Touching artwork was done by Kira-Tsume on deviantART.
Disclaimer: Nao is the only thing that is mine.
Warning: Fighting. Death. Usual.
Beta: Kalafina94
Beta: silverseed
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Kakashi found me curled up and soaking wet by myself the following morning. The sun was shining brightly and the sky was a beautiful clear blue with lovely white fluffy clouds, but I wouldn't. couldn't. have noticed. I stared off elsewhere, my mind replaying it over and overandoverandov—
"Nao."
I turned, so slowly, towards the sound and found Kakashi kneeling in front of me, his expression unreadable.
"You were scared."
I nodded slowly, wordlessly.
Kakashi closed his eye briefly before opening it again. With a small sigh, he moved to sit next to me, pressing his back against the wet wall that I was curled up against.
"It's okay to be scared," Kakashi said after a moment. "Everyone is afraid of something."
I didn't bother responding.
Kakashi glanced at me through the corner of his eye, sighing again. He shifted slightly, pulling off his Jounin jacket and placing it over me. "Stop shivering."
I didn't realize I was shivering.
"Sorry," I whispered hoarsely.
Kakashi didn't reply, he only sat back again.
A moment passed.
"I'm not any good at this stuff," Kakashi sighed. "Where's Kurenai when you need her? Or hell. Anko. well, maybe not Anko per se, but." he cleared his throat and shifted slightly. "Sometimes it's best to face your fears head on."
Another moment passed.
"That's not what I was afraid of. The storm. The ship. The ocean. I'm not afraid of those."
Kakashi turned his gaze on me. "What are you afraid of?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know."
"I don't know. I'm not afraid of the storm, but she is."
"Who?"
(Me.)
"I don't know."
"I see."
We lapsed into silence.
I shifted slightly. In a quiet voice I asked, "Can I. May I. sl. sleep?"
"I daresay you could."
"Here," I clarified. "I mean. I just. I don't want to be alone right now. I promise I'll be better when I wake up."
Kakashi turned his head, his single eye seeming almost analytical as he stared at me.
"I believe you will be, too," Kakashi said softly. "Three hours tops is the best I can give you."
"Thank you," I whispered.
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I giggled at Chamū, who rolled lazily on his back. Hikaru sat beside me, smiling happily as Kiki ran around Chamū. After my nap with Kakashi, I awoke feeling much better than I had when I fell asleep. With many thanks, I headed off to guard duty for Hikaru. Not before I ran into Naruto, who gave me the rundown on everything that had transpired —how Hikaru risked his life to save Chamū's when the boat's violent swaying in the storm had knocked him overboard and in return, Chamū became affectionate for him and such.
"That was a brave thing to do," I told Hikaru, smiling at him.
Hikaru's face once again took on a familiar red and he promptly looked away. "Yeah, well."
"Naru-kun says he considers you a friend now, even Sasuke-kun," I said. "And I must confess, I'm very happy that you saved Chamū, so I would like to ask you if it would be alright if I was your friend, as well?"
Hikaru's face somehow became redder and he ducked his head. "Y-Yeah. O-Okay."
I nodded sagely. "Alright, Hikaru-kun."
"A-Alright. Nao-chan."
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I yawned tiredly, my head resting on Sasuke's shoulder. We sat on the railing of the ship, watching as the island neared us. Naruto had gone off to grab some food for us.
"I can't wait until this mission is over," Sasuke muttered.
"That's because you're antisocial and hate leaving home," I retorted.
"Obviously."
"Can I have a pet?"
"You cannot have a Siberian tiger."
"Who said anything about a Siberian tiger?"
"I see how you are with Chamū. We are not getting a Siberian tiger."
"What about a regular tiger?"
"No."
"Leopard?"
"No."
"Lion?"
"No."
"Panther? They're black."
".Maybe."
I suppressed a snicker, settling for a large grin.
"Hey, whatssup?" Naruto asked, swinging over the railings to sit next to me.
"We're getting a panther," I told him.
"I didn't say yes."
"You didn't say no, either."
"Why do we want a panther?" Naruto asked, frowning. "Why can't we get a. uh, I don't know, a dog or something?"
"Because I want a cat," I clarified.
Naruto shuddered. "I don't."
"Why not?" Sasuke asked incredulously.
"One word: Tora."
Somehow the idea of having a pet cat lost its appeal.
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"Right, let's be off."
I sat atop the royal carriage. The boat had docked and everything was currently being taken off the boat in preparation to the trip to the palace. The princes rested in the horse drawn carriage, Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke taking up each side. I sat at the top of it, eyeing everything.
For such a rumored to be prestigious city, it seemed incredibly deserted at the port.
As the carriage began to move and we moved with it, a suspicious gnawing feeling wormed its way in my gut.
It was deserted.
No, seriously.
Empty.
As we walked through the supposed-to-be bustling streets —there was nothing. Not even the shops were open.
Through the corner of my eye, I could have sworn I saw life —movement of a shadow.
I looked down at Kakashi and he caught my eye, giving a slow nod. He had seen it, too.
Our journey continued and still no life was shown as we reached the palace. A gorgeous castle, but virtually empty and deserted. As the princes climbed out, both looking a little crestfallen, a plump man walked out onto the balcony of the palace.
"Ah, Shabadaba," Hikaru's father said.
"Well, well, if it isn't Michiru," Shabadaba said, his voice somehow seeming slimy. "Back from your travels? I'm sure you must be exhausted. You and young Hikaru are well, I hope?"
"Yes, thank you Shabadaba," Michiru replied. "What's going on in town? Where is everyone? There was no one to meet us."
The man seemed to look down upon the princes, his expression becoming unreadable. My suspicion doubled and I tensed myself, already inching closer to Hikaru. Hikaru glanced towards me, his brow furrowed, but he started to inch closer to me, as well.
"Shabadaba?" Michiru asked tentatively. ".Where is my father? Is something wrong? Why didn't he come?"
"The king," drawled Shabadaba, an almost gleeful note in his voice, "is dead."
Michiru's face contorted with shock as a rush of soldiers came out of the palace, surrounding us in a matter of seconds. My eyes narrowed and I placed myself directly in front of Hikaru, fixing my posture.
"I rule the Moon Country now," Shabadaba said, "which means there's no need for you now, prince. Kill them all!"
"All of you, defend," Kakashi ordered.
I pushed chakra into my hand, forming the hum of my jutsu. The lightning hummed brightly and I leapt from my spot atop the carriage, spinning. I threw the half-sword, half-whip jutsu away from me towards the bulk of soldiers. It exploded with a bright flash.
Every soldier it had touched dropped dead. Or passed out. I couldn't tell from the distance and I really didn't care. There was some part of me that was furious at the betrayal, and that part was even more furious when I saw Hikaru's crushed face. In an almost vindictive way, I hoped they were dead.
I landed in front of Hikaru and Michiru, shifting postures as Naruto and Sasuke double-tagged and knocked out another major bulk. I couldn't see Kakashi, but I knew he was there. A few of the soldiers hesitated coming towards me, my right hand flickering with the dangerous chakra, but they still came.
The blade formed in my hand, dropping into a whip at the end. I raised it up as a single steel sword came crashing down. The electricity flowed from my chakra, using the sword as a conductor, and traveled up the soldier's arm and to his body. He gave a strangled cry, stumbling away from me and dropping the sword. His body shook violently and yet another idiotic soldier rushed towards me.
"Prince Michiru, Hikaru-kun, get back in the carriage," I ordered, kicking away as the soldier neared me.
Kakashi landed beside me, landing a solid kick against a soldier who tried to come up behind me. The princes had entered the carriage.
"Drive that carriage out of here," Kakashi commanded.
The frightened man driving gave a stumbling nod and whipped the horses into a canter.
Soldiers rushed after the carriage, but my lightning was already building up. I threw it towards the back end of them, it exploded with another bright light. Only a few stayed in pursuit of the carriage then and I rushed after them.
Another strange vehicle was coming up ahead towards the carriage.
Reinforcements.
But for which side?
A man leapt out and rushed towards a mass of soldiers, pulling out his sword and attacking them.
Our side.
Good.
Sasuke twisted up into the air, a massive fireball pouring out of his mouth and burning away another massive bulk of soldiers.
Kakashi landed beside the lone man, whispering something. The man nodded and ran to the carriage, taking hold of it and steering it away from the battle ground. I leapt atop the carriage, Sasuke landing right beside me.
I scooped down and grabbed Naruto's outstretched hand as he ran, pulling him up.
Kakashi stayed behind for a moment, his hands in a flurry of movements before he slammed them down. The ground erupted before him, throwing the majority of the soldiers off balance. He leapt away and quickly caught up to us, landing behind me.
"Thanks for the help," the man said once the palace was out of sight. "I'm sorry I couldn't get the word out soon enough for what happened here."
"Where are we headed?" Kakashi asked.
"I have men stationed in the mountains. We'll go there for now."
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I stood outside the cave, wanting to give them as much privacy as possible. To think. the king of this land was betrayed by his ministers because his ministers were corrupted with greed. Not uncommon, exactly, but to see it happen first-hand seemed. well, not pleasant. And Shabadaba planned to overthrow the king and by chance, the plot was discovered and the king was informed. He had realized the time had come to confront the ministers and, as such, sent his son and grandson on a tour of many lands to protect them.
Once they were safely out of the way, he moved to settle it, but Shabadaba had already hired mercenary shinobi to secure his place. They were too late and only a handful made it out with the king. barely. the king's injuries were too grave, and he slipped into a coma.
And that's where I, Kakashi, and Sasuke took a role.
I had pulled back the sheet, uncovering his 'wounds'.
I stared in morbid fascination. Half of his chest and his entire right arm. was turned to stone.
"One of the shinobi. he possesses this jutsu."
"That turns people to stone," Sasuke finished, his eyes narrowing. "An earth style jutsu."
I placed a hand on it, gnawing on my bottom lip. "If that's true, shouldn't the counter be a lightning-based jutsu?"
"In theory," Kakashi said, "but to use a lightning style attack on a human body could have devastating effects."
"Could have," I amended, "but not necessarily. look at us, we've been struck by our own lightning styles so many times."
"Yes, but we're much more fit than."
"Can you fix him?" Michiru interrupted, wide anxious eyes pleading.
"Maybe," Sasuke answered him. "What if we did a little bit at a time?"
"We would need to focus it in different areas, though," I said, frowning. "If we put all of it in one area, only that area will be cured. If it's curable at all."
"Well, it's a good thing we have more than one lightning user," Sasuke retorted.
I shrugged. "I'm up for it."
"It wouldn't hurt," Kakashi admitted.
"Man, I wish I had lightning style," Naruto muttered.
"Sorry, losers aren't allowed," Sasuke said.
Naruto shot him a dirty look.
I placed both my hands over his heart and Sasuke knelt down beside me, while Kakashi moved to squat next to Sasuke. Kakashi placed both his hands on the king's shoulder and Sasuke placed both his hands on the king's side.
"Little by little?" I asked.
"Little by little," Sasuke confirmed.
So little by little we went.
In the end, only his arm remained stone, but none of us were medical shinobi, so we couldn't do much better than undo what had been turned to stone. However, it was enough for one last conversation with the king.
So I stood outside the cave as they talked. The dying old man and his precious children.
Somehow, it seemed too private to intrude.
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Night had fallen and the order to evacuate the princes away from the land had been given. As the captain (the man that had sent the reinforcements for us) tried to drag Michiru's body towards the ocean to the boat, he resisted all the way. Hikaru and a handful of guards stood a little ways from us as we tried to drag his body again.
That was when my spine tingled with a sixth sense and I heard the sharp whizzing of a kunai rushing by.
I leapt away, in time to see the ground explode beneath us. When the sand cleared, three shinobi stood in its place.
"Are you guys stupid or what?" came an incredibly high-pitched voice from the smallest shinobi.
"We saw light coming from the coast," added a deep voice from the largest shinobi.
"It was obvious you made arrangements with the ships for the prince to escape. Now why don't you hand over that man and the brat?" asked another deep-voiced shinobi.
"Like hell! As if anyone's gonna hand them over to you," Naruto declared.
"You're full of spunk, brat," he responded.
And faster than I could blink, he appeared behind Naruto, slamming his fist against his cheek. Sasuke switched positions, his eyes swirling into the Sharingan. Naruto soared away from us and the man rushed after him, delivering a solid kick against him, kicking him up into the air.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed in anger and he rushed after them, but was quickly intercepted by the largest one. The great brute raised a huge meaty fist against Sasuke, but he ducked out of the way.
Before I could assist either of them, the smallest one rushed towards me.
"You're the one with the exploding light," she hissed, a smile on her face as she kicked towards me.
I back flipped away from her, skidding across the sand a bit. As I flew back, my nose caught a whiff of a strong sense of perfume. Too much of it, if you asked me.
"And you're the one with hedgehog hair," I commented.
She bristled considerably. "How dare you!"
"I dare," I assured her, building up my jutsu in my right hand. She sneered at me, rushing forward.
"You wouldn't set that off, so near yourself," she replied, smirking.
"I've done it many times before," I replied as she neared. "I'm nearly used to it, but I daresay you are not."
It exploded right as she reached it.
Cold energy washed over me, tingling up and down my arm. I was momentarily blinded and when the light cleared, I was dizzy and disoriented. I didn't put in enough power to do real damage, but it was enough to send her flying back, trembling from the override of energy and shivering from the cold.
My right hand trembled and I knew, with much reluctance, that it would be useless for the remainder of this fight. However, it was a blessed thing that all shinobi and kunoichi were trained to use their opposite hand nearly as well, if not as well. With only my right hand out of commission, I may not have been able to use jutsus, but I could still kick her butt.
She stood up shakily, trembling from the jutsu. She glared at me furiously, her expression darkened.
Before she could do or say a thing, however, a cry of help from Michiru called my attention. He was surrounded by enemy soldiers. When did...?
I looked around frantically and found Naruto lying unconscious in the sand, Sasuke breathing heavily, and Kakashi with a petrified stone arm. And an entirely petrified captain —the man who had came to our aid and taken us to the mountains to the king before.
I watched in horror as the man Kakashi had been facing shattered the captain.
The larger shinobi was coming towards Hikaru and I rushed forward.
"Help me!" Hikaru cried out, trembling as the larger shinobi nearly reached him. I felt a rush of anger bubble inside my gut and I sprinted towards Hikaru, using every ounce of speed I possessed.
A rush of energy erupted a little ways from me and I stumbled. It was familiar energy. It was.
(Ku-ra-ma.)
My head whipped around and I found Naruto had lurched back up, his once clear blue eyes taking on a red tint and slitted, fangs protruded from his mouth and he snarled at the man. Then faster than what I could process, he had covered the distance between the two in the blink of an eye, kicking solidly against the large shinobi and sending him whirling out into the ocean.
Naruto rushed after him and kicked him back into the main land, punching his jaw and forcing the man to crawl away.
The girl I had been fighting cried out in despair and rushed towards Naruto, throwing some sort of petals around her and then disappearing into them. The petals swirled around Naruto, forming a sort of vortex. Invisible knives tore away at Naruto, slicing him.
My eyes widened as I realized what was happening.
"She's a genjutsu specialist, Naru-kun!" I shouted.
Naruto bared his fangs and let out a burst of sharp chakra. The petals whirled away and she flew back, crashing roughly against the sand and skidding to the water.
My head whirled back around as I saw the soldiers running away with a struggling Michiru and I was prepared to give chase, but the trembling in my arm reminded me that taking on an entire group of mercenaries with one hand was not a good idea.
Instead, I turned and rushed back to Naruto, who was slowly losing the red tint in his eyes.
As I reached him, he sagged and fell forward. My arms wrapped around him and I caught him carefully, landing on my bum in the process.
Kakashi moved towards us, his right arm glowing with lightning as he undid the stone petrification.
Sasuke sat down next to me, breathing heavily and looking a little annoyed at having lost to the larger opponent.
I looked up, noticing the night sky was no longer so dark, taking an orange-ish tint to it. And noticing Hikaru's trembling lip as he stared off into the distance where they had taken his father.
I lowered my gaze, my fingers running through Naruto's hair.
Well. It would seem we had our work cut out for ourselves now.
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