(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?
Author's Notes: Actually, I already had an entire scene about
a unicorn planned out — wow, some readers must be PSYCHIC, I tell you!
It'll be later in the story, I promise. (I'll explain the lock-of-hair
idea in the next chapter.) As for the strange flashback with the half-elf
and vampire, it will help in understanding Minoru a lot more.
Potamos jumped over a few rocks. Minoru and Sakura were out sparring,
and so the water-demon was left alone to do what she liked, as long as
it was nothing dangerous.
She exhaled quickly in frustration. That elf was getting very close
to her beloved Sacchan — it was almost creepy in the way he treated her.
Potamos first thought that Sakura had a slight crush on Minoru, which she
was perfectly fine with. Some part of the water-demon even wanted them
to be together. Potamos was not interested in him, anyway. And she wanted
the deep pleasure of seeing that uptight elf throw his heart and soul at
SOMEONE'S feet. 'That blondie-elf needs to get himself laid,' the demon
grumbled inside. 'Maybe I should give Sacchan some pointers...'
But that pretty-boy looked at Sakura with different eyes other than
romantic love or lust, much to Potamos' observation. A few times, Sakura
even flirted with Minoru, and he returned them playfully. Yet nothing serious
ever happened — no nervousness on either party, or silence.
In other words, they were just brother and sister. 'I wouldn't mind
if that changed,' Potamos mused to herself. 'But there's something else.
Mino-chan looks at Sacchan with some sort of longing, of nostalgia... He
also said something about a dead sister of his.' The water-demon plopped
down. 'Maybe he thinks of Sacchan as a replacement for his dead sister...
But it's common elfin philosophy not to think of relationships as a set
list, like to have a boyfriend here, and best friend there, a couple of
close friends there. They always say that every person is different...'
Potamos frowned she stopped in her tracks. 'But a soul is a soul, no
matter how many lifetimes it may go through...' Her brow furrowed, deep
in thought. 'Is it possible... that Mino-chan thinks that Sacchan is his
dead sister's reincarnation? ...That idiot.'
A low growl sounded out from behind. The purple-haired turned around,
and her yellow cat-eyes flashed at what was moving. She could identify
the thing immediately.
A large mountain troll struggled to get up from a pile of rocks. Rocks
which Potamos had just walked over.
'My feet touched THAT icky thing?' she screamed inside in disgust. 'And
I didn't even notice? Wait a sec, that troll didn't notice me until AFTER
I walked over it... Oh, man, that must mean that I'm down to its level
in terms of observing surroundings...'
The monster, irritated for being woken up by a girl who kindly decided
to trample over his body, reached at a large lump of rock. It turned out
to be a club. The troll swung it at Potamos, much like a human trying to
swat an annoying fly.
"Kya!" Potamos jumped out of the club's reach. The water-demon's shriek
rung in the troll's ears, making it more grumpy than usual. It swung the
weapon again, and knocked down several trees — adding more to the collection
of splintered tree-stumps that Potamos failed to notice when she entered
the area ten minutes ago.
The water-demon panted. There was no way she could penetrate that thick
hide with her dingy kunai and shuriken. Her power over water was not advanced
enough to make a strong, large weapon out of ice, like her uncle could
do with spears.
"Alright, torture methods never fail!" Potamos exclaimed. She formed
the illusion of a large spear in front of the troll, and 'stabbed' the
monster with it.
The troll's puss-encrusted eyelids blinked. The spear was like an itch.
Disregarding the illusion completely, it swung the club at Potamos again.
"You're too stupid to connect 'pain' with 'long, spiky objects'?!" she
exclaimed in bafflement. She jumped away from the club's path. A large
crater formed in the ground. "Why am I even TELLING you this in words;
you can't understand IMAGES! This is so unfair! You're so dumb, and yet
so friggin' strong!"
The water-demon huffed in exhaustion and anger. Who the hell knew that
illusions didn't work as well on creatures of lower intelligence? She could
run, yes, but the troll was clearly following her until she was dead. It
now thought of her as a play-toy; it was the game of 'swat at the girl
in the fairy-dress until she's squished'.
"I oughtta have brought a real spear with me on this trip!" Potamos
shrieked as she dodged another swing. She had to improvise on this; she
had never battled a mountain troll before. 'C'mon... water... WATER!' A
sparkling ball of the substance formed in her hands, and she threw it at
the monster's eyes.
The troll paused to rub the area where the projectile hit. It grunted
at Potamos — more annoyed than hurt at her measly attack.
The water-demon winced at the stench in the air. Trolls had terrible
breath, as they did nothing but sleep most of the time. "Stop BREATHING!!"
she ordered. "You stink!" She jumped up to another boulder.
The girl stopped as something crossed her mind. "I have an idea!" she
cheered. 'I have an AWFUL idea. I have a WONDERFUL AWFUL idea!" The purple-haired
girl squealed in delight.
With the hit of the troll's club, the rock wall next to her collapsed.
"Okay..." Potamos shivered. " 'nuff talk, more action! You there, stop
BREATHING! And I mean it!" Potamos willed a string of water to form in
her hands, and she threw it towards the troll. It roped around the neck
easily — the monster was slow, and Potamos had good aim. She had to be
careful with the thread, for only a fine stream of chakra held the water-line
together. She tugged on it, and mentally commanded it to freeze.
The troll looked confused, until it realized that something was tied
around his neck — and tightened with each breath he took.
"I'm not stopping there, my pet," the water-demon purred. A surge of
aura traveled from her hand to the troll's neck via the string, and his
skin of his throat began to freeze, the water in his cells expanding. The
cold did not stop, seeping into his flesh and respiratory track.
Potamos grinned as she heard the feint choking sounds. Eventually, not
as much as a peep came out of the troll's mouth, for its vocal chords were
frozen shut. The water-demon giggled evilly as the creature slumped down.
"Well, there's a new way to kill something big," Potamos chirped. "As long
as they're slow, anyway. I better keep that in mind."
Sakura hesitantly held up a shaft of wood, actually a roughly-and-recently
hewn bokken. "I don't want to hurt you, Minoru-san," she said, grimacing
at the feel of the wood in her palm. "Even if it's not an actual katana..."
"Come on, Sakura-san, I can dodge your throwing-star-objects and knives,
you can at least try a piece of WOOD. This is practice." He smirked, twirling
a curl of his sandy-blond hair in one of his fingers. "Or are you too intimidated
by my glorious presence and impeccable technique?" he asked in an unnaturally-smooth
voice. He extended his hand, pretending to study his fingernails.
A vein emerged out of Sakura's neck. 'What a low tactic: making the
opponent angry to make them lose their sense of judgement,' she thought.
'Effective, for some people.' She exhaled deeply, and freshened her mind.
"Thanks, Minoru-san. I am more willing to hurt you now. I will do so...
yet it shall be with style and intelligence."
The kunoichi immediately let out a kendo-style yell. She lunged at the
elf who was still examining his hand.
A vine shot out of Minoru's wristband, and blocked the wooden sick.
Sakura raised an eyebrow as she eyed the dense, make-shift weapon Minoru
constructed: it resembled a dagger. "Awesome substitutes you make with
your vines," she commented as she yanked the bokken away from him. She
then proceeded to cut and slash. The girl kept her distance from Minoru,
as she had to preserve her energy. He was good, no doubt.
Sakura ran and performed an upper-cut onto Minoru. He blocked it before
the edge touched his face, and roughly pushed away — the bokken and Sakura
together.
"Damn it; you're too strong!" the kunoichi exclaimed as she stumbled
back.
"Not to mention: lightning-fast, and incredibly handsome," he said with
a grin.
Sakura twitched. "I would SO LOVE, to wipe that arrogant smirk off your
face, right now," she mumbled.
"It reminds you of Sasuke, doesn't it?"
The words 'bull's eye' shot through both of their minds. Sakura growled.
"Actually, you're worse than him, and that's saying something." She swung
again, and Minoru ducked it. The kunoichi let out a full offensive on the
elf.
Minoru was still smirking at the determined, yet calm, face of Sakura.
It was fine and well that Sakura was growing stronger, but she still needed
some superiors who kept her ego in check. Too many well-trained warriors
fell before they could exercise their skills, and Minoru certainly was
not going to let his pink-haired companion drop to a similar demise.
The elf jumped to a spot between two trees, and kicked off of each trunk,
skipping up the bark without even using chakra in his feet. He gracefully
swung up and onto a tree-branch, safely out of Sakura's reach.
"Oh, by the way," Minoru called down.
Sakura panted as she looked up. "What?"
The elf made another blunted dagger from his vines, and then threw it
into his right hand. "I'm not left-handed," he said, twirling the two make-shift
weapons. He jumped down from the tree, attacking Sakura.
The kunoichi moaned as she saw the incoming elf, and proceeded to block
and jump away from his reach — as she only had one long bokken, she had
to learn how to keep her distance as well as concentrate on how to attack.
A smile tugged at her lips: Minoru was training her to fight with one sword
against people armed with small, multiple weapons, such as thieves and
assassins. 'That's true,' Sakura thought, 'I need to know this. If I ever
become ANBU, this skill is vital...'
The elf blocked all of Sakura's attacks — she could not land a single
hit on him. The kunoichi's legs buckled, and her knees hit the ground.
"Okay, that's enough for today," Minoru said, throwing away his props.
Sakura blinked. "AND THE FIRST HAND IS A FEINT!!" the kunoichi yelled,
getting back up and running towards the defenseless Minoru. He raised his
eyebrow for a split-second, before his fingers laced around the handle
of Sakura's bokken, and threw her away — he kept the wooden sword for himself,
but the girl went sprawling on the ground. She rolled onto her back, taking
in deep breaths. "Damn, you're good," she panted. "Good that you don't
let your guard down."
"That was a foul and degrading move, Sakura-san," Minoru said, playfully
throwing the bokken between his hands. She grinned up at him. His blue
eyes softened. "And yet I am glad you're testing me as well," he continued.
"Now my hour is up for being your practice dummy."
"You blocked them all... with your daggers..." Sakura heaved in amazement
and exhaustion. "You've probably had more than a century to learn that;
it's not fair!"
The elf shrugged. "Actually, I started training in knife-fighting forty
years ago. Your tutelage under Angel Salvia was six months, and you are
unusually advanced. As if swordsmanship is in your psyche..."
Something tugged the elf's consciousness. Something dumb and stupid
was after Potamos. 'Don't you die on us, devil-child,' Minoru thought.
'I know that EVEN YOU can handle something like that.' He then went back
to concentrating on Sakura.
The elf watched the kunoichi as she knelt down to re-strap her left
sandal, which had come undone with the last twisting move she performed.
"You're like my sister, in many ways..." he softly said.
Sakura looked up, startled. "Your sister?" She hoped she wasn't treading
on forbidden ground; this was Minoru's sister who died in action.
"We weren't blood-related," Minoru said. "She was the ward of the family.
After my mother disappeared, my father found a half-elf wandering around
with no family, and we took her in. The two of us were particularly close."
The blond elf smiled. "She was also good with a sword. Not a katana, mind
you — a normal, straight blade was what she used — but she was good. She
could take down any man in the village, whatever race they were."
"I'm sorry," Sakura said, hoping that it would make him feel better.
"It's alright," Minoru answered. A slight touch of nostalgia was in
his blue eyes as he looked at Sakura. "It's nice to talk about it."
Minoru felt a chill. His blue eyes were wide as they seemingly gazed
into nothingness. He realized that the certain, stupid being after Potamos
was still fighting her, and she couldn't handle it.
A large battle-roar echoed through the trees.
Sakura coughed. "I... think we should check on how Potamos is going
with her magic practice." Minoru took off, faster than the kunoichi expected.
She hurriedly followed him.
The elf slowed down, after he ran for about a minute. 'The blood-lust
is gone,' he realized. 'She must have killed it.' He then stopped, dazzled
at the sight which met his eyes. "Devil-child... you..." Sakura came up
behind him, panting.
The water-demon with curly purple hair stood on top of what looked like
a large, white boulder. But as Sakura looked more closely, she saw that
it was a frost-covered, humanoid, fat something. She could identify few
physical features: an ugly, massive head, with eyeballs bulging out of
their sockets, and a great set of brown teeth.
It was a frozen troll.
Potamos wiped the sweat from her brow, but she grinned and wiggled her
nose. "What'ya think? Pretty spiffy, ne?" She kicked the earlobe of the
troll, and a piece of icy flesh crumbled away. Sakura clutched her stomach,
feeling a little queasy at the sight.
Minoru crossed his arms, and chuckled, much to Sakura's amazement. "You
froze the water inside his cells, instead of taking the water from the
atmosphere and attacking. The concept of efficiency has worked to your
advantage."
"Yup! I started on his throat, but I worked the rest, thinking it a
waste not to practice my new freezing skill on something already dead."
Her chest shot out with pride. "I call it, the 'Refrigerator of Death'!!"
the water-demon announced. She giggled at the disgusted look Minoru gave
her, and the sigh Sakura exhaled. "Don't worry, I'll find a cooler name,
once I find a dictionary in a village."
"Yes, please do, because putting the word 'Death' into an attack has
been done too many times. Very cliché and out of style," the pink-haired
kunoichi commented.
Minoru turned to Sakura, giving her an incredulous look. " 'Style' ?!"
"Well, it's true!" Sakura exclaimed.
Potamos pointed behind her. "Speaking of village, I think there's one
in that cave — the troll I was fighting knocked a side of this rock down,
but it turned out to be hollow." She pointed at a burning torch in the
hole. "You think that maybe that's a lost dwarf cave or so? They still
seem to be in session; they probably were just hiding until the troll went
away."
Minoru dug out his map, and pulled it open. Sure enough, where they
stood on the map was a historical dwarf-cave, although the updated information
said that it was out-of-order.
A loud cheer echoed from inside the cave. "The troll is slain! A hero
has come and saved us!" someone rejoiced.
Potamos bit her lip, while Minoru and Sakura were smirking at her. The
water-demon had a feeling she was going to get A LOT of unwanted attention
that night.
A man in a long, heavy cloak brushed away his black bangs. Just under
his cheekbones were two lines, showing tiredness and the experience of
battle. The handsome man lightly touched the straw-hat on his head, making
the wind-chimes on it ring with serenity. He had felt little peace in his
life, experiencing much violence and death, and he was about to get an
addition load of it soon — he could feel it. And it would be more supernatural
than he usually preferred. His hat tilted slightly to reveal Sharingan
eyes, with three black teardrops in each red orb.
"Thinking about your relations again, are you?" a voice drawled from
above. "Uchiha Itachi."
Itachi glanced upward impassively, only to meet the eyes of a tengu
— a creature with the body of a man, but the face and wings of a bird.
"Don't worry, Kisame is not around," the tengu said, "Nor anybody, for
that matter." He knew, of course, that Itachi knew, but he was trying to
strike up some conversation with the human.
"Get to the point," Itachi said in a monotone. Deity or no deity, he
liked it when others were direct and down-to-earth. "How is my little brother
doing?"
"His soul is still well-protected," the tengu observed. "Yet it won't
be long. He's already shown signs of cracking. I'd estimate... three months."
Itachi raised an eyebrow at him. "Yes, it would be SOMEWHAT ADVANTAGEOUS
for you," — the tengu's voice grew increasingly sarcastic — "to SOMETIME
go in there, and bust your only living relative out from that crazy bastard's
clutches, HELLO?!"
Itachi stared at him.
The creature clicked his beak together in frustration. So much for conversation.
Most humans would be thrilled to talk with a deity. Some would even kill
for a chance to see the supernatural. Well, this man performed homicide
more often than the youkai in hell could keep track of, but still... "For
heaven's sake, the Akatsuki is ALREADY arranging an attack! By the way,
I actually can scramble a few things to make sure your oh-so-cool-image
stays together, both with the organization and the official ninja villages."
Itachi turned away, satisfied. "I'll think about it," he stated.
The tengu sighed, and disappeared in a whirl of black features. "Uchiha
Itachi, you are a mystery," the bird-man's voice lingered, and finally
faded into the beautiful silence.
'Little Brother, I will be there to save your pathetic existence,' Itachi
mused. 'But even I am willing to have the heavens do a part of the dirty
work. Even those from different heavens...'
Notes:
'tengu' - in Japanese myth, a tengu was a mountain goblin with the face
of a human, a long nose, wings, and magical powers. Other descriptions
of tengu say that they had beaks like crows. Like 'kitsune' (fox, like
Kyuubi in Naruto) and 'tanuki' (racoon-dog, like Shukaku in Gaara), tengu
liked to play pranks. Some stories feature tengu setting fires in Buddhist
temples and starting wars. Later, there came a gradual distinction between
good and bad tengu — at times, some good tengu even intructed priests in
sacred rites and doctrines, and took the place as temple guardians.
About Itachi: Yes, I want to, and SHALL, use Itachi in this story and
its sequel. I just want to warn the readers NOW that he might turn out
alittle out-of-character, because I can't figure him out — he doesn't appear
in the Naruto series often enough to our liking, don't you agree? ...Okay,
my eardrums just exploded from the squeals of rabid fangirls. My decision
stands, whether you like it or not...
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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