Strength In Weakness

Home is where the kids yell.....loudly

Chapter one:  Entrance to a New Home

    It was late into the night at the Konoha gatehouse; rain pounded the streets and roof with equally loud patters.  Both guards by this time were bored and had begun an evil rendition of UNO that left both cursing the eventual mounds of draws that would have to be added to their hands.  They were on the 15th round and were progressively regaining the previous level of boredom when a knock sounded on the wall and startled the two.  They looked up to see a petite girl of maybe 13 with long blonde hair wearing a black long sleeved turtle-neck and black jeans watching them with a bland sort of amused interest. 

Wordlessly she slid a waterproof leather cylinder addressed to the Hokage towards them on the counter along with a letter of admission for a Katlaya Uzumaki of Shinku-no-Akumu-Gakure and a photo I.D. labeling her as that person.  The two guards blinked up at her owlishly for a moment until she turned the back of her fingerless gauntlets toward them, baring her home village's insignia to them.  The two then turned to each other and began playing rock-paper-scissors to see which of the two would be able to leave their post to escort her. After a while they grew bored of their game and the winner turned to her, bowed and stepped out of the guard house, leading her toward the Hokage's office. 

Katlaya grabbed up her leather case, I.D. and admission letter and began following him.  The remaining guard in the gatehouse sighed forlornly and leaned back in his chair wishing he had remembered to grab some extra food before leaving home that evening and stared at the sky, feeling sleep attempt to overtake him however, he stood and began pacing around the small gatehouse.  His stomach grumbled and he whimpered quietly sinking back into his chair, and frowned the swirls decorating his cheeks that were the mark of his clan crinkling slightly, and wished his partner would return soon.

    Katlaya and her escort walked in-step towards the office building in the center of the village.  She looked around herself, inwardly in awe of how much yet how little the village had changed since her last visit.  Her escort watched her and noticed how little she moved herself though from the look in her eyes she was unbearably excited to be in Konoha.  Inwardly he wondered why, he'd never seen her around, and how someone of her obvious young age had managed to reach the rank of an ANBU much less an ANBU-General of the cloud village was beyond him, he'd never heard of anyone with talents like that in the leaf village.  He'd heard stories of the supposed child-menaces that Kumogakure produced with such seemed ease, but it was another to see one in a lone setting. 

She walked differently than most other kids he'd seen her age, more graceful and controlled, as if she'd had more experience being sneaky.  Another thing that threw him off about her was the fact that she made no noise when she walked. Even the near-silent pats of his own feet seemed to echo in the empty streets around them.  His eyes were drawn suddenly to her hair, thinking he had seen a flash of red in it and automatically thinking himself incorrect.  Red eyes weren't exactly common, but they weren't a rarity either, and besides that her mostly visible eye was a bright blue.  Red eyes were practically everywhere in comparison to differently colored eyes.  Quite out of nowhere, the silence between the two felt awkward to the man, "Name's Hideki, Hideki Natsu.  You ever been here before? Ya seem a bit caught unawares."

    She looked up at him and smirked a little, the small smile making her look incredibly more child-like. "Not for a long while,"

 Gods was her voice pretty, bells chiming came to mind though it had a bit of a rougher, lower ring to it.  "Things have changed a bit more than I was expecting.  Its been about 5 years since I was last here, I wasn’t expecting it all to still seem so big..."  She looked at her feet, minutely surprised and embarrassed by her personal emition that she had blurted out.  The phrase, so simple and slightly childish, startled a slight chuckle out of Natsu.  "I'm sorry Sir, I-"

"Don't even think on it little miss, and mah name's not 'Sir' its Natsu." Katlaya looked up at him, her eyes betraying her shock at his insistence.  Noting her shock, he looked down and scratched the back of his neck. "Ah, mah apologies miss; I suppose you're not used to such informalities.  Ah just ain't comfortable with being called someone Ah'm not. Mah pa's called Mr. Hideki, Ah'm jus' Natsu.  To everyone, not jus' you, and especially mah friends." the look in her eyes changed, showing her internal intrigue

"Does this mean we're friends? We've only just met and it is late...Didn't your parents ever tell you not to talk to strange, innocent looking people?"  The rain began to lessen as they walked nearer and nearer to the large central building, neither particularly caring about being drenched. As Katlaya surveyed the building, mentally pulling up maps of the building itself and the rest of the village.  Along with the basic maps re-surfaced intricate plans including under-ground electric lines, sewer systems and blueprints for all the public buildings in the village.  She allowed her mind to wander as Natsu thought up an answer to entertain the bright child.

    "They may have, ah wouldn't remember if they had.  See, mah parents died when ah was jus a kid.  Grew up bein' raised by the elderly couple that lived down tha' road.  Only thin' ah really remember about em' was mah ma's eyes.  Brigh' green and pretty as yours. If ya don't mind meh sayin' so..." Katlaya ducked her head at the compliment, genuinely embarrassed by the sentiment.  A puzzled light crossed her eyes and she looked up at him, the duo neared the large entrance to their goal.

 Upon opening the door, they were greeted by the guard who, after a few moments hushed conversation with Natsu, began to lead them up several flights of stairs, grumbling the whole way about travelers not knowing when the decent time to arrive in a town is.  The guard left them at a doorway, told them to wait there, and ambled off down a hallway to find someone to go and alert the Hokage to the visitors, grumbling about troublesome teenagers the entire way. 

As he left Katlaya turned back to Natsu. "What brought you to Konoha? By the sound of things you lived in one of the farming communities off south, How'd you make Jonin by such a young age? I mean, you can't be any older than perhaps 23; 27 at the oldest and you'd have to make up the years you would have missed from an early start..." He smiled down at her in an almost endearing sort of way. 

"Ah was taken on as an apprentice by a shopkeep'r in town, E' thought Ah showed promise as a ninja so E' started me at the academy.  Sure Ah started off a'bit late and Ah ended up being the eldest in mah year but Ah was the first of mah yea' to make Chunnin and then the second to make Jonin." 

"Huh, That so?" Katlaya dazed off to look out the window at the approaching sunrise, not having realized how quickly the night had passed.  Natsu huffed and crossed his arms, more than a bit immaturely. 

"Could be a'least a'bit impressed...  Lotta 'ard work it too' tah git me this fa', could a'least show a'bit O' interest." 

Katlaya looked over her shoulder and grinned, impishly at him, the expression suiting her rather well.  "I could... but I wouldn't want you to get a big ego."