Gift of the Outcast: Chapter 3 (story)

Disclaimer:  I do not own Naruto or any of its subsidiaries.  This is just fanfiction!


'Ello folks.  I got chapter three out in under a week!  Yay me!  So, I spent most of Saturday just writing this, so I hope it meets your expectations.  Here's the basic, need-to-know lingo (I'm not including stuff that has been put in the last two chapters.  Read them peoples!):

-san -- a Japanese honorific equating to "Mr." "Mrs." or "Miss."

Inuzuka Clan -- a clan in the Naruto-verse.  Famous for their veterinary skills and recognizable by the fang-like tattoos on their cheeks

Chikushou -- a curse

Baka -- idiot

Kunoichi -- a female shinobi

Mokuton -- wood release

Sharingan -- a bloodline limit (a technique passed down genetically, usually through a single clan line)

Shuriken -- a type of weapons, basically metal stars

                    Chapter 3

“No, pocky is way better.”

“Ramen beats all.”

“Yeah, right! Ramen isn't coated in chocolate.”

“Chocolate ramen is!”

“That even sounds gross.”

Teuchi glanced nervously between his number one customer and the green-haired newcomer as they continued to bicker, rather pointlessly, over snack foods. The pair were head to head, foreheads nearly touching, each with a scowl on their face and a glare that could pulverize steel.

“It is not!”

“Oh, yes it is. I mean come on. Chocolate ramen?”

“Yes, chocolate ramen.”

“Well, pocky comes in strawberry!”

“So does ramen.”

“Ramen takes time to make.”

“Not if it's instant.”

Naruto jumped onto the counter, blue eyes blazing. “Face it, ramen is superior!”

Kyo leaped up next to him. “Never!”

“Oi!”

The pair glanced down at Teuchi. The old man was glaring at them, irritation written in every line on his face. “Get. Off. The. Counter. Now.”

                          ______________________________________________________

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, guiltily glancing over at the pouting Kyo. “I never knew Teuchi-san could be so scary.” He closed his eyes, shuddering audibly.

“Pocky!” The greenette moaned in response, clutching her stomach.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. “Okaaay. Um, so why don't you tell me about yourself?” he suggested, obviously trying to get away from the obsession with pocky.

She went silent. “What do you want to know?” Her voice was taut.

The blonde didn't seem to pick up on the undercurrent of tension. “I don't know. . .like, what village are you from?”

“None of your business.”

“Rank?”

“Why should you care?”

The blonde fidgeted in the following silence. “Okay, um, hobbies?” he tried weakly, not expecting much of an answer.

Kyo immediately seemed to perk up. “Let's see. . .ice-sculpting's cool. . .making my own weapons. . .explosions. . .pocky. . .” She nodded resolutely at her own list.

A sigh of relief escaped his lips at the sound of a response.

Enough about me. “You?”

Naruto glanced up, uncertainty flickering through his eyes, before he straightened up proudly. “Training to become the next Hokage!” He flashed a self-confident grin.

“Nice.” Like that's ever going to happen.

Well, at least he's got spirit.

It's just plain foolish if you ask me.

I didn't ask you.

Will you two SHUT UP!

“. . . .family?”

The greenette cast a blank glance in his direction. “What?”

“What's your family like?”

Her liquid golden eyes darkened. “Don't have any.” He left a long time ago.

Naruto opened his mouth, his eyes screaming sympathy, but Kyo beat him to it. “Enough with the questions,” she stated, her voice cold as ice. “We need to find pocky.”

He nodded quickly. She's scary. “Uh, I think there's a few stands on the edge of town. . . .”

The greenette nodded absently, tucking one of her braids behind her ear as the wind changed direction. Abruptly, her hand dropped limply to her side, eyes wide.

“. . . .might have it. I'm not sure, though. I've never actually looked for pocky.” Naruto babbled. He winced, practically hearing the biting response that was coming his way.

Silence.

“Oi, what's the matter with—“ he started, glancing to his side testily. . . .only to come face to face with thin air.

                                   _______________________________________________

It can't be.

A distorted breeze whipped through the market-place of Konoha. Though a gust or 

two was a common occurrence in the narrow streets, several geese squawked, nervously fluttering their clipped wings as they pecked at the locks of their cages.

He left.

A young girl, a member of the Inuzuka clan judging from the tattoos on her cheeks, carried an injured dog across the dirt street, carefully judging each step so as not to drop the canine, though her efforts were in vain as the dog suddenly barked ferociously at thin air. Startled at the sound, the animal slipped from her arms, colliding harshly with gravel, but its relentless howling continued.

He said he'd never come back.

“Oi, what's the matter!” The girl stooped down to the canine's level, stroking its downy ears in attempt to calm its abrupt mood. A trace of wind drifted in front of the pair.

Never again.

Her nostrils flared suspiciously. The barking increased.

Chikushou, baka!

The Inuzuka kunoichi's eyes narrowed as a green-haired figure appeared at the end of the alley before again disappearing. She took a step to follow.

“Oi, Hana, hurry up!”

Hana's head whipped around at the unmistakable call of her mother. She swallowing anxiously. It doesn't have anything to do with me. She silently reassured herself as she hefted the still growling dog into her arms.

“Coming!”

Deidara.

                                         _________________________________________

Two Konoha ANBU stood erect outside a pair of glinting iron doors. Silence reigned throughout the deserted alley, not even the rustle of the shinobi's breathing disturbed the placid scene.

Then, without any noticeable provocation, a kunai shot from one of the ANBU's cloaks, colliding with what seemed to be thin air. The tell-tale ping of metal-against-metal resounded through the street.

Both shinobi reached for more kunai, but their hands never reached their desired weapons.

Kyo materialized between them, tapping the shoulder of one of the white-masked figures.

No response.

“Keh.” The greenette made a quick hand sign and then disappeared again, the previously seemingly impervious metal doors brutally ripped apart at the hinges, the edges still glowing with heat.

Silence descended once more as sun glinted off the figures that had once been shinobi of Konoha, revealing a thin layer of snowy ice.

                              ________________________________________________

Kyo scanned the hall for possible threats. Several frozen shinobi decorated the halls like marble statues, their faces still snarling or cowering, whichever they may be. Rotating her jaw, she closed her eyes in concentration.

Click.

Her eyes shot open at the tell-tale sound of a radio.

“Urgent—“ Silence. The offending shinobi was dead before he could even finish his plea for help, his throat slit with a sliver of ice.

But some did get through. “Kuso!” she hissed, punching the wall beside her. Several spidery cracks wound their way around her balled fist.

Calm down.

Inhaling deeply, her eyes slowly closed once again, eyebrows drawn and tense as she let her senses spread out around her. Several chakra signatures met her scrutiny.

No, no, no. . . .

There! Her eyes snapped open.

To any ordinary shinobi's eye, it would have looked like she had simply disappeared. She flashed into the human spectrum a few feet away only to disappear once more.

Kyo ran. 

Her legs dissolving into numbness as she continued her furious pace. Guards fell left and right, their faces frozen in horror, skin glinting with ice.

No shinobi, not even the ANBU elite shinobi, could stand before her in her blind desperation. She didn't even spare a pair of security a glance as their chakra flickered out.

Weak.

Suddenly, she flattened herself to the ground. Any watching would have wondered if her legs had collapsed beneath her, but a millisecond later, several kunai whizzed through the air that her head had just occupied.

In a flash, she raised her hands to block a well-aimed kick, and, though the blunt damage was avoided, the sheer force of the strike sent her flying into the opposite wall, leaving a small crater from the collision. However, before the greenette could fall to the ground and escape with a quick shun-shin, tree roots burst forth from the cement, wrapping around her limbs and roughly pinning her to the wall.

Kyo's golden eyes widened in surprise as a silver-haired man appeared in front of her, his one visible eye scanning her lazily, the other covered by both his headband and a linen mask. “I suppose your the one who killed the guards?”

She smirked. “So what if I did?”

Another man, this one with a mask style fore-head protector that framed his face, appeared behind his partner. “You seem awfully cocky for someone at an obvious disadvantage,” he stated, calmly blinking.

She cocked her head, visage playing puzzled. “Who ever said that I was at a disadvantage?” Then she was gone, the previously firm wood having been reduced to mere, still sparking, ash.

Both shinobi's eyes widened as she appeared behind them, leaning between them. A maniac grin adorned her youthful face. “Because I do believe that fire trumps wood.”

The pair was barely able to dodge the following fireball, flames licking at their clothes and skin searing from the pure heat wave. They skidded to opposite sides of the hall gasping for breath as the oxygen was sucked from the atmosphere by the ravaging fire.

The silver-haired one sighed. “I guess we shouldn't draw this out, then.” He raised a hand to his covered eye, hesitating ever so slightly, so slightly that an untrained eye would have completely skipped over it, before pulling his headband up.

Kyo grinned at the Sharingan revealed. “So you must be the Copy Ninja Kakashi, right? It's an honor to meet you, really! I've heard so much about you, mostly bad of course, but Iwa is biased against you. I mean, you blew up that bridge-that-I-can't-remember-the-name-of and turned the tide of the Third Great Shinobi World War against them, so I can kind of sympathize with. . . .” She continued to babble, apparently oblivious to the silent exchange between the two Konoha shinobi.

Kakashi subtly dipped is head, never lowering his gaze from the questionably insane greenette.

Silence reigned, broken only by the inconsistent ramblings of Kyo herself.

“NOW!”

Wood erupted from the floor, viciously diving at the still-babbling girl. . .only to strike thin air.

However, none could escape the Sharingan, no matter how fast. Kakashi watched in awe as the greenette flipped herself upwards to land on the ceiling. He watched as chakra charged to her tensed feet. He watched as she tugged a glinting kunai from her sleeve. He watched as she dove towards his partner. He watched as a sneer twisted its way across her face. He watched as her weapon neared the mokuton-wielder's throat. Never once did she dissolve back into the range of normal human sight.

Neither did Kakashi.

Ping!

The girl's eyes widened as her kunai met with another. Her shocked gaze raised to the level of her assailant, gold locking with red and black tomoe as Kakashi and Kyo flickered into human vision.

“You can see my movements,” she stated. The sneer retreated. . . .

Silence.

. . . .only to be replaced by a smirk. “But can you match them?”

A hiss escaped his lips as he registered the kick that was headed towards his head. His arms raised reflexively, but gasped, shock clear on his face, as her other leg collided with his gut. The silver-haired-nin skidded back several feet, managing to dodge the brunt of a barrage shuriken, though a few managed to draw small slivers of blood, one coming within centimeters of his jugular.

“Yamato!” he barked.

The shinobi, now proclaimed as Yamato, nodded sharply, pulling out a wireless transmitter.

Kyo growled and dove towards the mokuton-user only to be countered by Kakashi. She grinned. “You know, if you're not going to be a good sport, where's the fun in playing?”

“Urgent back-up needed in the ANBU Torture and Interrogation center. Hostile is skilled and danger—”

Static filled the room.

_______________________________________________________________________

Wha'cha think?  Was it as good as the other chapters?  Post please, so I can know what you're thinking!


Here's chapter 1 for those of you who haven't read the whole story: http://kobalt-board.blogspot.com/2010/11/working-title-chapter-1-story.html

Here's chapter 4 for those of you who have:  http://kobalt-board.blogspot.com/2011/01/gift-of-outcast-chapter-4-story.html

Peace out peoples,

KobaltWolf