Tsukiko's pov:
The guy in front of me was funny looking, he wore cow patterned cloth....
I mean, what's up with a grown man with a giant ass sword on his back and bandage infront of his mouth wearing cow prints?
Right now i was spying on him, while he was spying on my team and he wasn't alone, he had this weird guy with a hidden mist hunter nin mask, who was hiding in the bushes.
Dude looks like a lady...
I giggled soundlessly and crawled closer.
Oh, before i forget it. I had already let Kakashi know that they were here by making the bracelet as cold as the ice it is made of, meaning that there were bad people near by.
I mean, he got to be bad, right? A sword bigger than me, eyes like Chuck Norris, the body size of The Rock, agile like Jackie Chan and more cuts and old bruises than Naruto after a prank gone wrong, he can't be completely normal!
Can he?.....
Anyway I was watching the two of them watching my team, the guy with the sword 'presented' himself to my team by throwing his giant ass sword after them.
Great firsthand impression.... Not!
I followed the other 'Dude looks like a lady'-guy and still managed to keep an eye out for my team, Kakashi began fighting the cowboy and i sat and rested well within sight of the 'Dude looks like a lady'-guy, well he couldn't see me, because of my Jutsu, but i could see him.
Suddenly he looked my way, right as i looked away from him. He had felt my eyes on him, i was sure of that. But how?...
No one had noticed before.....
Oh, right! He's a ninja.....
I sat completely still to avoid giving myself away, slowly he turned back to the clearing of which the fight was still on going.
Just as i too turned to look, Kakashi was trapped in a water prison by the cowboy.
He was screaming for the others to leave, showing a great trust in our skills..... Note the sarkasme...
He is our sensei, he should have faith in us.
I sighed out loud not thinking about it, as Naruto tried to get his headband back from the cowboy.
Ignoring the searching eyes of the 'Dude looks like a lady'-guy, who jumped closer to my branch, i used Hyōton: Tsubame Fubuki and made an ice swallow jump out of my hand and onto the branch, which i sat on.
It jumped out of sight, before the 'Dude looks like a lady'-guy saw it. Then it flew out into the air, i saw Kakashi's eyes follow it as i made it fly closer to him and tilt it's head in an asking gesture, the cowboy saw it too, but he didn't deem it important.
'Dude looks like a lady'-guy did though, his eyes followed the small birds movements as if it would tell him everything, that he wanted to know.
My attention though was mainly on Kakashi, awaiting the go sign. Finally he gave in and i made the bird split in two, 'Dude looks like a lady' leaned forward as the birds split again and again, before flying towards cowboy to draw the attention. I quickly noticed how Cowboy kept scanning the the treeline for me, but he couldn't see me.
My team was quick to use the lack of attention on them and formed a plan, they used shadow giant shurikens which was in reality Naruto and one real giant shuriken, he had changed places with a Shadow Clone, that now acted as Naruto in his place. As they sat their plan in work my birds were circling around the clearing in a giant circle, there were thousindes birds circling and they were still splitting up into more and more birds.
Now my birds had the attention of the Cowboy too, Raven threw the giant shuriken and Cowboy's attention shifted from my bird to them, only to shift back when five birds or so attacked him.
Not two birds came from the same direction.
I giggled soundlessly as Naruto's plan worked, just like i knew it would, and made most of my birds fly towards the sky, where i made them turn to snow in small eksplosions. The snow were softly falling to the ground, setting quite the mood for the battle just about to go down between Kakashi and Cowboy.
"You would do best to just give up now. Even if you managed somehow to defeat me, and trust me you wont, you will still be beat in the end." Kakashi said with a serious look.
"Ah, yes i noticed. You got backup with you, the element of surprise is gone, so why don't you just call out your backup?" Cowboy answered and with a look towards the treeline.
"The element of surprise have not yet been destroyed." Kakashi said with a smirk and i could see Cowboy grit his teeth.
'Dude looks like a lady' scanned the treeline too, just as Cowboy and Kakashi went at each other.
The showdown between the two of them were shorter than i expected, but it gave some good materiale to some new drawings. I drew the fight, between them. I drew the water based jutsu that both of them used against each other, it was beautiful.
Kakashi was just about to kill Cowboy, when 'Dude looks like a lady' jumped forward to safe him, though he pretended to kill him and carry away his body. Naruto didn't like that...
As soon as 'Dude looks like a lady' left Kakashi fell over, but i caught him with my remaining ice birds, i jumped down from my branch and appeared somewhat close to the team.
When i was sure that i had Kakashi's attention I pushed some small branches in the direction that 'Dude looks like a lady' took Cowboy, silently asking if i should follow. He nodded weakly without the team noticed and i jumped after 'Dude looks like a lady' and Cowboy leaving my team behind.
I had a connection with them though. I had the connection through the ice bracelet and i had a direct connection through one of my birds, it was bigger than the others and honestly a little prettier. I saw the things, that it saw and i heard the thing, that it heard. I could speak through it, but that was a little harder than letting it be silent.
Through my connections i would be able to know if they needed me, so i wasn't really worried, but it felt weird to leave them behind.
I finally caught up with 'Dude looks like a lady', when he sat in a clearing next to the 'dead body' of Cowboy. He reached out for the mouth cloth, talking a little to himself while he did so.
Suddenly Cowboy stopped his hand. "That's alright... I'll do it myself..." He said and ripped of the mouth cloth.
"Oh, you've already come back to life...." 'Dude looks like a lady' said calmly and pulled away from Cowboy.
I silently pulled out my sketchblog and started to draw them both, as they sat there together.
"Damn... You sure are rough." Cowboy muttered to 'Dude looks like a lady'.
"Oh!!! You shouldn't be so rough yourself, you'll really die pulling them out like that." 'Dude looks like a lady' said from beside Cowboy, they sat rather close, yet not too close.
"How long are you going to wear that stupid mask?" Cowboy asked, changing the subject.
"It reminds me of the old days... Plus, it was usefull for this act." 'Dude looks like a lady' said and removed his hidden mist hunter nin mask. "If i hadn't saved you, you definitely would have been killed."
"If you were going to put me into a momentary death, you didn't have to use my neck... You could have aimed for a safer acupunture point." Cowboy said and once again changed the subject. "You are annoying as always." He continued and bound his mouth cloth again.
"You're right. I just didn't want to scar your beautiful body... And the neck doesn't have much muscle. It's easier to hit the acupunture point there. You shouldn't be able to move much for about a week. But... You might be able to move pretty soon." 'Dude looks like a lady' said with a soft smile, while i was drawing him without his mask.
"You are so pure and clever..... That's what i like about you." Cowboy said with a honest tone.
"Hehe, that's because i'm just a kid." 'Dude looks like a lady' said with a soft smile and stood up. "Look..... The mist has cleared..." He looked down on Cowboy and asked worried. "Next time....will you be alright?"
"Next time i'll defeat the sharingan." Cowboy said with an evil look in his eyes.
"What about the backup?" 'Dude looks like a lady' asked and scanned the treeline with his eyes.
"The backup could turn out to be trouble, big trouble. We need to find out as much as we can. You didn't see anything, did you?" Cowboy asked and 'Dude looks like a lady' shook his head.
"No, i felt eyes on me, but whenever i looked, there wasn't anyone there. It was rather nerve-wracking." He said and scanned the treeline again.
I smiled softly and drew a few more drawings of them together, alone, face only and full body.
"Do you think that it's a child too or adult? Or somewhere in between? Woman or man?" 'Dude looks like a lady' asked in thought and looked at Cowboy.
"I don't know, why?" Cowboy asked and 'Dude looks like a lady' seemed deep in thought.
"If it is a child, then you could......" 'Dude looks like a lady' started, but i had to zoom him out, since Kakashi was calling me through the bird connection.
"Kiko! Come back now. It doesn't matter if they see you or not. Just come back now. Get here safely." I heard him said in my head.
"Are you sure?" I asked in a whisper.
"Yes, just hurry." Was the short answer before i returned to the world around me and Cowboy and 'Dude looks like a lady''s conversation.
"If you say so, sensei." I whispered and packed away my sketchblog.
"-it's easier with a child and pretty hard with an adult." 'Dude looks like a lady' ended his sentence, it was clear that i missed some of it.
"You're right, it is quite the good idea you got there." Cowboy answerred and i stood up on my branch.
I quickly jumped of off my branch, not caring that the branch swung in the air behind me alarming the two in the clearing of my presence. I giggled silently as Cowboy sent 'Dude looks like a lady' after me, when he realised that it was me, the so called backup, who had been on the branch.
'Dude looks like a lady' followed hot in my heals, i ran to get away from him, but he was atleast as fast as me, when i had my weights on.
Stopping for only a few seconds to take of my weight and seal them in a scroll from my weapon pounch, that i got from Kakashi. I ran again, this time at full speed and i would probably have lost him, if it wasn't for the fact that he knew the forrest, which i didn't. I tried my best toget away from him, but he seemed to appear out of nowhere again and again. I seriously started to feel stalked at some point, but in the end after jumping of off a cliff, running over a lake and jumping through the forrest in an insanely fast tempo i finally lost him.
But that don't mean that i speeded down, no i kept up the speed to avoid him catching up. Suddently there was no more trees infront me, because of the clearing that was there, and i ended up crashing out of the higher branches on the tree and stumbling towards the ground in free fall.
In the last minute i managed to turn in the air and focus my chakra in my hands and feet, before pressing them towards a tree.
"You know, when i said to hurry, i didn't mean that you should put your life on the line like that." I heard a bored voice say behind me, i grinned and let myself fall the last few meters to the ground before i turned and deactivated Hana: Fukashi, just to make myself visible again.
"I didn't mean to. It just happened, when i tried to get away from the 'Dude looks like a lady'-guy. But i'm here now, that's good, right?" I asked Kakashi as he stood leaned up a tree watching me. "How's the team?"
"Look behind you." His answer sounded amused and i turned around again, just to see my team training chakra manipulation by climbing trees.
Without a second thought i cheered for them. "Come on guys! I know you can do it! Go team!!! You can do it, Naruto! I have faith in you! You too, Raven!!! Show them, who's boss! Yay, Pinky, go girlpower!!!"
While i cheered, Kakashi just stood chuckling behind me. The cheer seemed to have the opposite effect than wanted, since they all fell down on their butts and looked at me shocked. Shrugging i turned to Kakashi, who had a mild look in his eyes as i smiled at him.
"Before i forget, here you go." I said holding out my sketchblog towards him.
He smiled as he took it and looked through it, he stopped by a few pages, but kept going after a while.
"What are you doing here?! Where have you been?!" Pinky yelled at me and walked closer to me with angry steps.
"I have been a little here and a little there, it's no biggy." I told her confused and tilted my head.
"That's not an answer!!!" Pinky yelled and ran after me, making me hide behind Raven, who was closest.
"How did you get here on your own?" Naruto asked as he walked up to me and Raven.
"I'm just that awesome!" I grinned brightly and threw my left arm around Raven and my right arm around Naruto, bringing them closer in a hug which they just allowed me to, i could feel Pinky's eyes on me and i smiled at her. "If you promise not to hit me, then you can be part of the hug too." I told her and she stood still a little, before walking closer and joining the hug.
I was rather happy then and there. I ignored the fact that Naruto mainly was hugging Pinky. I ignored the fact that Pinky was mainly hugging Raven. And i ignored the fact that Raven wasn't sure of what to do and that he just stood there a little bewilded.
I just smiled softly at them.
This was my friends, my family.
I looked up and met Kakashi's eye, i sent him a soft smile which he returned.
This was endid my family, my home.