Yeah, yeah, I don't give a rat's arse if Zuko kissed that ho-bag. SO BUGGER OFF ALL OF YEH. ::spits in slut-face's direction:: Also, I don't care if this has TOTALLY started to spin off from correct times and stuff but hopefully ya'll be able to follow it. Sorry for the wait, I've been doing things like living, and moving, and even a little bit of learning.
Clashing Worlds
Chapter Three
Gaara slowed his run to a walk as he crested the hill of sand. He could see the group of shinobi and their companions in the small valley that ran through the Eastern part of Suna. He stopped for a moment and looked over them. Most had the bottom half of their face's covered with a simple and loose black cloth. He surmised that it was because they didn't want to take the risk of inhaling any upturned sand that might catch the wind.
Kankuro was suddenly behind him and looked over the small group that was making their way through the valley. He sighed and shrugged his shoulders at the sight. Some people just didn't know how to travel in the desert. You were supposed to travel along the ridges of the valleys, not through them. If you happened to go through a wide valley on the wrong day, you and the rest of your group could be blown away by a powerful sand storm or even attacked by the rogue's who lived on the open sand.
"I guess we should go help them first. Maybe they'll be a little friendlier if we give them some advice." Kankuro mused out loud to himself and his brother to get his reaction.
"Hm…" Gaara made a non-committal noise and nodded his head.
"Alright, of I go." Kankuro made a show of pulling on his heavy canvas jacket and strapping his goggles to his forehead.
He wasn't in the habit of wearing his black uniform and the makeup of a puppet master while in his home land, but he felt that it probably would have been a good idea since he still had said puppet strapped to his back. Thinking, he suddenly chuckled. It seemed his family had a real big thing for strapping their weapons, which were huge already, to their backs. Temari had her fan, Gaara had his gourd, and Kankuro had his puppets.
"Sarren! Marr! You're coming with me. Ashton, please stay with Kazekage-sama." Kankuro ordered the ANBU who were silently standing about, observing the caravan as well.
"Sir," Sarren acknowledged the command and jumped to obey as well as Marr who stayed silent.
"I will be down in a moment. I wish to observe a little longer." Gaara was the type to never make a hasty decision and Ashton realized this as she waited for her Kazekage. He was the demon of the village as well as its savior and so she respected his wishes to stay separate for the time being.
"…" Ashton let her eyes drift over the valley, imitating her Kazekage. It was odd, but she didn't feel the fear of him that she usually did whenever he had been around her quarters, either checking the way of things, or just walking by. Usually, he caused a fair amount of fear to rise in all the villagers and they would herd like cows and start to spray around nasty comments and vulgar rumors. Ashton herself never partook in these disgusting little habits but that didn't keep them from her ears.
"There." Gaara suddenly spoke, startling Ashton from her reverie of Gaara.
"What?" She asked, suddenly feeling stupid that she hadn't been paying closer attention.
"They are hiding something in that caravan." Gaara nodded his head towards the group and Ashton squinted to try and see what the other was pointing out to her. The female looked on, towards the caravan but didn't see anything.
"uhm…I don't-" she started but was interrupted as Gaara shrugged his gourd on a little higher onto his shoulder.
"…" Ashton stopped her self and readied herself to move with the Kazekage. It was obvious that it didn't matter if she didn't see or not at the moment. The Kazekage would know if it was dangerous or not. He would not take one of his subordinates into a combat he wasn't already confident of. Trusting her leader, Ashton jumped with Gaara as they made their way down to the camp where Kankuro had already started towards.
"Yo!" Kankuro state loudly, clear enough for the caravan to hear.
Turning quickly, and loosening their kunai pouches, the group faced what they would think to be a threat.
"No worries! I'm Kankuro, one of your escorts through the desert." Kankuro soothed the frayed nerves of the already faltering group. The sand and wind had taken a heavy toll on them, but they were also running low on water and food. Rationing it had started to become a very harrowing experience.
"Who are the others?" Asked an older man, stepping forward from the rest. He looked to be the leader of the small group. It was interesting that an older man was the group leader, seeing as the young and the healthy usually were sent out instead. They were more durable than the elderly but this seemed to be a time of confusion and ruin, seeing as the land was turning black and sickness started to shroud people's eyes.
"My brother, the Kazekage, will be down in a moment with a guard. I already said I was Kankuro, and the rest can introduce themselves to you later. It's not important right now, but we need to start looking for a way out of this sand bowl. You're not in the greatest of positions to be traveling. You could be attacked very easily." Kankuro made a motion with one hand, signaling them to hurry.
"We know. We've already been ambushed by a group of vagabonds." The man sputtered angrily. He looked to the ground as Kankuro started to shout out commands. His team immediately spread to start helping the orders travel that much faster.
"Oh? Well, now you'll have the protection of a Kage and they shouldn't bother you any longer. In fact, here comes Gaara now." Kankuro gestured to the red head as he appeared from the dusty setting.
"Thank you for aiding us." The man bowed formally before the other. Showing his gratitude and his acceptance of the other's power and authority over him.
"Hm." Gaara acknowledged the greeting and looked over the process of moving.
The Kazekage overlooked the process of shifting and movie while his brother told his nin the plain of action. Kankuro was an adequate leader and it pleased him that his brother could be of use. It would be an embarrassment if the other was incompetent at leading while he was Kazekage.
"I've already got them on the move Gaara. We'll be out of his hell hole in a bit. Then we should find shelter, neh?" Kankuro asked with a tilt of the head.
"No. We shall keep moving." Gaara said quietly.
Kankuro scowled slightly, but he showed his acceptance by yelling out the command to pack everything a little tighter. They weren't stopping for the night. Some of the sand dusted group groaned unhappily but the Suna Nin urged them onward. They understood the weariness that their charges were facing but they didn't want to be held up by such inexperienced nin.
"Gaara, I'm going to go have my team start assigning watches so that some of the caravan can rest while we travel. They're already dead on their feet."
"…" Gaara gave a slight nod of the head and Kankuro fazed out of sight.
Sokka looked around the street in a daze. He had not seen such culture and spark in a long long time, if ever. He could see that some of the signs were written in a different language and a lot of the people looked strange. They didn't wear the same colours as a normal Earth village would wear, but they all looked like normal people. From what Sokka had come to know about this village through Lee was that all these people were special operatives of sorts. Some people had abilities that could make them fantastically dangerous, and others used their powers to do every day chores and business it seemed.
Jerking, he looked back to suddenly see a puff of smoke and small house cat appeared next to an old lady that had her hands crossed. The gray haired female spoke rapidly to the cat who had a scarf tied around its neck and then the cat nodded like it understood.
"Off you go!" The cat scampered out of sight and the old lady began to sweep once more. Sokka had already started getting used to the strange assortment of animals but how they appeared out of thin air was just fantastic.
"Hey, how did that lady-" Sokka started to stop and ask how the old woman had done this when Lee shook his head.
"That's for later! Come on! We don't want to be late!" Lee tugged on his sleeve and started walking a little faster.
"This way! We're going to the memorial for the fourth Hokage to meet the people that will house you during your stay here! Then we'll tour the city! Maybe even have lunch!" Lee was the most optimistic person that Sokka had ever met and it was a little grating at times.
"Ah….yeah." Sokka replied half listening, he was still watching the people around him. They seemed to be staring right back though, even if they didn't know who they were staring at. If they had known he was from a different village, they would probably be a little more worried, but this seemed to be just faint curiosity from the clothing that he wore.
"We're almost there! Come on! Come on!" Lee pointed towards a small grassy area ahead of them.
"Alright, alright." Sokka hung his head. This guy was way to happy.
"Sokka!" Sokka heard a familiar voice yell out happily.
"Aang? Where've you been?" Sokka looked down in a surprised way to see the Avatar grinning up at him.
"I've been around and about. Mostly with Katara though. Did you hear? They're going to let us stay here for as long as we want without pay! Isn't it great?!" Aang cheered happily and ran off towards the grassy area ahead of them.
"Ah, yeah…sure." Sokka squinted as a figure came into view. They looked slightly familiar and, -
"YOU!!" Sokka pointed dramatically at the person who was leaning against one of the stone tablets.
"….so you did survive. I was hoping you wouldn't be around since I just finished getting over my last head ache." The exiled fire Prince snipped at Sokka.
"Hey! Shut up! Just because we have to live together in the same village does NOT mean that I have to get along with you! You're still a Fire Bender!" Sokka yelled angrily.
Zuko sighed and looked away. He didn't want to have to deal with half-wit morons right now, since he was still uneasy with the circumstances he'd been put in. Leaning over towards the man that appeared behind him, Zuko glared noticeably.
"Where is my Uncle? He is still here, yes?" Zuko demanded of Kakashi.
"Yes yes, he's with Iruka-sensei at the moment. They are talking of many things." The older teacher nodded and smiled easily.
"Hm," Zuko looked away with a faint pout on his face. He didn't worry about his Uncle, he was just concerned with what the old man was telling people that might very well be their enemies for all they knew about them.
Sokka stared at the grey-haired man. He looked like should be an older gentleman but he spoke with the voice of someone much younger. Was it possible that he had his hair dyed some weird colour like some of the other inhabitants of this village? He'd seen one doctor with bright pink hair, another person with teal hair and so on and so forth. It was unheard of to change your natural hue in the South Pole because one, they didn't have the ingredients to do so, two, it was almost like you were telling your parents that there genes weren't good enough for you, or even three, you were just begging for attention and were still a child yourself.
"So you are the newcomers?" A low voice questioned without much emotion.
"Yes Sasuke-kun! These people are them!" Lee answered amiably and pointed towards the small group.
"….Hn," The dark young man looked over them. He felt his chakra flare a little at the glance of the black haired youth with the scar. He seemed to emit the same patterns as he did. They also seemed to be alike in expressions as well.
Sasuke let out a small smirk as he turned away from the group and headed to a stone for himself to lean against. Knowing the chances that everyone was going to be late at getting here, he might as well claim a leaning post sooner rather than later. He didn't want to sit on the ground like a child.
"Who're you then?" Sokka asked rudely, standing up in Sasuke's face.
"I am Sasuke of the Uchiha clan." The darker teen said with a look of disdain and unappreciation for the situation at hand. He wanted to get to the rock.
"Hmph, Sasuke? Doesn't sound frightening at all." Sokka snorted his mock laughter. The sound of the fake laughter caused Sasuke to shoot a sharp glare in Sokka's direction.
This teen reminded him something fierce of Naruto and that in itself was always bad. The mocking laughter, the huge ego and even something about the way he just barged into other people's space with loud and crude comments. They all screamed 'Naruto' at him but something was uniquely different. They looked completely different and Sokka was lengthier than the stocky and short Naruto.
"Heh! I like this guy!" Naruto said with a fox grin and wrapped his arm around the Water Tribe's man's shoulders in a rough but friendly sort of way.
"Who're you then?" Sokka asked, looking faintly disturbed that this seemingly colour blind freak had attached himself to him. His clothing was horrendously ugly. Really, who over the age of five dressed themselves in orange and blue? He must be really stupid or really brave to walk out of the door in that outfit.
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki! Konoha's Next Hokage!" Naruto proclaimed proudly. Sokka stared at the other. Wasn't the word 'Hokage' synonymous with 'leader' here? HE wanted to be a LEADER? Sokka snorted loudly as Zuko held back a laugh of disdain.
"He's rather annoying isn't he." Zuko stated to himself mostly with a raise of the only brow that he had.
"Agreed." Sasuke answered back unexpectedly. The other dark haired teen had hit the nail on the head. He rather liked this new person and found himself thinking that he could actually deal with him. Rather surprising, as Sasuke liked to stay by himself on principle.
Zuko turned to stare up and down the other black haired teen. Sasuke responded with a half lidded stare that made the other feel as if he were also being measured up. They both were of a more alpha position, forced into the world to early and made to be strong. Unknowingly, they were both very similar in the fact that a sibling was much stronger then them and considered a legend while they had to work up to the name. They both were outcasts of a sort and they both had scars, whether they be internal or external. A strange coincidence.
"Zuko," Zuko said simply with a nod of the head to introduce himself.
"Hn," Sasuke responded and then looked away towards the trees. It was clear that both of them wanted to get this over with as quickly as they could. It was like having a Band-Aid and peering at it, while slowly peeling it back instead of just ripping it off. The situation was just going on and on.
"Hey guys!" Sokka and Aang turned quickly, the later bursting out in a grin.
"Katara! You're feeling better?" The youngest of the group bounced over to the other who laughed.
"Yes Aang, I'll be fine now. Miss Sakura here healed me very well." The pink headed girl waved as she was introduced.
Sokka raised both of his brows at the sight of the thin and cute teen girl. She was the one with pink hair! She was the perfect girl if Sokka was interested at the moment. Currently, he was more worried about the situation of being in a huge city that shouldn't exist. But that didn't keep him from appreciating.
"Thank you!" Aang bowed and Sokka nodded to her.
"It was no problem! It's my job!" Sakura giggled in what would be a bashful way.
"Well, I'd love to learn more about how you heal. I can also do a little with my water but not very much." Katara turned to the teal eyed girl.
"You can heal with water?" Sakura looked interested. Aang, sensing a long and probably boring conversation coming, he turned away quickly. It wasn't that he wasn't interested in what Katara was seemingly entranced with, he just didn't want to be experimented upon. It had happened once before while they'd been traveling, and Katara had gotten and idea for healing bruises. In the end, she'd just made his bigger.
The entire group was just standing around doing a whole lot of nothing when Iruka phased into the area. Kakashi instantly stood a little straighter and emitted sort of a happy 'neh' sound that translated to pleasure.
"Ah, Sensei. News?" Kakashi asked in a nonchalant way.
"Hokage-sama wishes us to divide them up now and place them with their guardians. I was sent to tell you." Iruka nodded to the grey haired man.
"Alright, I'll start it up." Kakashi clapped loudly.
"Listen up!!" He called loudly, smiling as the group of teens and one preteen all stared over to him.
"So, who will be staying with who for the duration of their stays?" Kakashi looked expectantly to Iruka.
The sensei sighed morosely and stepped in front of the other. "Honestly Kakashi, you'd think you would pay attention sometimes when Hokage-sama was speaking." Iruka shook his head and Kakashi let out a mock sigh.
"Alright, Zuko, you will be staying with Sasuke. I'm sure you guys could teach each other a lot. Sokka, you will be staying with Naruto because you two seem to be very similar it seems. Something about not listening or respecting elders." Kakashi gave an icy glare to his late pupil.
Naruto rubbed the back of his head and scowled. Looking away, he tried not to catch Iruka's eye, knowing it would make him feel guilty.
"Katara, you will be staying with Sakura, again for educational purposes. Aang, you'll be with Lee, you are both full of energy as the healers and such have seen Aang." Another glare pointed towards the bald youth.
"Heh," Aang smiled innocently.
"Hmph, and that should be it." Iruka turned to speak with Kakashi again when Aang suddenly stood with a shout.
"Wait! What about Appa and Momo?" He asked frantically. He couldn't leave them out in the cold and dark.
"They are being taken care of by the young man named Chouji. He found your large beast of sorts and he wanted to feed it. The small creature followed them. They live on the edge of the village to the north-east if you wish to see your animal friends." Iruka sighed as he explained to the worried Avatar.
"Oh, Thanks! I'll have to go thank this 'Chouji' then too!" Aang grinned up at Iruka.
"Right, well I'll leave everyone to their new house mates. Kakashi, I would like to speak with you later about the pattern of chakra within my new guest." Iruka knew that Kakashi was a copy-nin and so he understood a lot about chakra's and their control. If he didn't, he would be able to see if he could copy Iroh if Iroh was indeed using a technique at all.
"Should I bring anything? Refreshments?" Kakashi teased the other sensei.
"No!" the teacher blushed bright red at the implication that he had asked Kakashi over as a date almost. "It's strictly for learning!" Iruka scowled slightly at the still probably smiling Copy-Nin.
"Keep denying it, but you'll only crave me more." Kakashi sighed, and shock his head, implying that Iruka didn't know what he was missing.
"Indeed," Iruka gave a shake of his head and phased out of sight. He had to report to the Hokage that the group had been told of the circumstances.
"Orochimaru-sama?" a voice called out in question.
"What is it Kabuto?" someone answered in a slithering hiss.
"The strangers are no more than children. They prove no threat whatsoever." The one called Kabuto replied.
"So you say, but who are usually the most dangerous now-a-days? Hn?" the man called Orochimaru ground out almost angrily.
"The younger nin, but these children show almost no knowledge at the use of chakra. Oddly enough, they do have a different sort of chakra flowing through their bodies. They seem to pertain to elemental jutsu's strictly. One of the children doesn't even have chakra like the boy Lee." Kabuto reported with a raised brow.
"I see. We will keep an eye on them. For now, we must keep most of our strength focused on obtaining information about the spreading blackness. It is not my own doing and so it is a threat. What have you found out so far?"
"We recently discovered that nin are trying to escape their homelands if it is being eaten by the darkness. A few caravans have made it out alive but other than that, we can't see into it. It's like all knowledge and power is cut off once the city has been swallowed. We've had rumours, but nothing more."
"What rumours then?" came the hissing reply.
"We have heard rumours from the Falcon Clan, our lead spies in that area, that something is moving in the night. At night is the blackest time when everything becomes the least visible and it's even worse where the Blackness is. They say that they can hear something huge moving and breathing even from the distance that they are at. They don't stay to look for it because it fills the stupid birds with some sort of dread. They are spineless." Kabuto spat his anger at the spooked nin. He didn't take kindly to cowards.
"Now now Kabuto, we must be pleased that they stayed to even do that for us. Would you rather go out there alone with no knowledge on what we fight? I think not. It pleases me that they would go so far as to go against their own beliefs to please me. What of the Bear Clan? They are less 'spineless' as you say?"
"The stupid Bears are nothing if not wearisome. All they request is money and food for the least amount of work. They haven't even traveled half as far as the Falcons and they say that it is to tiresome for them to move much in the day. I dislike them even more than the Falcons."
Orochimaru hissed his displeasure at the words of his servant. He didn't like it when the people he hired disobeyed his command and so usually, he slautered them in payment. Sadly enough, The Bear Clan was tightly tied into the Mist village. They would come after him and he didn't want to deal with pitifull attempts on his life at the moment.
"Get rid of them. Do not kill them but reward the Falcons. We still have use for their abilities and I don't want to loose that. Also, have you gotten no word from that new family that we heard of? What of them?" Orochimaru inquired lethargically. He wished that he could do this himself but that would cause a chaos that he didn't have time for at the moment and so he had to play the strings from the shadows.
"No. They lived in one of the first villages that was taken according to my knowledge. I have still sent out a few sentiniels to gather knowledge but it has been useless so far." Kabuto gave a short bow to show his apology.
"I see. Good work, now leave me Kabuto." Orochimaru dismissed his pale haired servant. He would need time to think for his next move. It was distressing that the Bear Clan could no longer help him but it was needed to cut away the dead weight that wouldn't add him. He could have used their strength and numbers but the Falcons almost made up for that with their connections to other old families with unique skills.
"It is as it should be." Orochimaru hissed to himself with a glaring of his golden eyes. He would soon take what was rightfully his as well as what he wanted. It was what fate had in store for him and what he knew was right in the world. Nothing would keep him from his goal, not even the God's who wished it.
Later in the evening, something large gave a snorting but massive sigh. The behmouth felt its sleep disrupted and it pawed at the ground, felling trees and boulders as huge as ten men. Not noticing the commotion of it's restling, the creature gave a yawning groan as loud as a thunder bolt cracking down amongst the conductive water. It disliked being disturbed and the aura that stank of fear and hate had disturbed it once more.
One eye cracking open, the monstrously huge being looked about lazily. The rotting stench of corpses gave it comfort and the putrid look of decay around it made the beast almost purr in pleasure. Soon this pitifull world would its and nothing would stand in its way. Letting the huge eye fall shut once more, the creature slept until the falling of night. When its true reign could begin and it could feed once more. Only then would it start to eat its way into the world again like it'd been doing the last few months. Slowly but surely it went but none-the-less unstopped.