EVERYONE, I PROMISE I WILL NOT WAIT FOUR MONTHS! I'll try, anyways… I'll be updating faster, because it's SUMMEH! NO MORE SCHOOL!! Whee-hee…
ANYWAYS!
GREAT BIG THANK YOU TO ALL MY REVIEWERS AND READERS! I LUFF YOU ALL VERY MUCH! I send you Hershey Kisses and Bear Hugs from moi, but you have to pay me back… BY LEAVING A REVIEW! And I will luff you even more… if possible.
Here goes nothin'!
Sweet Sixteen: Succumbing into Adulthood
The branches shivered slightly, and the leaves glided through the air in the peaceful breeze. The sun shone brightly, illuminating the gloomy world below with an angelic light. The early spring air was cool and foggy, but the sunshine gave it a sparkling quality, making the wispy mist seem like floating moodust. The tranquility drifted from place to place by the gentlest of winds, moving with the air as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
But, this especially wonderful setting was soon disturbed by exactly five rushing blurs. They sent the branches into quivering masses of wood, and made the leaves into a furious hurricane of green. The morning wisps were suddenly unsettled by these moving figures as they raced – jumping from branch to branch, disappointing the morning beauty.
One of these moving blurs was unmistakably, the Konoha beauty and number one Jounin Rookie – Uchiha Nanami. Her brightly hued hair was now longer, reaching down to her waist and tied in a high ponytail, set proudly on top of her head, not a hair strand out of place. Her black eye was successfully covered by her hitai-ate, just like Kakashi-jii-chan did it, but the young woman did not take after the old sensei to wear a mask over her face. Her emerald eye served her as… an eye. Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to see. Her skin was porcelain white, and she looked just above as pale as the three Hyuugas around her.
The first one, Hyuuga Mamaru was the first born baby of the trio. His hair was just about as long as Nanami's, though it was a chocolate brown, and tied loosely at his back with a single string. His skin was ashen, though his eyes could rival it. The Hyuuga had inherited a large portion of his father's Byakugan abilities, and was the master of the Hyuuga Gentle Fist fighting style. Basically, he was the prodigy of his family, but not Clan. When he mother and father got married, his father had official separated himself from the Hyuuga Clan, and was living with his wife, since his children had found their own places to live. The only connection Hyuuga Neji had with his Clan was his last name.
The next Hyuuga was Hyuuga Kahiki, and he was striding particularly close to Nanami – close enough for skin to brush softly. Neither of them seemed to mind. Kahiki was Mamaru's identical twin, and was born second out of the troubling Hyuuga trio. He had his hair shoulder length and completely loose, front locks tucked carefully behind his ears. His skin was just as light as his brother's, as were his eyes, but Byakugan was never Kahiki's strongest point. Instead, the boy had taken a liking towards weapons – katana, kunai, shuriken, Makibishi, you name it! He has taken his mother's path, who was of course Konoha's Legendary Weapon Mistress Hyuuga Tenten. The woman was so dangerous when angered, that Kahiki still couldn't get her fearsome expression out of his mind, and he had only seen it once at training. He tried lifting a Fuuma Shuriken, which of course, didn't work because the damn thing was too heavy, and made a very stupid mistake of mentioning his life in front of his mother.
That's how Nanami and he had gotten to know each other better. The two were in love, of course. Rather obvious, ne? The couple had figured this out practically eight years ago, but had only started dating officially three years ago. They were inseparable, never going on a mission or even grocery shopping without the other. They were even living together, at age sixteen! Oh, what love can do to you at an early age…
The last of the Hyuuga trio was Hyuuga Hiro, the last baby born. He was the exact replica of his two older brothers (who were only each a minute or two, in Mamaru's case, older than him). They were triplets. Young Hiro had cut his hair rather short, in a boy-cut that was strangely spiked up at odd angles. How this happened, no-one knows, because both of his parents' hair was completely straight. His mother's hair was bushy, when out of its buns, but it was still perfectly straight! No natural spikes or anything. The two parents were suspicious that this had something to with either Naruto, Kiba or Sasuke, but never investigated this question further. They never found anything close to hair gel around the house or his apartment. The youngest Hyuuga triplet had inherited the most of his father's Byakugan abilities, and absolutely none in Jyuuken, the Gentle Fist style. He might have practiced Jyuuken at a young age, but never progressed farther than seeing the tenketsu in shinobi's body. He had terrible chakra control, but when it came to his eyes – he was a genius. He could see farther than a mile, which was the standard distance the Byakugan could see. He had no love for weapons whatsoever, and had taken on lessons from the Taijutsu master, Rock Lee, and was now rivaling the older man's speed and strength.
The last member of the five-man team was Uzumaki Kazu, a young off-duty-at-this-particular-moment Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai Taichou, or ANBU Captain. Her hair was a golden blonde, and could rival Nanami's in length, but it was wrapped in a tight bun at the nape of her neck. Her skin was tanner than the younger pale freaks around her that she was apparently in charge off. Her eyes were a cerulean blue, giving her the look of a fair maiden a knight was supposed to rescue from the clutches of an evil fairy or dragon, but never judge a book by its cover. This girl had monstrous strength, an amazing amount of stamina, and an abnormal amount of chakra. Apparently, her father's body was the Kyuubi no Kitsune's vessel, and her mother's body was infected by the fox's essence, and when Kazu was born, the fox had given the girl an enormous amount of chakra, though it was not a fiery red, like her father's or the Kyuubi's, but a light lavender, a mix between her mother's normal ocean blue and her father's blood-red.
Kazu also had a brother, Uzumaki Tobi, a nuisance. That's about it.
The f ive Konoha elite had been crashing through the forest for nearly 43 hours now, and had only stopped for a rest and drink only thrice on the whole journey. The four younger ones had managed to squeeze in a couple of hours of sleep each time, while Kazu had kept watching, at the same time, looking very fresh and bright. Hiro was getting suspicious of the blonde woman.
"Kazu-san—"
"No formalities, Hiro-chan! Just Kazu." The blonde grinned cheerfully at the young man, who was taken aback by the sudden statement. He had been calling her Kazu-san for most of his life. Why the sudden change now?
"All right… Err… Kazu, are you sure you haven't been sleeping when you were supposed to be keeping watch?" The pale brunette asked quickly, hoping not enrage the woman. Kazu had one hell of a temper. Apparently, she had been hanging around that Mitarashi woman for way too long.
Kazu turned her happy ocean blue gaze on the boy, and gave him a cute pout. "Why would you think that, Hiro-chan? Do you not trust me?"
"I, umm… no, I didn't mea—," The boy stammered nervously, glancing around frantically, as if trying to find an answer written on the profusely speeding wood about him.
"It's not that we don't trust you, Kazu," Mamaru came to his brother's aid as quick as lightning, and nearly pushed young Hiro into a tree, trying to talk the to blonde leader of the group. He had no probably calling her by her name, with out any 'formalities', as Kazu called them, and he was four years younger than her! Not that Hiro was jealous, but yes! He was jealous! For no apparent reason… "It's just that you seem oddly energetic without getting a wink of sleep during our rest periods."
Kazu couldn't help but roll her eyes. "My goodness! And you call yourselves Jounin!" Now, Mamaru was taken aback. Not only did Kazu use the word 'goodness', she insulted their rank! "It's called meditation, you big lugs!"
"Meditation doesn't help you restore strength! It makes you aware of everything around you!" Mamaru shot back, outraged.
"It's also a way to relax! You don't always have to sleep to rest, you know!" Kazu said hotly. "And that's exactly how I kept watch!"
Hiro had the dumb look of dawning comprehension on his face, while Mamaru just scowled and turned away.
While the two had been bickering (Hiro wasn't exactly arguing at this point, just listening and nodding along) Nanami and Kahiki had been stealing looks of each other, suggesting stuff that a couple of sixteen year olds shouldn't be thinking about…
"But, Kahiki-kun, we shouldn't!" Nanami scolded, narrowing her deep emerald eye at the man beside her.
"Oh, com'n, 'Nami-chan!" The brunette boy whined, giving the pink-haired woman the puppy-eye look, though those never worked on Nanami. She just rolled her eyes at him. "It'll be fun, I promise you!" He gave her a nudge, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. "Come on, Nanami… you know you want to…"
"No, I don't!" Nanami cried out, obvious irritation showing on her face. "Stop it, Kahiki!" A smirk graced her lips. "Though I am a bit curious of their reactions…"
Kahiki smiled happily, his snowy eyes twinkling. "That's my girl!" He took her hand in his own, and gave it a squeeze before letting go. "That's my one-eyed freak…" And he immediately regretted his choice of words. He watched as an angry fire started dancing in the woman's eye, and her once beautiful face screwed up into a raging scowl of sorts. Letting out a yelp, Kahiki took off into the trees, working to separate himself from his 'evil' girlfriend. Nanami, on the other hand, was thinking differently. She screamed out a furious battle cry, and raced after the frightened Hyuuga, who was already practically 700 meters ahead of her (not literally). The bubblegum-haired woman caught up with the second-born triplet and smashed him into a tree.
Now standing face-to-face, and panting rather heavily, the couple's eyes were glued together, staring very intently into the other's face. The tension was growing by the second, and you could feel the electricity in the air – it was that tingly feeling on your skin. Nanami's face softened into a trained blank expression, and Kahiki mirrored her, but his eyes betrayed the emotion he felt inside. Feeling swirled around in his snowy orbs like a whirl-pool, before he swiftly pressed his lips against Nanami's soft, rosy ones. She didn't protest, nor was she the least bit surprised. She knew he was going to do this, since he always does. Instead, the young Uchiha opened her mouth and let his tongue explore her mouth, before quickly overpowering the Hyuuga and slipping slyly into his own cavern.
She dug her fingers into his coffee-brown locks, and moaned softly against his lips as he slid his hands down her back. He pushed her closer towards his body, and smirked in smug satisfaction when she let out a startled gasp. Their lips separated briefly, before they dove into the fray of tongues and teeth once again.
"My God! Get a room!" Hiro's shrill voice was unmistakable as the group passed them. Kahiki simply flipped the finger at his younger brother, and Nanami heard Mamaru let out a bark of laughter, while Hiro sputtered incoherently.
"Hurry up, or we're leaving you behind!" Kazu called, not in the least bit fazed by the very violent make-out session Kahiki and Nanami had provided out in open view for anyone. Reluctantly, the pair untangled their limbs and detached their lips with an audible smack before grinning at the red-faced Hiro and skipping on ahead to join Mamaru and Kazu. Hiro had frozen on the spot once Kahiki flipped at him, and had been staring at the two for more than a minute.
"Say, Kazu," Mamaru said once the three teenagers had caught up with them. "Do you really not care?"
The blonde woman shrugged one shoulder. "I guess I've witnessed my parents in the bedroom too many times when I was your age. I swear, those two don't care if their on TV, they'll still do it." Kazu let out an exasperated sigh. Mamaru frowned distastefully at the older Uzumaki, before just shrugging himself.
"I guess that makes sense," He muttered, and Kazu turned to him, watching him with intent azure eyes. "I mean, nothing stops Naruto-nii-chan. He brought Sasuke back, didn't he?"
"Yeah, he did. He still likes to brag about it. It's really annoying."
Mamaru let out a laugh, and Kazu chuckled along with him. Behind them, Nanami and Kahiki were sending very suggestive signal to each other, and Hiro was muttering about something that sounded suspiciously like, "Damn, I feel left out!"
Hidden in the foliage of the trees' canopy, the five-man team settled, looking over the plans for the mission. Naruto had been very strict about this – sending his ANBU daughter to accompany the four newly appointed Jounins, though there was something Kazu couldn't understand. Why the hell would you need five people to get a scroll from an ANBU level shinobi from the Rock Village? Apparently, he was a missing-nin from his own village, and stayed out on the borders of the village in a hide-out. He was disguised as a bachelor, and the trees the team was residing in right now, actually stood in front of a strip joint, and they could see – through a rather large window – that their target was actually enjoying himself quite a lot.
"Kinky bastard…" Nanami growled disapprovingly, as she watched the man through the binoculars that only Mamaru remembered to bring. Why he brought them, no-one knew, for he could just activate Byakugan and learn the man's body inside out in a matter of three seconds. Strange man.
"So," Kazu stated firmly, tapping a finger on Nanami's shoulder, so that the pink-haired girl would turn around and listen. "You—" She pointed at Nanami, who had wiped her disgruntled expression off her face, and replaced it with a blank one. Of course, just like her father. "—seduce him, you three—" She nodded at the triplets, one which, Kahiki to be precise, staring wide-eyed at the older blonde woman. "—hold the guy, and I will beat the crap out of him."
"No," Was the immediate reply for Kahiki. "No, no, no. Nanami is not seducing that thing. No way. No!" His tone held a note of finality in it, though Kazu chose to ignore that fact.
"Yes, she is. I even brought an outfit!" Kazu grinned mischievously, and got three raised brows and one furiously blushing face. as her answer. The blonde looked at the red-faced boy. "Hiro, why don't you try not blushing for once, ne? You're giving me the impression that you are a schoolgirl, instead of a shinobi!" Mamaru snorted loudly, but somehow managed to hide his amusement with a very convincing cough. Nanami's well-sculpted pink brow lowered itself, and she folded her arms over her chest. Kahiki just shook his head in disbelief. And he thought that this woman would be a bit more mature then his thugs for brothers, but noooooo. She was even less mature than his triplet brothers.
"So… I'm seducin', ne?" Nanami asked, clicking her tongue. Kazu grinned, rather devilishly.
"That you are, m'dear! Com'n, let's get you ready." The Uzumaki grabbed the poor pink-head, and dragged her down the tree, and into the strip joint. The three boys watched them go, the exact same expressions of complete and total confusion, and all thinking the same thoughts. Where the hell are those two going?
Nanami let herself be half-dragged, half-led towards the building, and through the door. The inside of the strip joint was actually pretty decent. The walls were made of red brick, and floor was covered with a dark red carpet. Little beads hung from the low ceiling in strings, making you feel like you were going through a long corridor to get to a fortune-teller's tent rather than a crude, disgusting club full of women in skimpy and slutty outfits that they were going to take off, and then let men touch their asses with thick, fleshy fingers. Just the thought of a man doing that to her made her shudder involuntarily. She would have broken all the fingers and toes the man had possessed if he even reached out to touch her butt, and he would probably not longer be a man... nor a woman.
Soon enough, Nanami found herself being pushed into a room that looked like a dressing room, for it smelled like perfume, and had an awful lot of mirrors. Women in bathroom robes scattered around, their hair twirled into strange curls, and their faces painted like a clown's. The young kunoichi swallowed. This couldn't be good.
Behind her, Kazu was engrossed in being hugged by random girls, who apparently knew the Hokage's younger daughter.
"Oh, Kazu-chan! So nice to see you!" A particular woman jumped onto Kazu, and the blonde welcomed the woman with a great, big hug.
"Oh, Tsuki-chan! It's been so long!" Kazu exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear. Tsuki returned the smile. She was a rather short woman, unnaturally thin with big brown eyes. Her hair was midnight black, and made into complicated swirls, just like the rest of the girls. Her skin was fair, and presenting an occasional freckle or beauty spot. All in all, she was a very attractive woman, but didn't seem like the type to let her ass be touched by drunken men.
"Oh, it has. How's Naruto doing?"
"Oh, he's fine. A bit stressed, though. I swear, I saw white hairs on that head of his."
"Oh, that can't be good."
"Oh, no. It isn't."
The Uchiha watched the conversation in awe, and noted how every sentence the two women said had said had started with 'Oh!' It was getting rather annoying, really, being completely ignored when they were on a mission. Kazu and Tsuki proceeded to chatter about random things, and Nanami, finally getting fed up with it, loudly cleared her throat. Kazu turned her head in surprise, and jumped up.
"Oh, Nanami! I completely forgot about you!" The pink-head offered the ANBU Captain an offended smile, but the blonde only continued talking to Tsuki. "Tsuki-chan! This is Uchiha Nanami."
Tsuki gasped and put a hand on her heart. "Don't tell me. Sakura-chan's girl?"
Kazu nodded, and put her own hand on Nanami's cheek. "Yes. Isn't she beautiful?" The black-haired woman smiled fondly and nodded.
"So very pretty! Are you two on a mission?" The blonde nodded. "And are you the seductress?" Nanami shrugged slightly, and nodded. She kept her one eye on Tsuki, sizing her up. All in all, the woman seemed okay. "Oh, lovely. Don't worry, sweetie, your target is actually a really nice man. Quite handsome too."
"Really." Nanami muttered monotonously. She didn't like the idea of seducing a strange man into giving her a scroll. Well, not exactly giving. She'd have to steal it, but the last part of the mission was really, really, really satisfying. She'd be watching Kahiki and his brothers beat the living shit out of the man who dared touch her. She couldn't help that smirk that graced her lips.
While the pink-haired Uchiha had been fantasizing about the target's very dreadful and painful death, Tsuki had been circling her, tsk-ing once in a while.
"No, no, no. This won't do." And without warning, Tsuki tore the hitai-ate off Nanami's hidden eye. The woman stepped back, and eyed the startled pink-head. "Weird eye. Why's this one black?" Tsuki asked, obviously referring to the Uchiha's strange eye-colors.
Nanami had recovered quickly, and looked over at Kazu, who nodded her head in approval and watched as Nanami flashed through hand-seals, and muttered something very softly under her breath. She undid her ponytail, leaving her once-upon-a-time-covered eye closed. Long pink tresses cascaded down the girl's shoulders, and the front-bangs covered her closed eye. She turned to the blonde woman.
"Do you think she can take it?" She asked, as if Tsuki didn't exist.
"Yeah, I think so." Kazu looked at the confused black-haired woman. "You can, can't you?" Tsuki shrugged.
"Depends. What are you testing me with?"
That was the cue. Nanami shook her front bangs away from her eye, and revealed – the blood-red color of Sharingan. The three tomoe were spinning in the eye like the wings of a wind-mill.
The Uchiha was waiting for Tsuki's reaction, and once she finally got it, it really wasn't what she was expecting.
"We'll need contacts for that," Tsuki stated happily, extremely proud of herself. It was as if she had found a cure for cancer. The midnight-haired woman skipped around, and started ushering all the girls out of the dressing room, but they simply refused to leave. The started gathering around poor little Nanami, staring at her with wide eyes and asking questions like, 'Is your hair naturally pink?' and 'What's wrong with your eye? Is it cancer? Do you have pink eye?' By the time Tsuki had given up, Nanami was ready to pummel all of them into the ground.
Kazu sighed in exasperation. "Well, Tsuki-chan! Let's get started?"
"Why the hell are they taking so long?" Kahiki's crisp, cold voice was laced with irritation as he paced up and down the tree trunk. He had decided to engross himself in chakra control training, but it really wasn't helping. His two brothers had completely tuned out Kahiki's non-stop ranting – Mamaru was meditating, while Hiro busied himself with studying the mission scroll under his breath.
"Name: Ijobu Huruke
Gender: Male
Age: 27
Rank: Missing-nin
Strength: ANBU
Hair color: Brown
Eye color: Brown
Mission: Get scroll, assassinate target."
"Okay, Hiro? You read that about seventeen times now, alright? Shut. Up." Kahiki growled, but his brother was so deep inside the scroll, that he probably wouldn't even hear him if Kahiki went up to him with megaphone and shouted in poor Hiro's ear.
"Etgrat etanissassa, llorsc teg. Onissim, nworb—"
"ARGH!"
"Ummm…"
Kahiki nearly fell off the tree trunk as he turned around on the spot, and turned his head upwards. His eyes met with two bleeding-red orbs. The woman was a stranger, he was sure.
She had snowy-white locks framing her sharply sculpted face. Her skin was porcelain and her structure seemed delicate and fragile, but there was an air of strength and authority around her. Her body was dressed in a blood-red button down shirt, with dark-black frills around the collar. The shirt was a v-neck, and cut rather lowly at the chest, showing a lot of cleavage. Her legs were clad in tight, black leather pants that went straight down to the ankle, where her feet were covered in maroon stilettos that had sparkling, fake rubies settled on the straps.
All in all, the woman looked like she was asking for it, since her shirt only had one button done up, showing off her abs and a lacy black push-up bra. She also had a long whip in her hand, with long red nails. Her lips were painted red that actually forced the poor Hyuuga to stare at them for an unknown period of time.
"Uh, Kahiki?" The woman inquired. He just opened and closed his mouth – like a fish. "Ugh." She clapped a hand on her forehead, and put a hand on her hip. "God, Kahiki, stop staring. You pervert."
The boy nearly choked on his own spit. "Nanami?!" He shouted, this time really falling off the tree trunk, but thankfully landing in a crouch. His expression was utterly bewildered. "What the hell have they done to you?!" Nanami just sighed in exasperation, and flicked her snow-white tresses out of her face.
"We've dressed her up to seduce the target!" Behind Nanami stood a strange, black-haired woman, her kind, brown eyes shining as she smiled at the boy. "Doesn't she look wonderful?" The woman pulled on the shoulders of Nanami's button-down, and stepped back with a grin, admiring her work. "Wonderful! I swear, Nanami-chan has the natural looks. Many of the girls were jealous." She turned to the shocked boyfriend. "Well, boy? Say something!"
"I, uhh… I-I-I mean—" Kahiki stammered but abruptly stopped trying as his jaw nearly hit the ground. A man stood by his girlfriend's side, his long blonde hair tied loosely at the base of his head, while the rest cascaded down his back and to his waist. His body was dressed in the standard ANBU Captain uniform, and a thin katana was settled in between his pointer and middle fingers as he lifted his mask. He had a large grin plastered on his face, showing off unnaturally jagged teeth. A strange glint in his navy blue eyes resulted in Kahiki snapping back to his sense, and backing off a bit. That was, until realization hit him. "Kazu?!"
The woman laughed at his utterly surprised expression, and rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Really fooled ya, didn't I?" Kahiki just stared, with a surprisingly closed mouth. How could he have not seen this? Well, actually, he would have been surprised out his mind if he did. Kazu's chest flat, not a single bulge out of place. Well, the woman was practically flat-chested, and not that he ever looked but he was a man in all senses of the word. Kazu was flat, unlike his Nanami-chan…
"Yo, Ka-zooo!" Hiro shouted as he jumped from the foliage of the large tree, and went to give the blonde a hi-five. Mamaru, on the hand, greeted the strange midnight-haired woman in a gentlemanly manner.
"Hyuuga Mamaru," He said with a soft smile, nodding his head in the way of greeting. The woman blushed, and shook his extended hand shyly.
"Anakata Tsuki," She muttered, and shamelessly glanced over the man's body. Kahiki himself wondered as he watched the little scene if the girl was any older than sixteen herself. "Pleasure to meet you, Mamaru-kun."
"The pleasure's all mine," the boy muttered, keeping his silver eyes on Tsuki as he leaned down to kiss her hand that was still in his loose hold. Tsuki's blush deepened as he did so, and reluctant with herself, she averted her gaze. As she did, he noticed Kahiki watching her and was about to shoot a sharp remark in his direction but halted. She opened her mouth and her eyes started to bounce between Kahiki and Mamaru so quickly and frequently that Mamaru himself wondered if her eyeballs were going to pop out. "Twins," he stated swiftly and the girl seemed to calm down, though she still eyed Kahiki warily.
"Hey, man! I'm here too you know!" Hiro popped his head in and rested his chin on Mamaru's shoulder with a feral grin on his face, his snowy eyes wild. "Hyuuga Hiro! Nice to meetcha, ma'am!" He gave her a two-fingered salute before being shrugged off Mamaru's shoulder by the boy himself. Hiro's teeth clanked as Mamaru abruptly jerked his shoulder and he nearly stumbled into Nanami who had been standing in the sidelines, chatting with Kazu about their choice of costume. Hiro, being very uncomfortable listening to a conversation that involved the color of panties and corsets, had his cheeks dusted a light pink, skipped off to join his brothers. Just when he was about to say something, he was rudely interrupted by a girl wearing nothing but a pink corset and a pair of panties. She didn't bother covering up because there really was no point. She just eyed the three with an eye before calling huskily to Tsuki.
"Tsuki-chan! We're starting!"