What the New Year Brings

Thank you to everyone who reviewed! I love your feedback!

If you want to see what I'm describing, see these links.

The castle and moat:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_castle

The guards:

http://library.osu.edu/sites/rarebooks/japan/images/full/07/31.jpg

The bridge:

http://www.users.bigpond.com/battleforAustralia/webgraphics/foundationJapmilaggro/Imperial_Palace.jpg

Most of the informational stuff came from: http://library.thinkquest.org/C001119/design/parse.php3

Chapter 18-The First Time Team Kakashi Meets Hiraku

How could you ever get bored with life? The world is so vast and big, there's so much to see and learn, and there are so many people to meet that if you did somehow live to infinity, there would still be so much to experience and enjoy. Sometimes you don't even have to cross the world to experience all that life has to offer. Sometimes, it's just a matter of exploring your own backyard...

Although the general flora hasn't really changed in our 3 days of travel through Fire Country (Konoha is called the Village Hidden in the Leaves for a reason after all) the landscape, however, has. For straight ahead of us, atop a large hill, an imposing and extravagant multi-tiered building with pointy, pagoda-style rooftops peaks out at us above all the vegetation. The daimyo's castle.

For 22 years I've lived in Fire Country. Not once in all those 22 years have I set eyes upon the daimyo's castle except in schoolbooks and postcards. And the ironic thing is, it was always easily within my reach. It was just another one of those things that I took for granted because I knew it would always be there.

"Wow..." Naruto and I say in unified awe.

Kakashi and Yamato simply smile in appreciative silence indicating that they, at the very least, have been here before. They let Naruto and I gawk for a couple of more minutes before they have us moving forward once more.

At the palace gates, two regal guards greet us. Somehow, they appear so much more imposing than us and yet we are Fire Country's most elite ninja. Maybe it's the 10 foot pole they hold in their hands that seem ready to knock our heads off, or maybe it's their headgear that reminds me of a cobra when its neck fans out for a strike, or maybe it's all the pads that they wear over their loose fitting clothes that reminds me of American football players ready to tackle us down to the ground. Either way, they look ready to kick some ass. Ours.

Said guards crisscross their poles in front of us and block us from going any further.

"State your business." One of the guards states tritely.

"We're Konoha ninja sent by the Fifth Hokage. We've been hired to escort the daimyo's daughter to Wind Country."

"Scrolls?"

Kakashi presents the guard with the proper paperwork.

"Enter."

Naruto and I give each other bewildered looks, then make our way through the gates behind Kakashi and Yamato.

"Why couldn't our guards be like that?! Kotetsu and Izumo are cute little yipping puppies in comparison to those two!" Naruto mumbles to me.

"Shh! Just keep walking! I want to get as far away from them as possible!" I whisper back to him.

We both shake off the shivers running down our spines and quicken our steps.

Further inside the palace walls, Naruto and I are once again looking around us in wonder and soaking in the beauty of our surroundings. Yet as lovely as everything is, we also come to realize that everything has been done with some kind of purpose.

For one, the castle isn't high up on a hill because it looks pretty or because the view looking down from it is pretty. It's high up so that it can be easily defended and not so easily attacked. The roof, or more accurately roofs, aren't so numerous just for aesthetic reasons either. They're to confuse outsiders of how many levels the castle actually has. Even the tranquil garden surrounding the castle is not what it seems. As Japanese gardens go, it consists of two essential elements: water and stone, but the large man-made pond acts as a moat, preventing outsiders from simply marching up to the front door, and the stone arched bridge channels outsiders onto a single pathway, making them easy targets from high up in the castle. Yes, the daimyo is no idiot. He's taken every precaution possible to keep himself safe within his castle walls.

Right as I'm admiring the multitude of golden koi fish swimming beneath the bridge we're standing on, I hear Naruto let out an exasperated "Oh, no. Not more of them!"

Curious, I direct my gaze to where his is.

"Oh, no." I can't help but say myself, for at the castle's front door is once again a pair of fearsome looking guards.

Naruto and I give a simultaneous shiver.

As before, Kakashi states his business, presents his scroll, and then we're finally in.

For a castle, the interior is quite modest with its hardwood floors, tatami floor mats, and sliding door panels. In fact, the wall panels themselves, intricately painted with images of mountains, flowers, and animals, are probably the most extravagant things within the castle.

But again, looks can be deceiving.

As a young maid escorts us into the reception room, we see that it is tiered. For what the castle lacks in fancy furniture and bejeweled knickknacks, it makes up for in quiet imposition. The room is tiered because it's meant to enforce social stature. The highest level, in the form of an alcove called a tokonuma, is meant for the highest ranking person, the daimyo. The second level, chigaindana, is meant for those next in rank, in this case Kakashi and Yamato. The last level, tsukeshoin, is actually a small study attached to the main room and meant for the lowest ranking people which unfortunately means Naruto and me. Taking our respective places, we all sit down and wait for the daimyo to take his place at the head of the room.

We haven't been sitting for more than 2 minutes when a disconcerting screeching reaches our ears.

"Me-YOOOWWW!!!"

"What the-" Naruto shouts as he jumps out of the way of a brown furry blur streaking right in front of him.

"Isn't that-" I begin.

"Tora!" A young female voice finishes for me. "Come here you silly old cat!"

Naruto and I exchange looks.

"No way..." We say in unison.

"It's still alive?" Kakashi asks with a scratch to the back of his neck.

"What are you-" Yamato begins to ask.

"One of our first missions." Kakashi answers with a happy eye crease.

"Oh." Yamato says with a knowing smile.

"Are you guys going to help me?!" The young girl looks at us all beseechingly.

"Oh, right!" We all say and scramble to help her catch the yowling nuisance.

Half an hour later with all of us scratched and clawed on some part of our body, the young girl is holding Tora in her tight embrace.

"There you are!" A large, voluptuous woman exclaims as she barges into the room, tears Tora from the young girl's arms, and embraces the cat against her plump cheek. "Why must you always run off like that, Tora-chan?! You give mummy such a scare, yes you do!" Madam Shijimi gushes as she continues to rub the feline hard against her cheek until the red ribbon tied around it's right ear is about to fall off.

"Mother, if you'd stop smothering her the way you always do, then maybe she'd stop trying to get the hell away from you!"

"Nonsense, Hiraku! Tora-chan loves it when I love her to pieces, don't you Tora-chan?"

"Me-YOOOWWW!!!" The cat screeches in angry protest.

Madam Shijimi pointedly ignores the obvious contradiction to her words and takes notice of our presence for the first time. "Who are you?" She asks without tact or decorum.

"We're Konoha ninja, ma'am. We've been hired by your husband to escort your daughter to Wind Country for her wedding." Kakashi explains for the third time today.

"Oh, yes! Wonderful! I'm so glad you're here!" Madam Shijimi's face brightens up again. "I can't tell you how excited we all are to be marrying our little Hiraku off! She's such a petulant little thing you see..."

"Mo-ther!" Hiraku says in angry protest, much the same way Tora was probably saying in cat talk.

"Oh, sweetie, it's tru-ue!" Madam Shijimi says in a sing-song voice.

"You are-ARGH! I'll be so happy to be out of this place!" Hiraku says with a huff, folding her arms angrily across her chest.

Again, Madam Shijimi ignores what she doesn't want to hear and turns her attention back to Kakashi.

"If you were expecting to meet the daimyo himself, I'm so sorry to disappoint you all. He's away on business and I've been put in charge in his place. We actually weren't expecting you until tomorrow either, so we won't have the caravan packed and ready until then. Our maid will show you your rooms for the night when you're ready, otherwise you're free to roam the castle grounds as you please."

"Thank you, Shijimi-san." We all say with a respectful bow of our heads.

She acknowledges us with a smile and begins to turn on her heel when I interrupt her.

"Um, Shijimi-san? Does this mean we each get our own rooms?" I ask, a blush heating my face.

"Why of course, dear! It is a castle after all!" Madam Shijimi says with a laugh.

"Right. Thank you." I say unable to hide the dejection in my voice.

"Why, what's wrong?" She looks at me worriedly.

Everyone else in the room, even Hiraku, is looking at me questioningly now. Except for Kakashi. He's just looking smug.

"Nothing! Nothing at all!" I say with a fake laugh.

Madam Shijimi easily buys it and laughs again.

"Remember, if you need anything, just let the maid know, okay?" She says to me kindly.

"Yes, thank you, Shijimi-san." I reply and give another respectful bow.

Madam Shijimi smiles at me, then leaves the room with poor Tora shrieking in her arms the whole time, but when I turn around, I've got 4 pairs of eyebrows raised up at me.

"Hehe." I laugh, scratching the back of my neck in a very Kakashi-like manner. "So...where is that maid anyway?"

To be continued...