(Tim Seltzer, seltzer@seltzerbooks.com) Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I do not own Wedding Peach.
I do not own any great quantity of money or property. I'm a STUDENT; that's
why I'm poor, okay?
"They're still there?" - "Indeed. Outside section A, otherwise known
as the 'front door'." - "What do we do?" - "Skip Plan B. Commence C." -
"Roger!"
Within three seconds, Sakura, Minoru and Potamos jumped out of the window,
and carefully climbed down the wall. They had paid the innkeeper in advance,
so it was not as if they were running out on the tab. The three sleeked
through the bushes, careful to avoid the people keeping watch over the
inn. Some of them were not even guards, which was the sole reason the traveling
party left at three in the morning. Many of the villagers tried to bribe
the innkeeper to tell them where the 'love-angel' was (a few of them were
priests), but he was clueless. The poor man eventually had to kick them
out of the tavern, saying that they were scaring away customers.
"Fanatical gits," Sakura muttered. "Some even wanted a lock of my hair."
"I don't think that's because they wanted a holy blessing, Sakura-san..."
"Huh? What?" Sakura honestly had no clue about the romantic concept
of the 'lock of hair', because she never grew up with it in the Ninja World.
Potamos grinned at her pink-haired friend in a teasing manner. "Am I missing
something?" the kunoichi asked, highly annoyed.
"Never mind," Minoru sighed.
(( (Fifty years ago, Frida Village)
A cloaked person slipped through the gates. It was nearly four in the
morning. A few strands of reddish, pink hair escaped her hood, and she
quickly put them back. If one could see very carefully, her eyes were a
sea-foam green.
Her step was unsure, but brave. She was running away.
God, she hated them. She hated everyone in the village, human and elf.
There were a few exceptions, such as her father, brothers, and the human
maid of the house. She felt very bad for leaving her loved ones behind,
but she just couldn't take it anymore. Besides, she was thoroughly convinced
that she could survive on her own. Her brothers taught her in the sword,
and her magic skills rivaled that of a pure-blood elf. Experience in herbs
and medical alchemy would sell well in the free human villages, maybe even
the dwarf caves, if she could find them. She would have to work, yes, but
it was what she wanted to do. Earn one's own money, and survive. Not depend
on others who kept you because of pity.
The girl was a half-elf. She looked around thirteen or so, but she was
really twenty-five years old. In cases of maturity, she could have placed
at ten years old after all, she thought that bolting with only a sword
and
magic would get her through the forest. Being the youngest and only girl
in a well-endowed family, she was rather spoiled and protected by her older
siblings. (In fact, she forgot to pack a purse for this journey, as she
hardly ever carried one of her own in the village.)
Yet even her family could not shield her from the emptiness she felt.
Whenever she walked into a street, the elves acted as if they did not see
her. The humans were worse: they glanced away, and quietly edged away from
her, as if she were a ticking time bomb. To them, she might as well have
been a super-human ready to test her powers on the lower beings. Half-elves
were known to be more reckless and careless with magic than their wise
relatives.
The only true kindness she received was from her father and brothers.
Now, she barely ever saw them because of their duties in the village; they
were not children anymore. The only one who stayed around in the house
with her was Minoru, the youngest son. He tutored her how to mix magic
with herbs the science of medicinal alchemy and even helped her with
her own garden outside. He never pitied her, which made her trust in him
all the more.
'Minoru-oniisan... I'm sorry, but I have to do this.' The girl strode
through the forest, swiftly and quietly.
A screech echoed through the trees. She froze in fear.
Silence. The half-elf then decided to walk faster. Pretty soon, she
was running. Someone, or something, was after her, even though only the
sound of her pants and the crunch of leaves resounded in her faintly-pointed
ears.
She trotted down, slowing down to a walk. 'I'm being silly,' she thought.
'I'm seeing imaginary things.' She stopped to rest for a moment she leaned
against a tree, her forehead touching its sweet-smelling bark.
The girl turned around. A tall being hovered over her. She gasped and
was about to side-step, but long arms went around her shoulders and trapped
her to the tree.
"Who are you?" it hissed. From the tone of the voice, the being must
have been a male, even though his long hair grew past his shoulders.
She aimed a punch at his face, but he caught it and threw her on the
ground. He was incredibly strong, maybe even stronger than an adult elf.
He held one hand to her stomach while she struggled to get away. The half-elf
pulled out a dagger and stabbed him in the chest, directly in the heart.
The man did not scream. He did not so much as flinch.
"That won't work on me," he grunted. With the other hand, he cleanly
slid the steel blade out of his gut. The wound quickly began to renew itself.
His black eyes glinted at the half-elf, and she gulped.
It was bizarre that she seemed to have forgotten how to use any magic
at all in fact, she couldn't. This area was sealed by some sort of undead
force. As she gathered her logical skills together, she realized: only
one type of magic would work for this creature wood-type and she had
no talent in it whatsoever. Not that anyone would blame her; obtaining
life-force was difficult in itself.
She was in deep, deep trouble. "Oversized bat," she growled, determined
not to show fear. "Cursed"
She could not finish her second insult, for the vampire sank his fangs
into her neck.
Instead of shrieking like any normal girl, she whimpered. The half-elf
felt paralyzed. Although it stung where he bit her, it felt kind of...
nice. She did not have such intimate contact with a man before.
'Odd,' the living corpse thought, 'she doesn't scream or struggle like
the rest of my victims.'
Yet he could not finish his meal: his curved teeth began to burn with
pain from her skin, and he withdrew with an angry hiss. "ELF!" he growled.
"No wonder!" Elves were one of the few folk on which vampires could not
feed; there was a natural defense just under their skin against undead
beings. He would not have been surprised if drinking her blood would make
him sick for a whole month.
"HALF-elf," she corrected, pushing the hood and dark-pink hair away
to reveal slightly-pointed ears. She nursed the wet puncture marks with
her fingers.
The girl did not get up, even though the vampire had ceased all physical
contact with her a few seconds ago. Instead, she studied the dark man.
It was hard to decipher his facial features there was a crescent-moon
tonight, so there was not much light but his hair was a beautiful raven-black.
From the hollowness of his face, he looked very pale and hungry, as if
he had not fed for months. 'Are there no deer in these parts this time
of year?' she wondered.
'Half-elf... So that's why it did not hurt at first,' he realized. He
rolled his eyes in frustration. He probably wouldn't get sick her blood
was renewing, strengthening. It was better than normal humans. Yet he was
not willing to bite her again; it hurt too much.
"Aren't you going to finish me off?" she asked quietly, almost expectantly.
She lay on the ground, her beautiful white neck exposed. There was a tiny
part of her that wanted to be killed; she felt so miserable in the village.
The ward of the village elder, killed by a vampire that would show the
villagers. It was better than suicide, which was considered a sin among
elves and humans alike. It was more honorable to die at the hands of a
vampire.
His eyes narrowed as he studied her pale, green eyes. He sighed briefly,
and leaned into her.
She tensed, not expecting such a bold move 'Is he a masochist?'
and he gently licked the remaining drops of blood clean off her smooth
skin. His tongue was cold and disgusting, like a slug. The maneuver chilled
her in the mind, but her heart felt strangely warm.
"Don't get wounded again," he whispered in her ear, "or you will attract
others of my race. I don't know whether I will die after this."
"Good riddance," she snorted, coming out of her trance. "You're a living
death, anyway."
The vampire let out a snarl. "Is it your sick hobby to walk around in
the middle of the night and throw insults to my kind?" His fist bunched
into the soggy ground, crumpling the soft, wet leaves. "I could kill you
so easily with my hands alone."
"I'm running away, okay?" the half-elf mumbled irritably. She blinked
she wanted to cry out in shame, but she was too proud to do that in front
of a vampire.
"Running away?" he scoffed. "What, is your family that bad?"
"My family is excellent, thank you very much!" she hotly replied. "A
father, and three brothers. It's just that there are a lot of people in
town who just..." The girl hesitated, realizing that she was pouring out
all her frustrations to a vampire. "Well they hate me. That's why I'm
leaving."
The vampire glared at her. "You want to be the village goddess?"
"No, I mean, I..." Her sentence finished lamely.
"Is your family abusive?" he interrogated further.
"Absolutely not!" she exclaimed. "I told you already! My father and
brothers love me!"
"Why run away then?" He glowered at her. He usually was not the type
to lecture. But the experience of being undead taught a person a lot about
life. He hated it when normal people wallowed in their own despair. "Go
home," he ordered simply. "I can see that your experience in magic is not
strong enough to survive alone." He turned away, leaving her sitting in
the wet ground. "You didn't even notice the force-field when you walked
into it, FIFTY strides away."
"You're not my father," she growled.
He gave her a weird look. The girl realized that she must have looked
stupid sitting on the ground, her arms crossed like a spoiled brat. She
missed the hint of sadness in his black eyes.
"You won't know exactly how important your siblings are," the vampire
whispered, "until you lose them. Go home." With a sweep of his black coat,
he morphed into a bat and flew away.
The half-elf sat quietly on the ground, thinking. She then got up, brushed
herself off, and turned back in the direction she came from.
'I didn't even find out his name...' she thought to herself. ))
Naruto sighed as he browsed through the bookstore, while Jiraiya was
shopping for the said item. This was so humiliating; the toad-sennin was
shopping with him for a book on puberty! Well, it was partly Naruto's own
fault. But he would have felt a lot more comfortable if one of his other
mentors bought it for him. Tsunade would have been better, or Iruka. Definitely
not Kakashi or Jiraiya.
(( "OOOWWW!" Naruto howled.
Jiraiya stood above the crouching genin with a vase. He was only two
hours away from his pupil, and he came back to find the boy intently reading
the rough drafts of his work. "What were you THINKING, boy! How dare you
look at my manuscripts! They're the prototypes for my next series! Plus,
you're not old enough!"
Naruto touched the large bruise forming on top of his head. "I was just
curious..." Jiraiya stuffed the notebooks back in their original places
in his bag. He did not blame Naruto for snagging a peek at an adult novel.
After all, Jiraiya began to peep in bathhouses at a much younger age than
thirteen.
What made the old man very upset was what Tsunade would say about this,
if she ever found out. She would want his head; that's what she would say!
The author of Icha Icha Paradise and Icha Icha Violence, handing out his
books to minors: it would cause a scandal. It would double his sales, yes...
But the Fifth Hokage would kill him! And plenty of uptight parents in Konoha
would rally behind her.
Jiraiya thought the matter through. What was the best cure for a curious
boy in the initial stages of puberty?
Naruto gulped. The master coughed to deliver his judgement. "Boy, I
want to tell you something about adult books like these," he said. "They
are written to give people a story and remind them of their youth it
is NOT real. Actually, a few times it is, but for"
"I know, I KNOW," Naruto mumbled.
"Besides, you probably don't understand half of the words in it."
"Mmm." The blond teen wanted to evaporate on the spot.
"That is why, if you want to learn about sex in more accurate terms...
I recommend a different book. And Tsunade will kill me if I did otherwise."
))
"Naruto-kun?"
The blond teen turned around, and jumped at who was there: Hinata.
"Oh, Hinata-chan, how's it going?" Naruto was looking over his shoulder,
trying to figure out a way of how to hide Jiraiya. 'Wait a sec, that won't
work; Hinata-chan has the Byakugan! That means she knows he's here, too...'
If he wanted to evaporate before, now he wished to sink into a puddle,
AND THEN vaporize into the atmosphere. "Um, uh... What are you doing here?"
he asked in an awkward manner.
Hinata blushed crimson. "Well, uh..." Little did she know that Tsunade
took her here for the exact same reason Naruto was here.
"Hinata, I've got the books!" a familiar voice called. Tsunade's head
popped around the corner. "Naruto, I hope that Jiraiya's taking care of
you."
"Baachan!" Naruto exclaimed. "Yeah, I'm learning lots! I think..."
"Hinata has just become one of my medical apprentices," Tsunade explained.
"She's... growing up, so to say."
'Tsunade-sama, please don't tell him, please don't tell him!' The Hyuuga
girl wanted to die she and Tsunade were the only souls who knew that
her first period came the previous night.
"Like you, Naruto, she's taking a sort of study-leave before she takes
the Chuunin exams again," Tsunade said. "She's very good with making medicine!"
'And I will try put you together on the same team...' the inner recesses
of Tsunade commented evilly. 'Man, I love playing the match-maker!'
Sakura, Minoru, and Potamos walked through a grassy plain. It was cloudy,
yet the sky was bright enough to light the grasses, waving in the soothing
breeze. Sakura noted the smell of lilacs in the wind.
"Minoru-san, do you have any family?" she asked, in a moment of curiosity.
Minoru was startled by Sakura's sudden question. "I have a father
and two older brothers," he answered calmly. "All of them are guards in
my
home village."
"No women?" Potamos asked.
"My mother disappeared," Minoru replied. "And I had a little sister
once."
Sakura froze. "You mean "
"She died," the elf quickly explained. "In battle."
It was clear that he did not want to speak about it further. He was
not ready. Sakura respected the following silence. Potamos blinked, and
nervously turned away this did not escape Sakura's notice. 'She must
have lost someone, too," the kunoichi thought. Once again, she felt rather
left out, even though it was something nobody should wish to be part of.
(( "His upbringing was wrong!" Sakura pointed out. "You know, he doesn't
have either of his parents!"
Sasuke froze, and his eyes turned hard.
Sakura didn't notice, and continued: "He's always selfish, and can do
whatever he wants! If I did stuff like that, I would get scolded! It must
be nice to be alone; not getting yelled at by your parents... That's why
he's so selfish."
Sasuke had to give the solid facts; Sakura was so clueless. His voice
turned harsh. "Loneliness... you can't compare it to the level of being
scolded by your parents."
Sakura blinked at the sudden coldness in his expression. "Wha what's
the matter, all of a sudden?" she hesitantly asked.
"You are annoying." ))
The pink-haired girl had not yet experienced a close death in the family.
Yet she imagined it many times. Often as a small child, she used to wonder
what it would be like if her parents died. A few nights, she even wept
by the mere thought of it; children's imaginations could become very emotional
and graphic. And sometimes in the privacy of her own room, of course
she would shed silent tears for other people's dead parents, even if
she never knew them personally. She cried, wishing that somehow, in doing
so, would help ease their own pain.
'But how would that help?' Sakura thought with a shake of her head.
'I was so naïve, and I still am... I remember how Sasuke chastised
me for criticizing Naruto...' Sakura thought to herself. 'And the day after
that, during Kakashi's bell-test...'
(( "Uh, I mean, there's not much more time. We don't have to push too
hard this time, we can do better next time..."
Sakura's awkward attempts at conversation were interrupted with a dark
glare from Sasuke. She clamped her mouth shut. He turned away, and Sakura
looked down in shame.
His voice finally broke the silence. "Only I can kill him."
Sakura was taken aback with this sudden announcement. "Huh... what?
You mean, Kakashi-sensei?"
"That time... I cried..."
"You... cried?" she quietly repeated. Sakura could not imagine Sasuke
crying he always looked so calm and collected. Moreover, why would a
twelve-year-old boy admit that he was one to cry? Was it something so serious?
Sasuke seemed to be absorbed in his own thoughts. "My..."
Nervous beads of sweat formed on Sakura's brow. "What... what are you
talking about?" she asked, her voice quavering. ))
'I wish I could have helped both of them while I was still there...'
Sakura thought.
Minoru tensed. "Beasts!" he hissed. Sakura jolted back into the real
world, and looked up.
There was a tree-patch a hundred meters away from where they stood in
the grass. About the trees were slinking a number of creatures, similar
to mountain lions except that they had purple fur. Their black claws
seemed to grow thicker and longer as they jumped onto the ground.
"A pride of manticores!" Potamos' yellow eyes shined. "They're so beautiful,
running towards us..." She rubbed her hands together. "Let's kill 'em."
Ten manticores bounded towards them at unnatural speed. The elf pulled
an arrow across his shaft, and shot one of the animals in the head.
Sakura's hands made the sequence, and released the spell. 'Kanashibari
no Jutsu!' One froze in its tracks, while the rest of the pride seemed
unaffected.
"They have aura defenses, don't they?" Sakura exclaimed. She had made
that jutsu to go on three of the creatures, but it only made an impact
on one of them. Casting the jutsu effectively on magical beings was much
harder to do than on normal animals or humans.
"Yes, but use your green aura!" Minoru urged. "They fear demon power!"
"Yeay!" Potamos cheered. The water-demon grinned in excitement as she
cupped her hands, forming a ball of water. "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty..."
she cooed.
"Don't use Hidden Mist, devil-child; they can smell us!" Minoru warned
Potamos. He let another arrow fly. It went directly into one manticore's
eye-socket, making the animal howl in pain.
"I know!" Potamos yelled as she threw the ball of water, putting another
monster off-course. "We've got to WHAM them down right away Sacchan,
watch out!"
The snarling animals were coming closer, and Sakura found herself surrounded
by four manticores. 'Four that's perfect,' Sakura thought. Her hands
flicked together, and Tennyo slid out of its scabbard. The blade glowed
a bright, emerald green.
"Junpuu no Shihougiri!" (Four-directional Cut of the Fair Winds)
The manticores that had surrounded Sakura were thrown away like rag-dolls
from her. Each one was wounded with a long, shallow cut. They got up carefully,
and shook their heads.
The pink-haired kunoichi held up the glowing Tennyo in a threatening
manner. The wild-cats snarled, but grudgingly trod away in defeat.
Potamos wrinkled her nose. " 'Four-directional cut'?" she asked Sakura
incredulously. " 'Of fair winds'? What kind of nancy-name is that?"
"The 'Shihougiri' is an iaido move, and I just added some wind-power
with it," Sakura said, panting. She cleared her throat. "Just so you'd
know, Potamos, it's also called 'Akumabarai' demon-cutting. You want
me to call it THAT instead?" 'And use it on you?'
"I wanted to kill them!" Potamos argued, missing the implied threat.
"Your attack just pushed them and scared them away with scratches!"
"You already killed one, devil-child. That was enough," Minoru said
as he walked over. "Besides, we only had to deter them from us, and it
is to our disadvantage to obliterate them. If manticore are hunted too
much, too many deer would wander around and eat the crops and vegetation."
"SO?" Potamos whined.
"You won't have any fresh vegetables later, is what I'm saying," Minoru
said. "No mint tea. Learn some ecology along with martial arts, why don't
you?"
Notes:
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please tell me! If
I suck, by all means tell me. In an intelligent manner.
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