Amongst the Storm

[Nikki Jekyll]

This is my Amazing Naruto Fanfic! HOORAH! Anyway, it's about three Cloud Village ninja and their sensei. Omg, so original, I know!
And I know that in my original, 'Nikki has a request!' thread, I said that the three main characters were Hikaru, Satoru, and Haru, but I realized that all their names ended in a u. XD, so now Hikaru is Hikari, and Satoru is Sarutobi (Tobi, for short.)



Aw, crap. Tobi for short, my ass. Dammit, and there's a character named Sarutobi. Fudge.
Now, I have to change his name to Sadao.

[Nikki Jekyll]

"Where is he?" Haru asked nervously, twirling his short green hair around one finger.
"He said he'd be here." Sadao grumbled impatiently.
"We don't even know if it's a guy!" Haru said.
Hikari was silently sitting on the ground, cross-legged, eyes closed.
Yesterday evening, after they had been placed on a team together, a message scroll had landed between the three genin. It stated that they were to be in the clearing outside of the village at seven o' clock.
Looking for some form of entertainment, Sadao glared down at Hikari. "What are you doing?" He demanded sharply.
Hikari remained silent. Sadao grumbled. Haru looked at Sadao and sighed.
"Don't you know what meditating is?" Haru asked from the other side of Hikari.
"Yeah, it's what you do when you're stressed or something." Sadao snorted.
"Ugh," Haru moaned, "You're as bad as Tatsuya." Sadao flinched visibly at being compared to his rival. "So close-minded." The green haired boy complained. Actually, Sadao wasn't sure of Haru's true sex. Sadao assumed that Haru was a boy, because he was so flat-chested.
But then again, one of their former classmates, Ayumi was flat-chested as well, and she was certainly a girl.
Hikari sighed, "Some one's coming this way..."
Sadao and Haru looked down at her.
"How dull." She finished, closing her eyes again and resuming her meditation.
Haru and Sadao immediately became silent and more alert. Even Hikari got ready for a fight by slipping one of her arms into her cloak and pulling out a kunai, this motion wasn't noticed by her companions, however.

For about half a year now, the Village Hidden in the Clouds had been frequently attacked by a group of rogue ninja. The Raikage hadn't requested help from their allies yet because within the last two months the attacks stopped.
The three genin stared out into the mist that often settled on the mountain village during the morning.
Haru blinked. He'd thought he had seen something. A figure in the mist. There was movement again, this time more defined. Haru's sharp grey eyes picked it out of the mist, analysing it.
Haru moved his left hand to touch Hikari's shoulder. Her eyes opened slowly and looked up at him.
It was obvious that Haru didn't want to alert Sadao, because the red-head had a habit of fly off the handle almost immediately, attacking first, thinking never.
Hikari soundlessly stood up, her fingers subconsiously gripped the kunai knife tighter. Her green eyes narrowed, glaring out over Haru's shoulder, looking for what her teammate saw.
"Greetings, Young Ninja!" boomed a voice.
Sadao turned to face the owner of the voice. Haru's facial expression dropped into one of confusion and shock. Even Hikari seemed slightly surprised.
Out of the mist came a giagantic Mountain goat, it was at least seven feet tall, not counting the horns. However, it was not the goat that was the bizarre thing.
It was the man riding the goat.
The man flipped down, bright yellow robes fluttering in the wind. He landed on the ground, and all three genin winced at the incredibly awful way that his orange under robe clashed with his sunshine yellow robe.
"Owies..." Haru muttered, one of his hands reaching up to hide his eyes. Hikari gently patted her friend's back.
"God must hate me." Sadao muttered as he stared at their new sensei, Kenji Okamaru, other wise known as the least subtle ninja in the village.


And considering that one of the Hidden Cloud village's largest clans were a bunch of born pyromaniacs, that was saying something.

[Nikki Jekyll]

First OOB (order of buisness): I'd just like to point out that if you're reading without commenting, you're making my Baby Gaara cry.
Second OOB: The last chapter... was too short. It was like, five hundred words. I'm going to fix it later, and make it much more detailed.
Third OOB: The three genin in this chapter are named Jun Yamaguchi, Tatsuya Nakagawa and Shinji Tsutaya.
Forth OOB: I think that I mention somewhere in the next chapter that Tatsuya always wears sunglasses.
I'd like to point out that I did not totally rip off Shino's ultra cool shades. Tatsuya's look somewhat like this (http://www.rutlandcycling.com/ProductImages/thumbs/bloc-halfmoon-sunglasses.jpg), and he has oodles (It's a word. Stop laughing.) of different shades and such.
Also: Jun and Sadao are cousins, though Jun was raised by Sadao's parents (she also has a superiority complex). And Shinji is rather dark skinned (think African American skin). Yeah, I think that's it for now. ON WITH THE STORY!

In the center plaza of Kumogakure stood a young girl, obviously agitated. Next to her stood two boys, one angry, the other plainly uninterested in what the girl had to say.
"Oi, how did I get terrible teammates?" Jun asked out loud. Tatsuya's left eyebrow twitched. Shinji stared out into the morning mountain fog. "Tatsuya the Hot-head and Shinji the Space case!" Jun cried, bringing her palm up to meet the hitai-ate that adorned her forehead. Even Shinji seemed offended by Jun's comments. Tatsuya certainly was.
"Don't forget about Jun the Giant Mouth." Tatsuya said, glancing over at Shinji. Tatsuya's blue grey eyes caught Shinji's maroon eyes, and the corner dark-skinned boy's mouth twitched. Jun made a disapproving noise.
"Delinquent." She muttered under her breath.
"Why thank you!" Tatsuya cried. Shinji's mouth curled up slightly, and the Tsutaya occupied himself with checking his paint pots. Tatsuya adjusted his sun glasses, he had worn the yellow tinted ones today. Because he knew that the sky would be overcast, and dark shades would make it hard to see.
Jun continued to rant, stomping in circles around the plaza.
"Yeah, she's the unlucky one." Tatsuya commented to Shinji, who was now pulling a sketch book out of his messenger bag.
"It could have been worse." The other boy said, taking out a pencil to sketch with.
"I don't see how." Tatsuya grumbled darkly.
"She could have been Ayumi." Shinji was now quickly sketching the fountain in the middle of the plaza.
Tatsuya cringed. The thought of having to spend actual time with Ayumi, of all people....
He preferred Jun.
A half-hour later found Tatsuya leaning against the wall of a shop, Shinji was sitting on the ground next to him, and Jun was sulking on one of the benches by the fountain.
Tatsuya gave an impatient grunt. "When are we supposed to meet this..ah.."
"Kaoru Basho." Shinji supplied, not even looking up from his painting. He was now beginning to add color to the picture, using a brush to direct the paint, rather than his normal way.
"Yeah, him." Tatsuya finished. They had not met their new sensei the day before, because according to Madoka Ebisawa, their former teacher at the Lightning academy, Basho had been ordered on an emergency mission by the Raikage, taking two other Jonin with him.
"This is most likely a test to discover how patient we are." Shinji said, his voice colorless. Tatsuya shook his head. For someone who constantly analysed and worked with colors, inks and paints, Shinji was a rather monotonous person.
Tatsuya was about to reply, when he was interrupted by the sound of wood clacking on cobble-stones. The taller boy immediately went on the defensive, his muscled body tensing up as the clacking got closer.
"Relax," Shinji said quietly. "It's just a passerby." Tatsuya snorted. As foggy and damp as this morning was, no one would be out shopping until the fog burned away later that afternoon, it was just too humid. Shinji was purposely trying to get Tatsuya to calm down.
"Stop that." Tatsuya snapped. Shinji looked up at him innocently.
"Stop what?" He asked.
"Stop trying to calm me down." Shinji stared at him like he had no idea what Tatsuya was talking about. Tatsuya scoffed.
"Ah," Shinji said. "Jun's finally noticed."
"Yeah, for someone who specializes in making traps, she's not that observant. And don't change the subject!"
Unbeknownst to Shinji and Tatsuya, who were still arguing about Shinji playing dumb, didn't notice a figure approaching. The figure was heavily cloaked, stooped, and it's face was hidden.
"Tatsuya Nakagawa, Jun Yamaguchi, and Shinji Tsutaya..." Whispered the figure. Tatsuya tensed upon hearing his name. Shinji looked up, his fingers poised on the clasp of one of the nine paint containers, ready to flip it open. Jun had her hand in a pouch on her waist, ready to pull something out to help her and her teammates get away.
"Good, you are alert." The person said. It straightened up, and moved it's head side to side, cracking it's neck. Jun gave an involuntary shiver. This person was so, eerie... "Despite the Raikage's words that the Rogue Ninja attacks have stopped, you are still ready for such an attack. That's promising."
"Who are you?" Tatsuya demanded.
"Kaoru Basho." Shinji said, closing his sketch book and returning it to his bag.
"Ah, the Tsutaya boy. How interesting." Kaoru said, once more cracking his neck. Jun shivered again. How creepy. "No doubt that your uncle has told you much about me."
"Not really." Shinji answered. "He did however, mention that you were late for almost everything.
Kaoru turned his head to face Shinji and Tatsuya. Tatsuya's eyes widened behind his yellow-tinted glasses. Kaoru wore a tracker-nin mask. The mask was white, with deep purple spirals around the area where the eyes should have been. The symbol of Kumogakure was engraved on the forehead of the mask.
There were more sounds of cracking joints as Kaoru said, "Ah, that sounds like something that Hideki would say." Kaoru laughed then, and Jun was chilled to the bone. Tatsuya seemed a tad disturbed by Kaoru's laugh, and Shinji was plainly uninterested.

Again.

[Nikki Jekyll]

First OOB: Raiden is irritable. Very irritable. He's anti-social and dislikes people a lot. They give him head aches.
Second OOB: Ayumi is a typical teen age girl. She's obsessed with Tatsuya, who thinks that she's creepy.
Third OOB: Kohaku is like Raiden says, the over-achiever from Hell. Kohaku is like Lee, but with out the funky pudding bowl cut and the green jumpsuit. He has to please everyone he comes in contact with, and disrespecting a sensei or some one of authority is a big no-no.


Raiden had a headache.
He had to be paired with the two most useless people in the Lightning academy. Ayumi, the boy-crazy, obsessive compulsive, and Kohaku, the over achiever from hell.
Ugh. What a migraine.
Kohaku was ranting about something to do with Raiden's lethargy, Raiden wasn't really listening. Ayumi was still morning the fact that Jun was the kunoichi on Tatsuya's team, not her.
Ugh. People.
"All right you fabulous ninja, you." Said a female voice. Kohaku's head snapped around so fast Raiden swore he'd heard it crack, Ayumi's head was slower, and her pretty brown eyes were curious. Raiden didn't turn around.
They were sitting in the middle of a park, right in front of a playground. Hiromi-sensei's son, Kamin was playing on the monkey bars.
"We begin training tomorrow." She said, waving at her son and smiling. It surprised Raiden that someone so bossy and hard could be so gentle.
"Tomorrow?" Kohaku asked.
"Yes. Will I have to repeat my self constantly?" Hiromi asked, glaring at Kohaku.
"No, ma'am."
"That's what I like to hear." Hiromi flipped her long hair over one shoulder.
"Hey, Mom!" Kamin cried. "Watch me!" The little boy did a back-flip off the monkey-bars.
"Be careful Kami!" His mother said, sternly, but not unkindly.
Raiden smiled. Hiromi and Kamin reminded him of another mother and son pair.
It was warm, the noon day sun had risen above the mountain and burned away all the fog of the morning. Raiden gazed up at the clouds, eyes half closed to protect his vision from the sun. Clouds flitted across the sky, like so many sheep.
Raiden counted all the clouds, there were nine clouds in all.
His mother would have stated this was an omen to the future. The clouds did make him think of his former classmates, now fellow genin.
That light grey one was Hikari, and the wispy little cloud beside it was Haru. Hikari and Haru were always together, best friends, but as different as night and day. Haru used to get bullied a lot before Hikari was there to beat the living crap out of all who even looked at Haru the wrong way. Hikari also had this thing about people touching her. As far as Raiden knew, she only let Haru and her father even lay a finger on her without being harmed.
Next was the large fluffy cloud and the smallish cloud with the dark grey-greenish tint to it. Tatsuya and Shinji. Tatsuya was almost immediately transparent, he wanted to become a ninja of high rank, so that people couldn't boss him around. Shinji, however was as dark as his skin. He never mentioned why his skin, hair and eyes were such strange colors, just as he never mentioned why he spent so much time with Tatsuya. The two were even more opposite than Hikari and Haru.
After them were the nearly identical clouds that seemed to be racing each other across the sky, Jun and Sadao. Raiden knew that Jun's parents had both died when she was very young, and Sadao's parents took her in. The two were cousins, but were raised as brother and sister. Sadao was extremely skilled when it came to making new gadgets, or causing explosions, just as his father was. Jun was more inclined to set up an elaborate trap, making her patient, but she always had this thing about success. She constantly went on and on about it.
Next was another small, wispy cloud, Kohaku. Raiden had always suspected that Kohaku's father was abusive. Kohaku often came to the Lightning Academy with bruises and false cheer. Even though Raiden didn't like Kohaku much, but he respected the boy for being so optimistic about the future, despite the dim prospect it foretold. Raiden smirked as he noticed the little Kohaku cloud growing bigger and stronger.
There was a small, fluffy cloud that was all by itself, sort of staying in one place, the little cloud seemed indecisive. Definitely Ayumi. Ayumi always seemed so small, and insignificant in the academy days. Raiden was surprised to learn that she passed the exams. Ayumi was obsessed with Tatsuya, possibly because the boy had a wild side that she couldn't achieve. Ayumi was always obedient, and never went out on a limb.
Then there was the final cloud. The cloud was changing shape, constantly twisting but the one constant was the hole in the center. Raiden didn't know why his father left Raiden and his mother. He assumed that he had a good reason. He had to. Because if Raiden didn't, then Raiden had to believe that his father was ashamed of his son and wife.
Tears welled up behind Raiden's eyes, and he looked down at the ground, leaning over his knees. Raiden ground the heels of his hands into his eyes, blinking away the tears.
"Raiden, are you all right?" Ayumi asked, placing a hand on Raiden's back.
"Of course he's not. He was staring at the sun all that time!" Kohaku scolded. "That's bad for your eyes, you know."
Hiromi leaned down and whispered into Raiden's ear, quietly so that the other two genin couldn't hear, "It's not good to live in the past you know. Your mother needs you in the here and now."
Raiden straighted up, the tears were gone. Hiromi was right. His mother needed him to be strong for the both of them.

He glanced over at Kohaku and Ayumi, who were now arguing about what Kohaku had said about Raiden's eyes.
Maybe this team wouldn't be so bad, after all.