Dark Vii (part 2) - Prelude to a last stand
You know one wonderful thing about the Naruto world? The trans-factor.
My dark chocolate brown fades to blond. My jaw shrinks and my arms become lean and sinuous. My shoulders sink. My chest shrinks and my hips widen a fraction. My thighs spread and I shift my weight between lengthened legs.
If you think that’s a lot to take in, imagine my insides. Now that’s a trip.
My nose twitches as my face sets. A force wells up in my cheeks and - as I brace for the upcoming sneeze - I see the world from three pairs of eyes, “Every time. It's self-esteem, I swear.”
Ago, one of my best friends, a golden blond boy with sharp blue eyes smiles to his breakfast, “You still insist on changing yourself?”
I plop myself down next to him. A blonde with blue eyes and if you look under the uniform, blue scales! “We live in a world where people fly, animals talk and those that hit thirty do magic. Maaaagic. I’mma enjoy my mental plasticity while it last, thank you very much.”
“Yeah well,” Ago spears a vegetable, “I’m gonna wipe the floor with you within a week or two. All that training gone to waste” Nom.
“You haven’t put me down yet. If you didn’t see me like a sister, this,” I gesture about myself and enjoy the stock shock of my bestie, “would double your left feet, and I’d personally bore the soldier out of you.”
Ago stood with a clatter of dishes picked me up by the collar opened his mouth and…
Gaped like a fish. He waffled silently for a moment before setting me down the two of use back town with a huff, “Just- promise you wont be doing anything till we’re older, kay?”
I covered my mouth in half-mimed shock. Ago’s got a soft spot for family. He’s honest and accepting, and somehow he’d gone and adopted my alter. Considering who she is to me, that much was a game-changer. I finally got past tearing up about it… mostly. I still get misty eyed when he gets like this.
Huggies!
“Uh~?!” Ago sputtered.
“I love you onee-chan!”
“Cut that out!” He holds me off a little and guides me back to my seat.
I relent. He doesn’t ask for much, and especially in public he’s entitled to that much respect, “The brother thing or~”
Ago takes a moment to think it over, “Don’t be stupid. We’re not all friends here, and if you milk the little sister thing I’ll deck you.”
“Tempting, but I understand.” I shift back into my male form. Brown on blue.
The guy across the isle chuckles, “Onee-chan. Really? you into-“
The idiot chokes when he realized who he’s messing with.
Ago’s war face could be cut from steel. The skin around his eyes warped in such a way that his eyes seem to lance out from an abyss. His wild hair shimmers with the leftovers of his aura, “Did you have plans today?”
The guy raises his hands in surrender, “I was talking to somebody else, promise!”
Ago relaxes and turns back to the table, “So. Graduation exams are coming up.”
I set my jaw, “So I’ve heard.” Ago knows, I’m sure of it. Thanks to my other half, I’ve always had a pretty good grasp of what the instructors are plotting. Radio silence means they’re bringing out something akin to the nuclear option.
“What’s your special friend telling you?”
I raise my brows. He knows much, “Everything and nothing. I’ve never felt this much grim before, and the one time I can think of someone nearly died in front of me.”
Ago balanced his fork, “Can we beat it?”
“Ago… I think we’ll live, but that’s part of the problem.”
*redacted:
The punk freezes mid sentence when a humming blade of golden chakra is brought to his neck.
The saber in his off hand is cast from a mix of blend of aura and chakra. The offensive portion of Ago's kekkei genkai. Where I absorb chakra, Ago’s fire chakra cauterizes the source. Just having it out compromises genjutsu. A deep cut would suppress someone’s chakra for hours. A critical strike would put them down for a day. If Ago were to dump the sum of his chakra into, say a vital organ, chances are they wouldn’t be getting it back. Course, he’d be hit with severe chakra exhaustion and depletion by that point.
