On the Move: Otonami's Search

A Partner's Help
Otonami was walking around, sighing all the way. His blue waistcoat and his pants were blowing to the left as the wind was blowing towards the east. I'm going south...I'm leaving Konoha for a few months now, please excuse me Hokage. Otonami wrote as he was on the road and having a pen. Then, he started to think just before he was going to wrap up the letter. It's...a sibling thing...I know, you're trying to know of what I mean...but I've got no time. Otonami writes. Satisfied, he wraps it up, looks at the bird that was perched at the branch of a tree, blankly staring at him. "Here, send this to the Hokage." Otonami mutters as he attaches it to the bird. Before he could see the bird go into flight, Otonami walks away abruptly, with no good-bye greetings.

Zip.

Zip.

Zip.

A black blur rushed through the trees. It disturbed several bushels of leaves as it passed by. Its footsteps came in a silent matter, as it moved, and anyone who wasn't a shinobi would've thought a ghost was passing over.

Fortunately, it wasn't.

Otonami puts his left hand on the hilt of his sword, and suddenly, he swiftly takes out the sapphire sword from his scabbard and points it right at where the footsteps were just going to come.

The figure leaped!

He gracefully landed on its feet, a fair distance behind the other shinobi. Standing up straight, he turned around, its crimson eyes staring at him. "Yo." He said, with a familiar laziness in his tone.

Otonami still pointed his sword at the shinobi. "Feh...you're here..." Otonami mutters and he sheathes his swords and walks off his original path of where he was supposed to go.

A scoff of his own came from the stranger, as he moved his footsteps forward, putting his hands on his pockets. "Is that anyway to greet an old friend?" He asked humorously.

"You know, I've been like this for the last year ever since I killed my father." Otonami hastily says as he looks back to see Ryuka Uchiha. "I mean...that's no way to sneak up your old friend." Otonami says as he stops and his two scabbards gleamed under the sunset.

"Sorry. I wasn't intending to meet up with you again." Ryuka apologized, scratching the back of his head, until his Sharingan eyes fell on the scabbards. "I see you've switched weapons. What happened to your Sonic Blades?" He asked.

"Oh, yeah, the Sonic Blades. I apparently don't need them for this kind of trip, also, they're in repair. Apparently, someone broke them." Otonami says. "You haven't changed much..."

"Thank you." Ryuka folded his arms across his chest, closing one eye. "Mind if I ask what kind of trip you're taking?"

Otonami remained silent for a bit. There was dead silence for at least 10 seconds. Then, Otonami turns his back at Ryuka and walks away again towards his path. "I'm not in the mood to talk about it..." Otonami was the faint reply Ryuka hears.

Ryuka fell silent. But he still followed, although at a more sullen pace. "May I help out?" He asked quietly. "It's the least I could do, after what you did to help me bring Kyashi back...."

Otonami stops again and looks down. "Well, you did help kill my father..." Otonami says, and shivers at the image of his father. "Helping you for Kyashi was the payback for that." Otonami mutters. "But...your my friend, and I like that." Otonami says as he looks up at Ryuka. "Fine...I'll tell you along the way, but, I want you to keep it secret until we find the person that I'm searching for." Otonami says and he starts walking again.

"My lips are sealed." The Uchiha's tone was honest. "Until we find whoever it is, anyway...."

After for a pretty long time for being Ryuka's friends, Otonami smirks after so long from seeing him. "My sister..." The words escaped from Otonami's mouth.

Ryuka's onyx eyes widened slightly out of surprise. "You? Have a sister?" He asked slowly, amazed.

"I was surprised too by the fact, but, it seems like my sister has been at Konoha for at least 10 years, without me noticing." Otonami says. "You're wondering of how this happened...aren't you?" Otonami asks as they continued to walk and the sun started to set a little more.

"Yep. You read my mind too well."

Otonami laughs quietly and a little. "I don't want anyone to hear." Otonami says. "Well, except you of course." Otonami says as he looks behind him to look at Ryuka, and then looks down the path. "Let's stop for camping, and I'll tell you after we set up some kind of barrier or jutsu that could envelop us and prevent people from hearing us." Otonami says, but still continued to walk.

Ryuka nodded. "Fair enough." His footsteps seemed to become quieter, as he continued to walk.

1 Hour Later

"Yes, I know, I said soon..." Otonami says quietly as it was late in the dark. "We'll stop here then." Otonami says as he finally stops walking.

Ryuka immediately looked around, checking for anything that might interfere with the setup of camp. "Took you long enough...." He muttered.

"Sorry, I had to get away from Konoha as far as I can. Which is why I went in awkward directions. I don't want anyone to interfere." Otonami says as he sits down on the grass and looks at the ground to see some shreds of newspaper.

Just as Otonami looked at the shreds of newspaper, he immediately snatches it and starts reading through it. "What the hell..." Otonami mutters as he starts to count. He then throws away the newspaper and starts to groan as he looks at the fire Ryuka setted up.

"What's up?" Ryuka turned away from the fire for a moment, turning to stare over at his distressed friend. "You seem out of it."

"Feh...you realized that I'm wanted in three areas. Let's see, the Otogakure, Tsuchigakure, and Amegakure. My previous bounty was at 500,000,000." Otonami says quietly. "Feh, it seems like that my bounty has been multiplied by 10 times." Otonami says as he digs back of where the newspaper was and Otonami shows him the new bounty.

"And that's supposed to scare me, Sokudo?" Ryuka cocked an eyebrow, as he eyed the paper's contents. "Just because you're all famous in the black book now?"

"No...it means that I'm a targeted man in Amegakure, and that's where my sister is." Otonami hastily says as he rips up the newspaper. "I'm not happy about it..." Otonami mutters.

"Hmm...." Ryuka put a hand to his chin, looking down at the ground thoughtfully. "Is she a prisoner there? Under house arrest? Or is she just living there like any ordinary villager?"

"From the looks of that letter, I think she's just an ordinary villager, disguising as one. Hopefully, she doesn't get caught." Otonami mutters. He then gets out his sleeping bag. "Don't you have one?" Otonami asks as he lays his out.

The Uchiha merely put his hands behind his head, lying on his back. "I didn't prefer to bring it." He replied.

"Whatever..." Otonami mutters and he lies down on his sleeping bag. "So...you set up that barrier? I only know how to break barriers." Otonami says as he looks up at Ryuka.

"Oh....right." Ryuka quickly got up again on his feet, spreading out his arms and crouching low to the ground. Immediately, a burst of lightning expelled from his body, expanding quickly around them, stopping to a certain and sizable extent.

"There. Whoever tries to come in will get a...very nasty shock." With that, he lay back down, putting his hands behind his head.

"Hopefully that's a barrier in which no one can hear." Otonami says as he lies down again on his sleeping bag. "While you construct another barrier that makes us invisible and without anyone hearing us within earshot, I'm just wonder, why and how did you get here?" Otonami asks.

Ryuka didn't bother to move from his spot. "First off, I can't do that. Secondly, now of my departure from Konoha, I'm a bit of a wanderer now. I guess I just happened to come across you."

"Okay...I guess we'll have to kill whoever hears us..." Otonami said in a satirical tone. "Of course, that's your job since there seems to be a demon inside you." Otonami says facing the other way. "I had one hell of an adventure."

Ryuka rolled his eyes, although he knew that Otonami couldn't see him. "Gee, thanks." He muttered sarcastically. "And what kind of adventure did you have?" His eyes looked lazily over towards his comrade.

"Unless, of course, it's none of my business."

"Well, I have to tell you about my sister, don't I? I mean, there wouldn't be any point of you coming here." Otonami says as he faces Ryuka again. "Got any food?" Otonami asks as he gets up and gets his bag.

"Yeah. It's in my bag." Ryuka replies.

"Feh..." Otonami got out some sushi and rice from his bag and sat next to the fire. He then starts eating the rice and sushi while waiting for Ryuka.

Ryuka closed his eyes in a seemingly exasperated manner. "I ate before I got here." He said dismissively, with a wave of his hand.

"Hmm..." Otonami just says as he was lost in deep thought through the fire and eating at the same time. ''I'm coming, Hanatte. Just wait for 2 days...'' Otonami thought as he was eating. Just as he was halfway from eating his sushi, Otonami just looks blankly at his food. Then, he kicks them away and through the barrier as some animals immediately came to eat them. What the hell is going on with me...I have an outreagous bounty, I seem really pissed and serious than my other few years...it seems like I have no fun anymore. Otonami then goes to his bag and went to his sleeping bag, but just sat on it.

One of Ryuka's eyes was open, and the other was closed, looking over at his partner. He couldn't help but be a bit surprised at Otonami's behavior. "You seem awfully tense." He commented quietly. "Does your sister mean that much to you?"

"Yeah..." Otonami quietly says. "I mean, wouldn't you care for your sister or brother? Except..." Otonami suddenly had a flashback when Hanatte slashed right through her when he was at the different realm and he suddenly felt pain immediately of a single cut. "''The feeling of agony is painful. This type of feeling will succumb you and kill you. Remember that..." ''Otonami keeps on going back the words ever since. Then he thinks of another flashback when Merlina was talking to him. ''"If a person that was very close to you died, what would you do?" ''Merlina asks Otonami while on their way towards Avalon Castle. "The thing is...I don't really have anyone that's close to me that much..." Otonami replied as he looked down on the ground. "Just friends..." Otonami still looked at the fire, seeing it's dancing on the top and the sparks flying off. "I think it's about time that I told you about my sister." Otonami says after a few minutes as he looks at Ryuka.

Ryuka's expressioned softened. But he once again pushed himself up, this time to a sitting position, and his gaze met Otonami's, in order to show that he was listening.

"One day, when I came back from your fight against Seireitou, I got really pissed at him for trying to kill his own student. Then, I realized, a book came for delivery that I was wanting to read. So, once I got home, the book was there and I read it first thing." Otonami says and he starts to close his eyes. "While I was reading, the book suddenly glowed light blue, and, I was suddenly put in the book. It seems that some kind of spell dragged me there, and a magician girl, whose name is Merlina, brought me here."

Otonami then continues. "Then, I hear of a possessed king in this area, and yet, I was summoned to destroy that king. So, with these two swords." Otonami then takes out both of his swords from his belt and puts it right in front of him. "Kyuusoku and Raigia, I killed that evil spirit. But, during that adventure, I met up with my sister, who used an alias name called Katelyn. I was supposed to verse her in order to know of how to defeat the king. This may sound surprising to you, but I lost. She used some kind of ability in which it uses feelings against you. After the fight, I found ninja clothes on her room by accident. Then, that's when I learned that she was my sister." Otonami says. Then, Otonami went on about how Hanatte was her sister.

Ryuka nodded slowly. "So, let me get this straight. Since her parents couldn't decide on her name, and circumstances allowed the mother to choose.... the father, basically, went on a hissy fit and took it all out on Hanatte." He rolled his eyes. "Sounds like someone needs counseling...."

"It wasn't really like that, Ryuka." Otonami says. "Ever since I've escaped from my parents 3 years before she was borned, he's been keeping a secured idiot." Otonami says. Otonami then holds up his Kyuusoku and unsheathes it, and starts the examining the colorful, gleaming, sapphire-blue, sharp sword.

Ryuka scratched the back of his head. "Oh....that makes sense." He muttered.

"I never knew she was that strong..." Otonami says as he lies down on his sleeping bag. "You know, I have a pretty good sister...she's strong, beautiful, and yet easy-to-handle person. I just like those people, I've always wondered of what it's like to have a sister or brother." Otonami says as he looks up.

"Heh." Ryuka's face gained a Naruto-like grin. "Maybe once you meet Hanatte, you'll get your chance." He said encouragingly.

"I already got my chance for 6 months. I've already got the feeling." Otonami says. He then holds out his hand. "But, I want to thank you for helping me." Otonami says and he a smile perks up a little.

Ryuka couldn't help but put on a smile of his own, as he extended his own hand to shake with Otonami's. "Don't mention it. It's what friends do."\

"Well, I guess we need to sleep." Otonami said in a joking matter and quickly put away his own hand and brought up the sleeping bag over him and started to fall dead sleep. I wonder...if the old me is just better...I can have a combination of both I guess... Otonami thought.

After letting go, Ryuka turned back onto his side, slowly closing his eyes. The smile faded, as he drifted off to sleep.

Advancing Towards Amegakure
The next day, Otonami wakes up from his sleeping bag. Otonami looks to his right to see Ryuka still sleeping. What kind of a dream was that...it felt pretty bad. Otonami then thinks of his dream in which he saw Hanatte being surrounded by flames and covered in dark energy. Otonami then shakes his head and tries to ignore the thoughts. "I have to think of what we do when we get to Amegakure." Otonami mutters.

Ryuka yawned, slowly opening his eyes and settling himself to a sitting position from the ground. His sleepy eyes looked over at Otonami, as he slowly got up. "Good mornin'." He muttered, stretching out a bit.

To Ryuka's surprise, Otonami wasn't there at his sleeping bag. A set of footprints were from the sleeping bag as they went to another part of the forest.

Ryuka blinked, but simply got up and followed the footsteps. He grinned inwardly. "Looks like Otonami's went ahead with out me, that thoughtless moron...."

"RASENGAN!" Someone shouted and Ryuka was suddenly blasted out by a wave of chakra just as he was going towards a tree. Suddenly, the tree immediately breaks as it was grinded through by a ball of chakra. The tree branch then falls on the other side. Otonami then draws out his two swords and puts himself in a stance. "Two Sword Style..." Otonami mutters and just when the tree falls, Otonami then immediately slashes it like an X and the tree avoids hitting Otonami. "Wolf's Fangs..." Otonami mutters just as the four pieces of the trees was around his sides.

"...." Ryuka pulled himself to his feet, staring incredulously. He blinked twice, looking over at Otonami. "Otonami...."

"Hmm?" Otonami looks at Ryuka. "Oh...didn't expect you to wake up early." Otonami mutters. He then walks past him and whispers into his ear. "We have to work on of how to infiltrate." Otonami just says and he goes back to his campsite.

Ryuka scratched his head, but got up again, cocking his neck from side to side. "That would depend on the concentration of defense around Amegakure." He commented, folding his arms across his chest, as he followed.

"Well, I was thinking of acting as villagers..." Otonami says as he looks behind him to see Ryuka. "I think you aren't known around Amegakure, so, it's a good idea to turn off your Sharingan. Me?" Otonami scoffs and he goes to his sleeping bag and starts wrapping it up. "With that huge ****ing bounty, I obviously have to disguise as someone." Otonami mutters.

"Well, then, it's more simpler for me, then." Ryuka shrugged. "I can simply go in, not activating my Sharingan, and no one will suspect a thing. Now, all we need to do is find you a disguise..."

3 Hours Later at Amegakure

"OOMPH!" A guard suddenly says as Otonami brought both of them down. Otonami then looks at one of them, then, he does three hand seals and transforms into one of them. "That was simple..." Otonami says as he turns toward Ryuka.

"Now, then..." Ryuka put his finger on his chin. "You know any possible and specific places of where she could be?" He asked.

"No...I don't..." Otonami replied as they got in. "She sent me a letter back at the camp while you were asleep by a bird. (I don't know of how the bird knew where I was...) It did say that she was staying at a hotel, village. She wasn't specific, but, she did say that she was safe." Otonami says as they started walking.

"Hmmm...." Ryuka muttered. "In that case, we should look for a hotel that would accomodate in a secluded area. What do you think?"

"Split up then..." Otonami mutters and he runs off to one side of the tall buildings.

"Right." Ryuka, following his movements, headed off in the direction of the other.

Out in the distance, Hanatte was on a room at a small building. I think he's here right now... Hanatte thought. Packing up her two bags, she immediately then goes out the building. Just as she went out, someone else in a black cloak also went out. ''I don't think that's Otonami. ''She thought and she started to run, and at the same time, the cloaked man also ran after her. ''Crap! I'm already detected!'' And she suddenly used her Kekkei Genkai and ran off with a golden flash.

"Get her! She's the girl who was part of the ritual!" The man shouted as everyone went to turn on him. Suddenly, five Amegakure ninjas appeared and started to trail Hanatte.

Ryuka groaned, slapping a hand to his forehead. "I am never going to find anything at this rate... what a friggin' hassle--"

Then, he heard the sounds of footsteps, accompanied by shouts of orders. A smile of realization came across his face, as he started to pick up his speed, sensing Otonami's presence nearby.

"Who the hell?" Otonami suddenly mutters as he heard shouting. ''Girl...part of ritual? I think that's her...'' Otonami thought and he ran towards the same direction. Just as he was going to make a turn, he suddenly bumps into Ryuka again and they hit the floor.

"Guh!" Ryuka fell on his back, but he turned around on his stomach, pulling himself up and running to his heels, pursuing them once more. "Sorry!" He called back, although knowing Otonami was going just as fast as he was.

"Same thing happening as in Kumogakure, huh..." Otonami mutters as he did catch up. "So...you heard that?" Otonami asks as he does three hand seals and reverted back to his own self.