Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Spring's Shadow- The Tale of Izumi Kumori ❯ Chapter 2:: The Ryukami ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

When ever Izumi thought of the creature, she shuddered. She remembered the first time she had actually seen what it could do. She was young, and some village kids were picking on her. You know, calling her names, saying that they couldn't touch her or else they'd become possessed, too!
Izumi didn't think that they'd be possessed if she touched them. She didn't think that anything would happen.
The kids were playing a ball game, late at night, where they all stood around in a circle and threw the ball to each other as fast as they could, and tried to trick each other. When they saw Izumi, they couldn't help picking on her. They all ran around her, forming a circle. They threw the ball at her, hitting her hard, and then picking it up and throwing again. After Izumi caught the ball, they picked up rocks and started jeering.
Izumi couldn't take it! The physical pain was too great, and their words stung even deeper. "Go away, stay away! Don't get touched! She's evil, and gross!" they yelled. "Possessed!" they chanted. "I want it to stop!" Izumi yelled in her head. "I wish it would just...STOP!!!!!!!!!!" she yelled. That's when something snapped.
Izumi felt a heating sensation, right to the core of her small body. It felt hot, but wonderfully powerful. She hadn't felt this kind of courage and power before. Then, the kids screamed.
"She really is a monster!" they cried. "Run!"
Izumi caught sight of herself in a window. She gasped. The reflection was...unrecognizable!
She still stood like a human, but the majority of her figure was cat-like. Instead of being a single color, she was like a moving shadow. She was black, but in swirled blues, purples and maroons. Then she realized. This is what they were talking about. They hadn't seen it, but they knew. Their parents had told them. When she looked up, all of the kids were running. She saw the terror on their faces, and realized that she didn't want to be like this. She was scared!
"W-wait!" she cried out. She gasped. Her voice wasn't her own. It was still kid and girl-like, but it was silkier, yet rougher. She wouldn't sound the way she wanted!
"Don't leave me here! I don't want you to go!" she yelled. "I'm scared!" she thought to herself. “Come back!!”
That's when Izumi turned black and red, and a burst of her shadow form bursted off, away from her. It snaked towards the last girl; the one who threw the most stones and led the gang of children. The shadow grabbed hold of her leg, dragging her to the ground. Then the form started dragging the girl toward Izumi, over rocks and the dirt. Izumi didn’t want to hurt the girl!
“No!” she yelled at the form. “Stop!”
But the form didn’t listen, and the girl thought that Izumi was yelling at her! She thought Izumi wanted to hurt her; wanted to kill her!
“P-please...stop...!” she told the form. “Get away from her!”
The form paused, then recoiled from the girl’s leg. The girl shook for a moment, then got up and ran.
Izumi silently called the form back to her, and it reformed itself with her usual form, and her glow became normal, with the blues and the mix. After a few more minutes, after Izumi calmed down, she went back to her usual state, as a girl.
She looked at her small hands. They started shaking, and so did the rest of her. Izumi couldn’t stay here! The people from the surrounding houses were coming out to see what the big commotion was. Then she ran, all the way back to her house, into her room, and jumped onto her bed.
There, she cried and cried. Why did she have to get scared like that? If she hadn't gotten scared, she wouldn't have hurt the girl. The image of the girl being dragged mercilessly by that shadow form was terrible! That poor girl couldn't do anything about it! She was scraped and battered, bruised and bleeding. What should Izumi do about it? Could she do anything? That's when she got up from her bed, dried her tears, and walked out of her room.
"Honey? What's wrong?"
Izumi's mother's voice came into Izumi's thoughts, crashing into her idea of what to do. “Uh, what?”
“You just came home looking kind of down,” her mom continued. “You didn’t even say hello. You just ran into your room.”
Izumi smiled. Her mother was only worried about her.
“You’re right, mom. I’m sorry. I just had to run in and do something. I was coming right out to say hi!”
Kimiko smiled at her daughter. “Alright. So, how was your day?”
“It was great, mom! I played with some kids today!”
“That’s wonderful, honey!” her mother said, ecstatically. She knew how her daughter was treated by kids. How she was shunned. So, her playing with kids was wonderful news.
“I can’t have my mom worrying about me!” Izumi thought to herself. “Hey, mom?”
“Yes, Izumi?”
“I’m going to go out for a while. I just have to run and get one thing for tomorrow. I’ll be back as quick as I can!”
“Alright, but quick, ‘kay?”
The next day, Izumi went to the girl’s house. “Home to the Takahadas” it said on the mailbox. Then it listed the names of the people living there: Yosuke, Sen, and Mikoto.
“Well, let’s say...” said Izumi. “Yosuke is a boy’s name, and is probably the father, considering it’s the first, then Sen is probably the mom...so Mikoto must be the girl’s name!”
Izumi took out a scrap of paper from a scroll, wrote “To Mikoto-chan, from a friend:)” on it. Then she tied the paper to the bag she carried. Inside was medicine for cuts and bruises that she had bought yesterday. Then, she quietly left the bag on the doorstep, and ran home.
The next day, Izumi was walking to school. All by herself, just trudging along. “I wonder how Mikoto-san is doing. Did my medicine make any difference?”
That’s when she saw Mikoto, with all of her friends. The same exact group of people who had beaten Izumi down with rocks.
“Hey, Mikoto!” yelled one of the friends. “How did you get better so fast? I thought for sure you wouldn’t be at school today!”
Izumi winced.
“Yeah, what’s your secret?” asked another.
“My mom gave me this medicine! It worked really well!” replied Mikoto.
Izumi’s heart rose to her throat.
“Yeah. But guess what!? We found this stupid little package on our front door step,” Mikoto said.
“What did you do with it?” asked the first friend.
That’s when Izumi looked to the side. Off in a trash bin, in a corner, full of banana peels and old food and trash, was a small little package, with a small little note on it...”To Mikoto-chan...”