"Yes. Someone has a sense of humor. Or irony. Whatever."
"So you're dying," said Naruto. The statue was of a man in a sort of ninja sneaking pose - a knife of some kind in each hand. His face and body were mostly covered by a hooded cloak.
"Yes. There is the barest fragment of my divinity left, the rest having been torn away and fought over like scraps of meat by wild dogs. Not comforting."
"That don't sound good," said Naruto. "Sorry I can't do anything."
"Actually. You can. I think it is why you are here."
"You want me to fix your statue?" asked Naruto.
"No. I want you to place your hands on the statue and accept this splinter of power. I sense that you could use some stealth and thievery talents, and those I can grant you."
"I already got something in me I ain't thrilled with," pointed out Naruto.
"A compromise then."
Flakes of stone fell away from a lump inside the cloak, and a wooden club about as long as Naruto's forearm dropped to clatter on the stone.
The pieces of stone began to rain down as the statue slowly crumbled away.
"Fare well, hero. At least in one world, perhaps, grace and stealth and trickery will prove a legacy of sorts for me."
Naruto picked up the stick, noting that there were black metal bands and caps on the dark wood. He held it for a moment before he lifted his hands and removed the mask.
Sakura was curious, these were masks with some complicated fuuinjutsu on them. After the Wave mission, she'd been looking at her own performance and hadn't seen where she'd done anything spectacular.
She felt like she was lagging behind Naruto and Sasuke despite her performance in learning tree-walking. The two of them were so far ahead of her in raw strength that it was like she had started out walking even with Sasuke and Naruto trailing them both. Now Naruto and Sasuke were walking further and further ahead of her and all she could do was watch them advance from behind.
It galled her. She had fought and studied and practiced to be the year's top kunoichi. Mostly for Sasuke but at least partly for herself. Now she dawdled behind the person she'd openly mocked as being useless. What did that make her?
She was curious as a result of that. The mask she'd shown Kakashi was ko-omote, so a rounded porcelain mask with reddened lips and narrowed eyes and the two ovals to denote eyebrows placed well up the forehead.
She met the eyes of the mask.
"I am not for you."
There was a clatter as the mask hit the wooden floor.
"Hn?" went Sasuke, leaning back so he could look at Sakura.
"It's nothing!" quickly responded Sakura. "Slipped."
"Hn," indicated Sasuke, turning his attention back to the support pillars. A faint pattering noise indicated that the threat of rain had been fulfilled.
Sakura picked up the mask and again looked at the writing on the inside of the mask. The kanji indicated innocence or purity. So the mask of some maiden character?
Swallowing nervously, Sakura turned the mask over again and met its eyes.
"I am not for you."
This time she didn't drop it. Nor did she throw it against a wall. She felt the impulse to but held back.
Glancing nervously about, and knowing how silly it would look if someone walked up, Sakura whispered to the mask. "What are you?"
"I am not for you."
Sakura let out a breath she hadn't immediately realized she'd been holding. So it was just a response to someone meeting the eyes of the mask. Some sort of automatic response?
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(Posted Fri, 02 Jan 2015 22:13)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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