Red Like Blood, Naruto FanFic. Chapter 1

I lay curled up on the grass, my snout tucked between my front hooves in shame. My big eyes were incapable of crying, but a soft tuft of a tail was tucked far between my nimble, long legs. I was in no position to defend myself if a predator should come, and something screaming in me was saying I should at least tense my muscles if I should need to run, but I ignored those animal reflexes. I am not an animal. I am a human. I tried to convince myself. I did not need to jump at the smallest sounds like weak prey did. I was human. I was the predator.

“Shika nee-chan?” I heard a familiar voice whisper. “Is that you?” No, it’s not! Go away! I thought. Don’t look at me!

“Yes, it’s me,” I sighed in a soft voice fitting for my form. I felt Shikamaru’s hand scratch behind my ears, and I lifted my head a little. His eyes were sad but friendly, a soft smile playing on his lips. His jet black hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, a light tan shirt clothing his small body, with some dark green shorts clothing his legs.

“It’s okay Shika nee-chan. You can come home now. No one cares about your ability at home. I actually think it’s kind of cool,” he said quietly, then smiled convincingly. I looked up at his cheerful face. How could I refuse? I sighed and shakily lifted myself to from my prone position. My legs were as wobbly as that of a new-born deer, though I was a human of six years. I bit gently onto Shikamaru’s shorts and looked up at him expectantly. He laughed and led me home through the fields, back home.


“Hello, dad,” I mumbled, then looked up at his scarred face. To my surprise, he was beaming. “What’s so funny? I’m a deer!” I cried, slightly angered by his obvious amusement.

“This is perfect! Do you know how valuable you’d be as a spy? You’ll be a ninja yet!” He smiled, pleased with the promise I’d just presented.

“Honey! I think she’s thinking about a little more than how good a spy she’d be right now! Try to show some consideration!” My fiery mother scolded. “Oh, you poor thing,” she cooed, cupping my long furry face in her hands.  “What do you propose we do?”

Suddenly I gasped as I felt every muscle in my body spasm, and I felt a sickening snap as my spine instantly reformed itself, followed every other bone in my body. Only a moment ago I was a dejected looking deer, and now I was very surprised six-year-old girl, stark naked to the embarrassment of my twin brother. I looked down, and blushed a little, but I wasn’t too embarrassed. This was my family at least. Next time, if there was one, I’d have to figure out a plan. Dashing out of the room to find some clothes, I heard mum and dad talking about something, and Shikamaru leaving the room. When I came out of my room, Shikamaru was there, looking a little hesitant.

“Um, Shika nee-chan…” he stuttered

“What?”

“Well, do you think you could do it again? I mean, dad’s gonna want you to try it again later, since he’s all hopped up on the idea of you being a spy, and we might as well practice changing so you can impress him and stuff… you know how he loves seeing us progressing before we even start at The Academy.” I knew exactly what he was talking about.

“I dunno. I guess we could try, but there’s no promising anything,” I answered. I didn’t want to get any hopes up, and I was still a little hesitant due to my shaming experience before. “I think we should practice out in the wooded area of the deer fields,” I suggested. “No one will see us there. That’s if I manage to pull it off, of course.” Shikamaru nodded eagerly and ran for the door, me trailing behind him.

We found a clearing in the small wooded area of the deer fields. I had come here often to socialize with the deer our family herded. For some reason, I could talk with animals I knew well, such as the deer in these fields which had been here since I was born. The deer were never afraid of me, and seemed attracted to my presence whenever I came here, to this green clearing.

“Okay Shika, try it,” Shikamaru said. I stuck my tongue out at him.

“I can’t just transform. I didn’t exactly mean to become a deer when I was playing with Tayuya.”

“Well, what happened? I mean, what made you turn into a deer?” he asked, obviously a little frustrated already.

“Well, I was over at Tayuya’s house, but I’m over there all the time so it couldn’t have been that,” I explained.

“What happened right before you transformed?”

“We were playing Ninja, and Tayuya-chan was the bad guy. I was looking for a place to hide to ambush her, and right when I turned the corner, I was face-to-face with her twin brother, Gaara. I almost accidentally stepped on his foot, but some sand came out of nowhere and grabbed my ankle, tripping me instead. He glared at the sand and it retreated, then he said, ‘Sorry,’ and smiled at me. When he smiled, my muscles and bones twisted and suddenly, there I was. A deer. End of story.” I sniffed, then gauged Shikamaru’s reaction. He seemed thoughtful, then looked me up and down. Suddenly he struck out at my ankle, and tripped me.

“Anything?” he asked.

“Nothing but pain!” I growled, then launched myself at him.

He barely dodged my attack, and cried, “I’m only doing what Gaara did!” before I could attempt to smack him again. I froze dead in my tracks, and frowned.

“Now why would Gaara have anything to do with it?” I asked, curious about his inference. Now that I thought about it, Gaara had surprised me, hurt me, and smiled at me, all in one moment. His face, with the innocent blue eyes ringed with black and his soft, shy smile were quite memorable. “What do I do then? Go to Tayuya’s, ask for Gaara, and tell him I need him to trip me with magical sand so I can become a deer?,” I mumbled, discouraged.

“Sounds good to me. Let’s go.”

“You can’t be serious!” I protested

“As serious as it gets,” he beamed. “Let’s go.”

We walked to Tayuya’s house, Shikamaru leading, with me trudging behind him, boring holes in the back of his head with my eyes. This is stupid, I thought. When we arrived, Shikamaru knocked confidently on the door, and we waited patiently. Finally Tayuya, my playmate, opened the door, looking curious. She looked at me, her feline features scrunched up into a look of confusion, then just stared at my head. She looked like she was on the verge of asking a question for almost a minute, then finally blurted it out.

“Why are there horns on your head?” she asked bluntly. I frowned, then lifted my small hand to my head. Sure enough, about the middle of the top of my head, my hand hit what felt like small, thin horns. Shikamaru’s eyes widened as I traced the horns with my curious hands. Then I realized, they weren’t horns, they were miniature antlers. I groaned. How fitting. “Well, why are there horns there?” Tayuya asked again. I studied her peculiar black and yellow eyes, her tan skin, and dark pink hair, toying with the idea of telling her the truth.

“Dad make me a headband with baby horns that fell off one of the fawns. Anyways, is Gaara-kun here?” I asked, trying to be as convincing as possible, though I knew it sounded ridiculous. Tayuya cocked her eyebrows skeptically, but she took the hint and let us inside.

“Gaara’s in the backyard practicing the Sand Coffin Jutsu. Try not to surprise him, he might crush you on accident.” She said and left to her room. The reason I thought Tayuya was such a great friend was that, despite her temper, she knew exactly when people wanted to be left alone, or when he wouldn’t be of any help.

“Arigato, Tayuya-chan.” I smiled to show her that everything was okay, I wasn’t mad at her or anything, or dying of some strange deer-disease. “Shikamaru nii-chan, stay here. I don’t think Gaara likes you very much.”

“I don’t think he likes anyone very much,” he mumbled, but waited at the back door as asked. I suddenly realized how scared I was of approaching him. I tried to reassure myself with the thought that he apologized for hurting me and smiled earlier today, but it didn’t help much.

I entered the back yard, then looked at Gaara. He sat on a small tree stump, his back facing me. His spiky, blood-red hair was sweaty, and his hand was held out in a tightly clenched fist. A small tornado of sand swirled in front of him, though there wasn’t much sand here in Konoha. Every once in a while I could see a flash of white, and something was nagging in my head, like tiny screams of help, but they were too quiet and unintelligible for me to take notice. I watched with interest until red spurted out from the whirling cloud of sand and the sand dropped. I stood on my toes to look over Gaara at the sand, and stifled a shriek. A deformed, limp rabbit lay crumpled on the pile of sand, its snow white fur stained with an ugly red. Gaara had crushed the rabbit with the sand. I suddenly comprehended a few things. The ‘Sand Coffin’ that Tayuya spoke of was the jutsu he had just performed, and the screams in the back of her head were that of the rabbit.

“Gaara?” I asked, frightened. He was obviously startled by my presence, and whipped around. His eyes were wide, the blue pupils small and shaky. He stood up to face me hastily, a look of guilty shame on his normally innocent face. He looked at the rabbit, then back at me, then hung his head. “Why’d you do that?” I asked, trying to sound sympathetic, but couldn’t help but add a bit of an accusatory tone. His head snapped up at my question, then he turned from me and started walking away.

I ran after him and tried to grab him by the arm, but a tendril of sand slapped my hand away. He looked back at me, then sighed. “So I don’t hurt someone else.” His voice sounded tired and mature, like he was a worn man in a six-year-old boy’s body.

“What?”

“If I don’t do something, like, well, what I just did, then I get this sudden thirst to.. hurt… someone.” It felt like he wasn’t saying something, like there was something missing.

“Oh. Well, um, I need you to help me with something. I--”

“Wait,” he interrupted. “you mean you don’t care? You aren’t sickened by my existence?” he asked. I was perplexed by his choice of words, but continued.

“I don‘t think that poor rabbit deserved it, but… Anyways, you know today when I ran into you? And I, you know, turned into a deer? Well, I was trying to do it again today, but I figured something you did spurred the morph. I’m just trying to figure out what.” He frowned, obviously confused with my conclusion. “I was wondering if you could help me?” I asked. His eyes widened again, his sky-blue pupils startlingly big. Then he smiled. His peaceful eyes, the way his mouth curled,  how small it made him look.

I gasped as my bones snapped and my muscles ripped, and I was suddenly kneeling on the ground, black hooves digging into the ground. I looked up at him, and attempted to smile, but my deer lips didn’t curl that way. Instead, I rubbed my furry snout on his pant leg appreciatively. He tensed, then smiled and scratched me behind the ears. My eyes widened when he touched my head. My skin prickled and stung where his fingertips were in contact with my skin, and I could hear sand whispering in my ears, a hiss making promises of death. I stared at the ground as he finished scratching my head, and I looked up at his face when he finished. Gaara was happy, and I forgot all about the voice.

The next day, I ran over to Tayuya’s place again, anxious to practice my new transformation with Gaara. This time her dad answered the door, but he looked different. Black eyeliner lined his eyes, and he was wearing a regal looking blue and white robe. A diamond-shaped hat that matched the robes hung by his fingers at his side, and he put it on as I looked at him curiously. “Um, is Gaara-kun there?” I asked tentatively, slightly intimidated by Gaara and Tayuya’s father’s appearance.


“Actually, he’s not,” he answered. He didn’t seem like he was going to say any more, so I continued.

“Do you know when he’ll be back?”

“He won’t be back for a long time. Probably not until he enters the chuunin exams. As you can see, I’ve become the Kazekage of Sunakagure, and must attend to my duties. I’m taking Gaara with me to do some extensive training as well.” he explained, sounding rather bored by the whole thing.

“Oh.” I counted in my head. The chuunin exams were very 6 months, but you had to be a genin to take them, which means you have to have graduated from The Academy. My heart sank. The soonest Gaara would be back was when he was 12 or 13, that’s almost 7 years. “Thanks,” I said, holding back tears as I smiled at the man, my chin trembling.