Hey! So this is the only chapter I am uploading tonight. If you read, thank you so much, I appriciate it!
This isn't much of a chapter but it's something.
Oh, and this chapter is dedicated to claymoreprincess because she has been a huge help with the story, and she has been yelling at me over text to upload more.
So, I hope you enjoy, and if you do please vote, comment, fan, and share share share!
I also still don't own Naruto.... :/
~Stephanie ;)
When I woke up, it was morning, and I wasn't in my room, let alone my house. I scanned the room I was in, and it turns out, it was the hospital. It only makes sense.
Toge wasn't with me, so I was a bit worried. Especially when Iruka was sitting right in front of me. I have to admit, I did jump a bit.
"What are you doing here? Ow!" I yelled as I jumped back, bumping my arm on the frame of the hospital bed. Iruka sighed.
"To check up on you when you woke up. You passed out yesterday, so you weren't able to go on the mission you were given today." He announced. I groaned. More dog walking for me.
"Wait! No, that's exactly what they want!" I screamed at him.
"What? Who?" I shook my head.
"Some guy named Gato! They hired Zabuza-"
"The ninja swordsmen?"
"Yes! They hired him to kill the bridge builder! They're going to attack team seven!" I yelled at him. I was shaking him with my left hand.
"So, it's true then." He mumbled.
"Wait, you knew? Why didn't you do anything?"
"Toge woke up before you, she said the same thing." He mumbled again. She wasn't on the mission either? And she blacked out too?
"Then what are you going to do?" I asked him, worried.
"There is nothing to do. The way Toge explained it, we can't do anything beneficial."
"But-"
"There's nothing we can do, Kuraun. We just have to believe in your team." Iruka said, a strangely serious look on his face. I sighed.
"Alright, alright." I leaned back.
"Now, I'll leave you here, and talk to the Hokage about what the both of you said. I hope that'll ease you a bit." Iruka said before leaving. When I heard the door close, I jumped up out of the bed and took of the annoying cast on my arm, and tried to heal it. I wasn't Tsunade good, but I was still pretty good.
I ended up only having a bruise on my arm, and I snuck out of the hospital. I wasn't going to do nothing. I wanted to help. I wanted to fight.
"Kuraun, right?" I heard someone yell as I ran. I wanted to ignore them, but I apparently didn't have it in me, and I stopped.
"Yeah." I recognized them as Shikamaru.
"Why are you running? The commotion you're making is really troublesome." He pointed out. I rolled my eyes.
"There's something I've got to do. I don't have time for your laziness." I shot at him.
"What do you have to do?"
"I have to help my team with a mission. They're in trouble."
"Why aren't you with them?"
"I was injured."
"It's not smart to go then."
"I don't care!" I yelled. He still just stood there, a bored look on his face.
"Look, if they're already on the mission, then there isn't anything you can do. They'll be far ahead of you and you won't be able to catch up. It's a waste of energy trying." I groaned at his reasoning.
"Yeah yeah."
"My name's Shikamaru." He said, standing up straight, and not leaning on the wall.
"I know."
"How?" He asked, a little surprised.
"Uh, Hokage." I pulled together. He smirked.
"And that doesn't work with you, great great."
"Doesn't work because I remember what you said to Sasuke at the academy." I froze in place. I had forgotten all about that! I had to fight the urge to facepalm.
"Right."
"So you can really do that?" I sighed.
"It's not an ability, I just know the basic idea of what's going to happen, because I've seen it before." I told him.
"You've seen it?" He asked, surprise written all over his face. I nodded, sitting down. I guess I was fatigued.
"How?"
"You ask too many questions." I told him, waving him off.
"Well, I'm just looking for information." He complained.
"I guess I'll see you around, Kuraun." He waved, walking away. I sighed, debating whether or not I should follow him. I decided against it, and voted to walk around the village. There had to be something I could do, right?
Wrong.
The village known as Konoha was the most boring place in the world when you didn't have a mission, an urgent call, duties to fulfill, or anything to do, really. I looked all over, and there was nothing. So, I went back to where Shikamaru walked off, and followed where I guessed he went to. Sure enough, I found him on the porch of his house playing shogi.
Shocking.
"Kuraun? How'd you find you're way here?"
"Too many questions, not enough things to do." I complained, walking in front of the board. I didn't understand any of it.
"So you're Kuraun Kawa?" Shikamaru's shogi partner asked. I turned my head and saw Asuma, cigarette lit. I held back a laugh.
"In the flesh." I responded. He smiled.
"What's with the cloak?" He asked. I frowned, and looked down at my cloak.
"Do you have a problem with the cloak?" I asked, gripping the edges. I received a laugh from Asuma, and I smiled myself.
"No, none." He responded. I looked back at the game board, crossing my arms again.
"Hmm. Can you teach me how to play?" I asked to no one specifically. I tried to analyze it, but I just didn't understand any of it.
"Sure, I'll teach you." Shikamaru offered, looking up at Asuma. We traded places, and Shikamaru reset the board, ready to get his teaching on.
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"Ha! I win again!" I yelled. Shikamaru just stared at the bored, dumbfounded.
"How? I went through every precaution! There's no way you could have won!" He complained. I laughed deviously.
"Oh, but I did." I smiled.
"Okay, that's it! I'm done!" He surrendered. I laughed.
"I never thought that you'd give up that easily!"
"We've played fifty games!" He complained. I laughed again, and got up from the shogi table.
"Hey, you wanna train?" I asked him. He seemed to think about it for a bit, while sizing me up, then he smirked.
"Sure. Whoever loses has to buy the other whatever they want for lunch." He challenged. I deviously smiled.
"Deal. I'll race you to the training grounds!" I yelled, getting a head start.
"That's not fair, Kuraun." I snickered and continued running. But I decided to stop right before I got there, to buy some dumplings just to tick him off. I quickly ordered them, and while I waited, I looked around.
My eyes landed on Toge, who was sitting with Ino and seeming like she was having a heck of a time. I smiled. We got along with the people we thought we would here. I turned around, and grabbed the dumplings as the woman handed them to me, thanked her and payed, then ran off to the middle of the training grounds.
Shikamaru had beaten me there.
"Did you seriously stop for dumplings?" He asked me, unimpressed, as I gulped one down.
"Believe it." I told him, mentally breaking down in laughter. He sighed, rolling his eyes, and slowly stood up as I finished my dumplings.
"Ready for the fight of your life?" I asked him, smugly, crossing my arms. He laughed.
"You bet." I smiled, as I made the first move, and cast a genjutsu, one that I had developed on my own.
We were in a red and blue world, kind of like tsukyomi. We were standing in the middle of an empty plain, just him and me. I quickly glanced above me and smirked, knowing the crown I had given myself was on top of my head, glowing in all of its glory.
"Wow, some jutsu." He noted, looking around. I smiled, and yelled, "A hundred tiger attack!" Immediately, one hundred blue tigers appeared from the red grass and went after Shikamaru. Once he defeated them all, he seemed extremely tired, so I released the jutsu. In the real world, he struggled to stand, making me think I went a little too far.
"Shadow strangle jutsu." He said, surprising me. I hadn't noticed the hand signs he made, and I couldn't move, but it also became harder to breathe. I made the hand signs, and yelled, "Ninjutsu, realease!" And the shadow hands dropped back to the ground, where they belonged. Shikamaru raised his hands up.
"You win." I smiled, but realized that I was on my knees on the ground, and he was standing.
"I don't think that's quite accurate. I'm the one on the ground." He realized this and smiled, feeling accomplished.
"Finally." He breathed. I got off the ground, and walked over to him, putting his arm around my shoulders, and started walking again.
"I owe you some lunch." I said, smiling. He laughed an nodded, exhausted.
Chunin exams, here I come.
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