Aftermath [Vretel Ayama and Navi] [Private NK]

Ayama sat on her bed, leaning against the wall the four-post was pressed up against and drawing in her notebook. The sketch book wasn't an expensive thing, mostly just blank mismatched papers clipped together. She hummed quietly before drawing back her hand to eye her picture. Her mood fell immediately as she recognized the face in the sketch. She had intended to draw Vretyel, she loved flexing her skills as an artist. But the picture had not turned out as planned. What was supposed to be a dark haired blue eyed boy had turned into the pale eyed Hyuuga that now dogged her nightmares. Snarling in frustration she ripped the picture from her book and violently shredded it. Dropping the fragments onto the ground she hunched over and placed her face in her hands.

Hisoka fluttered nervously, and tried to soothe her but his presence only served as a reminder of what she had nearly lost. Sighing heavily she strained to push away the dark memories, expelling them from the forefront of her mind. For a long moment she remained still, trying to settle her mind and emotions.

“We have a team meeting today,” Hisoka reminded her tentatively. Huffing softly she nodded and sat up, pushing herself off the bed. She went to the door and picked up her ninjato, belting it to her waist before going to pick up the katana. The weight and sight of the blade made her smile. Perhaps she was over thinking the significance of the gift, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was some greater meaning behind it. She knew Navi enough to know that he didn’t just give out fine weapons willy-nilly.

She added the Katana to her other hip the extra weight feeling right somehow. Smiling once more she formed the handsigns and disappeared in a puff of smoke, reappearing at the meeting place. She turned around surveying the empty clearing before stepping back to settle beneath a tree. She had a feeling that today she and Vretyel would be questioned about their capture. A conversation she was not looking forward to.

Vretyel didn't like the idea of facing Navi for the first time since their escape from the Hyuga boy. During the time between the incident and this meeting Vretyel had been doing massive research into his clan. Now that he had returned from almost certain death Vretyel was more focused and driven as ever to become the most powerful Inazumahi ever in existence.

Vretyel had read up some on the history and significance of the clan along with obtaining the secret book of the Inazumahi clan from his father. From the information he gathered there were several of these books still in existence, but nobody knew where any of them were, except for the one Vretyel's father had. It was said they contained an extensive history of the clan along with instructions on how to preform ancient and powerful jutsu the clan had developed when it was in its prime.

When Vretyel was rested enough the first thing that he did was force his dad into giving him the book. As Vretyel walked through the woods he remembered the conversation vividly in his mind:

'Father, give me that book, now. It is my birthright and I want it.'

'No, son. You are not worthy of it, you do not deserve that book, and you will never deserve it's knowledge.'

'You are wrong, I am stronger than you, more powerful, and I have a passion for being a ninja, you give it to me now, or I WILL take it by force'

'You are weak and you will just get yourself killed in the process, I have done EVERYTHING in my power to stop that from happening. When you were accepted into the academy I pleaded with you not to join. When you became a genin I told you to quit while you still had the chance. Now that you are a Chuunin, you will walk the path that your ansestors did. You will die, and it won't be fast either.'

'If I am going to die then, THEN WHY DONT YOU GIVE IT TO ME! YOU PATHETIC BITCH.'

Vretyel's father sighed, and took out a Kunai from his pocket. 'I told you, you will DIE before you get your hands on this book, I gave you the chance and now I will kill you before you die like your uncle and grandfather!' And he came running towards Vretyel.

His father had not trained in years, and probably the first time he had used a Kunai in a decade. Vretyel took his Bo Staff and swung at him with it, sending him flying to the other side of the room before his father could even get 3 feet from him. Vretyel only hit him with half his power, so it would only break a few bones.

'Fine...then....go die, you idiot' And with that Vretyel's father passed out.

'Unlike you, I have the drive to become a great ninja, and I AM WORTHY' Vretyel picked up the book and walked out the door, probably never coming back to that place.

He was angry with himself for taking the book with such force, but it needed to be done, he was NEVER going to be in a position where he let his guard down again, this book would make sure of that.

The only problem with this book was that Vretyel could not read its contents, a seal or something was placed on it, and he did not know the way to break it, probably as a precaution from his father if Vretyel ever got his hands on the book. He brought it with him to the meeting to see if Ayama, or Navi, could help him with this minor problem.Vretyel needed to hurry however, so he began running to the location so he could still be there early.

Vretyel was the first to arrive at the meeting place and jumped onto a branch high above the ground, but as soon as Ayama arrived he jumped down to face her. Vretyel had a lot of questions, especially reguarding Hisoka, the demon cat.

"If we are going to be a team I suggest you tell me more about you're little friend, your guardian, Hisoka. You saved my life, and I thank your that. However I saved your life, you owe me some answers." Vretyel charged his staff, Crimson, not to fight her or scare her away, but just as an intimidation tatic. He did not think she would try to kill him to keep this secret, after all, he did save her life.

Navi would be running a little bit late to the team meeting, as his new duty as a Captain in the ANBU Black Ops took up a large amount of his time. Technically he had been given a short vacation, but Navi had a hard time to realizing that fact.

As Navi headed towards the meeting place he carried a small briefcase with a lot of money, hoping that she would deliver the cash to the sand village after the meeting was over.

He would arrive soon, not for training, but to hear about the attack and kidnapping that a strange missing ninja had performed. There were a lot of questions to be answered, and as a new officer of the Black Ops, Navi needed all the information he could get on rogue ninja. He also had somewhat of a personal Vendetta against the Hyuuga, so the disposal of this one was of great interest to him.

"If we are going to be a team I suggest you tell me more about you're little friend, your guardian, Hisoka. You saved my life, and I thank your that. However I saved your life, you owe me some answers." Vretyel charged his staff, Crimson, not to fight her or scare her away, but just as an intimidation tatic. He did not think she would try to kill him to keep this secret, after all, he did save her life.

She eyed him and then his staff, her pupils dilating to mere slits as her instincts told her to get up and defend herself. Her lips curled slightly, lifting to bare her fang like canines. Her eyes narrowed to mere slits and she stood slowly. Her fists clenched and her eyes blazed.

“Do not demand from me information you know nothing about,” She snarled her voice cold and dangerous, “I owe you nothing when it concerns this. I’ve trusted no one with this secret and you DARE to demand it from me? I should kill you where you stand.” She turned away, haughty and cold. But full of fear. She may have grown to trust Navi and she may have considered Vretyel a comrade but this was her secret. This was something she held closer than everything else.

“He said he would fight for us.” she twitched at the sound of Hisoka’s voice

“You just like him because he isn’t Navi,” she snapped, but she could feel Hisoka’s negatory response before he said it.

“No, I think he is loyal and trustworthy. We at least owe him something of an explanation, we don’t have to even broach your history.” she paused thinking about the words then sighed heavily and nodded. She closed her eyes and summoned her chakra, pushing it towards her bond and opening the way for Hisoka. In a swirl of smoke the massive cat appeared. Turning she faced Vretyel.

“It’s a bloodline, I’m the first one to have it. Hisoka is my partner of sorts connected to and created from me,” she placed her hand on the massive cats head, her tanned fingers vanishing into his smoky fur. He tilted his head to her before turning to study Vretyel, his angular yellow eyes intense in their stare.

“You must understand,” he rumbled, “ This is a secret, to many. In telling you we are also trusting you not to tell anyone else. We are… unsure of how our village would react.”

Ayama growled at Hisoka’s speech, wrapping her arms around herself and looking away, obviously uncomfortable with the entire situation.

“It’s a bloodline, I’m the first one to have it. Hisoka is my partner of sorts connected to and created from me,” she placed her hand on the massive cats head, her tanned fingers vanishing into his smoky fur. He tilted his head to her before turning to study Vretyel, his angular yellow eyes intense in their stare.

“You must understand,” he rumbled, “ This is a secret, to many. In telling you we are also trusting you not to tell anyone else. We are… unsure of how our village would react.”

Did this cat just talk to Vretyel? Lucidly Communicating with him, without question or even a demand she summoned him to the field as if it was nothing. This meant that she could easily summon him at any time, even in the heat of battle. This made Vretyel trust Ayama a little more, as she had shown him this amazing piece of Bloodline. This did not mean, however, that Vretyel was going to go easy on Ayama. There was, however, one thing that he also had to do before anything. Vretyel took off one of his gloves and got into his bag of Ryo, and handed her 500 ryo.

"This isn't much, but that madman stole your Kunai, and without you I would be dead, so thank you, thank you both."

After she took the money Vretyel put his glove back on and continued charging his staff, standing uneasily close to Ayama, making sure that she try to pull anything.

"Hisoka, I appreciate you're trust in me, I get that you would have preferred not to show me, but we are a team, and I have to trust you, both of you. Ayama, thank you for summoning Hisoka when you did, but you need to trust me, OK? We have gone on missions together, fought together, and you decide withhold this information from me? You need to trust me in order for this team to work, I have got your back, and I will fight for you to keep you safe.

Ok I get it, this is a secret to almost everyone. However I have every right to ask you about this, we go through hell in the pit of a madman, and then after everything we go through, THEN you take out Hisoka?!? All of that was a huge shock to me, especially after I beat you in that spar, thinking that you were some regular old ninja. If you had taken her out, who knows, mabye that man would not have been able to get us in the first place. Like you said, we are comrades, and we have to be honest with each other."

Feeling as though a huge weight was lifted, he began to ease up on his aggressiveness, After all, he was speaking with a friend.

"But with that out of the way I feel as though I can ask another favor of you too. With your permission, Ayama, I want to spar you both someday, you and Hisoka, I mean, after all, I now know that I only beat one of you, not the entire unit"

He knew that he was asking a lot of Ayama and Hisoka, asking to spar him like that. In honesty he wouldn't be mad if they said no to the idea, he would understand, to share such a big secret like that already is no small feat.

"I'm glad to see you're both getting along," Navi said, crouching from a tree.

In actuality he had just arrived about thirty seconds ago, but it was fun to make the students think he was there for longer just to mess with their heads. Navi jumped out of the tree and landed gracefully on his feet, then turned to face his team.

"First of all, congratulations to Vretyel,"

Navi started off the meeting on a high note, as they had a lot to discuss, and very little of it would be pleasant.

"I heard you made Chuunin recently, excellent work. I have confidence that you'll be a Jounin soon," Navi turned and looked at Ayama. "As for you, it looks like you have some catching up to do," he said half-jokingly, a slight smile on his lips.

Afterwards, Navi's face darkened, his next sentence would be expected by both of them, but it was an inevitable conversation that they couldn't avoid.

"I heard you were both attacked and kidnapped by a missing ninja. I want details on everything that happened to you two."

Navi would be silent as he waited for them both to speak and explain what had happened. He had only heard basic scenario reports from the leaf village on the altercation, but the details were sketchy. Beyond that, Navi cared on a personal level what happened to his team, and every word they told him would be carefully recorded in his mind.

"This isn't much, but that madman stole your Kunai, and without you I would be dead, so thank you, thank you both."

“I..I… thank you” she stuttered shocked as she slowly took the money, her eyes wide with shock. She pocketed the ryo and returned her icy gaze to Vreyel. It was clear to her that he still had more to say.

"Hisoka, I appreciate you're trust in me, I get that you would have preferred not to show me, but we are a team, and I have to trust you, both of you. Ayama, thank you for summoning Hisoka when you did, but you need to trust me, OK? We have gone on missions together, fought together, and you decide withhold this information from me? You need to trust me in order for this team to work, I have got your back, and I will fight for you to keep you safe.

Ok I get it, this is a secret to almost everyone. However I have every right to ask you about this, we go through hell in the pit of a madman, and then after everything we go through, THEN you take out Hisoka?!? All of that was a huge shock to me, especially after I beat you in that spar, thinking that you were some regular old ninja. If you had taken her out, who knows, maybe that man would not have been able to get us in the first place. Like you said, we are comrades, and we have to be honest with each other."

She smiled, a small genuine smile. He still wished to fight for her, something she couldn’t truly understand just yet. What had she done to earn such loyalty and trust? Whatever it was she was thankful. Vretyel was truly a powerful comrade and would only grow more so. Then she sighed heavily as he brought up her capture. It was still an open wound, festering and red. She wished she could move past it but more often than not she would wake up screaming from horrible nightmares where silver eyes watched every move and cold voice laughed at her pain. Hisoka could do little to quell the dreams for he shared them with her. They shared a common fear of the Hyuuga now, and a hate.

“I have lied to almost everyone I have ever met about my abilities. Not even my Kage knows of this bloodline. I lived four long years ignoring it and I have no problem fighting without it. You had not yet proven to be trust worthy and I felt no need to use Hisoka at that time.” the words were heavy, she had considered the situation, how it would have gone down if she trusted easier. She shook her head, refusing to focus on these negative thoughts longer than necessary. Her grim expression turned slight devious then, “But just because Hisoka wasn’t corporeal and clawing at you doesn’t mean he wasn’t helping me. I wasn’t lying to the Hyuuga when I said Hisoka was my guide.”

"But with that out of the way I feel as though I can ask another favor of you too. With your permission, Ayama, I want to spar you both someday, you and Hisoka, I mean, after all, I now know that I only beat one of you, not the entire unit"

She blinked in alarm, a sudden irrational fear flooding her. Hisoka’s eyes darted to her face and he brushed his long wispy tail against her leg, extending comfort across their bond. She sent him a mental thanks before nodding to Vretyel.

“Of course, but be warned, Hisoka can be quite ‘shocking’” she giggled at her pun while the massive cat rolled his eyes. Then both their heads snapped around as Navi spoke for the first time.

Her smile grew her whole lighting up for a brief second as she spotted the leaf ninja but she quickly quelled her expression. As happy as she was to see Navi she and him had yet to tell Vretyel of their meetings outside of the team. The genin was not stupid, and not unobservant. While she would no longer have to restrain Hisoka and effects of their bond she would still have to hide her and Navi’s close…. Relationship. She frowned slightly at that thought. More and more secrets. She seemed to be trapped in a web of them. Vretyel wanted honesty between them but she knew that at the moment, that was impossible.

"I heard you made Chuunin recently, excellent work. I have confidence that you'll be a Jounin soon," Navi turned and looked at Ayama. "As for you, it looks like you have some catching up to do," he said half-jokingly, a slight smile on his lips.

She blinked and eyed, Vretyel surprised. So he had achieved chuunin eh? Well she would have to hurry and catch up! She turned and glimpsed Navi’s smile, a startling thing considering present company and his usually stoic mask. She returned the smile thought with a playful one of her own.

Then he brought up the capture. She shuddered at the memory and Hisoka moved closer to her body, his corporeal form pressed against her leg. Wrapping her arms around herself she looked down glaring at the ground.

“Vretyel and I were sparring, a rematch from before the mission. He had defeated me soundly and I was… incapacitated. We were grabbed by a Hyuuga and taken to his home, a cave…” she shuddered more violently here, with all the things she had seen the feeling of losing half her mind of being unable to sense her partner had been terrifying, “he was experimenting, poking and prodding to see what made us squirm and scream. Testing his gentle fist. He blocked off the tenketsu in my mind so I could not contact or summon Hisoka and drained our chakra.” He gaze flicked up to meet Navi’s eyes her gaze clearly off kilter and disturbed by what had happened despite her physical wounds healing.

“He is dangerous, he wants to bring peace through war and is willing to go to any lengths to achieve his goal. I don’t think he thought us anymore important than ants underfoot,” she growled, Hisoka mimicking the sound.

“I have lied to almost everyone I have ever met about my abilities. Not even my Kage knows of this bloodline. I lived four long years ignoring it and I have no problem fighting without it. You had not yet proven to be trust worthy and I felt no need to use Hisoka at that time.” the words were heavy, she had considered the situation, how it would have gone down if she trusted easier. She shook her head, refusing to focus on these negative thoughts longer than necessary. Her grim expression turned slight devious then, “But just because Hisoka wasn’t corporeal and clawing at you doesn’t mean he wasn’t helping me. I wasn’t lying to the Hyuuga when I said Hisoka was my guide.”

Vretyel realized that he would never understand the bond between Hisoka and Ayama at this point. Hisoka was really her guide? How could this be possible? Vretyel had so many unanswered questions in his head that he understood only one thing about Ayama's bloodline: Vretyel would never understand it. Coming to this he gave Ayama two words:

'I understand"

This was the only thing that he could really say in that situation. Hisoka was out and Ayama looked like somebody had just drained he soul out of her body. However Vretyel was surprised at the amount of money she had already and how 500 yro is nothing in her money. However It was time to move on to the matter that they both came to this location for.

"Thank you Navi, I am glad that I finally got chuunin, I hope to train hard and long to get me to Jounin level soon.

Vretyel allowed Ayama to explain what happened back with the Hyuga boy and decided that maybe a visual would be the best way to show Navi. As Ayama was talking about almost every single detail about the ordeal he felt his chest hurting again from all the pain of it being slammed on multiple times. He took off his shirt and showed Navi all the scars from the expireriment. He showed especially his chest where the Hyuga's knee slammed down onto him.

"IT was a very painful process to say that least. Without Hisoka, there would have been no way for either of us to make it out. It came out at exactly the right time otherwise the Hyuga would have destroyed us both. It'a amazing how the boy could have easily killed us both and he didst...."

Vretyel would not go into details unless he was asked about the experiment, but at that time he understood really how close he was to death.

“Vretyel and I were sparring, a rematch from before the mission. He had defeated me soundly and I was… incapacitated. We were grabbed by a Hyuuga and taken to his home, a cave…” she shuddered more violently here, with all the things she had seen the feeling of losing half her mind of being unable to sense her partner had been terrifying, “he was experimenting, poking and prodding to see what made us squirm and scream. Testing his gentle fist. He blocked off the tenketsu in my mind so I could not contact or summon Hisoka and drained our chakra.” He gaze flicked up to meet Navi’s eyes her gaze clearly off kilter and disturbed by what had happened despite her physical wounds healing.

Navi nodded as she spoke, taking every detail in carefully. It seemed that during the altercation it was revealed to Vretyel that Hisoka lived inside of Ayama. Now two people were aware of her secret, but this was probably for the best. Ayama would have to reveal this secret to the world eventually, and as Navi and Vretyel were the closest people in her life, he could think of no better place to start.

Beyond his professional reaction, underneath Navi felt an unimaginable level of anger at who had done this to her. His fists involuntarily clenched and the atmosphere around him got thick with raw power in the form of dense chakra. A protective instinct for someone this strong should be reserved for the Hokage, but just some Sand Genin? He underestimated his feelings for this girl yet again, and it constantly caught him off guard.

"IT was a very painful process to say that least. Without Hisoka, there would have been no way for either of us to make it out. It came out at exactly the right time otherwise the Hyuga would have destroyed us both. It'a amazing how the boy could have easily killed us both and he didst...."

More then experimenting Gentle Fist techniques, but actually using his team as a punching bag? Navi took a few silent breaths to restabilize himself as he pushed the thoughts of beating the shit out of this rogue ninja from his mind. There was little other information that needed to be given, the appearance and identity of the boy was already known. As an expelled member of the Hyuuga, the Leaf ANBU would surely already have a file on him.

"You both did well given the situation that was at hand, you worked together to survive, nothing more."

His words trailed off into inaudible mumbles as Navi's gaze drifted off into staring into space.

"I'm ending this meeting early, both of you should get some rest."

With that Navi vanished immediately from sight as he disappeared out of raw speed. He was off to go crosscheck these new facts against the ANBU database to narrow down a possible location for this new target.

[Navi Exit]

"You both did well given the situation that was at hand, you worked together to survive, nothing more."

His words trailed off into inaudible mumbles as Navi's gaze drifted off into staring into space.

"I'm ending this meeting early, both of you should get some rest."

Nodding sadly Ayama eyed the place where Navi had been. She wished he would stay longer, she had wanted to talk with him. But.. she glanced at Vretyel. She could wait until another day.

"Bye Vretyel, congratulations on achieving chunnin" she said before turning and heading back towards her village. Hisoka waited for a long moment, eyeing the Leaf nin before trotting after his partner. Ayama couldn't wait to See Navi again, speaking with him had strengthened her resolve to grow stronger but she wanted to talk to him one on one. She wanted she talk with the real Navi, not the facade he put on.

Maybe doing so would silence her fluttery feelings once more.

[Ayama exit
1933 WC: +9 Stats, +19 JP]