“Incoming” – Chapter 4
Not much to say for this chapter. It was started before my trip and ended after I got back. My trip was actually much better than I thought it’d be; I drove through the Vegas Strip, went through Arizona (Twice), saw aliens in Roswell, had X-mas in New Mexico, visited Disneyland and California Adventure (riding all the coasters as many times as I could in two-days time), had New Years in Monterey, visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium (they had an awesome otter exhibition going on), had lunch at the local Bubba Gump’s (Yummy!), and rode home the following day sick as a dog. I’m still fighting off whatever it is I caught.
Still, MSI…“J” on the CD “Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy”…the whole CD is worth buying, especially for that random track. I think Jimmy was high off of paint fumes when he made that song.
Ooh! Ooh! I almost forgot! While I was in Disneyland, we stopped by the technological center place and saw the ASIMO robot!! It’s SO cool! And cute!
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the Naruto characters employed into this story. However, I DO own Ava and Hashirigaki.
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I yawn widely, stretching my arms into the air and checking the clock on the end table by my bed.
“5:34 AM? Stupid sun waking me up…oh well…when you’re up, you’re up…” I muttered, rubbing the crusty sleepies out of my eyes. I tossed the blankets off me and pitched my legs over to one side of the bed, glancing at the small paper on the end table. Blank. ‘Heh, I guess guardian angels need to sleep too…’
‘No, not really.’
“Oh, shut up,” I said in a mock semi-British accent, “I wasn’t thinking to you.”
‘Sheesh…not quite the morning person, are you?’
‘Never have been, never will be.’ I thought with a laugh, turning away from the card and grabbing some clothes to do my traditional morning walk. I grabbed my spandex shorts, a sports bra, a pair of ankle-socks and a long-sleeve under-armor top. I slipped out of my PJs and dressed, grabbing Hashirigaki’s card and my sketchpad, before going down into the kitchen. When I got there, my favorite Aburame was almost out the door. I grabbed a bagel and ran out the door after him, careful to keep Hashirigaki’s card safe and slipping on my tennis-shoes at the same time. Not an easy task, but manageable.
“Oi, Shino-kun! Wait for me!” I called, softly so as not to disturb the neighbors, going after him with the bagel in my hand. Shino turned around and looked at me curiously. “Where’re you off to, Shino-kun?”
“The forest. I go to check up on the insects.” Shino answered quietly. It must be a hobby of his.
“Because they’re so sensitive to the environment?” I provided. Shino paused a moment before nodding. “May I go with?” Another pause before he nodded and started walking down the road. I smiled and walked next to him, munching on the cinnamon raisin bagel I grabbed. A few of the insects around me started going after the bagel. “Back! Back! That’s my bagel! What’s with animals going after my food…?” The insects dissipated and landed on various parts of me. ‘Save the answer for when I can check it, Hashirigaki, but…do I have any command of these insects? Or can they only hear me? …or am I just losing my mind?’ I knew to check later. Maybe if I concentrate and do some meditation, I can talk to Hashirigaki through thoughts alone rather than on a pesky index card.
“Why are you interested?” I heard Shino ask when we were most of the way there. It surprised me and I jumped a smidge before settling into my walk again. I hope he doesn’t make surprising me into a habit. By now Shino was leading me through some farm-like area just on the verge of the huge forest Konoha seems to have been enveloped in.
“Well…bugs are cool. That and we can learn quite a bit from their behavioral patterns. Like when it’s going to rain or when it isn’t.” Shino looked at me and gave me a long, hard look. I had to stop and stare back into his sun-goggles, confused. ‘Maybe being a fangirl is not a good thing after all…knowing too much about anything can make you a very suspicious character…’ He finally turned away and continued walking. I looked after him, a bit worried about what he thought of me. ‘I hope he doesn’t kick me out of his house…’ I thought, gulping slightly. I started walking again, a few feet behind him and stared at his feet as he moved. They were steady, but not full. Coach taught the team how to find a weak opponent on the track: as steady as they are, if someone is not using the fullness of their foot, they’re not all there. Coach also taught us to fake an “empty” step in running; the method could trick observant runners that you didn’t “want” the race. If this applies to everyday, Shino is either a bit out there this morning or he’s trying to get me to think that. ‘Man this is confusing…’ I thought, deciding to stare at where we were headed.
The amount of trees surrounding us grew significantly as we passed along the dirt path. I saw several ducks resting near a pond. One of them, a male, raised his head and looked at us. I smiled and nodded a greeting. To my surprise, he nodded back before tucking his head back down in feathers. A tingle went up my back and I watched several animals waking up in the early morning. By now my bagel was gone, so I wasn’t worried about any wanting my food, but I was worried when the animals started staring at me. Small animals would start approaching, but a few stern steps kept them far enough away to evade suspicion. ‘Maybe if I take a nap while Shino’s doing whatever, he won’t think anything of the animals being all over me…’
We soon reached a clearing almost exploding with insect life. I let Shino off to do his thing as I approached a tree to sit beneath it. When I plopped myself down, several insects buzzed around before settling again on the tree, in the grass, or in the nearby bushes. The grass was damp with dew, but it was fresh and I took a deep breath, letting it out a slow as I could. ‘This is nice…no wonder the bugs live here…’ I thought dazedly. I pulled my knees up as a slanted table and set my sketchbook on them. I then picked up Hishirigaki’s card from one of my sketchpad’s pockets. I looked hard at the card before repeating my thought about animals and my interactions with them.
‘No, you cannot command the insects, nor any other animal for that matter, but they have a respect for your abilities. Yes, they can hear you. You, Ava Woods, have a rare talent here.’
‘Let me guess, “God” bestowed me with the Gift of Gab?’
‘Gift of Gab, yes. God, no. You aren’t given the Gift of Gab willy nilly, you only receive it if your prophecy entails a drastic change. Like coming here, for example,’ Hashirigaki answered, ‘Here, you received a massive new energy and with it the ability to communicate with me. Not to mention an emotional and respectful understanding between the wordless animals.’
‘So, if I train up, I can eventually talk talk to the animals?’
‘Bingo.’
‘Well that’s cool!’ I thought, reveling in the possibilities. I looked away from Hashirigaki’s card and glanced around for Shino; he was inspecting a spider’s web. I glanced around again and found several kikaichu perusing the grasses for a snack or napping on my person. ‘Say, Hashirigaki, are these guardian bugs? I have no control over them, so…’
‘The Aburame assigned them to you so you wouldn’t get lost, remember? Although they do seem more friendly than most other insects, these…er…kikaichu are only doing as their master commanded. ’
‘But when I thanked one of the fireflies, they answered me back. I could understand her.’ I said looking over the card to see a firefly perched gingerly on my sketchbook. It’s head twisted side to side, inspecting me before turning to clean one of its forelimbs.
‘It happened only at night, other animals tried to talk to you before in daylight and you couldn’t hear them a bit. Your power must be best with Dawn and Dusk. With Day and Night being separate, powerful beings, Dawn and Dusk are the children of them both; the twin compilations of their energies.’ Hashigaki said. I was a bit confused, but after a moment I spoke—er—thought up.
‘Like the sunset and sunrise having brilliant colors, I get superpowers?’
‘More or less; your abilities are amplified, but only temporarily.’
‘Like the bobber on the water, there is a rise and a fall.’
‘That’s a little too deep for you, isn’t it?’ Hashirigaki answered. Even though I couldn’t really see it, I knew Hashirigaki had to be smirking. He must just love to push my buttons. I pouted slightly at the card and stuffed it back into the pocket I stored it in before gently bopping the pocket like Sakura bops Naruto on the head when he does something stupid.
‘Let’s see how he likes them apples.’ I thought, smirking and pulling out the pencil I stored in the ring spine of my sketchpad. I flipped to a clean page and turned to the kikaichu still perched on my sketchpad. I gave her a good, hard look and started to sketch her out. Her large eyes, the delicate mandibles, and the six spindly legs; line by line, the kikaichu found herself messily duplicated onto the paper. I liked the picture, so I started to erase the excess lines. Eventually, the sketch lines disappeared and relatively clean line-art was left behind on the sketch paper.
“C’est finis!” I celebrated, recalling my meager knowledge of the French language. I then signed the bottom of the page and labeled the date. November eighteenth? Yeah, that’s right. I nodded and flipped to another page. I glanced around the clearing; my friend the Aburame was not in immediate sight. I didn’t worry about the bug shinobi; he was plenty capable of defending himself. I, on the other hand, was not as capable as he. I sighed and looked back to my paper, suddenly feeling like drawing a character I came up with a while back. Sketch a circle, a horizontal line and a vertical line crossing it, so on and so forth until I had a rough sketch of a bald, faceless, male anime character head and neck. My mind wandered and I forgot who I was drawing for a moment as I listened to the forest, setting my sketchpad and pencil in front of me. Taking out Hashirigaki’s card, I smiled and held it in my writing hand. I looked up through the gap in the canopy and laid back in the silence. It was a good a time as any to do a little meditation.
Unlike the typical view of a meditative person, I didn’t sit with my legs crossed over each other, my back rigid or breathed out “ohm” over and over again. Instead, I had myself sit Indian-style my back slumped and my hands rested palm up on my knees. I took many deep breaths, slowing ever so slightly every time, and my head slumped forward. Before you could spell Mississippi backwards, I had checked out.
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Phew! Four down, and I’m-not-quite-sure-how-many to go!
I tell you folks, if you want to write a story, do something you can feel for. For me, I’m apt for fictional writing, however I’m not creative enough to build my own world, so fanfics are my specialty by choice (trust me, I’ve tried to write my own worlds, but it dun work fer meh) and I LOVE to write fanfics! It feeds my fandom and it feeds my need to be a nerd! I’m happy! ^_^
Wow! No asterisks this time! I didn’t feel the need to thrown them in this time. *shrugs* Anyway, did you all have a good holiday vacation (if you got one)?
Reviews are nice! ^_o
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