Kairo Chapter 13
"SHINO?!" Naruto's high pitched voice seemed to wrap all around the group in the vast eerie, snow-covered meadow.
Shino nodded, a smile playing at his usually serious and stern face. Naruto and the rest of the group watched in utter amazement as Shino jumped high up, fluttering his wings swiftly right before landing on the ground, making him hover a few feet above the snow. Hinata's eyes widened in amazement, a gasp of delight was heard from both Ino and Sakura. Kiba stared at Shino with a puzzled expression.
"Yo, Shino!" a grin marked Zelos's handsome face as he ran towards his friend. "Is everything okay up there?"
The shinobi watched as the two seemingly best friends chatted away amongst themselves, mumbling something about the "Cruxis Crytals" or "Expheres". Naruto blinked his now wide eyes, and Hinata frowned. What were they talking about? After a few moments of talking, the two glanced back at the group. Paying no attention to the two's earlier conversation, Kiba piped up.
"So... Since when did you get the wings, Shino?" He asked, staring at the pointy, crystalline wings. Shino looked down at his former teammate.
"Since I received a special mission from Tsunade. I had to travel to worlds parallel from our own." he said. Shino's voice was deeper and rich now that he was nineteen. Zelos grinned up at him.
"Yeah yeah. I filled them in on some of the details, but they caught on." Zelos said evenly, shuffling his white boots. Hinata widened her eyes in surprise. Kiba opened his mouth to speak again.
"Yeah... Cool... But HOW did you get them?" He asked, still kind of weary of the situation. Shino sighed, dragging a calloused hand through his soft spiky hair.
"During the end of my mission, I was told to defeat an elven man by the name of Kvar by teaming up with people who were on a journey to restore their home world of Sylavarant. After defeating Kvar, there was still much left to do to restore chakra in that world. But in the end, I was granted these wings by a goddess called Martel." Shino explained unzipping the front of his coat down to the end of his long pale neck, to his collar bone.
Everyone looked closely, and sure enough they saw an emerald green jewel that was held in place with a shiney gold circlet. Hinata glanced at Gaara, who's eyes were transfixed to the jewel.
"This is a Cruxis Crystal. It wa smeant to transform humans into Angels." A gasp was heard from the group of shinobi.
Sasuke let out a grunt of surprise. 'This mission is certainly going down weirdo lane.' He dragged a hand through his spikey black hair, which was getting rather cold by the way.
"Shino? What do you mean? I really want to understand this all..." Sakura said, her voice shaking. "Does that mean your an... Angel?" She almost couldn't bring herself to say it. This was all too weird!
"In a way, yeah..." Shino mumbled, pulling at the collar of this beige coat. Another round of gasps started from the group. Zelos sighed.
"What are you guys?! Some old country folk that don't know anything about worlds beyond your own? Shino of your world, was sent by Tsunade of the Hidden Leaf village to help the Chosen on her journey to restore Chakra in our worlds!" He explained, waving his hands around wildly, trying to make them understand.
"So, the chosen's group restored lost chakra?" Temari asked, looking for answers. Zelos nodded, but then both him and Shino frowned in unison.
"But unfortunately, the whole sequence of restoring the world has been reversed." Shino spoke quietly, digging his frozen hands into the deep pockets of his coat.
"As in... Someone stopped the sequence from happening?" Sakura asked, her green eyes sparked with newly found interest. 'I know this is too early to say, but I'd like to go to these parallel worlds...' She fiddled with the hem of her skirt.
Zelos nodded, cutting in to the conversation. "A guy by the name of Mithos wants all the energy to himself so he can create a new world for only hs sister and him."
Kankuro's head jerked back in surprise. 'How can one create a world? That must take big-ass amounts of energy and chakra... This Mithos-fool must have a lot of time on his hands.'
There was a brief moment of silence before Shino continued with his instructions.
"The whole point of you're mission is to strengthen the bonds of Chakra and Mana between the worlds. To do that, you have to awaken these things called "Summoning Spirits" like the Ice demon you guys are after." Zelos nodded in approval, not really caring if the rest of the group got it or not.
"Good tutorial Shin-kun.(Shino: Major Eye Twitch) We have to start moving if we wanna finish this mission before we turn into old geezers." With that said, Shino landed on the snow coveredground, his wings dissipating into the air and joined the group as they trudged through the snow.
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The Ice cracked making a loud scratchy-craclking sound. Water leaked out from the cracks from the cracked sheet. The crack stretched and grew, until it reached the land around the lake. Freezing cold water erupted from the central cracks in the ice like a spring. The ice sounded like glass breaking as it was torn from its origin and flung high into the air before landing a few feet away.
A girl looked up in surprise, immediately skating back to the shore as fast as her chubby legs could carry her. She turned around, gazing at the beautiful yet dangerous display. The girl's cerulean eyes widened as a figure arose from within the widened "spring" which took on the shape of a funnel. The girl watched with amazement as the figure's silouette became more visible through the wall of water, she could just barely make out the outline of a long flowing skirt,sharp curves, and spiky looking shoulder-length hair.
The girl took a sharp intake of breath as the supposedly female being emerged from the water funnel. She was frightingly beautiful, pale blue skin shimmering with the reflection of water droplets under the moon. Cobalt eyes bore into her own, as if they was piercing through her soul.
"Who are you." It was stated more than asked. Her soft melodic voice was soothing. A song with no rhythm. The chilling winter wind blew past them, un-fazing the mystical looking woman, but making the girl hunch over and clutch her long brown parka closer.
"U-uh..." The girl stuttered, squinting as the cold air brushed against her eye-lashes. The woman blinked, her thin and slender arms folding in front of her chest.
"Well...?" The nymph like woman said, eyeing the girl with interest. The girl lifted a gloved hand to swipe at a few strands of tousled brown hair.
"I'm-m Katara." The woman smiled at the reply, and nodded slowly. They both just stood there for a while, observing each other from their distances. Katara was the one t speak this time.
"So... W-what's you're name?" Katara asked out of curiousity. The woman's smiled disappeared, and she moved with break-neck speed. Katara's eyeswere as wide as saucers as the blue-eyed stranger seemed to re-appear in front of her face. She thought she was going to experience a seizure when the stranger leaned in close to ear.
"Celcius." Was the simple answer.
Suzume's Ultra Super-Special Blah Blah Rant Number 1: This one took a lot of plannin' to do. Be grateful that I updated at the very least. Hehehe... Isn't that weird? Shino's an angel! Things are certainly going to be more Tales of Symphonia-ish, if you know what I mean. Sorry for not updating in a few days/weeks like I said I would last chapter, but I've been busy... Training on MS (Maple Story) It took a while... buh... I finally got my 4th-Job advancement. :) --(Did you know you have to get to god-danging level 120 for that?!)
Back on topic... Now I'm going to try to update sooner. (Don't count on it) But I've been having major problems with balancing the Romance with the... "Action/Adventure" in this story. Some times it's just hard for me. :/ I'm not much of a romantic myself, but I've been reading some of you guys's work and you're really good. (Laugh) Honestly, STOP BEING SO MODEST. Im gonna try to get inspiration off of you guys. Keep it up:D Next chapter, I'm gonna throw in some GaaxHina or maybe some SasuxHina romance tidbits in between scenes. Sound good? I know, it's horrbile...
This story... Like I said before is a cross-over between the game Tales of Symphonia and the manga Naruto. And there will be many clashes between the two in the story, this also involves Romantic relationships between the characters from both of these two animes. If you don't like the game, Tales of Symphonia or hae issues with it or whatever, stop reading. I do not want to become responsible for causing you guys som kind of Emotional Trauma becuase of some experiences you may have had with the game. XD Forgive me if it seems like I twist the plot too much, but I'm gonna try to get-to-the-point from now forth, in my future chapters.
I'm also going to start buliding up on my writing skills with some of the suggestions you guys give me. Like cutting down on the descriptions and changing the plot idea. But honestly, I have no idea what possesses me when I actually start typing. like right now. O.o I'LL TRYYYYYY!
Thanks for listening to me rant. :) (For those of you who did) This has been Suzume.
Ja Ne.