A New Year, A New Life, A New Love: Chapter 2 - This Is Way Too Real
Just want to say now that I personally havn't read any of the Naruto mangas, so a couple small details might be wrong, but I'm basically going from the Narutopedia, so should be pretty accurate. Mega spacing can't be helped, just seems to be how my computer uploads files, and I am sorry about it. Enjoy and please comment!
Chapter 2: This Is Way Too Real
"This...this is The Village Hidden in the Leaves..." breathed Whisper, dumbstruck.
"Hang on, that's not possible," said Kroqgar, ever the realist, "This is Naruto. Naruto is a cartoon, we've both read it. This can't be real."
Years ago, when checking in one of the bins they both knew to often contain edible food, Kroqgar had found a garbage bag full of books. These were a rare and delightful find, keeping them both entertained for hours on end. He had immediately lugged them home to Whisper, and while going through the written riches came across several odd little books with the covers on back to front, all sporting the word "NARUTO" and often a rather rambunctious looking young boy with bright yellow hair, blue eyes and an eyesore of a jumpsuit.
At first they couldn't even begin to make sense of the odd books and their drawings, but once they figured out to read back to front they were caught up in a spellbinding world of love and loss, hope and friendship, sacrifice and valour. They laughed at the antics of Might Guy, they rolled their eyes at Naruto's wasted efforts on Sakura, and they shivered at the disgusting plans of Orochimaru. Once they read through all their precious tomes they felt a hunger that had nothing to do with food. From then on, Kroqgar took risks far beyond acceptable to keep them up to date with the latest in the Naruto world, once even venturing into a crowded store to sneak out minutes later with a book under his jacket. They had read all the books cover to cover repeatedly, and both had an encyclopedic knowledge of Naruto.
This was how they both knew that the First Hokage's name was Hashirama, the Third Hokage was also known as The Professor, that the Fourth Hokage died fighting the Kyuubi, and that they were both vividly hallucinating.
Incapable of asking anything more sensible, Kroqgar haltingly enquired "Are...are w- are we dreaming?" He turned to her, one eyebrow raised, and saw that Whisper looked as befuddled as he.
She turned her head to face him for a moment, then raised it and looked into the sun. Her eyes stung as she beheld the bright orb. She felt the earth beneath her feet, and she felt the wind blowing over her skin and through her fur. She lifted up her foot and examined the footprint the worn sole of her shoe left in the dirt, and saw the dirt clinging to it. "No...we couldn't be, this is all way too real," she said, with a thoughtful look on her face, "This is happening. Whatever this is, it is happening."
Catching on to her attitude of calm, analytical observation, Kroqgar considered what he knew of Naruto. Taking Whisper's hand (and feeling the smallest jolts of electricity run up his arm upon contact) Kroqgar began to lead Whisper off the road and back into the forest.
"Come on," he said, "We've got to go think. And hide"
"Hide? Why?"
Not even looking back as he walked over the soft grass, Kroqgar responded, "Because even if this is the Naruto world, we are still... different." He said the last with a slightly pained expression on his face. Neither of them had ever truly come to terms with their appearance. "They may be more likely to accept us here, but we are still different."
They came across a small, sunlit clearing. Kroqgar walked into it, and plopped himself down on an old fallen tree, just beginning to rot, back arched and hands clasped before him. Whisper swiftly raised a hand to her mouth, stifling a giggle despite the circumstances at the memory of the last time he sat upon rotting timber. Shooting her a look that clearly said "You can't be serious", Kroqgar leant over and picked up a small pebble at his feet. He lobbed it at her in a gesture of friendly irritation. She watched it coming with a big smile on her face.
The smile quickly faded to a look of absolute shock as the small stone approached her at a fantastic speed. She shifted her weight and pushed off with her right foot, leaping to the side. As she saw hard earth approaching her she instinctively placed her hands forward and on the ground, thrusting her body forwards. She flipped over and pushed off, launching herself into the air, and landed an instant later in a crouch, still moving, her feet digging small channels in the earth beneath her as she skidded to a stop.
She raised her head just in time to see the small pebble disappear from her sight in a flurry of wood splinters in the general direction of the village. Kroqgar, not having to avoid the killer pebble, had the honour of seeing first-hand the destruction the stone caused. His eyes had widened upon seeing the small rock's incredible acceleration, and for the briefest of instants he was intensely worried about Whisper. She had become a blur as she evaded the stone, but he found that he could follow her movements quite easily out of the corner of his eye. The stone itself flew on past her, and slammed into the trunk of a gnarled, stout tree at the edge of the clearing. It passed right through the tree, leaving wood and bark flying in its wake. The pebble continued on, passing through several more trees as if they weren't even there, before disappearing into the shadows of the forest and passing out of sight.
Kroqgar just sat there, wide-eyed, staring, as from the first of the trees there emitted a sharp crack. With a long groan, the tree started leaning from the point of impact. The tree creaked mightily as it finally came crashing to the forest floor with a deafening boom. Kroqgar did not even flinch as his gaze followed the tree to the floor. The deafening silence that followed was only broken by cracking noises emanating from the other trees along the pebble's trajectory. With a mighty racket of their own each of the trees fell to the forest floor, throwing twigs and leaves everywhere, birds erupting from the canopy in every direction.
Kroqgar felt an insistent tugging on his arm. He finally tore his gaze away from the destruction before him, to see Whisper pulling on his arm, trying to get him to stand to move. He realized she was trying to speak.
"Come on! Come ON! We've got to go! Now! MOVE!" She was frantic, alarm in her eyes.
Staggering to his feet, still dizzy from the demolition he had just caused, Kroqgar was slow on the uptake.
"What? Why? Why do we have to go?"
"Because they would've heard that for miles around! They'll be investigating this area soon! They can't see us! We have to go!" Whisper was almost crying from alarm and fear, and seeing her in that state is what truly snapped Kroqgar out of his daze.
Eyes focusing in newfound awareness, Kroqgar allowed Whisper to lead him out of the clearing and into the trees.
...
Whisper could barely see through the unshed tears in her eyes. She was panic-stricken at the thought of being found, being captured, being seen. The thought that she would be treated fairly despite her appearance was beyond her ability to comprehend, and it was not difficult to surmise that the stress of the past few hours may have been affecting her.
She gripped Kroqgar's hand tight as a vice as she led him into the woods. She ran as fast as she could, knowing the speed that the beings of this world were capable of. She was so caught up in the whirling vortex of her thoughts, worries spinning faster and faster in her head, that she failed to notice just how fast she was going. The trees flashed by her, the grass nothing but a green blur beneath her feet. She failed to hear Kroqgar crying her name over and over, diminished as the sound was by the wind rushing around her ears.
She still had the presence of mind to keep them near the village, their only landmark, traveling in a great arch through the forest. When she began to feel the first touch of hyperventilation upon her lungs, she slowed to a halt, the hand clasping hers a beacon of calm in the maelstrom of her thoughts. The tears started flowing then, and she started sobbing into her hands, her body racking with each one. She felt her hands pulled away from her face, and suddenly she was wrapped in Kroqgars arms, her head resting against his shoulder, tears staining his already filthy shirt. She clasped her arms around his neck, and felt his hands rubbing her back, soothing and calming her.
They stood there for some time, as Whisper gradually stopped crying and her breathing returned to normal. She felt warm and cared for in Kroqgars arms, feeling and hearing the steady thumping of his heart, the soft caress of his fingers rubbing up and down her back. Eventually her ears rose from their position flat against her head, and her tail began to wave slowly behind her. It was impossible to feel anything except happiness when she was wrapped in his arms.
Leaning back, she raised her head and looked into his eyes. He lowered his head, and a big, comforting smile drew its way across his features. They stood there for a brief moment, gazing into each other's eyes, before Kroqgar cleared his throat and backed away. Whisper, her ears pink, suddenly found her new surroundings very interesting. Trees surrounded them, a small open area before them with a canopy of leaves overhead keeping it in shadow. An old, overgrown boulder stood to the side.
"Ok, this crap is crazy," said Kroqgar, flopping down on the grass and spreading his legs out in front of him, "First I throw that...that... and bring those trees down. Then you can move like you did, flipping and stuff. And now this!" He looked frazzled.
"And now what?" asked Whisper, shooting him an enquiring look.
"Well, this! Coming here! It was crazy!"
"What was, what was crazy?" Whisper looked heartily confused now.
Looking up at her like she had sprouted a second and third head, Kroqgar asked, "You didn't see how we got here, did you?"
"Well...we ran, didn't we?"
"Yeah, but...Whisper, run to that tree." He stood, pointing to a large tree past the confines of their small space, some twenty meters away.
"What?" replied Whisper, with a laugh.
"Run to that tree," he repeated, dead serious.
"O....K..." she said, not understanding, but she trusted him completely. "How fast?"
"Just at a good pace. Ok? Now on 3. Ready? 1... 2... 3!"
She burst out of her slight crouch and a moment later placed her hand on the tree. She barely stopped herself from continuing on to run head-first into it. She turned her head to face Kroqgar, eyes wide and shining, mouth hanging open.
She had cleared the 20 meters in an instant.
Kroqgar returned her gaze with a smile. "Toldja."
"We ran here that fast!?"
"Yup."
"But...but...this is all CRAZY! How could you throw that rock? How could I dodge it? And how the fuck can we run that fast?!"
Kroqgar blinked in surprise. Neither of them swore that much, but Whisper was by far the lesser swearer of the two.
"I have a theory," he said, rising from the ground. Dusting himself off, he answered Whisper's raised eyebrow. "Well... considering that we are in the Naruto world, I mean, that's pretty much as crazy as it gets. It wouldn't be too insane to assume that we have... well, that we have ninja powers."
Whisper stared at him blankly for a moment, then shook her head and said "Excuse me, I just hallucinated for a moment. What'd you say?"
Kroqgar flashed her a smile as he passed by her. "You heard me. And there is an easy way to find out."
He stopped before the boulder. Flashing one last glance at her over his shoulder, Kroqgar focused on the stone. It was quite large, shaped roughly like an oval, perhaps six meters long. He reasoned that at his normal strength he would be unlikely to even budge it. He stood there a moment, broad shoulders slightly hunched, tensing and relaxing his arms. Finally he crouched down, and dug his fingers under the stone as best he could. He took care to keep his tail out from under him, lest he get it caught beneath himself. Finally he drew a deep breath, and, straight-backed, began attempting to lift the great stone.
A strange look passed over his features, and he glanced back at Whisper. Then he began to laugh. Softly at first, he slowly laughed harder and harder. Soon tears were streaming out of his eyes and wetting the fur on his cheeks. His whole body heaved as he tried to draw more air into his lungs, so that his mirth could continue.
Whisper, fearing for his sanity, asked "Kroqgar? What is it? What's so funny?"
Giving her another look, still laughing, Kroqgar turned back to the stone. With one smooth, easy movement, he raised the stone out of the earth and above his head. As moss and earth showered down Kroqgar's laughter never faltered.
Kroqgar's laughter seemed infectious. As Whisper watched him stand there, a multi-ton boulder above his head, she started to titter. Then she progressed onwards to giggling. Soon she was laughing as hard as he was, clutching her sides as she cried tears of mirth. After some time she looked up to notice that Kroqgar had calmed down to the occasional chuckle. He seemed to be gesturing to her with the stone. He lowered one hand, easily balancing the boulder in his other, and gestured her forwards.
As she moved towards him, he lowered the stone in his arm, fingers gouging slightly into the stone to keep his grip. She then stood directly before him, and stretched out her arms, as he lowered the stone onto them. He took care not to just drop it on her; on the off chance that she did not have his strength. She slowly felt the weight of the great object settle onto her arms.
Their laughter began anew as she too lifted the stone above her head, lifting it as easily as one would lift a small child.
...
Some time later the two were to be found lying next to each other in the shade, the evidence of time well spent strewn around them. Grass was strewn about the small space, with several deep depressions in the earth around them. Trees, some quite large, were felled and broken around them, and judging by the amount of jagged timber and broken wood around them at least one had been utterly shattered. What one couldn't tell by looking was that Kroqgar and Whisper had raced each other around the village, then a rematch, then a re-rematch and so on. They had both traveled many dozens of miles, yet not only did no sweat mat their fur, not only did their lungs labour for air, their heart rates had not even increased.
Both were giddy with excitement. They could cover hundreds of meters in seconds, they were both unfathomably strong, though they had found that of the two of them, Whisper was the faster whilst Kroqgar was the stronger. They stretched out under the canopy together, chatting about their new abilities and considering the many ridiculous things they could do, laughing at some of the more outlandish ideas.
After a time, Kroqgar suddenly sat up, getting Whisper's attention.
"Whisper, since we can do all this... ninja stuff," he said, with a vague wave of his hand, "Do you think we can use chakra?"
No doubt that mere hours ago Whisper would have laughed at the suggestion, but now she gave it some thought, before sitting up himself.
Turning to him with a grin she said "There is only one way to find out. Which Jutsu should we try?"
Thinking back over what he knew of Naruto, Kroqgar said, "I think we should try the Clone Jutsu. It's one of the easiest in the books, and they have to do it to graduate from the academy."
With a nod, Whisper replied, "Ok."
Brow furrowing, Kroqgar wondered, "Now, what was the hand sign we need to make again..."
After a brief moment of thought, the answer came to Whisper. She gave a small start of surprise as it did, for the feel of remembering the information was different. Her brain seemed to thrum as the knowledge was almost drawn out of it, like pulling an object from mud. The memory came, but only grudgingly. Suddenly, it seemed as if a dam broke loose in her mind, and she was flooded, inundated with information. She saw scenes and images flash through her mind's eye, multiple copies of herself, combat after combat, herself standing there, fingers entwined in odd formations, disappearing in puffs of smoke, throwing shuriken and kunai.
Her brain felt as if electricity was running along every nerve, lighting them up, frying them, and healing them all at the same time. Sensations and muscle memories, not her own, flooded her body from ears to toes, and her whole body felt as if being pricked by needles for a moment. Suddenly, a white light shot past her eyes, then expanded to cover her vision, blinding her. She screwed her eyes shut as pain exploded in her head, and with a cry clasped her hands to either side of it and fell back onto the grass.
A moment later, she opened her eyes and her surroundings faded from white to the cool greenness of the trees. She lowered her hands from the sides of her head, breathing heavily. She turned her head and saw that Kroqgar was faring no better than her, eyes screwed shut and panting.
They took a moment to catch their breath, then sat up and looked at each other.
"Did you just feel...?" asked Kroqgar.
"Yeah..."
"And it was like...?"
"Yeah..."
"And then you just..."
"I know..."
Their gaze met. As if on cue, they both steepled their fingers before them, the index and middle fingers of their left hand pressed against their opposite palm, tips reaching the first knuckles of their opposing numbers. The two other fingers were curved inwards, with the right hand being a mirror image of the first.
"Clone Jutsu!" they yelled in unison. Right beside each of them there was a small explosion of smoke, and the grass in the space rippled. When the smoke cleared, sitting next to them in an exact replica of their own poses, were two clones. They stared at each other for a moment, the originals and the illusions, for some time. Eventually, the two illusions looked at each other, then turned to their creators and said "Uh....hi."
In a puff of smoke, the two clones were dismissed with a thought from their creators. Said creators proceeded to leap to their feet with great shouts of joy, hugging and dancing around, ecstatic, at the thought of using chakra. They copied their earlier hand signs and made many more clones, each as ecstatic at the originals. The clearing was soon filled with smoke and shouts, laughter and cheering, as the two continued to test their newfound abilities. As they calmed down, they both decided not to try and go all out, for they did not know their capabilities. They could make hundreds of clones for all they knew.
They came back together to discuss their next move.
"I think we should go to the village. Go to the Hokage, whoever it is, Sarutobi or Tsunade, tell them everything. Where we come from, that this is basically a cartoon, that we seem to have this... knowledge of all the ninja stuff, everything" said Whisper.
"Good plan", said Kroqgar, nodding his assent, "But we shouldn't tell them anything about the...future, I guess it would be. I don't think it is a good idea to mess with the timeline, cos we all know how that usually turns out." Whisper nodded in approval. They had both read enough books about time travel to know that messing with time was just a bad idea.
"All right...so, into the village", said Whisper, as a smile spread across her face. "Into Konoha!" She got up and dusted herself off, and began to walk in the direction of the gates.
"Uhhhh...Whisper?" she heard a voice say behind her, and turned to see Kroqgar smiling up at her, still on the ground. "Forgetting something?"
She gave him a quizzical look, and thought for a moment. She couldn't think of anything.
"What is it?"
"Take a look at your hands", he said.
She raised her hands before her. They looked the same as they always did. Slightly small, with long elegant fingers, all covered in fiery orange fur. It took a moment to come to her.
"Ahhh... we are still...us" she said, grimacing.
Kroqgar rose from his seat, brushing at his backside. "Thankfully", he said, "That is no longer a problem." He smiled at her and made the same hand sign he had made before, Whisper recognized it as the Ram hand sign. "Transformation Jutsu!"
He disappeared in a puff of smoke. As the smoke cleared, Whisper saw what Kroqgar had changed into. She stared, and her jaw dropped.
He had changed into a normal person.
He still stood tall, two meters even. He was broad-shouldered and muscular, his form easily filling out his ragged clothes. He was clean-shaven, with a chiseled jaw line. His hair was dark blonde, with bright highlights. It was shoulder-length, slightly wavy, and seemed to be flat on one side and stick out the other. Fully extended, his fringe likely would've covered his eyes, but it was brushed to the side. His eyes were now an odd mixture of green and blue.
He stared down at himself, feeling his own hands and flexing his muscles. He raised his gaze to meet hers. With a big smile, he asked, "Would you care to join me?"
Getting over her own shock, Whisper, with the ease born of hours upon hours of practice, made the same hand sign, and said "Transformation Jutsu!"
When the smoke cleared, Kroqgar laughed upon seeing her. "You look like Sakura's long lost cousin!"
She was the same height and build, but that was where the similarity ended. She now had perfect, pale skin that almost seemed to glow. Her hair was now bright pink, though a shade or two darker than Sakura's, and rose almost like Kakashi's, though in much more defined spikes. She had high cheekbones, and full lips. All in all, she was what most would consider the perfect female form. She had kept her eyes though, her living, dancing green eyes, and they seemed to sparkle in her new face.
She did the same as Kroqgar, examining and prodding her new body in fascination. She raised her head and saw that he was smiling at her. She smiled back.
...
Kotetsu Hagane sighed. Although he would never admit it to his partner Izumo, he liked this job, but guarding the gates of Konoha could get remarkably boring.
He leaned back in his chair in the small booth next to the massive gates, and propped his feet up on the bench before him. Izumo sat next to him, hunched over and completing paperwork. He scratched at the bandage going over the bridge of his nose. It was getting itchy. He'd have to wash it again soon.
At first he'd chafed at this job, both outwardly and inwardly. He had liked his previous job, messing with the genins and assisting with ninja trials and training. When Tsunade had become Hokage and reassigned them, he had grumbled for days on end about the odd jobs she was forcing him to do, in her first days even fobbing off some of her paperwork. Over time he had grown used to this job however, putting some of his personal effects in the small booth, enjoying the feel of being almost surrounded by forest, even, he mused with a grin, eventually imprinting his backside into his chair.
What he most enjoyed though was the meeting of all the people that came through, catching up with old friends in their comings and goings, hearing the news of what was happening both inside and outside the village before most anyone else did. He was a people-person, deep down, and this job was exactly what he loved.
He jerked his eyes open. With a surprised blink, he realized that the combination of nothing to do, no one going by, and a surprisingly comfortable position in his chair had almost caused him to fall asleep. He stood slowly, the movement causing Izumo to glance up at him, and stretched his arms above his head, eyes screwing shut as he yawned mightily. A few days ago he would've just let sleep take him, but ever since Tsunade had turned up unannounced one day to get the roster of comings and goings in the village only to find him snoozing on the job he had learned a bit of humility. "I still can't sit down properly", he thought with a wince.
As he blinked the sleep out of his eyes, he saw the silhouettes of two figures moving towards the village from the horizon. He nudged Izumo next to him, gesturing in the direction of the two newcomers. Izumo looked at him to see what the problem was, then followed his gaze to the two coming towards them, walking down the slight slope.
He asked "You want me to, or...?"
"Nah, I got it," replied Kotetsu.
He stepped out of the booth, and saw the smaller of the two figures point him out to the larger. Their path changed slightly as they seemed now to be heading towards Kotetsu, not the village in general. As they got closer, he began to make out details. The large one was even bigger up close, towering over Kotetsu. He seemed particularly muscly as well. He wore odd clothing, what seemed to be a very old, very dirty, gray t-shirt of indeterminable cloth, and long pants that reached his ankles, that looked as if they were a faded blue at one stage. He wore shoes the like of which Kotetsu had never seen before, and had a head of blond-ish hair. The woman was much shorter than the man, even shorter than Kotetsu himself. She had bright pink hair and wore similar clothing to the man. He also saw that she was quite attractive, almost stunningly so, but decided against saying anything, not only for the sake of his job, but also unwillingly to take the risk that she was with the man.
As approached him, he greeted them both with a smile. He always wished to show that his village was hospitable to strangers.
"Hay there strangers," he said, as they stopped a couple meters from him. "What brings you to The Village Hidden In The Leaves?"
The man responded "We are traveling from a very, very far away land, and we were hoping to speak to the Hokage about our journey, and why we are here." The woman beside him nodded her assent.
Kotetsu shot an almost invisible look at Izumo, who, despite all outward appearances, was paying very close attention to the conversation. When he saw Izumo's microscopic nod of approval, he brought his gaze back to the couple before him.
"Ok, we will allow you entrance to the village. Follow Izumo here and he will take you to the Hokage," he said, as Izumo stepped up beside him (Izumo already having pressed the hidden switch in the booth to unlock the gates). He added with a laugh "You must be from very far away, I don't even recognize your clothes!"
As the couple walked off with Izumo he saw them shoot each other an odd look, part terror part amusement. Just as he was settling himself back in his chair he could've sworn he heard the woman whisper to the man "I can't be-lieve we forgot clothes!"
...
As Kroqgar walked after Izumo, he felt Whisper's hand grip his (not hearing the sad sigh escape from the booth behind them) and returned her grasp, smiling to himself. He remembered the brief conversation they had before they left for the village.
FLASHBACK
_ _
"Before we go, there is just one more thing I wanna talk about", said Whisper, as she stretched out on the grass, enjoying her new human form. Having this much hair on her head was weird!
_ _
"How we got here?" replied Kroqgar.
_ _
"You got it."
_ _
They discussed several ideas and theories, each more ridiculous than the last, before finally concluding that is must have been the work of the sphere of light.
_ _
Still not wanting to delve into too much detail about that particular memory, they discussed what could've happened. Neither of them had said anything special, neither of them did anything special (they both blushed profusely at this thought, and it was more visible than ever on their fur-less faces).
_ _
At their wits end, they sat there silently for a few minutes, each thinking their own private thoughts. Eventually, just as a matter of interest, Kroqgar asked "What was your New Years Resolution?"
_ _
Looking at him for a moment, a very slight blush spreading across her cheeks ("She looks so cute like that", thought Kroqgar to himself) and said, "I wished for a new life."
_ _
Kroqgar sat up and looked at her in amazement for a moment, before a big smile spread across his face.
_ _
"Me too."
END FLASHBACK
Izumo half turned to face them, a grin on his face as he placed one hand on the great gates.
"Welcome to The Village Hidden In The Leaves", he said, and pushed the gate open.
Kroqgar and Whisper followed him through the massive gates and into the brightness beyond.