[X] All his life has been one roller-coaster ride of dreams
Ne, Lupin, you think, frowning with the strain of moulding the extracted chakra. It's simultaneously more tangible coming out of the seal and harder to keep a grip on to work with; if you weren't a sensor and someone with excellent chakra control you're pretty sure you'd be stuck here empty-handed while your energy just drifts away and evaporates. Or blows something up.
Mm?
You form the handseals, and six bunshin pop into being around you. Hm. You were trying for eight. What happened to you, and the others? Did you really stay together all those years?
You don't remember the times we'd split up?
No, I mean... in the end.
We lived happily ever after.
I'm thirteen, not three. -__- Eight pops, but only seven bunshin. Damn.
Serves you right, askin' such a gloomy question. It should be obvious what happened at the end.
Eight fully-functional bunshin. You smile. Look, you can't be embarrassed - you keep saying I'm you. Well if I'm you I have the right to know some stuff. And I want to know what happened to our friends. You add an extra sigil to the array at three points to make a shortcut.
Well, join the club, we've got jackets.
You pause, concerned. You've never heard him sound so bitter. ... does that mean...?
The last thing I remember is shoving Fujiko out of the way of some old man's dematerialization ray. Next thing I know I wake up in a baby's body.
You sigh. Thank heaven for that. I was worried you were gonna say they were all murdered or something.
How do we know they weren't five minutes after I died?
You flinch. Lupin...
And now I can't even look it up because either none of the books from the 20th century survived whatever catastrophe you poor bastards went through that brought you to this state, or I'm not even in the same world as before!
Tears well up in your left eye and only your left eye. Your lips shake.
Damn it.... I should have been there. I should have had more time. I was such an idiot, I thought we were all gonna live forever. I should have been there to-
You get to your feet and drop into bed, burying your face in your pillow.
You're right, you think, we should have had more time. All the time in the world wouldn't have been enough with those guys, and the fact that they got taken away means that if we ever get back where we came from, heads are gonna fucking roll. You sniffle, and wipe your eyes. But hey. We saved Fujiko. That oughta mean something.
You... think he might be calming down now.
... you're a good kid, Ino.
Ya done makin' half my face cry, then? you ask, patting yourself on the cheek for lack of anything better to do.
Yeah... sorry I scared ya. I just... hadn't had the chance to say that yet.
Geez, yeah, you think, thirteen years is a long time to be carryin' that around. I'm surprised you didn't go nuts.
He laughs under what would be his breath. I'm still not completely sure I'm not. I'm not an expert, but I doubt reincarnation is supposed to work like this.
You shrug. Probably has somethin' to do with bein' a Yamanaka.
Maa, ne. You get the distinct impression of a leer. I guess there are worse afterlives than being inside a cute blonde all day long.
Wow. Ami's right, I am revolting.
=
"Basically you've brought us all together to brag about how good you are at taking rumours seriously," Tenten says with a snort.
"Don't talk like that to someone who's trying to help you," Sagiso scolds from the bed. They've let her out of the infirmary, but it doesn't look like she'll be moving on to the finals; that cast on her leg has to stay on for another three weeks at least.
"Well how do we know she isn't going to feed us a load of nothing to sabotage us?" the bun-headed girl interrupts. "She's at a disadvantage against half the people in this room in a straight-up fight; it's in her interests to knock some of us out of the competition."
"If you don't find Ino-chan trustworthy," Hinata says, simmering a tad below the calm surface, "then you are not obligated to share what you know. She invited us to this meeting as a courtesy; she would have been well within her rights to keep the information she's gathered for herself and her teammates."
"At least put the damn cigarette out," Tenten grumbles, settling down.
"Seconded," Ami says, wrinkling her nose.
"It truly is terrible for your lungs, Ino-chan," Lee says worriedly.
Kiba doesn't have to say anything, he's been sitting under the open window since you first lit up.
"It helps me concentrate!" you protest.
They're not wrong, y'know.
I don't need to hear that from you!
"Fiii~ine," you whine, stubbing it out in the ashtray.
The office ladies are collectively shocked to hear that the little redhaired boy is one of the most dangerous people in the exam; Sayuri looks particularly troubled. Team Gai and the Hina-Shika-Cho are unfazed, no surprises there, but Neji's eyes widen when you mention Houzuki Suigetsu's name.
"That person..." he says, "... he's an apprentice of Zabuza."
"What? You're positive?" you ask, reaching into your bags for your Bingo book. The old one Menka gave you fell apart ages ago; this is a fresh one Dad bought you for your birthday last month.
"There's no mistake," Neji says. "Gai-sensei had a solo mission in Water three months ago and encountered the pair of them."
You swear. "Well, better we know now than later."
"Um, who is Zabuza?" Sakura asks timidly.
"He's one of the Seven Swordsmen of Mist," you explain. "It's difficult to say how many of the stories about him are true, but one thing that is certain, you don't want to be on the receiving end of the Kubikiribocho. It's a six-foot-long butcher knife, and he swings it like it's make of papier mâché. Hell," you add, a thought striking you, "of course a kenjutsu prodigy with a hydrafication bloodline would get put under Zabuza; anyone who's going to inherit the Kubikiribocho needs to be crazy-strong."
"... s-so what can we do to beat him?" Sakura asks.
"Nothing," Neji says flatly. "If any of you find yourselves opposite him in the arena, you should forfeit immediately."
"What on earth is that supposed to mean?" Ami scowls. "Even if my Katon jutsu won't work, I still-"
"Is becoming a chuunin worth your life?" Neji demands. "Don't tempt fate."
"Which one of them is Suigetsu?" you ask. "I didn't hear anything out of the ordinary from the three of them, aside from their strength. Do kekkei genkai show up on the Byakugan?"
"If it is indeed Suigetsu, he's the dark-haired one dressed as a girl."
"That's a guy?!" you and Kiba ask in unison.
"You couldn't tell?" Ami shakes her head in disappointment. "Even I could tell that turtleneck was hiding an Adam's apple."
"I couldn't smell anything but the damn water!" Kiba says, looking slightly disturbed.
"I just never bothered to learn," you say sheepishly. "Is it really that important?"
What're you talking about? Of course it's important! If it's a guy we can really let loose.
And we can't if it's a chick?
Call me old-fashioned; I don't much like hurting women.
The bedroom's an exception, apparently...
Oi! Stay out of those memories, those're for grownups!
"Anyone have anything on the Sound kids besides the little girl?" Kiba asks, obviously trying to change the subject.
"The older girl uses a lot of Earth techniques and exploding tags, supposedly," Shikamaru says. "But if you're asking where the hell Sound came from and who those guys really are, all I have are my own theories based on what little I do know."
"Well, fess up!" you say eagerly, leaning forward. Can't get the intel from Chouji in a room full of outsiders, natch. "Whacha got?"
"The first possibility is that missing-nin and other refugees of various villages have banded together under one S-rank nuke-nin," he begins. "The second is that one of the preexisting villages, possibly Iwa or Kumo, are using Oto as a front for operations they can't openly perform themselves and are now joining the Konoha-Suna-Kusa chuunin exams to further those ambitions and gain legitimacy. And the third is that they're a bunch of nobodies with a good hype machine at their disposal."
That sound about right to you? you ask.
As expected of Shika-chan; too clever by half, and too cautious to mention the last possibility.
What's that?
That Otogakure is a front for Konoha, not one of its enemies.
What? No way. What would we want with something like that?
Well, you have to admit it's a little strange the Hokage'd let ninja from a village no one seems to know anything about into Konoha - Whispering Mist is one thing, but no info at all, from the Akimichi spy ring? Someone's helping them keep themselves under wraps, I guarantee it.
Well it can't be us, you've seen what we're like. Even our enemies call us soft!
... well, keep it in mind, anyway.
The roundtable goes on. No one reports knowing anything about that Shigure guy you thought might show up, but given Gaara strolled into the tower twirling a bloodstained umbrella, you're guessing the point is moot. One less nasty opponent to worry about, you suppose.
Sayuri and Sakura are both set as far as defending against genjutsu goes; illusions are Sagiso's speciality, so they learned chakra suppression from her in the leadup to the exams. You suggest to Kiba that maybe he might be able to help them out with their taijutsu, seeing as Sayuri's build is similar to a lot of his female relatives so he might have some pointers based on having seen them. He isn't too fussed about the idea, but Akamaru seems to take a shine to Sakura and wheedles him into saying yes.
Chouji and Hinata are already sparring every day in preparation for the finals, but you have an idea or two that might improve their chances if they get matched up against one of the heavy hitters.
[X] Write in. Bear in mind the kind of opponents I'm throwing at you here.
-----
Or not so jocular. ^_^;
Nope, it's still not getting old!
