Uzumaki Naruto was something of a connoisseur of spirals. From doodles in the margins of his Ninja Academy papers to insignia of his home, the Village Hidden in Leaves, to the namesake fish cake toppings of the ramen he loved to eat, he was happily surrounded by them essentially 24/7.
This was probably why he kept the stone, though the were other factors as well.
The only thing cooler than spirals was the color orange, and possibly his crush Haruno Sakura, with her long, soft pink hair, that gave him a funny feeling in his tummy and made him want to stroke it when he saw it flowing in the breeze.
The stone was about the size of a man's thumb and made of some kind of translucent material, smooth like that "amber" stuff his class's teacher Umino Iruka had shown them one time, and once the dirt was cleaned off it, it glowed as if with an inner light in the bright, dappled sunlight of the unused training area where he'd dug it up. Unlike the pale yellow pieces brought in to show the class how the various elemental energies could be found in nature, however, it was the same glorious pink of Sakura-chan's hair laced with streaks of vibrant orange that followed the shape of the raised whorl pattern on its surface.
In short, it was a little piece of perfection given mass and form, as far as Naruto was concerned. (If you have to ask WHY he was digging holes in the middle of nowhere on his free time, you've obviously never been or had to keep track of a young boy. It's just part of the package, along with mysteriously appearing smudges of dirt, always having a bit of string around, and finding dried up frogs in pockets of the pants that were kicked a little too far under the bed to be pulled out for the laundry a week or two before.) He hopped out of the hole with a grin, and idly rubbed at the smudge making the whisker marks on his cheek itch as the mud dried. He breathed on his find and polished it again with the folded cuff of his orange jacket, grinning at the electric tingle in his fingertips.
Abandoning his excavations he skipped over to the middle of the small clearing and turned it over in his hands, flicking more clinging dirt out of crannies with his fingernails and examining his find in the full sunlight, instead of the constantly shifting patches that found their way through the leaves closer the edge. He spotted a drilled hole through one of the projecting, star-like points and pulled up a tall grass stalk to poke through and clear it, noting a few rotted threads falling away when he succeeded.
"Ah, I see, I see," he mused to himself, fishing in his pockets for a bit of string so he could hang it around his own neck. He came up with the drawstring from a rice bag and licked one end to feed it through the small hole. "It must have been an amulet somebody lost while they were training, or no, no, even before Konoha was here! A super-cool ancient hero, dattebayo!" He giggled as he imagined the scene, a dashing hero who just barely dodged the slashing claws of a horrible monster in time to save his skin, though he lost his amulet and the tip of one spike of golden hair. A backflip with a kick at the beast's fang-laden jaw and he was clear again, then he drew a sword -
"No, no! An invisible sword! An invisible cha-tora sword jutsu made without even using hand seals, because he's just that awesome!" the eleven year old crowed, jumping back and miming the imaginary battle.
- created an invisible sword and struck back at his foe, orange battle dogi whipping in the wind of his super speed.
"Slash! The monster tried to get him again with its claws, but they were gone! Nothin' left but flat stumps on the end of its paws, dattebayo! Then it tried to jump and pounce 'im, but -"
He was interrupted by a feminine yelp and a thud from where he'd been digging. Half wondering about the noise and half wanting to flee before he got in trouble again, he jumped in shock and then jittered in place for a few seconds indecisively, before the sound of sniffles and his own curiosity got the better of him. He turned back to look and discovered a girl about his age, one of his new classmates since he failed the final test and had to repeat the year.
He wasn't sure about her name - Tempura? Tentpeg? Penpen? - but he recognized the recognized the sleeveless pink top and the way she put her hair up in two little buns, and remembered that she was the best in the class at weapons practice when he saw the shuriken and kunai scattered around where they'd fallen when she fell. The girl was sitting on the edge of the hole he'd dug, holding her ankle and blinking away the tears that kept welling up while obviously trying to stifle any audible distress like a proud shinobi should.
Embarrassed, Naruto rubbed his neck and apologized, "Oops, I kinda forgot about the hole there..." He laughed uncomfortably before going over to help her, since she was one of the few kids who didn't go out of her way to ignore and avoid him. "Is it broken? Are you bleeding? I'll run to get uh, your parents if you tell me where you live, dattebayo!" Instantly he regretted the offer, since her parents were sure to make her avoid him from now on if they found out it was his fault she got hurt, or even if they thought she was just there to play with him. Stupid grown-ups.
He wasn't expecting the way she whipped the tears off her cheeks and schooled her expression, or the fierce way she shouted back, "No! I don't have parents. I'm okay on my own!" Gritting her teeth and squeezing her off-hand into a white-knuckled fist, she pushed herself off the rim of the hole and stood upright - well, mostly.
Naruto could understand the feeling, but also knew from his own experience that a foot injury like that was a huge pain in the ass ... and the foot, obviously ... to try to walk on. "You should sit down for a while and let a sprain heal, even if it doesn't really get worse if you get up and keep running, 'tebyo," he said instead. "Since other people don't seem to heal as fast me, it might even take an hour or something."
Eyes watering again, Tenten sat back down on the rim of the knee-deep hole and looked around. "What happened to all the dirt?" she asked. "It's still dark and wet on the sides, so I know it's dug fresh, but where's the stuff you took out?"
Walking over to help pick up the weapons that had fallen out of her reach, Naruto explained, "Oh, I threw it into the long grass in the clearing, since Iruka-sensei said people could detect a trap if there was new dirt around it."
"You dug a trap for me!? You jerk! This is my favorite training ground!" Tenten growled and fingered her precious pointies threateningly.
"Eh? Ah! No! I was just practicing, practicing! I wasn't trying to trap you, dattebayo! Then you fell in anyway even though I didn't even hide it yet!" he replied seeing and then forgetting the danger as his prankster's sense of humor acted up.
Unable to stay angry even if he was laughing at her when there wasn't a speck of malice in it, Tenten crossed her arms, turned away and huffed in irritation before wincing and going back to massaging her ankle as the movement jarred it.
Hoping to distract her and show off his new treasure, Naruto held out the amulet he'd found on its string so she could see it better. "I got distracted 'cause I found this buried down there. Isn't it kickass? Like a super-cool spiraling star of awesome orange and Sakura-chan pink, de'bayo!"
Intrigued, the girl reached out to touch the unusual looking stone. "It is kind of cool. You found buried all the way down here?" she asked, digging idly in the exposed dirt with the heel of her good foot. "Hey, it zapped me!"
Naruto had jumped a bit as well, then giggled and flashed his foxy grin. "Yeah, I think it's a piece of weird colored amber," he said. "Iruka-sensei didn't do it yet this year, but last year he brought some in when he talked about types of elemental cha-tora so we could rub it with wool and see lightning-type energy."
"Elemental tea tigers? What ARE you talking about?" Tenten asked, confused.
"Cha-tora! You know, cha-tora, the energy used for ninjutsu and stuff! You gotta know this stuff, it's our last year already, dattebayo!"
"Hmmm... I think you mean, 'chakra,' Naruto. That's what that energy is called. I knew there were different elemental types, but I didn't know the chakra itself could be different," the girl commented thoughtfully.
Crossing his arms and nodding mock-authoritatively Naruto put on his best serious face and insisted, "Only super-elite ninja like me know the secret password of cha-tora, to make your jutsu stronger than a roaring tiger." Yes! He was so awesome, and if it sold energy drinks it was sure to convince her!
"If you say so," replied Tenten dubiously. Still digging her heel into the bottom of the hole, she was distracted when something solid shifted under it. She scuffed away the loose dirt and saw the gleam of something metallic. "Hey, I think there's something else down here," she said, bending to pick up whatever it was.
The metal object was shiny and unblemished despite having been buried for who knew how many years, shaped somewhat like a six-pointed shuriken with the points snapped off as stubs, though they were as smooth as the rest of its surface and showed no signs of having ever been edged. It was a bit bigger around than Naruto's stone and as thick as her pinky, but even with the hole in the center and the six curved cutouts around the rim it was much lighter than any metal she was familiar with should be. One side was oddly indented as well, and Tenten wondered what it might be meant for as she brushed bits of clay out of the depressions.
Poking the tip of her tongue out of one corner of her mouth cutely, the kunoichi in training turned the small metal object over in her fingers, then put a pinky through the central hole and spun it gently using her other hand. "I'm not sure, but I think I remember something like these when they were talking about complex traps that might be in a mansion or fortress last year," she said at length. Taking another look at it, she got an idea.
"I think your stone was meant to fit into it, see?" she said, outlining the shape of the ridges. "It doesn't have fingers to hold it on like the gem on a ring, but the shape is right for them to go together." Thinking a moment, she came to a decision. Naruto was a prankster and kind of klutzy, but couldn't deny that his jokes were usually funny, well deserved vengeance, or both, and couldn't see why so many people didn't like him. Neither was she one of those shallow popularity obsessed girls who thought the world turned on fashion, gossip, and boys. Talking to him had been fun now that she actually took the time to, and it had taken her mind off her ankle while it was hurting the worst - she couldn't blame him for being so blind to her surroundings that she fell into a huge hole that wasn't even hidden.
"Do you have another string?" she asked, holding the gear out to him. "That way I could wear this one, to show that we're friends!"
Naruto's eyes popped open like a flash tag. "F- f- friends... ?" he repeated, incredulously. No one had EVER just offered to be friends, and most of the time when he tried to make friends himself they just laughed, ignored, or insulted him.
Suddenly shy at the unenthusiastic seeming response, Tenten's arm and eyes dropped. "Well, if you want to," she hedged.
Springing to his feet from where he'd crouched down across from her, the often lonesome boy leapt to agree. "Of course, of course! I want to!" He dug frantically in his pockets for another string, spilling a few crumpled feathers he'd found in the woods, an empty ramen wrapper, two slightly sticky candies, an old math assignment, and a handful of rubber bands. "Ah! String! Got some!" he announced, pulling out another rice bag drawstring. This one had come from a different brand that he didn't like as much, and had started out red but faded to pink over the course of several trips through the laundry in his pocket. As such it was a bit darker than her usual tops but a good median between them and her brown hair, and the girl smiled happily as she held the gear out again to have the simple cord fed through one of the outer cutouts and tied in a loop.
"Yeah, let's be good friends, dattebayo!" he enthused, holding his stone out again as he finished.
Moving carefully and keeping as much weight as possible off her bad foot, Tenten climbed out of the hole and stood up, putting the necklace over her head and leaning close so they could fit the two parts together.
Neither child was remotely expecting the way the spiral stone glowed brilliantly as soon as they did, let alone the explosion of red chakra that erupted out of Naruto in response, shrouding the two of them in a hot, swirling maelstrom as it was devoured by the united artifacts. The glow increased until they were forced to squeeze their eyes shut against its glare, the rush of energy flaring ever higher until it felt like it would bowl them off their feet.
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(Posted Sat, 05 Sep 2009 13:54)
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