Under the Bridge 3
NARUTO FIC
Title: Under the Bridge -- Chapter Three
Author: MeiCailya
Genre: Drama
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine. All resembalnce to peoples real and fictional on the part of the OCs is completely accidental.
Pairing: Undecided! Normal Canon ones for the most part
Status: 3/?
Warnings: Sue!Fic, AU --> 1) Sasuke didn't manage to escape to Otogakure. 2) Sasuke was trained by Kakashi while Naruto and Sakura were trained by their canon teachers. 3) Sakura gets over her crush. 4) The trio is now fifteen, everyone else aged appropriately.
Summary: Suzubashi Kameko, genin of Otogakure, takes a teammate up on a dare. Little does she know that this dare will change her life completely.
Chapters: One Two
Chapter Three : The Nothing Nin
Shizune might be right. Maybe Tsunade was getting a little too soft these days, Aoba reflected, glowering down at the sleeping form tucked against the wall. When she had said 'child', he had expected a child. Someone about ten or eleven years of age. This wasn't a child, it was a young adult. One just out of childhood, maybe, but still out of childhood. He nudged her with his foot, trying to wake her.
She twitched slightly. "Tanaka-sensei?" she murmured. She moved slightly, then tensed. She slowly tilted her head to look up at him with sleep-blurred eyes, then tensed further.
"Come on," Aoba said, turning away.
There was a shuffling behind him as she got up, and she followed, docile, as he left the room.
Bad ninja, too, even for a genin. She'd obviously resigned herself to whatever fate they had planned for her. Luckily for her, it was nothing nasty, yet.
--
Kameko wondered when she was supposed to get her torture-training as she sat there in front of the elders of Konohagakure. It would have eased her mind if Tanaka-sensei had bothered to teach them what to do in this sort of situation. Her gaze flickered back and forth, sliding over the wizened faces and finding no answers there.
"Sazubashi Kameko," one old woman said, and Kameko immediately fixed her eyes on her. "What is your rank?"
She'd already told them. "Genin," she answered, unable to add any title or honorific. The most impressive people she'd ever seen in Otogakure had been the jounin teachers.
"Your age?"
"Fourteen."
One old man leaned forward, a scowl on his face. "What do you carry?"
Kameko paused, confused. What did she carry? What did he mean? She looked around as subtly as she could, trying to find answers. What did he ask her? "What do I ... carry?" she echoed.
He made an angry noise. "Your demon, girl," he snapped.
"S-s-sune-Kosuri, sir," she said, taken aback by his venom. It wasn't like she thought of the spirit much. The roly-poly creature rarely if ever made it's presence known in her chakra or habits; she was fond of rainy nights and hindering people in a hurry, and that was it. She understood why it had been sealed in her -- a Sune-Kosuri was easily dangerous for a nin and especially for the training genin, and no village wanting one haunting it as this one had been.
"And why was such a creature sealed inside you? Why not just banish it, or seal it in a scroll?" he demanded.
"I don't know, sir," she answered, felling her mouth dry. Why would she know something like that? She hadn't done it. She did her best to not even remember it.
"Why did you come here? To this village?"
Kameko turned to the young blonde woman. She seemed the least aligned against her, and Kameko was eager to please her. "The Jounin in Oto where talking about a nin village in Fire county. One of my teammates bet me that I couldn't find it," she said, then paused. "I didn't, I was brought in by an ANBU," she added, hoping to add to her chances of survival. I don't know where I am, I don't know how I got here. I couldn't lead anyone back, she was trying to say.
When they finally seemed satisfied with her answers, they fell into a whispered conversation, with the blonde woman occasionally raising her voice and making semi-violent motions. It sounded like she was arguing for Kameko, and she felt herself go a little weak in the guts from gratitude.
She had long since lost interest in a conversation she couldn't make out when they made their decision.
"You're to be given a trial run here in out village," the blonde said with a small triumphant smile. "Your chakra points will be sealed during it. Should you pass, you will get a chance to become a nin."
She'd be what? Kameko felt her face pale. She'd be given a chance to stay? She wouldn't be killed? She felt sick with confusion and relief, her stomach churning. What happened when they found how just how bad of a nin she was? They would regret it. Would they make her a missing-nin of both Oto and this village? "Th-thank you," she stuttered out numbly. She barely felt the floor beneath her knees as she slide out of her chair to bow politely. "Thank you," she repeated.
"Your hitai-ate, please," the blond said; it was more a demand than a request, no matter what words she used. Kameko's head jerked up, and she stared at the extended hand.
This was it. There was no going back. Handing over her hitai-ate was the last step to renouncing her village. Slowly, she sat back, and reached around her neck to the knot. Her hands became sweaty as she struggled with the knot for a bit, tightened as it was from two days of continued wear. Finally, it gave, and she paused one last time. Her hitai-ate was Otogakure -- Otogakure, and Natsu, and Tanaka-sensei, and even Kanaye. In handing it over, she was giving it up. If she ever saw them or any of her class mates again, they would be fighting.
They weren't worth dying for.
She pried the knot apart and handed the head-band over, looking at the musical note stamped on the mental strip. It disappeared under the blonde woman's firm hand.
"Suzubashi Kameko, you are now unaffiliated with any village. You are no nin."
I'm no nin, she echoed in her mind, gaze sliding down to settle at the blonde’s feet, her hands fisted on her knees. I'm no one.
--
Life settled into a rather bland routine after that. She spent her days at a grocery store run by a civilian, stocking shelves. She was still awkward two weeks after that scary boy with white eyes did something to her that suddenly cut off her chakra, and she found herself clumsier than usual, to the point that she actually had to try to maintain her balance when she‘d tested herself on a rope, and it had become much more easy to make her trips and falls look realistic. She was thankful to still have her strength. Oddly enough, her appetite picked up once her chakra was blocked, and she found herself hungry most of the time. Rice and fish became a main staple due to how cheap it was, but she didn't mind.
She spent her off time stretching to stay limber, and stocking helped her keep her upper body strength, but she rarely found time enough to exercise her lower body, and that was bothering her. When she could, she walked about and ran where she could, but she could tell it wasn't enough.
"Kameko!"
She almost fell off the crate she was balancing on an edge before she realized that no one had seen her and it was unnecessary. She'd tipped it on edge when it became clear merely standing on it wasn't going to bring her high enough to put the noodle package on the top shelf. She quickly let the crate down with a soft clack, and hopped off to peered around the aisle. "Yeah, Wantabe-san?" she called.
"Kameko, come here!"
With a huff, she set the package back into the inventory cart and jogged up to the front counter. "You wanted me, Wantabe-san?" she said, taking note of the customer. Internally, she winced at the brilliant orange costume. Tanaka-sensei would have had a heart-attack to see that, purple and green ensemble or not.
"Kameko, did you change the price on these yet?" Wantabe demanded, narrowing his dark eyes at her as he shook a noodle package. He was very nice except when she slacked off. She winced, and looked at the package, trying to remember if she had. She often didn't pay attention to stuff like that.
"Um ... no, sir?" she hazarded.
"No!" he echoed, and threw the package at her. She easily dodged it -- if it was one thing Kameko had learned during her time as a nin under Tanaka-sensei, it was how to dodge thrown objects, and civilians weren't exactly know for their accuracy or speed.
"Hey!" the boy squawked, eyes fixed on the noodle package. He looked nearly wounded as it hit the floor.
"Um, sorry, sir, sorry sir," Kameko murmured, backing up and sweeping up the package. "I'll get you another package, sir!"
She scurried off, searching for the aisle as the customer was distracted by her employer. When she found it, she sighed with dismay. It was a top-shelf item. She cursed her shortness and went to fetch her crate.
She'd tucked the abused package of noodles in her apron, in one of the large pockets designed for easy storage, and was just grabbing another package of the same flavor when there was a flash of orange out of the corner of her eye. She tried to look too quickly, and this time really did fall off the crate wood clattering as it fell from it’s balanced position.
A yelp escaped her as her tailbone collided painfully with the floor, and she quickly rolled on her side to hold a hand to her lower back, wincing.
"You're sure clumsy for someone who can pull that trick," a voice dryly noted. She glanced up, glaring at the guy.
"You snuck up on me is all!" she said, huffing and easing to her feet. "Why in the world would you sneak up on someone like that?"
"I snuck up on you? I wasn't even trying!" he said, looking surprised. "Whoa, I knew some people were oblivious, but jeez!"
Something about the statement struck her as odd, and she gave him a closer look. With surprise, she noted the hitai-ate proudly strapped to his forehead. "You're a nin?" she asked.
"Yeah!" he exclaimed, suddenly breaking out into a bright grin so big his eyes shut. "Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage!"
"Really?" she asked, blinking. She'd never heard of someone who wanted to be 'kage before. Hokage? She was defiantly in Konohagakure, then. No one had seen it fit to tell her the name of the village.
"Yeah," he said, though she hadn't really asked a question. His smile eased a bit. "To protect my precious people. When I'm Hokage, things will be different. They'll be better!"
"Oh." Precious people? "Here's your noodles, sir."
"Ah, thank you!" he said, taking them and then waving them at her. "I got a good deal on these because you didn't change the price on them."
"I'm glad someone profited," she said wryly. She winced slightly as she bent over to pick up her crate, her spine still sore from the damage it took from her fall. "See ya later, then, Naruto."
"Bye, miss!" he called back as he headed back to the register.
"Yeah," she added quietly. "Bye."
Nin are different in Konohagakure, she decided. Naruto is nice, was the second decision. He had a sort of easy charm and general honesty that she wasn't exactly used to seeing. Konohagakure is different than Otogakure, she reminded herself. Here, nin often still had their parents. Here, their 'kage was not an elusive menacing figure shrouded in mystery.
What would it have been like to grow up in Konoha?
--
Despite her failing to change the prices on Naruto’s purchase, Wantabe had decided to give her an early break. He decided that her failing must have come from stress, due to the story that she was given by the elders to tell everyone, that she had moved from Earth country, though she offered no town.
Thus she had found herself a stretch of alley that was being ignored order to practice a little on her lower-body strength. The alley wasn’t quiet long enough for her to hit top running speed, but it did for jogging just fine, and was wide enough to give her enough room to work on a few of the simple taijustu she knew that didn‘t require her chakra.
She had a vague feeling that being forced to train with blocked chakra could easily help increase her abilities if she was allowed to truly practice, but all the viable training fields where outside the town gates, which meant they were off limits to her, and she was forbidden from telling anyone that she was at one point a nin. So she had no sparring partner and she had no place to spar. She was used to having at least some form of spar from Kanaye, and her paranoid mind convinced her she could feel her muscle atrophying as every second passed.
At least there hadn’t been any mean classmates disguised as youkai at this point.
Her foot landed in a puddle and flew out from under her just as she was executing a kick. She flailed and twisted a bit, but still landed with a harsh thud, slipping a little on the muck. She laid there for a moment, startled that she had unintentional fallen, her body tense and stinging. Eventually, she sighed and flopped all the way down onto the ground, mindless of the gunk that was probably getting in her hair.
Pointless. She was years behind the Konoha nin anyway. A genin fresh from the academy with enough of a personality could kick her butt. A twelve year old! Embarrassing. With a sigh, she pulled herself off the alley’s ground and settled back into a defensive stance.
She might not be able to catch up to the nin her age, but she’d give it a good effort.
--
Tsunade finished off her cup of sake as the nin she had following Kameko appeared. “Same?” she asked, setting the cup aside.
“The same,” the nin offered, a slight smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Practicing in an alley.”
The Hokage grinned, pouring herself another cup. “You can take the hitai-ate off the nin, but you can’t take the nin out of them.”
The nin looked taken aback and a little concerned. Tsunade was really drinking this time, to say something like that. He quickly left, eager to get about normal duties worth his time. It got boring real quick, following that turtle-kid around.
--To be Continued--
Pssst! It's a secret, but I actually have up to chapter nine typed! XP *runs away!*
Title: Under the Bridge -- Chapter Three
Author: MeiCailya
Genre: Drama
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine. All resembalnce to peoples real and fictional on the part of the OCs is completely accidental.
Pairing: Undecided! Normal Canon ones for the most part
Status: 3/?
Warnings: Sue!Fic, AU --> 1) Sasuke didn't manage to escape to Otogakure. 2) Sasuke was trained by Kakashi while Naruto and Sakura were trained by their canon teachers. 3) Sakura gets over her crush. 4) The trio is now fifteen, everyone else aged appropriately.
Summary: Suzubashi Kameko, genin of Otogakure, takes a teammate up on a dare. Little does she know that this dare will change her life completely.
Chapters: One Two
Chapter Three : The Nothing Nin
Shizune might be right. Maybe Tsunade was getting a little too soft these days, Aoba reflected, glowering down at the sleeping form tucked against the wall. When she had said 'child', he had expected a child. Someone about ten or eleven years of age. This wasn't a child, it was a young adult. One just out of childhood, maybe, but still out of childhood. He nudged her with his foot, trying to wake her.
She twitched slightly. "Tanaka-sensei?" she murmured. She moved slightly, then tensed. She slowly tilted her head to look up at him with sleep-blurred eyes, then tensed further.
"Come on," Aoba said, turning away.
There was a shuffling behind him as she got up, and she followed, docile, as he left the room.
Bad ninja, too, even for a genin. She'd obviously resigned herself to whatever fate they had planned for her. Luckily for her, it was nothing nasty, yet.
--
Kameko wondered when she was supposed to get her torture-training as she sat there in front of the elders of Konohagakure. It would have eased her mind if Tanaka-sensei had bothered to teach them what to do in this sort of situation. Her gaze flickered back and forth, sliding over the wizened faces and finding no answers there.
"Sazubashi Kameko," one old woman said, and Kameko immediately fixed her eyes on her. "What is your rank?"
She'd already told them. "Genin," she answered, unable to add any title or honorific. The most impressive people she'd ever seen in Otogakure had been the jounin teachers.
"Your age?"
"Fourteen."
One old man leaned forward, a scowl on his face. "What do you carry?"
Kameko paused, confused. What did she carry? What did he mean? She looked around as subtly as she could, trying to find answers. What did he ask her? "What do I ... carry?" she echoed.
He made an angry noise. "Your demon, girl," he snapped.
"S-s-sune-Kosuri, sir," she said, taken aback by his venom. It wasn't like she thought of the spirit much. The roly-poly creature rarely if ever made it's presence known in her chakra or habits; she was fond of rainy nights and hindering people in a hurry, and that was it. She understood why it had been sealed in her -- a Sune-Kosuri was easily dangerous for a nin and especially for the training genin, and no village wanting one haunting it as this one had been.
"And why was such a creature sealed inside you? Why not just banish it, or seal it in a scroll?" he demanded.
"I don't know, sir," she answered, felling her mouth dry. Why would she know something like that? She hadn't done it. She did her best to not even remember it.
"Why did you come here? To this village?"
Kameko turned to the young blonde woman. She seemed the least aligned against her, and Kameko was eager to please her. "The Jounin in Oto where talking about a nin village in Fire county. One of my teammates bet me that I couldn't find it," she said, then paused. "I didn't, I was brought in by an ANBU," she added, hoping to add to her chances of survival. I don't know where I am, I don't know how I got here. I couldn't lead anyone back, she was trying to say.
When they finally seemed satisfied with her answers, they fell into a whispered conversation, with the blonde woman occasionally raising her voice and making semi-violent motions. It sounded like she was arguing for Kameko, and she felt herself go a little weak in the guts from gratitude.
She had long since lost interest in a conversation she couldn't make out when they made their decision.
"You're to be given a trial run here in out village," the blonde said with a small triumphant smile. "Your chakra points will be sealed during it. Should you pass, you will get a chance to become a nin."
She'd be what? Kameko felt her face pale. She'd be given a chance to stay? She wouldn't be killed? She felt sick with confusion and relief, her stomach churning. What happened when they found how just how bad of a nin she was? They would regret it. Would they make her a missing-nin of both Oto and this village? "Th-thank you," she stuttered out numbly. She barely felt the floor beneath her knees as she slide out of her chair to bow politely. "Thank you," she repeated.
"Your hitai-ate, please," the blond said; it was more a demand than a request, no matter what words she used. Kameko's head jerked up, and she stared at the extended hand.
This was it. There was no going back. Handing over her hitai-ate was the last step to renouncing her village. Slowly, she sat back, and reached around her neck to the knot. Her hands became sweaty as she struggled with the knot for a bit, tightened as it was from two days of continued wear. Finally, it gave, and she paused one last time. Her hitai-ate was Otogakure -- Otogakure, and Natsu, and Tanaka-sensei, and even Kanaye. In handing it over, she was giving it up. If she ever saw them or any of her class mates again, they would be fighting.
They weren't worth dying for.
She pried the knot apart and handed the head-band over, looking at the musical note stamped on the mental strip. It disappeared under the blonde woman's firm hand.
"Suzubashi Kameko, you are now unaffiliated with any village. You are no nin."
I'm no nin, she echoed in her mind, gaze sliding down to settle at the blonde’s feet, her hands fisted on her knees. I'm no one.
--
Life settled into a rather bland routine after that. She spent her days at a grocery store run by a civilian, stocking shelves. She was still awkward two weeks after that scary boy with white eyes did something to her that suddenly cut off her chakra, and she found herself clumsier than usual, to the point that she actually had to try to maintain her balance when she‘d tested herself on a rope, and it had become much more easy to make her trips and falls look realistic. She was thankful to still have her strength. Oddly enough, her appetite picked up once her chakra was blocked, and she found herself hungry most of the time. Rice and fish became a main staple due to how cheap it was, but she didn't mind.
She spent her off time stretching to stay limber, and stocking helped her keep her upper body strength, but she rarely found time enough to exercise her lower body, and that was bothering her. When she could, she walked about and ran where she could, but she could tell it wasn't enough.
"Kameko!"
She almost fell off the crate she was balancing on an edge before she realized that no one had seen her and it was unnecessary. She'd tipped it on edge when it became clear merely standing on it wasn't going to bring her high enough to put the noodle package on the top shelf. She quickly let the crate down with a soft clack, and hopped off to peered around the aisle. "Yeah, Wantabe-san?" she called.
"Kameko, come here!"
With a huff, she set the package back into the inventory cart and jogged up to the front counter. "You wanted me, Wantabe-san?" she said, taking note of the customer. Internally, she winced at the brilliant orange costume. Tanaka-sensei would have had a heart-attack to see that, purple and green ensemble or not.
"Kameko, did you change the price on these yet?" Wantabe demanded, narrowing his dark eyes at her as he shook a noodle package. He was very nice except when she slacked off. She winced, and looked at the package, trying to remember if she had. She often didn't pay attention to stuff like that.
"Um ... no, sir?" she hazarded.
"No!" he echoed, and threw the package at her. She easily dodged it -- if it was one thing Kameko had learned during her time as a nin under Tanaka-sensei, it was how to dodge thrown objects, and civilians weren't exactly know for their accuracy or speed.
"Hey!" the boy squawked, eyes fixed on the noodle package. He looked nearly wounded as it hit the floor.
"Um, sorry, sir, sorry sir," Kameko murmured, backing up and sweeping up the package. "I'll get you another package, sir!"
She scurried off, searching for the aisle as the customer was distracted by her employer. When she found it, she sighed with dismay. It was a top-shelf item. She cursed her shortness and went to fetch her crate.
She'd tucked the abused package of noodles in her apron, in one of the large pockets designed for easy storage, and was just grabbing another package of the same flavor when there was a flash of orange out of the corner of her eye. She tried to look too quickly, and this time really did fall off the crate wood clattering as it fell from it’s balanced position.
A yelp escaped her as her tailbone collided painfully with the floor, and she quickly rolled on her side to hold a hand to her lower back, wincing.
"You're sure clumsy for someone who can pull that trick," a voice dryly noted. She glanced up, glaring at the guy.
"You snuck up on me is all!" she said, huffing and easing to her feet. "Why in the world would you sneak up on someone like that?"
"I snuck up on you? I wasn't even trying!" he said, looking surprised. "Whoa, I knew some people were oblivious, but jeez!"
Something about the statement struck her as odd, and she gave him a closer look. With surprise, she noted the hitai-ate proudly strapped to his forehead. "You're a nin?" she asked.
"Yeah!" he exclaimed, suddenly breaking out into a bright grin so big his eyes shut. "Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage!"
"Really?" she asked, blinking. She'd never heard of someone who wanted to be 'kage before. Hokage? She was defiantly in Konohagakure, then. No one had seen it fit to tell her the name of the village.
"Yeah," he said, though she hadn't really asked a question. His smile eased a bit. "To protect my precious people. When I'm Hokage, things will be different. They'll be better!"
"Oh." Precious people? "Here's your noodles, sir."
"Ah, thank you!" he said, taking them and then waving them at her. "I got a good deal on these because you didn't change the price on them."
"I'm glad someone profited," she said wryly. She winced slightly as she bent over to pick up her crate, her spine still sore from the damage it took from her fall. "See ya later, then, Naruto."
"Bye, miss!" he called back as he headed back to the register.
"Yeah," she added quietly. "Bye."
Nin are different in Konohagakure, she decided. Naruto is nice, was the second decision. He had a sort of easy charm and general honesty that she wasn't exactly used to seeing. Konohagakure is different than Otogakure, she reminded herself. Here, nin often still had their parents. Here, their 'kage was not an elusive menacing figure shrouded in mystery.
What would it have been like to grow up in Konoha?
--
Despite her failing to change the prices on Naruto’s purchase, Wantabe had decided to give her an early break. He decided that her failing must have come from stress, due to the story that she was given by the elders to tell everyone, that she had moved from Earth country, though she offered no town.
Thus she had found herself a stretch of alley that was being ignored order to practice a little on her lower-body strength. The alley wasn’t quiet long enough for her to hit top running speed, but it did for jogging just fine, and was wide enough to give her enough room to work on a few of the simple taijustu she knew that didn‘t require her chakra.
She had a vague feeling that being forced to train with blocked chakra could easily help increase her abilities if she was allowed to truly practice, but all the viable training fields where outside the town gates, which meant they were off limits to her, and she was forbidden from telling anyone that she was at one point a nin. So she had no sparring partner and she had no place to spar. She was used to having at least some form of spar from Kanaye, and her paranoid mind convinced her she could feel her muscle atrophying as every second passed.
At least there hadn’t been any mean classmates disguised as youkai at this point.
Her foot landed in a puddle and flew out from under her just as she was executing a kick. She flailed and twisted a bit, but still landed with a harsh thud, slipping a little on the muck. She laid there for a moment, startled that she had unintentional fallen, her body tense and stinging. Eventually, she sighed and flopped all the way down onto the ground, mindless of the gunk that was probably getting in her hair.
Pointless. She was years behind the Konoha nin anyway. A genin fresh from the academy with enough of a personality could kick her butt. A twelve year old! Embarrassing. With a sigh, she pulled herself off the alley’s ground and settled back into a defensive stance.
She might not be able to catch up to the nin her age, but she’d give it a good effort.
--
Tsunade finished off her cup of sake as the nin she had following Kameko appeared. “Same?” she asked, setting the cup aside.
“The same,” the nin offered, a slight smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Practicing in an alley.”
The Hokage grinned, pouring herself another cup. “You can take the hitai-ate off the nin, but you can’t take the nin out of them.”
The nin looked taken aback and a little concerned. Tsunade was really drinking this time, to say something like that. He quickly left, eager to get about normal duties worth his time. It got boring real quick, following that turtle-kid around.
--To be Continued--
Pssst! It's a secret, but I actually have up to chapter nine typed! XP *runs away!*