Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ A Mate ❯ A Real Beginning ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter 3

Kankuro stood before the pretty blond girl and wondered why such a cute looking chick would become a ninja. I would think she wouldn't want her precious face scarred. He grinned at her wickedly, “What's a cute thing like you doing in battle?”

 

The girl winked coyly at him. “Oh, you know, fashion magazines say that a good hobby is essential for a slim waistline.”

 

He looked her over with deliberate slowness. “So, you want to start or should I?”

 

She pulled out a kunai and flashed a smile worthy of a super model at him. “Let me.” With easy grace, she hurled the weapon at him. As it flew towards him, the girl vanished in a puff of smoke, in a flash he understood. Oh, crap!

 

The kunai she had thrown at him shifted into the girl herself. She slammed into him and stabbed a kunai right between his eyes.

 

 

Akiko gave the instrument an extra hard shove for good measure, she laughed in relief. “Well, that was easy -“

 

She was cut off when the ninja she had just killed reached up and grabbed her wrist. The wound she just made in his head was not spurting blood, she realized suddenly, but sand. The person - or thing - she had just stabbed threw her off with easy strength.

 

The blonde hit the ground on her side and leapt to her feet, trying to make sense of what had just happened.

 

One of the bundles on his back twitched and burst from the bandages, releasing the real ninja. He smirked arrogantly at her and jerked his hand. Sand fell even faster from the fake, revealing a very disturbing looking puppet. With a casual flex of his hand the overgrown doll charged her.

 

Coolly, Akiko pulled out a kunai and spread her legs defensively. “That's a weird choice of weapons.”

 

The Pinocchio reject opened its mouth and discharged several kunai at her. She flipped out of the way, and barely had a chance to gasp when the kunai struck the ground and exploded in poison gas. She pushed hard off the ground and jumped out of the toxic vapors' reach. Unfortunately, the puppet was waiting for her. It struck out at her, and was immediately rewarded with a hard chop from the kunai Akiko still had in her right hand. An arm fell to the ground and the puppeteer cursed.

 

The marionette paused for a moment during which, Akiko swiftly performed several hand signs. “Morning Illusion Jutsu!”

 

 

Kankuro cursed once again as the girl disappeared in fog at once. “Oh come on! What's with all these annoying illusions?”

 

He manipulated the chakra strings to Karasu and brought it closer to himself. The thick mist seemed to dull sound as well as sight. He couldn't even hear this girl who he had to admit was pretty good, the only other ones who had managed to recover so quickly from his substitution were his siblings and his girlfriend. The haze was growing so thick that he had to keep reminding himself that he was not, in fact, stuck in a cloud.

 

The mist unexpectedly vanished.

 

“What the…” he trailed off as he spotted the girl sprawled on the ground, blood flowing from her shoulder. A young man with carrot hair stood over her, sword dripping in one hand.

 

“What are you doing Shiro?” the girl gasped.

 

The boy ignored her and raised the sword, then paused. He turned and looked behind him where others stood. “Do you want to do it Kyo?”

 

A tall young man stepped forward and took the sword. “Goodbye baby Sister.”

 

“What are you…” Kankuro yelled in shock as the guy stabbed his `sister' in the chest.

 

There was a horrifying scream and the girl lay still.

 

Kankuro was staggered and his fingers moved out of sheer instinct. The initial attacker dropped like a rock as Karasu landed a direct shot to his neck with a poisoned senbon. What in the seven hells is going on?

 

He was not to startled to see death, he had seen and caused too much of that for it to shock him. But that…hadn't they been on the same team? He had called her sister! The thought of him or even Gaara ever raising a hand against Temari in deadly intent was hard to picture. The idea of anyone trying anything against his sister infuriated him.

 

The other boy turned on him, blue eyes cold. “You just killed my teammate.”

 

“Oh, you noticed that? Well, I figured you wouldn't mind that since you so kindly murdered your teammate and sister.”

 

The boy kicked the body of his sibling. “Akiko was a fool woman who tried to rise above her station. She never should have tried to become a shinobi. All women who try must be eradicated.”

 

Now Kankuro was having a hard time keeping his face straight, what time frame was this guy from? Girls had been part of the ninja ranks for decades.

 

“This is none of your concern anyway,” the blonde said. “Good day.”

 

As the man ran off, a girl with brown hair came sprinting onto the scene. She fell to her knees beside the two dead kids who must have been her teammates judging from the rage filled expression on her face. She stood up and faced him, fury and sorrow twisting her features. “Arm yourself.”

 

He lifted his hand and prepared to send Karasu into battle, but was promptly interrupted when the sand around the girl's feet dropped away and she plunged into the new hole. Gaara came striding towards him, looking very irritated. “What happened?”

 

Kankuro shook his head. “I was in the middle of fighting that one,” he nodded to the body of the girl a few feet away, “When one of her teammates - that one - attacked her, some other guy - her brother, I think - came and finished her off. I took out this guy. Then your friend came in.”

 

“What the hell is going on?” his younger brother muttered.

 

“I dunno, but those guys were spouting some crap about women being upstarts for becoming shinobi.”

 

“What?”

 

The two Sand brothers glanced down at the girl who was pulling herself out of the hole, a painful process since she was doing it one handed - her left hand had the limp look of something that had been crushed by Gaara's sand.

 

“Akiko was killed by Shiro?”

 

“You mean him? Yeah - well, he injured her first, that blonde guy was the one who killed her.”

 

“Kyo?!” she turned away and looked at the body of the pretty blond girl. “But she's his sister - he wouldn't -“ she broke off with a look of horror. “Amaya!”

 

She crawled onto the solid ground and bolted toward the sounds of fighting to the north. Sand leapt up to grab her, but was immediately frozen in place - it had turned to stone. “Damn it.”

 

Gaara charged after her and was soon joined by Kankuro. “Amaya? Is that the shrimpy one? Temari was fighting her. Oh damn, what are they going to do to her if they catch her?”