Author here, and yes, I'm still alive, at least mostly, and I am still writing on this, I have in no way abandoned it, I'm just stuck on an upcoming fight scene and stressed because life's a b*tch and then you die. Okay, perhaps I'm a little melodramatic; honestly, I'm fine. I've been sick for a few weeks (not Corona, I was tested), is slightly stuck in the story(fighting is hard), is stressing about a possible upcoming internship and my weirdo rabbit, who likes to made sounds like he's sick just to get attention, so I never know if he's actually sick. Other than that I'm perfectly fine and just tend to forget that I haven't uploaded the chapter that I've already written(don't tell anyone, but I'm doing the exact same thing with the sequel to Angels Without Wings, where I'm several chapters in, admittedly I'm a little worried that that one is going a tad too fast and might need some slowing down). Anyway, enjoy this chapter, while I catch a couple of hours of sleep. <3
???????'s pov:
It'd gone like h*ll ever since we arrived in Suna, Leader-sama had us accompany him to some peace meeting, and ever since this morning it's just gone terrible; I kept tripping and slipping on and over everything, there was worms and toothpaste in my food, and suddenly I had pink hair! Straight up pink hair!
I'd tried confronting Sasori-danna, of course, but he refused any involvement with any of it; granted he'd just shrugged and looked amused by the pinkness of my hair, but everything else he'd refused any involvement in! Like I'd believe him! Accidents, like these, don't just happen accidentally!
I was quietly seething and planning revenge when the meeting was just about to start, but then she arrived; Kiko, the very firework herself, jumped straight down into the middle of the room, right arm in a sling and wearing her costume that nearly got her killed by me, but otherwise looking healthy. She was ignoring us, keeping her back to us, showing that she was still incredible upset with us, but she was okay; after the information about her house getting broken into, we'd heard nothing. And yet here she was, looking mostly fine, past the bandaged arm that I'd hurt.
The b*st*rd Raikage attacked her on her way to her seat, causing several of the present people to move to stop him, but she avoided it expertly by jumping over him, making it look like it was the easiest thing in the world, even with her arm in a sling.
Then came the answer as to why everything had gone so wrong ever since that very morning; on her bidding my chair collapsed, sending me tumbling to the ground, and the look she sent me made it all fall into place. She'd been behind it all; she'd been tripping me, she'd been putting those things in my food and she'd been the one behind my, now, pink hair. She'd been taking revenge all morning, but nothing had been truly harmful, so she didn't hate me for hurting her; apparently, the day had been a good day after all, a great one even.
She'd avoided eye contact with both me and Sasori-danna through all of the meeting, though she'd clearly spoken of us as the Hokage appeared to be aware of Tobi's new dislike for being called fat; after the meeting she and her father disappeared, but she was back for the next meeting, this time without her bandaged arm in a sling, and if you actually paid attention, as both Sasori-danna and I did, you could see her almost vibrating with the need to get out and move.
She clearly hated sitting still with nothing to do, of course she did, explosions were never meant to stay in place for hours on end; she had a tortured look in her eyes throughout the end of the meeting and she could in no way hide the pure excitement, when the Kazekage shot down an invitation to get to know the other kages better over a late lunch as he'd promised to train her, referring to her as Kiko rather than the bird. The second the remaining three main kage's realised that they'd met the girl in question, they voiced their interest in seeing the training and Leader-sama was one of the first to do so; on her father's que Kiko left, practically disappearing in thin air, while the Hokage and her father were trying to discourage everyone from wanting to see the training, though they only managed to make everyone want to see it more; of course they did, she was something very special after all.
We got our way and soon enough we were all outside, where she arrived back, dressed far more like herself; the bandage was gone, but the heavily scarring of her arm made me winch, knowing that I had done that to her.
She was happily moving about though, seeming not too bothered with the arm, so perhaps it was okay now. She seemed to be fine, so I allowed myself to send her a victorious look; we'd gotten our way and were going to see her train, it'd be fun to see just what she was able to do.
Her only reaction was to stick her tongue out at me, which made me laugh; she'd clearly had to keep from doing just that quite a few times at the meeting.
She seemed surprised with the fact that all of us were coming along, including the man child Tobi, who'd decided to randomly join us; why exactly did Leader-sama bail him out?
Anyway, Kiko seemed surprised, but she just accepted it after a moment, clearly too taken by the possibility of getting to finally move. She was twirling around, while holding onto her father's hand, as the Kazekage led the way to wherever we were going to watch them train; surprisingly he didn't stop at any of the normal training grounds that we passed and just kept leading us further.
It was going to be interesting to see the training, especially as she'd never really fought me seriously, so I didn't actually know what she was able to do.
On the way there, one of the Kumo nins dared to comment on her behaviour, which brought him quite a few glares, amongst others both Kiko's and her father's; apparently she's almost 15 now, or so she claimed, when he'd insinuated that she was a child.
Surprisingly, it wasn't till that moment that the Raikage even gained just the tiniest hint as to just who she was, thanks to the scars I'd caused her and the white haired man beside him; the Raikage, in what was supposed to be, discreetly leaned in and in a semi-quiet whisper told the rude blonde Kumo nin that she might, MIGHT, be the bird. Wasn't it obvious by now? Who else could it possibly be?
That rude blond b*st*rd caused Kakashi Hatake to ask her to behave, though he hardly had to say a word to her; obviously he was the only one she really listened to; he was her dad, so that wasn't all that strange though. It did however make it harder for us to get to her, as he clearly came first, before us. Our standing with her probably wasn't helped by me blowing her up...
On her father's request she instantly behaved and walked properly next to him, though she still held his hand and still couldn't hide her excitement. Not that I could, or ever would, blame her; she was a very active person, so a meeting like that had to be hard; even I was bored out of my mind throughout it and Hidan had threatened to start killing people, if he was going to have to go to any more meetings in the future.
The building, that we came to, was a large sandstone building, where the sandstone was clearly enhanced to handle fighting within it, and inside there was viewing places behind enhanced glass walls; just like the sandstone, it was enhanced to allow fighting, serious fighting, within it.
It was a place to have strong fighters spar and to test strong Jutsu; was this truly necessary to train her? I mean, I knew that she was interesting, incredible, and able to do the strangest feats, but was she this strong as well?
She was taken to the middle of the arena behind the glass walls, where she waited patiently, while her dad, the Hokage and the Kazekage spoke together in hushed voices; they were clearly aware that the Raikage was onto them about the bird.
Not that the Raikage had been all that secretive about it, he didn't even stop himself from showing his sudden interest in her, which caused the other kages to become way too interested as well; I refuse to let them even try to claim her for their own, I refuse to acknowledge them as my, our, competition!
We'd all sat down in the seats a few meters from the entrance to the actual arena, more or less staying in our own small groups, and were, just like Kiko was, waiting for the sparring to start; our whole group, even Tobi, were deathly silent, it was quite a surprise that he was even able to stay quiet, as we waited, eager to see what she could do given the chance; clearly it'd be more than you'd expect from her small size, but then again, with her mind, she could do quite a lot.
Finally, the Hokage, the Kazekage and Kakashi Hatake seemed to have come to an agreement and the Kazekage entered the arena with Hatake, who told her something in a whisper and then loudly told her to 'give us hell' and not hold back; a lot of us leaned forwards at his words, clearly we'd be able to see just what she could do and what a sight it would be to see.
He had her hand over weights, that I hadn't even realize she was wearing and a single look at the people around me told me that many of them hadn't realized either, then he left the arena though he stayed by the entrance, leaving Kiko and the Kazekage alone in the arena to spar.
The Kazekage made the first move; a slightly lazy sand attack, that would probably catch most below the rank of chunin, probably a test to test her abilities, but she responded remarkably; she responded with an eye catching blizzard of snow birds, truly living up to that retched nickname they'd given her, the one that nearly cost her, and us, her life.
She moved like it was only a game, like a small child jumping from stone to stone to cross a puddle, except she was jumping around on the very birds that she'd created. She showed no fear as the Kazekage tried to catch her with his sand, moving gracefully from place to place and somehow always just a second faster than him, even as he sped up. Somehow he was always just a little too late and the only change to her was the playful look that filled her eyes; he was clearly going far too soft on her and she was clearly far too talented for the kids gloves, not that the Kazekage caught on, not even when she attacked him with a wave of senpon needles.
Wait... was she using kids gloves on him? Was she going easy on him? Was she actually holding back?
The Kazekage seemed to get the hint and attacked with steadily more power, finally the battle could begin; she was so much stronger than I'd ever imagined. She was so small and with her childlike nature, I'd expected something far less or at least something vastly different, but she was so much more than I'd imagined.
Don't get me wrong, I'd had high expectations for her, but she was so easily exceeding every single one of them before my very eyes.
"Brat's actually f*ck*ng impressive." Hidan muttered in surprise and truer words had never left his lips; she was extremely impressive.
She was a true artist, clearly in love with her art; her movements were so effortlessly captivating. An artist that loves their art was always the most talented and she was no different. Slowly the idiot kages seemed to suspect that she was indeed the bird, they were so very painfully slow.
I whispered as much to Sasori-danna, who just half-heartedly commented back, his eyes never leaving Kiko, that I had to blow her up to realize, which was straight up a lie! I'd have realized if I'd ever had a chance, if I'd been faced with the bird or even seen her move, but I hadn't, and they hadn't told me anything about their plans! It was as much their fault as it was mine!
And I'd make it up to her somehow, make no mistake about that!
The battle had evolved slightly and Kiko had made clones to join the fight, clones that the Kazekage slowly got rid of one by one, revealing them to be crystal clones, something so very unexpected, but that only made it that much more interesting; clearly Kiko had a lot of secret talents that none of us had any idea about.
She'd been keeping secrets, we all knew that, but for her to be hiding this much was interesting, just the fact that she'd been able to was incredible, Sasori-danna had made a rather large effort to know about her after we got her name, but nothing about these abilities came up during his research; I'd know, I actually bothered asking.
The sparring match ended very suddenly; somehow Kiko had hid, while her clones fought and, somehow, she'd gotten behind the Kazekage, without him or us noticing, and was currently holding a kunai to his throat, looking surprisingly vicious; her eyes were looking rather predatory, like a hunting predator stalking her prey.
She'd won, and she'd won quickly; nothing about her in that second looked like the child she usually portrayed, but then seconds later she was acting like it'd only been a fun game, insisting that she wanted to go again, sounding just as childish as I'd usually expect of her, though the contrast between the Kiko that had held the kunai to his throat and the Kiko who wanted to 'play' again was almost scary.
Scary...?
I'd never thought that I'd ever think of Kiko as 'scary'.
"It is her..." The Raikage exclaimed stunned, breaking me from my thoughts to look at him, noting how he wasn't taking his eyes off of Kiko for even a second as she with a pout tacked a stretched out 'please' onto her plea to 'go again'. "It's actually her..."
He seemed unnecessarily shocked, unnecessarily as he'd actually had a warning, unlike I'd had. If I'd had even an inkling of her being the bird, then I'd never have hurt her!
The way he was looking at her made me want to use him as a canvas for my art; he didn't deserve to look at her like that, if at all.
They say that the Raikage has a near impenetrable defence; it'd be interesting to see how much of my art he'd be able to defend against. Might just have to test it if he doesn't stop looking at her like that.
"What's her?" The Mizukage asked confused as she too stared at Kiko; they were all just a bit too interested in her; she was ours!
The only competition I'd allow was from her family! These people weren't going to take her from us! I'd sooner make them a part of my art, than let them take her from us.
"The bird... She's the bird..." The Tsuchikage uttered in complete disbelieve, his eyes glued to Kiko's small form as she avoided the Kazekages attacks with a laugh on her face the entire time; she was clearly enjoying herself, unaware of their greedy eyes on her. "She used that disappearing jutsu, when she brought us the chunin exam update; Kurotsuchi attacked her and she used it to disappear..."
"The bird is a little girl..." The Raikage agreed, just as stunned as before, disbelieving, as if it really was that big a shock that a girl, however small, could be the bird.
"She's a young woman; is it that unbelievable to you that a woman can be strong?" The Mizukage asked annoyed, making me grin as Konan was glaring him down, while every other female in the room were sending him angry looks, even the Hokage looked ready to hurt him; at least he noticed that rather quickly.
Before anyone else could voice another word, and before he could dig himself further into the hole, he'd already started digging for himself, explosions sounded from the arena; it was Kiko's bombs, though it seemed to only be some of her colored ones. Didn't she have any actual bombs that she could use as actual weapons? My question was answered by the Kazekage, when he told her to stop holding back, something he'd finally noticed, and only seconds later she used larger, more powerful, bombs that was far more like what I'd expected of her.
"Look at that, Sasori-danna. She's gotten better at art!" I grinned at Sasori-danna, who just gave me a long-suffering look.
"That's no art, brat, art is eternal." He growled, making me grin even larger, though it turned to a frown at his next words. "She agrees; she draws after all."
"Only because she doesn't know any better! Give me half an hour with her and I'd have her educated!" I started but didn't get any further as Sasori-danna cut in: "Give me 20 minutes and I'd have her properly educated."
"Or you could both leave my kid the f*ck alone!" One of the leaf nins, a kunoichi, hissed at us as she and the rest of the leaf nins finally left the entrance to the arena and joined the rest of us.
"Your kid, huh? And here I thought that she was his." I smirked at her, nodding towards Hatake, only to receive a smirk of her own.
"Oh, she is, but she's mine too. And Ibiki's as well!" Her voice was colored with pride, and she was very clearly daring me, us, to disagree.
"Not according to her papers." Sasori-danna commented coldly, making the woman pout.
"That'll be taken care of when we get back." She stated firmly, grinning at Hatake and the large, scarred man, who I could only assume was 'Ibiki'.
So Kiko had more family? It was probably for the better that we found that out now, rather than later on.
"I thought that you said that you wouldn't do that unless she got kidnapped again." The Hokage commented warily, seemingly forgetting that there were others present; not that I'm complaining as it meant more info for me, us.
"He almost killed her; that counts!" The short tempered kunoichi snapped at the Hokage with a motion towards me, looking at her own group with a look daring them to disagree and causing me to gain several looks.
They didn't disagree, though they seemed to share a look; I was just about to defend myself, insisting that I wouldn't have done it if I knew it was her, when Hatake spoke up.
"Are you going to sue for custody?" He asked with a suspicious look, he seemed aware of us, unlike the Hokage, as he threw a hard look at us; is that family drama I sense?
"Not at this time. But I want to babysit more often!" She stated firmly with a slightly immature tone.
"Deal, you hear that Lady Tsunade? No more Ebisu."
Ebisu? Somehow, I already don't like him.
The Hokage just sighed at the two of them as they, and the Ibiki guy, looked to her; it was clearly an old topic that they seemed to clash on.
"You're not the least bit worried about letting the two of them loose on the village?" The Hokage asked with a look at the kunoichi, looking slightly worried at the thought.
"As if Ibiki would let the two of them be alone together." Hatake shrugged, making the Ibiki guy smirk.
"With that resolved, who is this Ebisu?" Sasori-danna asked, before I could, making the kunoichi and Ibiki look annoyed.
They were quiet at first, clearly expecting the Hokage to answer, though she stayed quiet and seemed to be pretending not to have heard the question. After a while the Nara, who'd remained mostly out of the conversation, spoke up.
"He's an elite trainer,-" The Nara started, but was cut off by the kunoichi: "He's a g*d d*mn*d idiot, that's what he is."
"What Anko is trying to say is that he's arrogant and have trouble taking responsibility for his actions; he prefers to blame the nearest person of lower rank, such as Kiko, whenever he messes up himself. He also happens to be the one that Lady Hokage usually puts in charge of watching Kiko, when I'm on a mission." Hatake offered up, when it looked like the Hokage was about to snap at the kunoichi, Anko.
So, this Ebisu liked to blame Kiko for things that weren't her fault? Perhaps he ought to have a little accident?
"We could always babysit for you." I offered with a grin, though he just rolled his eyes at me.
"As if you would give her back willingly. Not to mention that the last time you tried to watch her ended with one of you stuck in a window and her escaping through one of the other windows." He turned us down, though it wasn't an actual 'no', so perhaps we could go that route after all.
"Toby is not FAT!" Of course, he couldn't shut up for long; luckily for him Hatake just seemed amused.
Neither of us got to say anything as the Raikage suddenly cut in with a breathless voice, his eyes glued to Kiko. "Lava and electricity?"
I turned my eyes back to Kiko, noting that Hatake had done so as well; she'd destroyed the Kazekage's sand shield so badly that he had to let it fall, though he used the sand to create a large wave to attack her, barely a second later an unbelievable explosion of molten glass went off, littering the whole arena in an intricate web of glass. Hatake worriedly stepped closer to the glass separating us and I found myself on the edge of my seat, literally, watching Kiko's every movement and hoping that she was okay.
Somehow, she, at first eye cast, was okay, she seemed to be fine, she was even attacking him again, but then I noticed the arm, the arm I'd hurt, she was moving it sparingly, like it was hurting. Had the explosion been too much for it? Sasori-danna had only just fixed it not too long ago, had it been too powerful an explosion for a barely healed arm?
Sasori-danna moved worriedly beside me as I clenched my hands around the armrest, I watched as she tried to hide her hurt, while she attacked the Kazekage with kunai and senpon; she wasn't using any jutsu, her hurt hand had to be the reason why.
Or so I thought until I saw Hatake relax his shoulders; he wasn't worried anymore, so she was okay?
Was she faking it?
The Kazekage slowly lured her into getting close to him, it honestly looked like he was fully in control, but Hatake wasn't worried at all, instead he held a proud glint in his eye.
I turned my eyes fully to Kiko, hoping to see what he saw; she'd continuously make moves to use the hurting hand, but stop it with a convincing flinch and stick to mainly using the other hand.
If it weren't for Hatake I'd have bought it, but he didn't buy it, so I refused to. What was he seeing that I didn't?!
Even the Kazekage, and the other kages, were falling for it; what are you seeing Hatake?!
The Kazekage caught her hurt hand with his sand, voicing the end of the match in much the same way she had earlier, but she just grinned at him and suddenly there was ice everywhere. How? What happened?!
She locked them in a dome of ice and for the longest time there seemed to be no change, but then the ice was splintered from the inside by a hurricane of sand, which sent Kiko flying backwards and left us a view of the Kazekage with his skin cracking of in sandy pieces and senpon decorating his clothes and skin; what had happened in that dome? How had that dome come to be in the first place?
Kiko caught herself on a dirt pillar, that rose from the ground on its own, and, despite the hurricane, made her way straight back towards the Kazekage, her hands moving flawlessly, showing that the hurt before had indeed been fake, as they activated the very jutsu her father was known for.
The Kazekage clearly wasn't expecting her, which was made even clearer by the blonde sand kunoichi, when she screamed for Kiko to stop, but Kiko was going far too fast to stop.
It was with horror I watched as she redirected herself, using a small boulder that shot out of the ground seemingly on its own, and was sent spinning, sideways with lightning surrounding her, into the glass, hitting herself in the stomach with the jutsu, crashing through the enhanced glass and ending up on the floor.
Hatake was the first to move, moving so quick that he was nothing but a white and blue blur, headed straight for her, Anko and Ibiki were hot on his tail, while Sasori and I were shortly behind, the rest followed behind us. When we arrived by him, he was kneeling by her side, worriedly asking if she was okay, her next words eased all the worry; apparently, she was hungry.
That impossible, impossible girl.
After a bit of poking from her father she gave a short evaluation of her injuries, which wasn't much past a few bumps and bruises. Somehow, she'd made it without any larger injuries...
He gently helped her up, showing that she indeed was okay, something that was confirmed when she shook herself like a dog, sending glass flying around her. That amazingly crazy girl: she'd just been flung through a wall of glass and she was far more interested in food.
She really was something special; I always knew that, but this just confirmed it once more; she was amazing.