Freedom (Naruto)

[Fû]

She hated them; every single one of them. She hated them and wished nothing more than for them to find some nice, deep hole – preferably six feet deep – to crawl into and just die. She would even help them out if they couldn’t find the means to do it. She would be more than glad to help them shove a kunai into their eye, or take a sword and just…slice their head right off its pedestal.

It was nothing they hadn’t already tried to do to her.

For the most part, they ignored her, and she relished in that. Gone were the days where the mint-haired kunoichi would try to win them over. She no longer required for them to be her friends. She felt no guilt for stealing what little food the peasants had. (The rich had just hired too many guards for her to put up with the hassle of stealing from them.) They were all dead to her. They had been the moment she had been picked out of her way. She had heard…rumors about others like her, but had never wanted to leave the village and go and search for them.

At least, she hadn’t before, but this day was different.

Fû knew just how much Chômei had wanted her to stay. She didn’t understand why, but, for some reason, the beast wanted her to live her life in Takigakure. Chômei generally knew what was best for her. The beetle had saved her sanity and her life on more occasions than the young jinchuuriki girl knew what to do with. She often listened to the happy-go-lucky beetle, even on her worst days. On those days, no one dared to be around her. Her killing intent would be incredibly high, and not a single person would dare to so much as appear in her line of sight. Fû had never killed anyone in her village. She wasn’t particularly fond of anyone, but had never bothered to attempt to kill anyone. Her teammates had gotten close, but they were alive. To kill anyone from this monstrosity called a village was basically signing her own death warrant. She would never get a moment of peace. It would be a domino effect. To kill one person would only send more people after her, in an attempt to avenge the loved one that she had cut down. That would only lead to more fighting, more deaths.

No, the kunoichi had never bothered to try to kill someone. She knew she could do it. Chômei, although it would disagree with what she was doing, probably would give in and let her do what she wanted. To themselves, they were pretty happy and cheerful. Fû was certain that, under different circumstances, the village and its people would love her. She would have many friends and, if she dared to think it, would be beloved. But, no amount of wishing changed her conditions, and she would always be a human sacrifice, a jinchuuriki. The word defined what she was. It made all of them hate her. It left her alone in that cursed, magnificently beautiful village. It left her with the pain and suffering only one with similar experiences to her would be able to comprehend. While knowing the scorn of the villagers, she also knew she had gotten a lucky pick when it had been Chômei that had been sealed in her. The beetle was not hostile…most of the time. It had its moments where it became angry in her stead, but what self-respecting human, jinchuuriki, or beast wouldn’t be quick to anger when a loved one was in danger?

That was why Chômei pumped its chakra into her. That’s why, currently, her skin was rock hard. If a kunai had been thrown at her, she was sure it wouldn’t have had much of an impact. It was why she was having a difficult time swimming out of Taki. Her skin was weighing her down, but it only made her stronger. This was sure to build up her muscles even more. The village was pathetic. It was unaware that its own weapon was leaving it for favor of being anywhere else. When she broke the surface, she looked around and couldn’t stop a vicious smile from appearing. There was no one around for miles to see. She was safe. Pushing Chômei’s chakra away from her was a difficult task, but it was one that needed to be done. Fû needed to be able to run, to allow herself to gain as much distance from Takigakure as was possible, before they had noticed she was gone. Strength and defense was something her chakra shell guaranteed her, but what the jinchuuriki needed was the ability to run. So, that was what she did. She had to run, unprotected, but she knew what rural areas around Taki well enough to be able to avoid any unwanted confrontation. And, at that point, ever confrontation was unwanted.

What felt like years later, but was really only days, she opened her eyes. She had run to the point of exhaustion. Even with all the extra energy that Chômei had given her, she felt like every limb in her body was unable to continue. She had set up traps in her immediate vicinity. If the ninjas of Taki thought they were just going to be able to sneak up on her, they had another thing coming. Afterwards, Fû had fallen asleep against a tree; a tree that was still currently behind her. That was excellent. It meant that she hadn’t moved in her sleep, which guaranteed that she hadn’t set off any of the traps. The trees around her were different from the ones she was used to, but they were pretty. Standing up slowly, she placed her hand on one of them. It felt different, feeling free.

[Naruto Uzumaki]

It was strange. As Naruto laid in his bed, he took the time to think over his life. Everything he'd been through had been pushed back to the surface by Mizuki. Only a few days ago the traitor had revealed one answer that solved so many questions. To think that the Nine Tailed Fox, a monster from history, was sealed inside him. Honestly, Naruto wished it was as cool as it sounded. However, he couldn't help but be slightly angered by the burden he'd be chosen for. He didn't ask for it and with all the problems it caused for him, the entire situation seemed completely unfair. Absently, Naruto stroked his cheeks. His fingers traced along the lines that he knew were there without looking.

The boy suddenly caught himself. What was he doing? Oh, no...He was turning into Sasuke! This couldn't happen, he was so awesome and was going to be Hokage! Suddenly, the image of him in dark blues with his hair slicked back and a glare on his face entered his mind. "No~" he wailed pathetically within his mind as he sprang from bed. It was wrong in too many ways to count. The boy glared at his bed as if accusing the thing of pulling him into the alien state of mind. Then pulled his nightcap off to check his hair for a familiar mess and not anything slicked back, even checking to make sure he was still blond.

He sighed at the false alarm, quickly picking up his clothes and gear. Staying and sitting around wasn't healthy for him. He was a ninja of action after all. A future hokage had to be ready for anything and everything, not bothering himself over little nothings. So what if the fox was sealed within him, Naruto Uzumaki was still Naruto frickin' Uzumaki. Whether people wanted to see it or not didn't matter right now. He'd show them when he put on that Hokage hat and gave them his best grin, a smile that would remind them of the way he defaced the Hokage Monument a few days ago. At that moment he finished dressing and making sure all his equipment was there. Then he strapped his forehead protector to his forehead as the finishing touch. Naruto was out the door a second later.

It was only after wandering around for a full ten minutes that he found a problem. There was nothing to do. He had passed the academy so there was no reason to wander around there. Konohamaru wasn't lurking about either so the boy must have gotten tied to his chair by Iruka-sensei. Ignoring all the passerby's, he made his way to his team's meeting place. No one was lingering on the bridge there though. No wonder since they had the day off. Should he pull another prank? Naruto quickly quelled that thought. They didn't hold that flair now that he was a ninja. A shame he didn't see Sakura-chan anywhere, it'd be nice to try and spend sometime with her. Without the annoying brooder of Konoha.

Honestly, what did a guy like him have that Naruto didn't. Grades? Naruto had passed. Skills? Naruto's Kage Bunshin was way better than spitting fireballs, even if he did say so himself. Personality? Please, the guy barely said a word and moped around all day in a way that he thought must have looked cool. Looks? His hair looked like a freaking bird! Maybe all the girls in Konoha were just delusional. Sasuke wasn't even worried about any of them. He was probably training with all his...TRAINING! The boy slapped himself on the forehead. Just because he was off didn't mean he should slack. He couldn't let Sasuke keep outshining him and the Kage Bunshin wasn't going to get better on its own.

Still, he wanted to develop super cool uses for the clones in private. He couldn't do that in the training grounds as someone was bound to stumble across him eventually. And he didn't want anyone stealing his techniques. They had to be unique to only him. So Naruto made his way toward the place where he had fought Mitsuki. Only Iruka would possibly think of looking there and he was teaching class right now so he was basically free to do as he pleased. So he hastily made his way there, careful not to draw any unwanted attention. Trees blurred by for a good few minutes until the clearing started to come up quick. Then something snagged against his clothes and tripped him up.

Danger sense going wild, he dove to the size and barely avoided a dozen launched kunai. Naruto tripped onto something else and hit the ground. Since he was looking up now, the huge branch that came into view provided enough motivation to get him moving. "Who the hell set up all the traps?" He screamed in panic. The cry was barely even heard over the loud boom of the tree colliding with the ground and splintering. Ninja instincts and history as a prankster saved him as he spotted a shoddy one before tripping it and vaulted over it. The boy sailed through the air, avoiding another and breaking through the treeline. Naruto tried to catch himself, but instead he missed and faceplanted. His mouth quickly filled with dirt and grass, but his face managed to slow him to a stop anyway.

He choked up the grit, grime, and grass while flailing wildly. During the coughing fit, he looked up to a girl a couple of feet in front of him and froze. Staring, he voiced the first words that came to mind. "Uhm...Hi there," he said dumbly with a goofy green tinted smile and scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment. Just his luck, get bombarded with traps and look like an idiot in front of a cute girl that he'd never seen before.

[Fû]

Fû didn’t like to be sneaked upon. Perhaps it was after the years of people haunting her, waiting to for that one someone to get close enough to kill her, she had become paranoid. She had whirled around and her hands had instantly gone towards weapons she had on her before frowning, pressing herself against the tree she had been running her fingers over. His eyes…however, were what stopped her. They were…kind. She didn’t think that she had ever seen anyone before that had kind looking eyes. At least, if she had met them and if she had seen them before, they were eyes that had never been directed towards her. She never met anyone who knew what it was like to have that feeling; the exhilarating power that Chômei granted her.

The power was bittersweet. It made the humans consider her a monster. Once upon a time ago, before Chômei had helped save her sanity, she had considered herself a monster. A monster that was barely covered by a human host.

She remembered a time where she had found herself staring at herself in the mirror, looking at the differences between herself as her mother. The differences between her mother, who was beautiful and human, and herself were unprecedented. Her skin had been unnaturally hard when she had pinched her skin. She hadn’t felt the pain. In fact, she hadn’t even been able to do any damage to herself. There was no red mark left on her skin. She was different from the other children. She didn’t look like them; her hair and her eyes separated her from them. She wasn’t loved like they were. They had parents to hug them, to nurse them back to health, and to kiss their “boo-boo’s” when they asked for it.

She, on the other hand, had been hated for something that she hadn’t been able to control. She was hated before she had even been able to pronounce her own name. Her superiors, which basically consisted of everyone in the village, treated her like she was worse than scum. If it came down to taking back traitors of the village or disposing of her, a loyal villager, they would take the traitors without a hesitation. On that day, she had thrown everything around her to the ground. Vases and pictures shattered against the ground. Fû had been so angry; so ready to wreak havoc on everything and everyone in her way. She wanted to be able to throw the pitiful humans around and kill them all; to get revenge on them for doing to her what she didn’t have the power to stop from happening to her. She has ceased believing in love. She had just started to work herself into a rage when she had heard the voice.

“No.”[/i]

And, all the anger had dissipated before she could do anything to keep on to her. She watched her eyes widen in the mirror, and, the next thing she knew, she was waking up outside against one of the trees outside of the village, overlooking the giant waterfall. She couldn’t recall how she had gotten out there, because she had never been outside of the village. Those in charge of her had always feared that she would leave the village if she knew the way. All Fû had been able to remember was that her hands were bleeding, her head was throbbing, she was tired, and she couldn’t hate the village unless she forced herself to do it, and she had. She had sat there with her arms wrapped around her knees until they had sent some higher level ninja out to retrieve her. At first, they had attacked her with showers of kunai, thinking her hostile to the village and everything it stood for. When the kunai bounced off of her, they resolved to lure her back into the village, slowly. Chômei had been the one to save her. The demon had saved her from snapping at the people who walked by her with scorn on their faces. The monster had stopped her from crying her heart out when she attempted to join in a game and the kids ran away from her, screaming.

She had stopped trying to interact with them after Chômei had entered her life. She supposed that the fiend had always been there with her, but had been unable to reach her until the moment where she would have snapped. From that moment, she had appeared mentally unstable to the rest of the public but a normal little girl to the monster. She read, and she trained. And, most importantly, she had plotted. Now, her plan to escape had been put into action. She had left the village and had avoided being tracked down. She had fought to escape and she had managed to do it. And, she had ran until she had been unable to run any longer. That was saying something, too, because Chômei had given her quite a powerful stamina. She had set up traps, thing to let her know that her ‘superiors’ had caught up to her. They would give her a chance to escape if they had been set off properly.

But, Fû had been tired. She hadn’t gotten to eat much. She had stolen some fruit and had eaten that, but it hadn’t been enough. She hadn’t eaten a lot to begin with, but this was seriously depriving her of being able to sleep and such. And, thus, lost in her thoughts, she had been completely and utterly unaware of all of the things had gone off. She hadn’t felt any maliciousness towards her, so that probably helped her ignore everything. She had only snapped out of her thoughts, made herself pay attention to the things around her, when the boy appeared in front of her. His outfit hurt her eyes, but they hadn’t stayed on his clothing for long. They had drifted upwards, towards his eyes that had been completely, utterly drained of any resentment towards her.

When she realized just how he had landed, she snorted. It was extremely unladylike of her to do so, but she couldn’t help herself. Fû took a step off away from the tree and covered her mouth, giggling. It felt…peculiar, laughing in such a public place and when she wasn’t just by herself. He just looked…so comical. She couldn’t believe that he had a headband on him. Surely, such a boy couldn’t be a proper ninja if he allowed himself to flop down on the ground in such a manner. She had never witnessed such…a failure anywhere in Takigakure. But, to be fair, she didn’t pay much attention to any of the ninja from that place. She would ignore them and do the mission on her own while they did anything else but stay by her. They made her sick. She had tried to reach out to them, had been belittled, and had settled on the mindset that they were all better off apart from each other and teammates in name alone.

“My apologies,” She said after finally having calmed herself down. It was…even weirder to be able to start a normal conversation. Usually, by this point, she had been given a look of disgust and would be deserted. But, this boy had neither left yet, and he had the decency to look…embarrassed at what he did in front of her. Her eyes left him for a moment before looking away from him and up at the trees. It was weird to see all the kunai and all of the other weapons that she had left set up in a trap lodged into trees and on the forest floor around them. She let out another giggle before returning her eyes back to the blond haired boy, wondering how he had managed to get through her traps without much of a scratch on him. They had been designed to stop people stronger than her…stronger than Chuunin.

“I wanted to make sure that no one woke me up from my nap.” She explained herself, finally. She wondered if he would believe that. Fû honestly didn’t want to explain to him why she had set up the traps. They didn’t look too far apart from each other in terms of age, but it felt like in terms of power…there was a difference. Of course there would be. Chômei gave her a bonus, although the demon was unusually silent. “You're from Konoha, right?” She asked, eyes tracing his forehead protector. “Are we near there? I haven’t…been paying attention to where I was running.” She scratched her cheek slightly. “I’m Fû…”[/size]

[Naruto Uzumaki]

Naruto was stuck dumb for a moment. The boy had a chance to really look at the person in front of him. More than just taking in features and obvious things that made people unique from one another, it was a deeper study than that. He took in the very presence this girl seemed to present herself with. Naruto wasn't the sharpest kunai in the pouch or the most observant kid around, but something about this person drew out his curiosity more so than others. The shine to his eyes was neither perverse nor threatening, but merely filled with an innocent curiosity to that of a child younger than himself. The deep blue irises reflected even the faintest amounts of awe as the girl even radiated whatever it was into the surroundings. He noticed that whatever the effect was it had spread to hum in the air around her. The closes description he could rationalize within his own mind was that she felt...familiar.

It wasn't just how she looked either, it was how she looked at him as well. Those eyes lacked the subtle anger or hatred that tainted the eyes of citizens he walked passed normally. There wasn't the indifferent recognition either, where people who weren't outright hostile still chose to avoid taking note of him. The girl wasn't even caught unaware either as she had plenty of time to place his unique looks and catch herself like some people did when thinking Naruto the average boy wandering around. She had guarded herself, that much was obvious and he could pick it out easily while she looked at him. Still, it wasn't him she was shielding herself from. It was more like she was trying to protect herself. That sounded odd even to him, but to the best of his ability it looked like she, whereas people he knew chose to closed themselves off to hurt him, instead closed herself off to prevent from being hurt.

This didn't actually express itself to Naruto's mind in the form of words. It would better be described as a mix of gut feelings that befuddled his being. The sharp contrast to what he was used to. The difference at someone not knowing who he was and in turn actually paying attention to him instead of going through faked motions of semi-acceptance served to catch Naruto completely off guard. Not even other kids in the academy had just gone ahead and accepted him without question. Their parents always called him a troublemaker (with good reason, but some of his more simple attention getters might have been exaggerated) so they usually stayed away from him until he went out of his way to approach them. Even then, they'd look at him constantly rethinking themselves as if they weren't sure if it was 'okay' to be friends with him.

Whatever it was about this girl, the more he tried to form the feelings in his head into words the more his head throbbed. The only thing he could really know for sure what that he was really confused and a bit off guard. Fortunately, the girl let out a a laugh...without it being directed 'at him'. Well, okay, maybe it was at him, but it wasn't in a negative way. Or he didn't think it was. Frankly, Naruto didn't know what to think. However, he was aware that should he look at her any longer it might be qualified as staring. So the boy averted his eyes, letting out his own chuckle as the flush on his cheeks became the slightest bit more pronounced. He moved to stand and almost tripped over himself when she apologized. Just like that. Another thing that was different, but it was a different he liked.

His smile felt lighter, less forced and heavy. Though it was still slightly shaded a light green from the blades of grass (a few which he might add, had gotten stuck between his teeth) it was still as bright as it was normally. Pushing himself off the ground, he brushed away some of the lingering nature from his clothes. Peeking a glance, he noticed she was now looking over him and the boy curiously followed her gaze. What met his sight was...a bit terrifying to be honest. There were weapons everywhere, cutting through trees all the way to the hilt. If it hadn't been directed at him just a few moments ago, the boy would have been impressed. Currently, he just swallowed hard to push his heart out of his throat. Naruto turned back to give her the best look of disbelief he could muster when she said it was just because she was taking a nap. Even so, he accepted the response without any argument.

"Wow, I'd hate to wake you from your beauty sleep then..." Naruto liked living after all. If this is what she did for a brief nap, the poor bastard that actually woke her from a deep slumber probably wouldn't live to regret it. Perhaps Naruto could persuade a certain Uchiha to meet her. The year's top rookie would probably want a sparring partner. So Naruto would just tell him to knock really loud after he tied the Uchiha up and super glued him to her door...maybe with a good helping of duct tape too since he could wiggle out of rope. Wait. Focus. As fun as those thoughts were, he was still having a civil conversation with a nice person he hadn't had the luck of running into already. A person he guessed wasn't from nearby, which was proved correct with her following words.

"Naruto." He chirped excitedly, intent to train forgotten. "Naruto Uzumaki." Honestly, the girl was so different he couldn't help, but become increasingly curious. Hopefully, since she wasn't from around here, he could show her around. "Of course I know where it is, what kind of future Hokage doesn't know everything about his village? You a messenger ninja or something?" He rattled off, even while looking for any signs of identification. Naruto still had to save face after his embarrassing entrance. Well, he wouldn't have to lay it on that thick. The boy did know Konohagakure like the back of his hand. Pranks were serious business and he couldn't waste time mingling about a crime zone. There was no escape route he wasn't aware of...that he was aware of anyway. "

"Wait...Does that even make sense?" He brushed away the thought. Not like it mattered. So what if he was exaggerating, he still knew Konoha pretty darn well. "Come on, I'll show you around." Naruto wasn't aware that he was turning into a bundle of energy fall over again. It was how he was. He almost rushed away, but stopped short before finishing his step. Staying completely still before he finished the motion, suspending himself in the process of taking a step and hovering his foot over the ground, he glanced back nervously. "Uh...there aren't any more traps...right?" He was pretty sure, much to his annoyance, that he had set off every one of them in a straight line on the path here. It didn't hurt to be sure.

Remember? He liked living.

[Fû]

Kunai weren’t cheap. They came with a price – a price Fû had to pay. She either had to buy some for missions, in which case she would have to forfeit eating that week, or she would have to go without new kunai on missions and have to come up with another way to defend herself. Currently, she had about 50 ryo on her, give or take some. They had to last her for a while yet. So, glancing around and looking at all the kunai and weapons she had wasted, she felt the need to go and pick them all of them up. But, looking back over at the boy, perhaps she didn’t. Ample amount of time had passed, and yet the boy was still standing there in front of her. She hadn’t really…held a conversation like this long enough for it to make a difference in her life. Sure, there had been those moments where people had been unaware of her…resident, but they always found out in the end what she was. Their scorn, after she had grown to like them, always felt like they were reaching into her heart and tearing it out of her chest.

“Now is not the time to get lost in your thoughts, Fû.”[/i] Chômei commanded her. She jumped slightly and rolled her eyes. Even after all this time, every time it talked she would get surprised. It was better some times than others. For example, if Chômei decided to make his presence known to her, she would be prepared for it. She wouldn’t be as shocked, but then therej were moments like those; where she would simply be putting it out of her mind in order to think about her life. Fû was going to have to remind herself that all that abuse was behind her. ‘Oh, shut up, Chômei. Now’s not the time’ “for you to surprise me like that.” She growled, before realizing what she did. Thankfully for her, most of what she had said had been under her breath. She doubted that the guy was an idiot, but, hopefully, he was too busy gawking at her to notice than she had been talking to herself. Speaking of gawking, she had been doing quite a bit of it herself. She flushed slightly, but was glad that Chômei’s chakra gave her dark skin. It made it less noticeable.

Not like she had ever needed it before. There were moments where she had flushed in anger, but hardly any for being embarrassed. Most people tended to think that setting her up to be embarrassed was comparable to signing their own death warrants. Considering what she had set up just to take a nap, there were worst traps that she had set up. There were faces to her that she wouldn’t recommend anyone see unless they were sure that that was the last thing they wanted to see. Most of the people in Taki would tell anyone that would listen than she was just waiting for that one moment where she was going to snap. She might have, too, had it not been for the Shichibi. They would have deserved it. In fact, she would have loved nothing more than to take vengeance against the people that had made her life a literal hell.

Kami help mankind if Chômei ever let her actually break out in anger. Fû’s eyes shifted back towards him when he chuckled, and she almost did a double take. Was he unaware of the grass stains on his teeth? She wondered if it would be worth it to let him walk around with his teeth looking like that, or if she should take pity on the one human being that hadn’t shunned her within the five minutes of meeting her. Then again, it wasn’t as if she trusted him already – because, she didn’t, right? She did feel awkward, though. Apart of her wanted to jump into the trees and just end the conversation there. It was better to do that and feel sad for a day or so than to realize that this was all going to be in vain whenever he found out. Everyone, inevitably, found out just what she was. At least she would be able to hold the memory dear. Anymore would taint her memory.

Fû smirked and refrained from laughing at him when he turned back to look at her. She had been expecting a sneer or something else. A look of disbelief…it almost felt as if some sort of insult. She snickered cheekily before pointing to her own teeth. “Uzumaki-san?” She started. “You have stains on your teeth. They’re kind of distracting.” But, they were less distracting than his outfit. It made the fact that he was a ninja even harder to believe. In the back of her mind, she wondered how he would fair if she decided to attack him. She knew she wouldn’t do it – he was…too nice to do it. There was also that sinking feeling that she had met him before, even though she knew she hadn’t. ‘Chômei? Have we met him before?’ She asked her detainee. She waited a second for a response, but, when she got nothing, she almost sighed in disappointment. She honestly hadn’t expected much, but still. It was somewhat rude of the tenant not to answer her.

She blinked and stared at him. She didn’t even care much if he felt weird or something because of the unabashed way she was staring at him. After all, no one had really taught her to have any manners. The instructors just kind of left her alone, and no parent dare get near her. “Beauty sleep?” She frowned and crossed her arms, sneering slightly. “Why? Do you think I need it or something?” Fû hadn’t ever really been joked with. She took things literally, for the most part. She understood when she was lying, and when Chômei was only partially telling her the truth, but she was…socially awkward, at best. “I don’t even know how you managed to get passed all of that, actually.” A little doubtfully, she added. “You’re not a Jounin, are you? I mean, your chakra levels are pretty high, but surely…” She raised an eyebrow.

Future Hokage…? From everything that she had heard, Konoha was a powerhouse among villages. Surely, they could afford to have a Hokage that didn’t wear such a bright color of orange. It almost gave her a headache, and she would say something about it if he weren’t being so damn nice. It made her sick that he was being that nice. She almost wanted to blurt out her monstrosity just so that he would stop, but it was refreshing. She almost wanted to cry, too. The way he was looking at her, like she was an actual human being with feelings, it was so totally new. “N-no.” She smiled, freely. She didn’t feel the need to hide it or even deny that she had done it. “I’m a Chuunin, but I don’t usually take those kinds of missions.” Fû left it at that. Let it be up to him to come up with an excuse as to why she was there. She honestly didn’t want to have to lie to him about it. She was a missing nin. She had swarms of people after her. Hell, she expected Taki to send word to Konoha about her soon, too.

She sucked in a breath of air before nodded at him and taking the steps forward that were necessary to reach him. When he hesitated, she glanced around with a skillful eye. “If you walk ten steps opposite of where I was sleeping, you’ll set off a series of traps, but you set off all the ones heading this way.” Fû nodded, giggling slightly. She reached down and wrapped her hand around his wrist, carefully and keeping her orangey eyes on his face. She wanted to be able to judge his expression. The moment it looked like he was going to come hit her or something she was going to take off in the next direction. She was certain that she would be handier with a kunai than he would. And, if that didn’t work, she could always let Chômei take charge, although that would guarantee a lot of pain for her later.[/size]