by CHAPTERS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Okay I'm going to figure out how to link the chapters to like links soon... o-o;; *figured it out*
~*~*~*~*~*~
Two humid, lousy, uneventful days passed. Soon, Pein was able to smell the saltwater tang of the ocean of the village that used to be her home. She breathed deeply. Some days she missed the ocean and the cool morning mist that hung over her neighborhood. The ground turned marshy, and Darnas found his feet sinking ankle-deep into mud at points.
“Ugh… stupid mud…” he muttered.
“Well stop stepping over there,” Aki said. “That’s where the real nasty mud is.”
“Well you both were from Mist village at one time! You know where everything is!” he complained, sinking calf-deep into a mud pocket. “Oh you’re kidding me!” He pulled his foot out, but left his sandal stranded beneath the mud. Pein walked over and fished his shoe out of the mud.
“There you go! Now, walk behind me and Aki. We’ll end up stepping in any mud first, and then you can avoid it when you step, alright?” Darnas muttered a “fine” while putting his shoe back on. He filed in behind Aki and Pein. Soon, everything was running smoothly, until…
“OH COME ON!” Darnas had managed to step into a mud pocket somehow and sink nearly thigh-deep in mud. Pein and Aki laughed at him, but helped him out all the same.
“Don’t worry, Gramps,” Pein laughed. “We’re almost there. See? Can you hear the waves?” The other two listened intently. Aki and Darnas smiled at the same time.
“The ocean.” the three said in unison and began running headlong into the Mist Village gates. From where they stood, they could see the bamboo walkways and the reed-roofing on the hut-style houses. Everything was above the crystal blue water, held up against gravity by bamboo stilts. Pein smiled. As much as she loved Storm, she always loved the ocean. Even if it made her hair frizz.
“Pein! Aki! Darnas!” exclaimed a voice to their right. The team turned and saw Keya waving and smiling. “Hi!” she exclaimed.
“Hey!” Aki called back, and the three ran over to greet her. They hugged her and she led them through the gate, waving the guards off.
“They’re okay,” she said to them. “Don’t you remember Pein and Aki? They left when Jose was Mizukage.” The guards looked at the two former Mist ninja suspiciously, but left them alone when Keya gave them a look that could turn someone to ice. “So! What’re you guys doing here?” she said sweetly.
“We’re here for--” Pein started, but was cut off by another voice.
“What are you doing here?” said the voice and none too nicely. The team
whirled around, and Pein almost crashed into Des.
“What are we doing here?” she countered. Aki’s eyes widened at Pein’s outburst.
“Pein!” she hissed. But her warning fell upon deaf ears as Pein glared at Des.
“Who do you think you are?” she said to him in disbelieving resentment.
“Who do I think I am?! Don’t you know who you’re talking to?!”
“I’m talking to Destinykil--”
“The Mizukage of the Mist Village.” Des finished. Pein narrowed her eyes as the information sunk in. Soon her expression of resentment turned to confusion.
“You’re the Mizu…kage? But I thought Keya was!”
“I was, actually.” Keya laughed. “But I switched the position to Ama, but then Ama went missing, so the position was switched to Des.” Aki closed her eyes and put a hand up to her temple. Darnas looked like he wanted to laugh along with Keya, but wasn’t sure if he should or not. Pein’s face expressed pure horror and embarrassment.
“OH! Oh… I’m sorry?” she questioned. The apology was good enough for Des as he gloated in her horrified expression.
“No worries. Just don’t make the same mistake again.”
“Wait.” Aki said suddenly, lifting her head from her hand. “You said Ama went missing. What happened?” Keya stopped laughing, but didn’t plunge into complete seriousness.
“Well, he more like LEFT. But we haven’t seen or heard of him since, and no one else has from any other village, so we consider him missing.” Keya paused, thinking. “He didn’t say where he was going either. Just said he was going, and give the Mizukage position to Des.” Pein considered commenting to this statement but decided against it; if only to save Aki from embarrassment.
“Hm.” Aki said.
“Anyway, so what are you guys doing here?” Des asked, this time a bit more on the polite side.
“I’m sure by now you’ve heard of the fires in the Storm Village,” Pein said. “We need more firefighters because Storm ninja are skilled in lightning jutsu…”
“Which really doesn’t help since that’s what’s causing the fires in the first place.” Darnas added.
“Well… how many do you need?” Des asked.
“How many ninja can you spare?” Aki questioned.
“Not many. With Ama missing, and no one knows what he’s up to, I’ve heightened security around here, and I need all the ninja who are willing to guard the village.”
“Really?” Pein asked. “You said ‘with Ama missing.’ Isn’t that some major profiling there? For all you know he’s become a hermit and lives next to the Sand Village! On the other side of WOTN!”
“You really don’t know when to shut up do you?” Des asked, almost tiredly, not missing a beat. Pein paused.
“I can understand why you’d heighten security a bit because he’s missing. I mean, I’m sure Ketsu would do the same if a ninja left the village, and now no one knows where they’re at. But you don’t have to act like you’re going to get an enemy ambush!”
“Pein does have a point,” Keya said, though to Pein she added “But we don’t know what Ama is capable of. We know he’s pretty powerful, and heightening security just because of him may be pretty stereotypical, but the Mist village can’t take too many risks these days. No village can.” No questions were asked for a few moments.
“Soooo…” Aki said. “Who can you spare for firefighters? Because we need to get back to our village…” Des looked at her, and began pondering.
“Well… Temari and… hmm… Maybe--”
“Me!” someone said to the right of the group. Their heads turned as a girl jumped gracefully from a tree that she had appeared to have been in the entire time. She straightened up while saying
“Name’s Ureshii! But you can call me Reshii, Shii, or whatever you feel like! Just nothing mean. Mean names suck!” She beamed at the trio of Storm ninja, who looked dumbfounded at her.
“How did you… how were you… NOT NOTICED like that?!” Aki asked her incredulously. Reshii grinned and threw up a peace sign.
“It’s my Kekkei Genkai!” she said proudly. “I can change color! See?” She changed her brown hair to bubblegum pink, then to electric green, to black, and then back to brown. “I’m part of the Teishoku clan!”
“Tei…shoku clan?” Pein asked slowly.
“Yep! We can camouflage ourselves better than any other ninja in all of WOTN! Or so I’m told. My clan was split up waaaayyyy before I was born. I wanna find the rest of my clan and bring us back together again!” The Storm ninja blinked.
“Uh, Reshii--” Des started.
“Don’t give me that ‘you’re too young’ or ‘not skilled enough’ pitch Grampa! I’m not doing anything in particular lately. Plus I wanna see the Storm village!”
“Well--”
“I’m going. I’m one of the only ninja you can spare, and I wanna help these guys!” She beamed at them before asking “Who are you anyway?” The team recovered quickly and stuttered out their names.
“OH! Niiicceee you guys sound cool! Hey! You have a cat too?” Reshii bent down to pet Harlequin, who had gone unnoticed. “Aww she’s so cute! What’s her name?”
“Harlequin.” Pein said. “But she--” Harlequin began purring and rubbing against Reshii’s ankles, grateful for some attention finally. “--bites.” Pein finished feebly.
“She’s adorable!” She turned to Des and said “Anyway! I’m going to find Temi and then we can go right?”
“Sure I guess…” he said as she ran off to find her fellow Mist ninja. Keya laughed and turned to the three Storm ninja.
“She’s pretty hyper sometimes,” she said. “But really a lot of fun to be around. She’s pretty strong and clever too, so don’t let her ditzyness fool you. Plus with that camouflage ability, she’s a pretty good ninja.”
“Too bad about her clan though.” Pein said.
“Yeah well… the clan was here through the first war of Mist, but then some turned against the Mizukage, Jose, before leaving the village for good. They said he was too tyrannical or something. I don’t really remember. I guess they’re living all across WOTN now. Or their descendents are, I’m not sure if any of those clan members are still around or not.”
“So they wouldn’t know if they were part of the Teishoku clan?” Aki asked.
“Probably not, unless they noticed they can change color at will.” Keya replied. “And, then again, like all clans, some might not have the Kekkei Genkai to begin with. If she wants to restore it, then she’s going to have a hard time doing so.” As she said it, they saw Reshii pulling another ninja along, seemingly explaining something to her as she ran.
“This is Temari!” she said upon arriving to the group. “She’s our other firefighter! And we wanna help you guys!”
Last edited by PeinQAkatsuki on Sat Aug 07 2010, 04:46; edited 7 times in total
Toshiro~ ^_^ x3
Man PQ, you're a natural author :O
