Medium Meld (Naruto/Gamer, Male OC)

Chapter Twenty - Dreaming of Konoha

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We stayed at the border for a few more days, and then I finally felt a strange chakra signature appear on the edge of my range. Small, powerful, fast, and definitely not human, it was also going the wrong way.

"Fu," I said suddenly, "Time to go."

"What?" Fu yelped, "Where are we going?"

I didn't reply, already angling to intercept the stupidly fast-moving creature; it was bouncing off of trees and the ground with ninja-level agility. When we got within perhaps a hundred meters of it, it abruptly stopped, possibly having heard us, it remained perfectly still on the side of a tree.

I cleared the last of the trees and landed directly in front of the creature, to find that absolutely nothing was there.

"Yo," I said easily, "I'm Sora."

Fu landed beside me, looking confused.

The Chameleon suddenly appeared on the side of the tree with no transition; it was just there as if it always had been.

"How'd you find me, though?" The Chameleon whined.

Fu made an alarmed noise at the sudden appearance of the dog-sized lizard, but I just crossed my arms.

"You're supposed to introduce yourself first, you know." I said dryly, "Besides, a wizard never reveals his secrets."

"Oh, I'm Shirokuto," Shirokuto said curiously, "What the heck is a wizard?"

I just grinned at the creature.

"Hi, Shirokuto!" Fu said excitedly, "I'm Fu!"

Fu's eyes were wide as she took in the strange creature.

"Hi." Shirokuto said bemused.

"You guys were pretty late," I said honestly, "The fighting is already over."

Shirokuto groaned.

"It took me so long to get here, too," Shirokuto whined.

"Where were you when they called?" I asked curiously.

"Land of Tea," Shirokuto huffed. "Anyway, I'd better go, or I'm going to get yelled at."

I just nodded.

"Nice meeting you, Shirokuto!" Fu said happily.

It was the brightest I'd see her since everything had happened; then again, I wasn't exactly somebody who was good at cheering anybody up. I was a master of pissing them off and distracting them with anger, but it didn't feel right to pull my normal crap on someone who had just had their family, friends, and home taken from them.

Huh, I guess I knew what that was like after all.

"You too, Fu." Shirokuto said bemused.

Shirokuto abruptly exploded into a wave of smoke that obscured the tree from sight, a shadow appeared in the smoke, and when the wind brushed the smoke to the side, they were revealed.

Karenbana looked much the same as when I had last seen her over a year ago; she was still remarkably short, definitely still under five feet, her eyes were still large, and pastel pink. The long hair was different though, falling in a spiky brown mess between her shoulders, not unlike the white wig she had used to wear, her clothing was different too, so at some point, she must have gotten new stuff to wear.

Karenbana still wore her white overcoat, but the pink battle dress was gone, replaced by a pale green shirt that went all the way to her thighs. One sleeve was long, all the way to her wrist, while the other was non-existent, stopping just after the shoulder, a stylistic choice of some sort, small tight shorts of the same pale color could just barely be seen peeking out beneath it.

Karenbana was smiling brightly.

"Hey dumbass," I said drily, "Did you leave one of your sleeves behind? Want to call Shirokuto back up to go find it?"

Karenbana's smile immediately turned into anger.

"It came like this," Karenbana said angrily, "Idiot!"

"Wow, I hope you got a discount for the missing sleeve, at least," I said easily, deliberately misunderstanding. "I could probably tear a sleeve off one of my old shirts if you want?"

Karenbana bared her teeth angrily for a moment.

"Hi, I'm Fu." Fu said curiously, "Who are you?"

Karenbana turned to study her for a moment.

"Karenbana," Karenbana said thoughtfully, "Are you the green-haired-girl?"

"Sora called me that once," Fu said honestly.

"Are we taking her back to Takigakure then?" Karenbana asked curiously.

I stared at her for a long moment before finally speaking.

"They were early," I said simply. "Takigakure is gone."

It sounded a great deal less accusatory then telling her that she was late. Fu turned to stare up at the sky, while Karenbana just fell silent. I could already see her putting the pieces together, and she would definitely have more questions, but I had finally decided what I was going to do.

I spun on my heel and headed for the Land of Fire.

"Where are we going?" Fu yelped at my sudden departure.

I could feel them both moving to follow.

"The Land of Fire," I said cheerfully.

"You're going the wrong way, idiot!" Karenbana said incredulously. "The Land of Fire is that way."

I corrected my course immediately.

"Just testing you, shitty bodyguard," I said cheerfully.

"Wait for me!" Fu yelped.

"I can't believe I actually missed you," Karenbana muttered wryly.