
What happened in the next thirty seconds or so was a blur. I'll try to recall what happened as best I can.
The enemy shinobi leapt up over me, and with a kick, sent me flying backward away from Tanaka. As I slid on the slick wooden floor I reached for the kunai strapped on my thigh and hurled it at the shinobi. He ducked and the kunai buried itself handle-deep into the eye of Tanaka, the corrupt politician. With a blood curdling scream, he dropped his vial of lube on the floor to grip the fountain of blood that was his squirting eye-socket.
“Holy shi--”, was all I could manage to say before the shinobi charged at me, kunai in hand. Wide eyed, I watched as his foot caught the pool of slimy lube, causing him to fall hard, right in front of me, on top of his own kunai. He died quickly.
All this occurred as Tanaka fell in a heap and writhed on the floor for a few more moments before expiring.
I looked at the scene in front of me. The enemy ninja, who had slipped on Tanaka's creepy smelling lube and killed himself with his own kunai, and Tanaka, who had a kunai knife buried four inches into his brain through his right eye. I let it sink into my very confused mind for a moment.
“...WHAT IN THE EFF JUST HAPPENED!?” I yelled at the room.
I escaped out the window and ran back to Kirigakure, where I was congratulated for not only completing my mission, but doing it while dispatching an enemy jounin who was apparently a hero in the last Great Ninja War.
I'm not sure I'm cut out to be a kunoichi or an idol...
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7. Older Sister Mei
'Kirigakure Genin Defeats Iwagakure's “Rock of Doom”', Was what the cover of Kirigakure village's newspaper was titled.
“Eugh. With a nickname like 'Rock of Doom' he deserved to die--” Mei said as she skimmed over the article.
She folded the paper up and placed it on her desk before resting her chin on her folded hands and eyed me silently under her shiny, auburn bangs. Her lips curled into a subtle smirk that, added with a slight glint in her green eyes, hinted at a mix of pride and amusement-- either at me or her own quip.
“So...” She said in a low, sultry voice. “What to do with you...?”
I didn't answer, keeping my gaze fixed at the ground. This was the first time I had seen her since that day years ago when I had made her smile with my song. I wondered if she recognized me?
I tried my hardest not to shake, but my legs betrayed me.
Please stop-- I begged my legs, but I couldn't quite get them to be still completely.
I heard her chair slide against the wood floor, and her footsteps as she walked over to me, circling me as she looked me over.
“Doesn't she... remind you of someone, Ao?” She asked her faithful right-hand man. He was the one who had summoned me to Mizukage-sama's office.
“Mm.” He said, agreeing. “That she does. In fact, I was just thinking she reminded me of Mizukage-sama, back when she used to be young--”
The footsteps stopped.
“Ao...” She said calmly, “Say one more thing, and I'll kill you...”
“Errp!” Ao said, swallowing his words.
The way she could say such things with a smile... Mei-onee-sama could be one, frightening lady...
“Ao, leave us.” She said, and without hesitation, Ao left us alone with a simple, “Yes, Lady Mizukage.”
After he had shut the door behind him, the Mizukage sat down on her desk, crossing her legs.
“So,” She began, “Let's just clear the air here.”
My eyes flit up to meet hers for a second. I couldn't hold my gaze for long though. I stared back at the floor, suddenly feeling hot.
“Uhrm, o-okay...” I said in a voice not all that dissimilar to that of a frightened mouse.
“First of all,” Mei said, inspecting her cuticles, “Just between you and me, you didn't really kill that jounin, did you?”
“N-no...” I said nearly instantly.
“As I thought. Second of all--” She fixed her sea-green eyes on me again.
“...You've grown, haven't you?” She said softly.
I looked up at her.
“E-excuse me?”
Mei smirked. “Don't think I don't remember the cute little girl singing outside the dumpling shop for tips all those years ago...”
She began to walk towards me. Then I saw something I wouldn't have expected in a million years.
“I thought I told you not to become a shinobi?” She asked. Under those long brown bangs of hers, her eyes exhibited a kind of profound sadness. I don't know why it was there, but I could definitely see it. Hurt in those sea-greens.
Why was she so sad?
I don't know why I felt as if I was suddenly hit in the chest, like the air was sucked from my lungs, or why my eyes were starting to sting with tears I haven't shed since the day Bee had saved me.
“I-I... I want to become as strong and beautiful as Mizukage-onee-sama one day--” I blurt out in a pitifully tearful voice, “And, and I wanted to repay you for-- for--”
My voice broke.
Mei put a finger up to her lips and smiled. I quickly rubbed my eyes with my sleeves and looked down at the floor again. I could see her shoes. They were really nice. I wondered if it was hard to fight in heels. It might have been a little thing, but it made me respect her all the more.
Mei put her hands on my shoulders, prompting me to look up at her again. I was shocked at how soft and cold her hands were.
“I know. I know you do. You'll make a fine kunoichi someday.” She said in a voice that was barely a whisper.
Were my own tears corrupting my vision or was she fighting back tears as well?
I'll never forget that day when I cried in front of Mei-onee-sama.
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8. 'Rock' Girl
I pulled my thin cotton sleeveless jacket around my body tighter as the wind began to bite more at me. I smiled despite it though. Autumn was finally here, which meant shorter days and colder nights. I loved feeling so cold my skin stung.
Starting today, I was supposed to be assigned to a new three-man team. Mei-onee-sama thought it might be best because I might be targeted by shinobi from other villages, seeing as how my name was beginning to float around more and more ever since my alleged defeat of one of Iwagakure's stronger jounins. Also, it would be an opportunity to learn. That's what she said anyway. I wondered if any of my new teammates would be cute guys.
Knowing my luck, I kinda doubted it.
A kunai whistled through the chilly night air at me suddenly, and I leaned my head back just far enough for it to miss me. It buried itself into the tree I was leaning on with a hard “thuck”.
Three more kunai flew towards me and I leapt backward three times, dodging each of them. They landed in a line at my feet about a yard apart.
Ducking behind another tree, I took a kunai out from the holster at my thigh and held it backhand.
I peeked out of the tree to locate my attacker only to have another kunai whiz over my head and force me to duck again.
“Who the hell..?” I said to myself. There was no time to worry about who was attacking me. I needed to escape and report back to Kirigakure Ninja HQ. But before that, I needed to locate and identify my attacker.
I used a water clone to draw the assailant's fire while I peeked out of the opposite side of the tree to find him. Within seconds a kunai pierced my clone through the neck, causing it to burst into water which collected on the grass in little shiny dew drops.
The clone didn't last long, but I was able to spot him. The attacker seemed to be male, and he was holed up in some dense foliage on a cliff overlooking the clearing where I was waiting for my new team.
For someone to be able to throw a kunai that accurately at night with this amount of wind took a considerable amount of skill.
“A water clone, how predictable. To be honest, I knew it was a clone but I was bored of waiting for you to find me.” A voice echoed from the cliff above.
I held a kunai to the back of his neck.
“...You only had to wait a second longer.” I said to him. The other water clone whom he had mistaken to be the real me stuck her tongue out at him from the clearing below us.
“...As to be expected from the girl who brought down Iwagakure's 'Rock of Doom.'” He said.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” I replied, pressing the edge of the knife against his neck harder. “So who are you, and why are you trying to...”
His body collapsed into water which fell at my feet.
“Kill... me...?” I finished.
“Anybody can spam Mizu-bunshin no jutsu!” He yelled as he charged at me from the side. Sparks flew and illuminated the night briefly as our kunai clashed. I got a good look at his face in the light of one of those sparks. He was wearing a sly grin. His hair was midnight blue and fell over his ears to his jaw.
“...But how's your taijutsu?!” He exclaimed. With a hard push he parried my kunai and forced it out of my hand. As it flew upward and caught a glint of moonlight he landed a kick on my abdomen which sent me reeling backward. He followed it up by rushing behind me as I went, preparing a final backward slash with his knife.
I recovered in time to roll over backward over his back, pushing up on his shoulders in a sort of handstand before pushing down hard, using the centrifugal force from rolling over his back to flip over and land a hard upward kick to his jaw which, this time, sent him reeling backward.
I caught my kunai knife mid-air and rushed at him when suddenly someone appeared between us, materializing as quietly as the dew drops. A gust of wind surged through the grass like a ripple in a puddle of water as he came between us.
My kunai clashed with a strange flounder shaped sword wrapped in bandages which he held behind him. With his free hand he landed a punch which knocked the first attacker a good yard away from us.
He pushed his thick rimmed glasses up and sighed.
“Saizo,” He said meekly, “Couldn't you have greeted your new team member in a less... confrontational way?”
The blue haired boy named Saizo grinned, rubbing his chin.
“Sorry about that, Chojuro-sensei,” He said with a laugh. “I wanted to see what 'Rock' girl's got is all--” My gaze shifted between Saizo and this new person.
“New team member...?” I said, “...'Rock' girl...?”
I lowered my kunai as Chojuro turned around. He put his sword away and scratched his head.
“Errm, my name is Chojuro,” He said. “I guess starting today I'll be your new jounin master...Uh, let's all try to get along...?”
***
“I guess you're not so bad,” Saizo said after swallowing a lump of chewed dumpling. “I can see why Granny Mei recommended you.”
“Saizo-kun!” Chojuro said tiredly, “What did I tell you about calling Mizukage-sama 'granny'!? Do you want her to do, 'you-know-what' to you again!?”
Saizo dropped his dumpling on his plate as the blood drained from his face.
I had taken just about enough of this brat and this scaredy-sensei.
I stood up abruptly, slamming my hands down hard on the table. The plates rattled.
“Let's just be clear--” I said, in a low, guttural tone through my grating teeth. “I don't like you.” I squinted at Saizo, who looked up at me, bewildered.
“I don't like you, or your face-- I don't like your girly hair, how you chew like a cow, and I despise how you talk about Mizukage-sama.”
I pointed accusingly at the blue haired boy, whose back was now pressed hard against the chair.
“If you say one more bad thing about her, I will skin you alive and eat your remains, then vomit your remains and destroy them to hell. Got it!?”
My chest heaved as I breathed hard. After calming down a bit, I started to notice the horrified dumpling shop patrons staring at me. I had forgotten how I ended up on top of the table.
“Ehehehehe....” Chojuro broke the eternal silence with a very nervous, awkward laugh.
After he gave the shaken dumpling shop owners a few thousand apologies, we were dismissed for the day.
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9. Zoe-kun and Hot pots
“No, idiot--” I whispered to Saizo as we hid in the bushes together, “You throw the kunai first, then I'll charge in with the Sword of Draining.”
“Fine, fine, have it your way.” Saizo said with a hair flip. I rolled my eyes.
This was not going to end well.
I watched through the bushes as Chojuro stood in the clearing, arms folded.
“Okay, do it now!” I commanded.
“Yes, your majesty.” Saizo said, and hurled a volley of kunai at Chojuro with lethal precision. He deftly deflected each of the knives with his own kunai knife, without taking a single step. The ground around him was littered with knives in a wide circle.
“Hm?” Chojuro eyed one of the many dozens of kunai knives he had deflected. One among them was supplemented by a Five Senses Chaos Disorient Jutsu.
He was then consumed in a hazy mist.
“Ah! A Five Senses Chaos Disorient Jutsu! Oof, these guys might be a bit stronger than I thought--” Chojuro said in the mist as I charged behind him.
I gathered my chakra into my hand, forming a sword with the water from the nearby river.
“Suiton: Mizu Kuri no Yaiba!” I exclaimed as I stabbed through the mist.
“...Did we get him?” I asked. There was no way he could evaded while under the five senses jutsu. But as the smoke cleared, I could see Chojuro encased in a sphere of highly dense water, which completely protected him against my water sword.
“A water prison jutsu!?” Saizo exclaimed, “So he blocked instead of evaded... But when did he form the handseals for that!?”
Chojuro laughed sheepishly. “While in the mist from your jutsu, of course. I guess I got lucky!”
“You've got to be kidding me—” I said jadedly before he sent Saizo and I flying with Suiton: Hahonryuu.
The sudden torrent of water had Saizo and I washed up at the edge of the clearing like we shipwrecked on a desert island.
“Ughh...” Saizo said, sitting up. “He used to the highly dense water from his water prison jutsu to amplify the strength of that torrent. I told you things would have gone better if you distracted him for my attack and not the other way around!”
“Shut up!” I retorted, ringing out my soaked hair. “He can block your stupid kunai throws blindfolded! You can't expect to beat him like that!”
Chojuro materialized from a shallow puddle of water left over from the torrent.
“Hey now, it was a good try, really...” He said, trying as always to diffuse the situation. “You'll just have to work on your teamwork a little more.”
“If Saizo's timing wasn't so crappy we wouldn't have to.” I said, glowering. Saizo looked at my chest.
“I can see your boobs through your wet t-shirt. ...How was my timing on that?” He shot back with a smirk.
The thrashing I gave that boy, Konoha's Slug Princess Hokage would have been proud.
After drying off, we headed back into the village from the training grounds.
“Say, Chojuro-sensei--” Saizo said, holding a bag of ice to his swollen cheek. Chojuro pushed his glasses up on his nose.
“Yes?”
“When are we getting our first mission?”
“Well...” Chojuro paused, “Actually, we've already been given our first mission. In a few days, we're to assist Ao-sempai and the rest of the guard unit in accompanying Mizukage-sama to an island recently hit by a bad storm.”
“Probably would have been nice to let us know sooner...” I commented darkly.
“What's Gran-- err, Mizukage-sama need to visit them for?” Saizo asked. Chojuro gave a warm smile as he looked to a far off place, as if recalling some pleasant, far off memory.
“Mizukage-sama is incredibly kind,” He said after awhile, “She wants to personally go there and make sure they're getting the supplies they need, as well as assist in the rebuilding effort.”
“Hmph. Figures we need to pick up the slack that the Daimyo left.” Saizo scoffed. Soon after, Chojuro left, having to report back to Ao for briefing on a separate mission.
I was about to head home when Saizo stopped me.
“Hey--” He said nonchalantly.
“What?” I replied. My clothes and hair were still a little damp, so I was eager to get home and get out of these clothes-- maybe soak for a bit in a hot bath before taking a nap...
“Let's get something to eat.” He said. He looked quite aloof with those silver-blue eyes of his.
“Huh...? No way, I need to change clothes-- take a bath...”
“I'll wait for you.” Saizo said simply.
He'll wait for me?
“I'm going to take reaaaaally long.” I said. He shrugged.
“It's fine.”
I gave an exasperated groan. “Fine, but you're paying.”
Saizo gave a listless shrug. “Fine.”
“Suit yourself...” I said, heading upstairs to my house. “I'm going to make your wallet cry...” I grumbled under my breath.
***
“So, where to?” I asked, feeling refreshed in some clean, dry clothes. I dried my hair as best I could and tied it up in a messy bun.
Saizo stayed quiet, walking ahead of me with his hands in his pockets. It was throwing me off. Even before I left I was feeling uneasy. I didn't know why I had to check myself in the mirror so many times before leaving, or why I felt the need to retouch my makeup. It was just Saizo.
“Umm, yo?” I called to him again.
“Huh?” Saizo replied, still half somewhere else. “Oh, sorry. Here we are.”
I looked up at the sign on the restaurant.
“Ooh, Hot-pot?! I was totally craving!” I said excitedly, then added, with a hint of sympathy despite my hatred for Saizo, “You sure you're paying? It's pretty expensive here.”
Saizo gave another careless shrug. “Sure.”
“Don't underestimate a girl's appetite!” I said with a grin and ran in ahead of him to get our seats.
**
I rested my chin in my hand as I dunked a piece of chopped Shittake over and over under the simmering broth.
“Grr... Why is it taking so long!?” I groaned, stabbing a roll of thinly sliced beef with my chopstick and chucking it back into the fragrant boil.
“We just put everything in like three minutes ago--” Saizo said, blinking as some of the boiling broth splashed onto his hand. His patience only served to infuriate me more.
“I swear I'm about to eat this meat raw right now--”
“So you like it raw...?” Saizo said with a smirk.
“What?” I asked. If he was making a joke, it totally went over my head.
“Nothing...” He said with a sigh, “You're the weirdest girl I've ever met...”
I looked up at Saizo and stuck my tongue out. “I'd say the same to you, if I didn't know you were a guy. Are you a guy? If there's something you need to let me know, it's fine--” I joked with him.
Always prepared with a witty one-liner, Saizo leaned in and said, “You're not sure...? Would like to make sure...?”
“I didn't bring my magnifying glass with me, sorry.” I said, and stuck a piece of still-broiling radish into my mouth.
“Ahh--- haah! Haah!” I opened my mouth, blowing out the hot air before spitting the raddish onto my plate.
“Ugh... you can be really disgusting sometimes...” Saizo groaned, looking away.
“Stupid hot food! Why won't you let me eat you!?” I yelled at the dead radish. “I hate waiting for food! First you have to wait for it to be made, then you have to wait for it to be brought out--”
As I talked, Saizo reached over, took my chopsticks and grabbed a piece of thinly sliced beef from the hot pot.
“--Then you have to put the food in the pot, then you have to wait for it cook--”
He held the piece of beef in front of him, formed a handseal, and blew softly onto the meat.
“...And THEN you have to wait for it to coo—urkk!”
He stuffed the piece of meat into my mouth. I could taste savory sweetness of the brill fish in the shacha sauce mixed with the faint heat from the chili peppers.
“Mmm...” I said, chewing. The meat wasn't too hot, but still had the belly-warming heat that I loved hot pot food for.
“It helps to blow on it first...” Saizo said, leaning back in his seat. “Like with other things...” He said with a wink.
I took another piece of meat from the boiling stew in my chopsticks and held it in front of him.
“Again.” I said.
“It's not like you can blow on hot food too--”
“You're better at it blowing stuff.” I said, laughing. Saizo rolled his eyes. “...Because you have wind nature chakra!” I added, and prodded the meat at him again.
“Blow itttt!” I asked him again in a whiny, nasally tone. He formed another handseal and blew on the meat again.
“You know...” Saizo said as I chewed happily, “You're actually pretty cute when you beg like that...”
“Nothing you say can make me mad right now,” I said as I ate contentedly.
“Wasn't trying to make you mad.” Saizo said. “You looked fine before by the way. You didn't need to put on makeup for me.”
He sure had a knack for making me feel weird.
After we finished lunch and Saizo finished doing the dishes to make up for the portion of the bill he couldn't pay for thanks to my insatiable appetite, he walked me home. It was the time of the year when the sun went down early, and darkness fell on the village while everyone was still out and about. I loved this time of the year. There was always an air of excitement for some reason. Maybe it was the way so many people were out at night.
We arrived back at my house.
“See you tomorrow, 'Rock' girl.” Saizo said. I smiled for some reason.
“See ya, Zoe-kun.”
And for some reason, he smiled too.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
10. An Angel Sang To Me.
I stood at the bow of the boat, leaning over the railing and watching the gray, filmy surface of the ocean ripple as the boat passed through it. My face, hands and legs stung with cold, but my body was warm and cozy in my big marshmallow jacket. I kept running my fingers over the soft, fake fur lining on the hood and sleeves.
Zoe was leaning on the railing, looking aloof and cool as always as the wind tussled his midnight blue hair to the side. Tufts of his hair stuck up in soft cow-licks because of the wind. His hair looked really soft.
“Quit staring. ...Freak.” Zoe said to me, and I stuck my tongue out at him. Ao watched us disapprovingly.
“You need to teach your genins some discipline--” Ao told Chojuro, whose pale face became flushed with red.
“Y-yes.. you're right, Ao-sempai--” He replied meekly. Mei-onee-sama came up behind them, smiling as she put her hands on Ao and Chojuro's shoulders.
“Oh, Ao--” She said cheerfully, “They're just being kids. Chojuro is doing a fine job.”
She nodded to Chojuro. He seemed like he was close to passing out.
The island was slowly coming into view. It seemed to materialize slowly in the dense mist.
“We're here!” I exclaimed excitedly after we had disembarked from the steamboat that brought us here.
My excitement subsided very quickly however when I saw the damage.
Women, sobbing as they held the lifeless bodies of loved ones. Orphaned children, dazed and wandering the surreal landscape of the destroyed town. Men carrying their bloodied friends out of rubble.
“This is--” I watched the scene, mouth slightly agape. So many voices crying, calling out-- it was all I could do just to stay frozen in one spot.
Then I felt someone brush past me.
It was Zoe. He ran over to a small, frightened girl, who clung to the tatters that were her battered clothes. He knelt down next to her, quickly removing his jacket and wrapping it around her bruised and shaken frame.
“There you go.” He said with a reassuring smile. “How's that? It feels better right?”
She nodded.
I don't know why witnessing that allowed me to regain control of my body. But as soon as I did, I was rushing into the fray, helping carry whatever I could, using whatever small amount of medical supplies I always carried in my ninja tools pouch to help as many I could.
“Ao, hurry and set up a relief command center over there.” Mei commanded, pointing at a spot farther into the beach.
The day we went to help out this tiny village on a small island is another day in my life I will never forget.
**
Later on, long after night fell I was forced out of the medical relief tent by one of the medical ninja. I sat outside the command center tent, finally getting some rest. It wasn't that I was being in the way-- in fact, everyone said I had a knack for medical ninjitsu. I just think they pitied me. The way seeing so many people suffer and die sucked the life out of me; the way it was so obvious in my tired face.
I heard the sand crunch with footsteps behind me.
“Hey.” Zoe said simply. He had a towel over his shoulder with spots of darkened, dried blood. I didn't question it.
“Hey.” I said back. I didn't take my eyes off of the shore, rolling in and out with each incoming wave. I let the cadence of the waves' soft whisper beckon me into a stupor that let me escape from all the suffering.
He took a seat on the sand next to me.
“How're you holding up?” He asked, uncharacteristically concerned. I just shrugged.
“Alright.”
He didn't say anything.
“...Well, actually I feel horrible. Awful. Terrible. I didn't realize being a shinobi meant seeing the kinds of things we had to see today--” I said, nearly without realizing it. “I don't think I'm cut out to be a kunoichi--”
“You were amazing out there.” Zoe said simply. I shrugged.
“There was a man whose entire lower body was crushed under some rubble. We didn't know how long he'd been there, holding on...” I began. Zoe nodded quietly. “There was nothing I could do, so I just held his hand while the medical ninja worked on him. We all knew he wasn't going to make it.”
It felt like I was listening to someone else talk as I heard my own voice echo into the night in a soft harmony with the waves.
“As I'm sitting there, holding his hand, I just start singing--” I continued as Zoe listened on, staring at that mysterious point far off where the sea and sky seemed to meet. The ocean twinkled with reflected moonlight and mirrored the stars in the night sky.
“And when I finish he says to me... 'Are you an angel?'” I paused. “I didn't know what to say, so I just told him 'Yes.' And then he closed his eyes and died right there.”
The quiet, blue haired boy turned to me, eying me with those profound silver-blue eyes of his.
“I can kind of see it, here.” He said. I felt myself begin to feel hot. “You kind of were an angel today...”
Suddenly he eyed me intensely. It was making me uneasy.
“Z-Zoe-kun...?” I asked him nervously, before he pinned me down hard to the sand, pressing his body on top of mine. Right as he did, small bullets of water whizzed over us, impacting the sand around us and sending little shoots of sand bursting up into the air.
“What the hell!?” I exclaimed.
“You can show yourself now.” Zoe said, getting up. He took out his kunai knife and readied himself.
“Good eye!” Someone echoed from the treeline a few yards from the shore. A man stepped out, dressed like a shinobi. There was no emblem on his forehead protector.
“It helps when your enemy is crappy at hiding.” Zoe quipped. The shinobi chuckled.
“Arrogant brat. I won't need to hide to take care of you--”
“Ai--!” Zoe said to me, indicating towards the command tent. I didn't have time to marvel at how he called me by my name for the first time.
“Right!” I said, and ran off for Mei-onee-sama's tent.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
11. The Power of Kirigakure!
I burst into Mei's tent.
“Mei-- Mizukage-sama!” I yelled, she was looking at some reports on her desk when she looked up at me.
“Yes...?”
“We-we're under attack! Zoe-- I mean Saizo-kun is--”
“Right, lead me to where it is!” Mei said. I nodded and turned around, taking a few steps before stopping.
“Wait, isn't it best if you stay here where it's safe?” I asked, and turned around to face her just before she landed a stab with a kunai that would have been fatal. I dodged it barely, falling backwards hard.
“M-Mei-onee-sama!?” I exclaimed, confused. She formed a few handseals before spitting a high pressure jet of water at me. I rolled to the side to evade, sand flying up through tears in the tent's floor as the jet of water cut through the ground with enough strength to rend diamonds in half.
I leapt away as she made one final sweep with her jet, cutting the support beam of the tent and causing it to collapse. I cut through the roof with a kunai as it fell over me and jumped out, right as Mei leapt behind me and landed a hard kick that sent me flying back down hard into the ground. My back hit the fallen column of wood that used to be the tent's support beam, knocking the wind out of me and immobilizing me.
“Die, brat!” She yelled as she formed a few more handseals. Just as she was about to finish me off, a harpoon made of ethereal blue light pierced through her, and in a poof of white smoke, she transformed into another enemy shinobi. He collapsed onto the ground in a lifeless heap.
“Are you alright, Ai-chan!?” Chojuro said as he ran towards me. I nodded up at him.
“Yeah-- my back... where's Mei-onee-sama!? And Zoe-kun...?”
“Chojuro! Aimi!” A voice called from above. It was Mei-onee-sama. The real one. She leapt through the trees and landed next to us, helping an injured Zoe. Right as she landed, about a dozen of Kirigakure's most elite shinobi landed in a wide circular perimeter around us.
Ao landed in front of us, revealing his left-eye. He formed a handseal.
“Byakugan!” He exclaimed, then searched the area.
“We're safe for now.” Ao said. Mei helped Zoe lay down, then turned to me.
“Are you alright?” It took me a second to realize she was speaking to me.
“Y-yes--” I said to her. I recognized the look of honest and pure concern in those eyes of hers. She smiled.
“Good. You did a great job holding him off, Aimi-chan.” She said with a nod.
“Looks like you fared better than I did--” Zoe said with a wry chuckle before flinching and grabbing his side.
“Zoe-kun! Are you alright!? Where are you hit!?” I asked him.
“Oh calm down would you?” He said with a grin. “He just got the best of me by staying outside my throwing range is all. You can relax. You won't need to be singing to me anytime soon, Angel.”
What a jerk.
“Hmph. I told you your kunai throwing sucks.” I said to him. Ao shushed us suddenly.
“It's coming!”
At first all I could hear was a strange, faint sound that sounded like sirens. I didn't realize until long after the battle was over that they were actually the far off screams of the villagers.
Over the trees a giant, towering wall of water gushed forward at us.
Just as it was about to hit, a dome of black rock enveloped and covered us. I could hear the water crashing over us, tons of it, enough to fill a medium sized lake.
Mei's chest heaved as she breathed. It was thanks to her jutsu that we weren't crushed and drowned at this moment. However, she didn't have time to save us all. Only Zoe, Chojuro, Ao and I were able to be protected by her jutsu.
“This chakra--” Ao said quietly, “It's unreal--”
“It can only be Akatsuki.” Mei said, clenching her jaw.
“W-whoa! We're leaking!” I said as water began to seep upward through the sand.
“Tch!” Mei formed a few handseals and used an earth jutsu which cause the ground below us to push upward below us, elevating us over the water.
“He's coming!” Ao exclaimed right before the front of the lava rock-dome that protected us exploded. I braced myself for the impact of the rubble that flew forward at us, but after a moment of nothing happening, I opened my eyes to see Chojuro in front of us clashing his giant flounder-shaped sword with a freakish mass of serrated spikes in the shape of another sword. In Chojuro's other hand was another sword also in the shape of a giant flounder, which he had used to parry the oncoming rocks and debris that came at us.
“Ahahahah!” The sword's wielder cackled. “To see the Twinsword Hiramekarei here of all places! It must be my lucky day!”
Chojuro and the mysterious shinobi pushed off of each other, Chojuro landing in front of us, and the attacker landing at the edge of the cliff Mei had created with her earth jutsu. He held his free arm up, wobbling as he regained his balance and pointed his monster of a sword at us.
“You must be Chojuro, the newest member of the Seven Swordsmen.”
“Hoshigaki Kisame...” Chojuro growled.
“Something the matter? You don't look too confident!” Kisame said with a grin. Chojuro brandished his swords at him.
“Even if I know I can't defeat you--” Chojuro called to him, “You should know-- I'll die protecting my students, my sempai, and Mizukage-sama!”
“Fine with me--” Kisame said, his beady, shark-like eyes piercing through us, “Taking revenge on the Hidden Mist and taking Hiramekarei sounds like fun!”
“It won't be that easy--” Mei said, standing tall. “Don't underestimate my subordinates, or the power of Kirigakure. We're stronger than we were in 'Demon' Yagura's day!”
As soon as she finished her sentence Ao and Chojuro dashed forward so fast if you blinked you would have missed it. They flanked Kisame on both sides.
“Suiton: Koukasuijin!!” Ao exclaimed, as a spike of super condensed water engulfed his arm and crushed Kisame into the ground, through the cliff generated by Mei's earth jutsu.
Pushing hard off of the edge of the cliff Chojuro followed after Kisame as he flew downward toward the ocean.
He swung his sword down hard, as Kisame drew his blade and clashed with Hiramekarei. The two were entangled in an intense sword fight that caused shockwaves in the night air with each clash as they fell closer and closer to the water's surface.
Just as the two were about to hit the water Kisame flipped, righting himself and landing on the surface of the water, leaping backward fast enough to evade a hard downard stab of Chojuro's Hiramekarei.
Kisame skid on the surface of the water, forming handseals as he flew backward.
“Suiton: Goshokuzam!!” Kisame exclaimed and slammed downward on the water's surface with his open palm. Five sharks made from the water around him burst upward through the water around Chojuro, who leapt upwards, kicking up off of one of the sharks, narrowly avoiding having his leg being bitten off.
“Up here!” Kisame said with cackle as he appeared above Chojuro.
As Kisame cried out, water shot up in pillars and engulfed Kisame's Samehada in a whirlpool. He struck downward and smashed Chojuro with such force the water around them parted in a wide crater that shook the base of the cliff upon which Ao, Zoe, and Mei-onee-sama and I were still standing.
“Chojuro-sensei!!!” I cried out, watching from atop the cliff.
Thick mist filled the air as droplets of water fell upon them. When the mist cleared Chojuro appeared, ribbons of white bandages swirled around him.
“Don't you dare underestimate... Kiri-ga-kure!!” Chojuro cried out and parried Kisame's Samehada with blades of etheral blue chakra that shot out from Hiramekarei. Kisame flew backward, doing a backflip before landing on one knee.
He gave another cocky grin. “Not bad for a small fry!” Kisame said. “It's been awhile since Samehada's been this worked up!” The mass of spikes wriggled as if to confirm his sentiment.
I gave a sigh of relief. Chojuro-sensei was more dependable than I gave him credit for. Kisame then looked up at us, freezing me in place.
Was he looking at me!? Was I his next target!?
Suddenly Ao cried out. “Mizukage-sama!!”
He pushed in front of her, taking a kunai in the arm.
“Arghh!”
Before either Zoe or I could even comprehend what was happening, Mei threw Zoe to the side and spat a jet of molten lava at a shadow that soon disappeared and rematerialized in a cluster of black crows. The lava fell at the bottom of the other side of the cliff and caused plumes of white steam to billow upward with a loud sizzle.
The crows came together and formed the shape of a man.
“Uchiha Itachi--” Mei said, stepping in front of Zoe and I.
“Mizukage-sama.” The man named Itachi said. His eyes glowed bright red and carried within them a kind of sad malice that I couldn't help but get lost in.
“Ao--” Mei said to Ao, who gripped his arm.
“Yes, we're already inside it--” He said between breaths. Mei nodded and looked back at Itachi.
“I really do despise you Sharingan users--” She said, eying him intently. She rolled up her sleeves.
Inside it? I thought to myself. Inside what?
I'm not sure what happened immediately afterward. I can't explain it. The moon became red, the sky, black-- all the colors of the world seemed to change and become inverted and negative. I couldn't shake this sense of immeasurable dread. Pain like needles digging into the most sensitive part of my nerves--
All I remember is lying beside Zoe as the world faded away, watching Mei-onee-sama fight this strange man who could burst into a thousand crows and appear somewhere else instantly.
“Ai--” I rememeber Zoe telling me, staring at me. “Ai-- hold on!”
Hold on.
To be continued with chapter 12.
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