Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Reading Totems ❯ Chapter 27 ( Chapter 27 )

Author's pre-ramble: Alrighty, we have more Kankuro and Gaara in this chapter! I attempt to expand on Shino and Kankuro's rivalry and show Gaara's concern over his own village and the well-being of Paige. Also some more mystery building on “super-power Paige” as a few reviews put it! And of course, more cuteness with our favorite couple…

 

To my reviewers: otakutron, DragonTamer94, TheForsakenOne, tasuki001, Dwarfwarrior, ghostreader14, TheRavenQuoth, sotobell, interestingstuff, mousetrap, DemanFox, Simply Me, jadedkatrina, Alexeihowe Thank You! And leave me more love!

 

Title: Reading Totems

By: GrizzlyTeddyBear

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, and this makes me sad. I do own Paige Stone, my OC! All information regarding animal totems was taken from the books Dancing The Wheel by Sun Bear and Animal Speak by Ted Andrews.

Main Pairings: ShinoxOC, NaruxHina, SasuxSaku

Rating: M for mentioned adult themes

Warning: AU, Post-series start time. Rookie 9 is 23-24 years old. Fic mentions pagan religions, if you can't handle it, don't read! Also is OC-centric. Hold your pants, all will be revealed as the story progresses. I like to take my time.

 

Chapter Summary: Paige discovers there are changes in the air, but can't quite grasp what they are with her own changing abilities. The Kazekage is let in on Paige's plan. Shino reminds her why he loves her.

 

***Chapter 27***

 

Knocking…at 5:00AM…woke her up. Black Panther. “Can I hurl a kunai at Kankuro?” she asked Shino after blearily determining the time. Paige yawned through her next thought. “It's too early to train.” She gave something between a moan and a groan when he leaned over to give her a kiss on the cheek.

 

“It gets too hot to train during the day.” He rolled out of bed and was dressed for sparring as if sleep was a thing of mere mortals and not the Aburame. “Training early also grants more free time later.”

 

She was definitely less graceful in getting up and getting dressed. Paige Stone had not been granted breakfast and a shower yet. “Have something in mind?”

 

Shino obligingly lead her to the door of their suite. “The Bazaar is open today.” He grabbed her bag of medicine wheel items as well as their kunai pouches on the way. “It is similar to Konoha's open market.”

 

Nodding, she offered, “I've heard of them…never been to one though. Wasn't my end of the map.” She walked through the opened door to find Kankuro smirking at her disheveled and sleepy appearance.

 

“Not a morning person, are we?”

 

Paige glared and stuck out her tongue. “Bad kitty. Bite me.”

 

“I don't think Shino would appreciate it if I took you up on that offer.” Kankuro's smirk grew further, and he shifted a strange wrapped object roughly the size of a body over his shoulder before he started to lead them towards their destination. “Gaara will drop by after his own training. Will you be awake by then?” he questioned Paige.

 

“I'll work something out.” Paige just looked around as they were lead outside the Kazakage's estate. She turned her attention to Shino when they had arrived at the training grounds. “I think I'll join you guys for warm-ups…at my own pace, of course. But then I think I'll do some wheel walking and see what information I can dig up.” A yawn escaped. “Or maybe I'll just take a nap.” Setting down her bag she faced the both of them. “Shall we?”

 

Kankuro didn't set down his own bundle before leading Shino and Paige in performing a few laps around the training area. The three then sat and performed some stretches. Shino assisted Paige in some of the stretches…just for fun.

 

After gathering her bag from where she had placed it before, she turned to Shino again after considering Kankuro and his strange bundle. “Are you going to need any help?”

 

Kankuro just raised an eyebrow. He was probably wondering how the woman he saw lagging behind in laps was going to be of any help in a sparring session.

 

“No,” Shino answered. “This is between us.”

 

“Alright, but you know how I hate to see you injured,” Paige reminded him. And she wasn't sure how well she could control her immediate urge to protect him and hurt someone that hurt Shino either. No time like the present to test things out. Grinning, she added, “Bleed if you need me as a trump card.” Paige gave a quick wink to a dumbfounded Kankuro before making her way over to a corner to set up her items for wheel walking. Before she walked off too far, she heard Kankuro's voice mixed with laughter.

 

“She is something else!” His voice turned slightly more skeptical, “Does she have the ability to be a trump card? What can she do?”

 

Paige listened in on the response. The corner's acoustics allowed her to follow the conversation as she began to spread out her blanket and set up her medicine wheel.

 

Shino's voice was filled with amusement, “Paige is capable of minimal taijutsu and has no abilities in ninjutsu or genjutsu.” He took up a stance.

 

Kankuro dropped and unwrapped his bundle to reveal a strange looking puppet. “Doesn't sound like much of a trump card.” He directed the puppet to attack Shino. The attack landed, and Shino dissolved to reveal it was a bug clone.

 

His voice came from some unknown location, the same acoustics that allowed Paige to listen in, also made it difficult to locate Shino. “Paige's unique abilities would allow her to kill an opponent to protect someone without having to move from her location or use any chakra.” Shino suddenly appeared behind Kankuro holding a kunai to his throat. “But she doesn't like to take lives. She prefers healing.” Shino withdrew his weapon. “You were distracted from battle. We will begin again.”

 

They really did seem to have a rivalry similar to Naruto and Sasuke. Paige watched the pair spar a little more before turning to her medicine wheel. She did a general wheel walking to test out the spiritual waters of her new location. The result was a little surprising. Grizzly Bear came to her easily. There were a few possible reasons for this. Shino's distractions yesterday had miraculously made everything all better. Working with the medicine wheel made things easier. Or something came to the desert which made it easier for her to reach her totem. She continued in her wheel walking seeing if any answer came to her. Grizzly Bear was the only answer she received. Paige found even the ravens to be quiet…she decided they felt they had filled her in on Gaara enough. Ending her meditation, she wrote down her reading and the questions it had triggered in her notebook. Stifling a yawn as she closed her notebook, she glanced over to see the sparring session still going strong. Realizing she was going to be in for a long wait, Paige decided the nap she had mentioned earlier was a good idea. Settling into her blanket, she used her notebook for a pillow and Shino's jacket as a cover. Paige closed her eyes, trusting Shino and Kankuro not to skewer her in her sleep.

 

***

 

Tanuki woke her up. Not needing to open her eyes to know who that totem belonged to, she kept them closed. “Kazekage-sama,” Paige yawned.

 

“Are you well enough to see me today?”

 

“My ravens and yours are both quiet today, Kazekage-sama,” answered Paige while opening her eyes.

 

“Gaara.”

 

Slowly she sat up and blinked to find where the voice was coming from. “Huh?”

 

Seating himself next to her on the blanket, he explained. “Call me Gaara. I believe you know me well enough to drop the formality.”

 

“Alright,” she smiled. She turned her head to take in Shino and Kankuro taking a break. She also noticed other clusters of emotions around the training area…three of them. Giving her full attention to Gaara, she addressed why he had come to speak with her. If he wasn't worried about the extra presences, she wouldn't be either. “I think I'll be able to better answer your questions, if I know what Naruto told you about me. I can fill in any blanks and not repeat anything he told you.”

 

The Kazekage proceeded to explain what Naruto had explained to him. It consisted mostly of how she had met Team Kakashi, the council meeting, and the circumstances leading up to her moving in with Shino. “He did not explain how you are able to communicate with totems.”

 

She scratched the back of her head. “To be honest, I can't explain some of that. Sasuke has observed several times with his Sharingan and the Hyuga have observed with their Byakugan, but neither can tell you what it is that happens that allows me to communicate with totems. I was given these gifts by powers I trust, but I don't even pretend to understand how or why me. The only thing I can offer is an explanation of the medicine wheel.” She motioned to her still set up medicine wheel. “It's how everything started.”

 

He nodded at her.

 

Paige launched into her medicine wheel speech. It was beginning to be easier to give since this was the third time she was giving it. “Have any questions?”

 

“Questions you told me previously you could not answer.”

 

“Then I have a few questions for you about security…” She turned to watch Shino execute an attack on Kankuro. “And to ask your help for why I've come here.” She turned to face Gaara again when she heard him speaking.

 

His eyes narrowed in a thoughtful gaze, “Kankuro is assigned to you, as well as other Suna shinobi keeping a perimeter.”

 

Taking the wrong end of her pen, she began to draw a diagram in the sand to the side of the blanket that Gaara could see. It consisted of a rough outline of the training area, a `p' and `g' placed where she and Gaara were sitting and then `s' to represent the approximate location of each of the presences she felt before. “I hope these are the shinobi keeping perimeter. They arrived when you did.”

 

“They are.” His eyes were slightly wider. “I assigned them this morning.”

 

She concentrated on the shinobi with her gifts. No totems for the three shinobi, but she was reading their emotions. “I think the one closest to us has figured out what I'm talking about, because he's in a state of shock.” She pointed to another `s' on her make-shift map. “He's good, vigilant.” Pointing to the last one, she smirked, “This one is bored, but don't dismiss him. I'll fix his boredom later.” Paige felt her mood darken when she considered the next topic of conversation. “About why I've attended the exams…”

 

“Tsunade explained some of it,” offered Gaara.

 

Looking up at his face and placing his mix of emotions, she decided he was trying to comfort her. “This is something I need to do. Even though I know something bad has to happen to me, I need to be able to move freely. I might need my protection to,” she paused, searching for a way to say it, “not protect me, but let me go.”

 

“How will you know when that will happen?”

 

Paige shrugged. “I'll know it when it happens.” Looking through the pockets of Shino's jacket, she found the piece of amber she still had to give him. “Shino might interfere also. He's shinobi, but he's also over protective of me.”

 

“I am not good with emotions. But I can see he loves you,” he gave a smirk, “even without the display at dinner last night.”

 

She blushed, “I love him with all that I am.” Holding the jacket up to block Shino's view, she brought out the stone in its red pouch. “In this pouch is the Aburame promise of love and fidelity…a piece of amber with a kikaichu in it. It will be the signal that I need security to stand down. I will hand it to the first person I trust to give it to Shino on my behalf.” Paige gave a wry smile. “It's not exactly how I envisioned a marriage proposal, but it will be my promise to him that I will return.”

 

“You are going to be captured?” questioned Gaara.

 

Shrugging, she gave the only answer she could think of, “It makes sense. Security here is too tight. If someone wanted to try and get answers out of me, they would have to move me to another location.” Paige picked up her notebook and opened it, but decided on setting it aside again. “Things are already in motion. Grizzly bears come easier to me today when yesterday I could hardly feel a connection.”

 

Gaara's attention was drawn back to the sparring session. It looked like he didn't have any words of comfort to offer her.

 

A change of mood was in order. “They won't stop unless we make them…am I right?” grinned Paige.

 

“You are correct.”

 

Paige caught Shino's attention with a signal that pretty much meant `hurry it up, already'.

 

Shino's answering signal gave her permission to be the one to end things at his cue.

 

With her grin turning slightly more sinister, she spoke to Gaara without turning from the battle. “Gaara, with what you are going to see, keep in mind I will not kill your brother.”

 

Gaara's attention snapped to her at the same moment Shino systematically dropped his guard to let Kankuro strike him. Shino was bleeding.

 

Paige would have to work on his literalism in his signals to her. Opening her connection with her grizzly bear totem, she told it to protect Shino and attack Kankuro. “Do not hurt him brother, just teach him a lesson to not hurt what is ours.”

 

The effect was immediate. A shape could just be made out in the air between Kankuro and his puppet. Kankuro went sailing through the air about 10 meters before landing on his back and sliding another 5. His puppet lay motionless beside Shino, slumped in its last attack position, no longer connected with the Suna shinobi.

 

Up and running before she had a chance to process the stupid grin plastered across her face, Paige assessed Shino's condition.

 

He signaled it was superficial and began to pick himself up.

 

Paige adjusted her direction to run towards Kankuro and noticed Gaara was already at his brother's side, helping him to sit up. She arrived at the fallen Suna shinobi at the same time as Shino. “Still think I'm not much of a trump card?” she teased as she knelt beside Kankuro. “Injuries?” she questioned.

 

“Negative. Just…a little…winded,” wheezed Kankuro. “What was that?”

 

Feeling the inquisitive looks of him, the Kazekage, and Shino, Paige was forced to give a question for an answer. “What did you see?”

 

The facial markings emphasized his furrowed eyebrows. “A large shape, something on all fours that reared up, stomped on Karasu, and then swiped into me, throwing me over here.”

 

“Would you say it was vaguely grizzly bear-shaped?” she asked with a smirk.

 

“That was…?” stammered the black panther totem.

 

“A little unplanned on the visual side of things…never seen anything before, but that was only the second time I attempted that move too. Maybe something is different with me today.” She was thinking out loud, and probably shouldn't have shared that last part, but it came out anyway.

 

“You used a technique on me that you were unsure of the effects?”

 

Paige scratched her head. “Technically I didn't do anything. I asked my totem to protect him,” she pointed to Shino who now kneeled next to her, “and teach you a lesson, but not hurt you.” She frowned a little, concentrating on making something that seemed natural to her, make sense to others. “It's hard to explain. Grizzly bears are protective and territorial animals, so it's easy to direct it to protect someone and attack the attacker. Not so easy to hold it back from all out attacking, but it's my totem…something that I have had a relationship with for years. And I trust you Kankuro, so it's easier to tell it not to hurt you.”

 

“I would not have asked for Paige's help if I believed you would be harmed,” announced Shino.

 

Gaara's comment jarred everyone's attention to him. “I believe you have delivered on your promise to fix the shinobi's boredom on the perimeter.”

 

She giggled, “Fun time aside, I believe I've made my original point to Kankuro, too. Don't underestimate me.” Paige turned to Shino with a pleading look as her stomach growled. “Please tell me there's breakfast and a shower planned before we go to the Bazaar.”

 

***

 

It was more like lunch and a shower before going to the Bazaar. Everyone had lost track of time on the training grounds and it was close to high noon—a time no one wanted to be out in the desert sun—before they had made their way back to the Kazekage's estate. Shino and Paige had spent the few hours of extreme heat discussing the changes in her use of her totem to protect him. When they had finally made it to the Bazaar, Paige dragged Shino around from booth to booth, looking at everything there was to offer. There were goods from every corner of the Land of Wind and some of its neighbors too. Kankuro leisurely followed with the Suna shinobi keeping their perimeter.

 

***

 

It was the pattern of the next few weeks…Paige would work with the medicine wheel to not find any information except that of Grizzly Bear, and then she and Shino would go out into Suna with their personal entourage. It was frustrating…

 

Paige was beginning to doubt her decision to come to Suna—despite the dream-vision from Shawnodese—when the announcement was made that the portion of the Chunin Exams which the public was allowed to attend was going to be held starting the next day. “We should attend,” she announced suddenly. They had been enjoying a quiet evening in their suite with room service.

 

Shino gave her his full attention and pushed aside his dinner to regard her more seriously. “What do you expect to find?”

 

She shrugged her shoulders. “I honestly don't know anymore. I'm getting frustrated by not being able to find any information.” Paige heaved a giant sigh. “If nothing else, it will be something else to do during the day… We know they know what I look like. Why haven't they made their move yet?” Leaning back and staring up at the ceiling, she voiced another train of though. “And when they do, will I be ready?”

 

Hearing him get up from the table and walk swiftly to her side was one thing. Feeling her own chair being jerked from the table and turned toward his crouching figure was another. And the ferocity of his voice, the swirling of emotions in his eyes…was something else. “You will be ready. You have been preparing for this. You will survive this.” His lips crashed into hers.

 

Not being able to catch your breath from kissing Aburame Shino was a good way to die was a thought that crossed Paige's mind before he pulled away, leaving her gasping for air. “I'm so sorry,” she whispered.

 

“I know your path has been laid before you, and you have chosen to follow it… But I can't help but wish it was me instead of you,” Shino whispered back.

 

“I wish there was something I could do…”

 

“Letting yourself be followed by a security detail so everyone else could feel safe, was a start,” smirked Shino.

 

“You always were a smart man.” Paige gave a self-deprecating smile.

 

“I will ask them to disperse tomorrow, although Kankuro will not be happy.” He got up from his kneeling position and held his hand out to her. “Let me show you again.”

 

Taking his hand, she found herself being led into the bedroom. “Show me what?”

 

He drew her closer until there wasn't any space between their bodies. “Exactly how I feel for you. Exactly why you have to survive…what you have to come back to.”

 

Paige felt herself blush while her heart raced, reactions Shino could always provoke in her. “That's three things you're going to show me.” She smiled, “Think you're up showing me all of those things in one night?” She didn't think it was possible, but he drew her even closer, pressing her hips against his erection, so there was no doubt that he was enjoying just the thought of show-and-tell.

 

His voice was a husky whisper in her ear. “There are many benefits to being shinobi.”

 

“Oh?”

 

“Yes.” He stepped forward, forcing her to step backwards until she bumped into the bed. He gently lowered her to the mattress. “Endurance training has definite benefits outside of battle.”

 

Any other smart or sarcastic comments Paige would have made were lost in the moans, groans, and occasional screams she made for the rest of the night and into some of the early morning hours.

 

***

 

Author's post-ramble: Sorry, no lemons next chapter, but lots o' action and drama! The reveal of the bad guys is up next! And ya gotta tell me if it's a surprise or not… `Cause I want it to be one!