Watching him was one thing that I enjoyed.
It was strange, he was my brother, but for some odd reason, he felt like a completely different being. It wasn't that we didn't look alike. We were twins, with noticeable similarities that anyone would instantly recognise as us being siblings. Even when we were younger, when I had full red hair, we still looked alike.
The three birthmarks on each cheek that looked strangely like whiskers, blue eyes, eye shape. Well, my eye colour wasn't entirely blue. Naruto had told me that my eye colour changed even now and then, sometimes it looked bluer, others it looked more violet. Though now, I was sure that my eyes would stay violet.
His eyes were blue. But saying his eyes were blue was like saying the sun was yellow, or that grass was green, and -if you want to take it that far- that ramen was the tastiest food out there. His eyes were blue, but not a blue that could be described easily. Like an ocean, crystal and clear. But it wasn't the dark blue, like the blue just before the sun sets -dark indigo with lighter specks-, it was more of a coral blue. A bright blue, with darker specks, the clearest sea, with the sparkling sky blue that can only be seen by chance on that summers day, reflecting into the water, when the yellow sun shines through the water, making it even more blue for some odd reason. Kinda like when his hair caught the suns rays and deflected it into his eyes, which somehow made the grin on his face brighter.
But at this moment in time, his hair wasn't as bright. His eyes, extremely concentrated with the task at hand. Scratches on his whiskered face, along with dirt from the ground.
How can he be so determined to get stronger?
There was an answer to that question. Sasuke, his best friend. To bring him back, he had to get stronger. The Akatsuki was after him, too, and Naruto being Naruto, he wanted to defeat them. They had already extracted the nine-tails chakra that was withing me, and I didn't have someone to save from darkness, so why was I training?
To protect people who are important to me.
Naruto.
"What am I doing...?" My voice came out as a mere mutter, questioning out loud a question that was on my mind for a while now. To protect the people who are important to me, I needed to recover properly, not using a petty transformation. If only it was something that could be easily dealt with.
A sudden feeling in my stomach made me cringe, it was a common feeling. Like that feeling you get before you puke, that's what it was. In barely any time, I was hunched over, holding the nearby tree for support, barfing out the ramen that I recently had. It left a terrible taste in my mouth, and it was funny for some reason, how can something taste so good going down, but when coming back up, it tastes horrible? Don't even get me started on the acidic taste or the carrots that always show up in the vomit even though I haven't eaten them in ages.
Something was wrong with me. Physically. This shouldn't really be happening. Whenever I eat, it just doesn't go down like it used to. Whatever the reason, I just want it to stop. Why can't I be like a normal person? Why do I have to go through what I did? Why me? There are billions of people in the world, was I just lucky to be tortured by Orochimaru? Honestly, I don't think anyone wanted to be with him. I wasn't the only one, I know, but for some reason, I felt like I was the one who received the worst. Mainly because I survived.
I survived.
But at the cost of what?
My physical health? My mental health? My chakra? My...- Kurama?
"At least you're in the outside world and not sealed in this bloody blade for the rest of eternity!"
"...What?"
~~~~
"Hey, Naruto!" She shouted in greeting, jogging over to where the blonde boy was training. "Where's Kakashi? I thought he would've been with you."
"Kakashi?" The blonde tilted his head at the unexpected appearance and question from his sister. "Oh! He went with Shikamaru on a mission!" The blonde boy explained, grinning and running over to give a hug to the whiskered girl.
She cringed as soon as his limbs were wrapped around her, but despite the sweaty smell, she returned the hug. "You're all sweaty!" She whined, tilting her head back, but stayed in his embrace. And for that moment they were in each other's embrace, she felt something detaching from her spirit, but not knowing entirely what it was, she ignored the feeling and enjoyed the warmth that spread within her heart, a smile gracing her lips.
"So, how's the jutsu coming along?" She asked, not stopping Naruto from digging into the bag she brought, looking at its contents.
"Mmm hmm!" He answered, shoving more food into his mouth. Gaining a laugh from Mina.
"So, I'll leave you to it." She smiled, waving at him before disappearing right in front of his eyes.
~~~~
I'm pretty sure everyone's had that one time where they took a giant poop and a sudden feeling of being light was evident afterwards. Yeah, the feeling afterwards was great but during? Ouch. It was almost laughable at how terrible you feel during this pooping session, yet, it was worth it since the feeling afterwards is one of the best things you'll feel in your life.
"Hey!" She called to the outside, hoping for an answer from her brother. And she got an answer, an annoyed whine. "I NEED MORE TOILET PAPER!" She screamed.
"Get it yourself!" Came the response of her brother, muffled by the door and any other things.
"I CAN'T!"
"Why?!"
"'CAUSE IM TAKING A GIANT DUMP, YA KNOW! AND I NEED MORE TOILET PAPER! SO GET OFF YOUR LAZY ASS AND GIVE ME SOME!"
It wasn't long after that shout that Naruto twisted the handle to the door to the bathroom and popped a hand in, holding the roll of toilet paper in it. "Gosh, you'll never get a boyfriend if you use language like that." He muttered, about to close the door.
"Naruto?" She called in a calmer voice, eyebrow slightly twitching in annoyance. The teen stopped, leaving a gap in the door to hear her response. "If they can't love me for me, then screw them, I don't need a boyfriend." Her response brought a grin to Naruto's face, "Besides, you're a handful already."
"OI!"
She laughed, shooing him away saying, "You need to leave if you want to make it in time to be back up."
"I'll see you later, then!" He shouted, remembering that he came home to get some more weapons for the mission he was about to depart on.
"STAY SAFE!"
~~~
Lips turned downwards into a frustrated frown, she stared intently at the glass brimming with water. Hand placed beside it and chakra seeping to her palms, she moved her hand closer to the glass in hopes to heat it up. She had figured it would be similar to the technique when making a fireball, moulding superheated chakra inside the stomach before releasing it via the lungs and mouth. But this time, she didn't have to release it through the lungs or mouth, she didn't have to release it at all.
Superheating chakra in the palms of her hands until it was able to boil the water in the glass, then she would move on to trying to heat up larger amounts of water. And when she managed to do that, hopefully, she would be able to heat the water in her body to boiling point. Though, how she would manage was beyond her, and she wasn't even sure if this was going to work, but it was worth a shot, right?
A knock on the door distracted Mina from actually getting the water to boiling point, but nonetheless, she walked to the green wooden door and swung it open without looking in the peephole. Her blonde eyebrows shot up in surprise looking at the three females at the door.
"HEY!~" Chiyumi greeted, inviting herself in. Mina, still in shock, swung the door open to them all in without her knowing. She blinked her violet eyes and closed the door after them.
"Sure! Just invite yourselves in," The Uzumaki said sarcastically, closing the door behind them and tidying up their shoes at the door from habit.
Placing four cups of green tea onto the coffee table, she sat down on the only free space there was. "I haven't seen you in a while, Etsuko." She greeted the blue haired female, who only nodded in greeting. The red-eyed female took a sip of her tea, embracing the silence for a moment.
"You killed Hideki, didn't you?" Etsuko said, not beating around the bush and not really caring for how Mina would react.
"You can't say it like that!" Akihiko scolded, sending a warning look at the average height girl.
"Well, what am I supposed to say?" She asked, not expecting a response so she continued, "I come back from Suna and find out a comrade died. My suspicions land on Mina."
"That's right~" Mina cooed, eyes widening and sparkling in a certain manner, "You were in Suna~ So! How was he?" She asked, a cheeky smile gracing her whiskered features.
"W-what do you mean?" Etsuko asked, her red eyes widening, a red tint sprouting her cheeks. She coughed suddenly, gaining control of her facial expression and moulding it back to the serious one. "Don't change the subject, answer my question."
"Yes..." Mina's voice barely made it above a whisper as she turned her gaze to her teacup, "I'm not going to deny or make the situation seem less dramatic than what it is, 'cause there's no soft way to put that I killed Hideki, ya know?" She moved her violet eyes to lock onto Etsuko's red ones, "And there's not really an excuse, I just did."
"I see." Etsuko responded to Mina's short explanation, "Thanks for your honesty."
"Wait," Mina called, eyes widening in shock, "You're not mad?"
"It came as a shock that a close friend of mine is dead, but I guess that your honesty made realise that your not a bad person, and no matter what you believe, that was an accident." The Uzumaki scoffed at Estukos answer, a lopsided grin forming on her face.
"If I were you I would re-think the 'not a bad person' part," Mina said, a playful tone clear to her team.
"Hey, with how much time we spent together, I know you're not a bad person." Came the red-eyed girls reply.
"Oh! Like that time when we were in search of that cat and you healed that injured bird!" Chiyumi's voice caught the attention of the rest. And not long after the four were reminiscing about the past.
~~~
"MINA!?" The voice of Chiyumi stopped the laughter. The brown haired female came padding into the living room, a little wooden box in hand. "REMEMBER THIS!?" She shouted in question, showing the wooden puzzle box. Mina's eyes widened a faction, gaining memory of that box.
"Where did you find it?" The Uzumaki questioned, gaze not leaving the box.
"OH! I was snooping in your room and found this in the sock drawer!" Chiyumi explained grinning and plopping her bottom onto the couch. She started fiddling with the box, twisting the cubes on the box, halfheartedly trying to find a pattern.
"And, why where you looking in the sock drawer?" Mina asked, raising an eyebrow and lips tugging up into a playful smile.
"I-ugh.....um..?" The brown haired kunoichi spluttered, trying to think of an excuse on the spot and blatantly failing. "OH! I needed to borrow some socks!"
"But you never wear socks, ya know," Mina shot down her excuses as soon as it came out of her mouth, her smirk breaking out into a grin as Akihiko and Etsuko laughed. The room was once again filled with their laughter.
But suddenly, Mina shot out of her comfortable sitting position and launched herself at Chiyumi. Violet eyes wide, mouth agape in panic. She didn't want to go through that thing again! But once the light surrounding her being as she held the wooden box tightly in her hand, a couple of steps away from where the three were seated, she knew it was unstoppable.
She moved so fast that everything seemed to be going slowly, her teammates seemed to be frozen in place. Though they weren't, Mina was just moving too fast for them. And she was somewhat glad, she didn't have to drag her teammates into another world with this mysterious box.
Her violet eyes landed on the box that disabling itself and rearranging the smaller cubes.
Here we go again.
/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/
So in this chapter, I felt like adding a small area of Mina's perspective, and although I didn't say it was her point of view, I hope you figured it out.
As you probably know by now, the next chapter will be a crossover! :P
Hope you enjoy it.
ANYWAY,
THIS AMAZING PERSON @gottalovedemfandoms DREW FAN ART!
It's wonderful.
20/01/18
unedited.
Barry-The-Berry~