Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Pieces of Our Past ❯ Chapter 4: Lizo ( Chapter 4 )

(A/N) Crystalazer here, pleased to meet you. Anyhow, you probably don't know this, but as usual, I don't like my chapters. Kudos to P-dark for writing better chapters than me.

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto. We own all OC characters though, so you lay a finger on them and I'll bite it off.

Chapter 4: Lizo

 

He finally stopped at the outskirts of the village. A boy was leaning against the side of a tree, face hidden beneath the shadow of the trees. Lizo inched closer and could hear quiet sobs and gulps. With a start, he realized that it was Haizaki, another student that had graduated that morning. After all, that flame-red jacket was kind of hard to mistake.

 

“Zaki?” Forgetting his own troubles, Lizo leaned down towards him and the boy looked up. His face was tear-streaked, but still as serious as stone.

 

“He's dead, isn't he?” Zaki stared at Lizo with his mismatched eyes; one the color of furnished bronze, the other a warm, liquid brown.

 

“Why should you care?” asked Lizo, suddenly turning cold and shifting uncomfortably.

 

“Brothers should care, shouldn't they?”

 

Lizo took a step back and Zaki nodded. “…Brother? He hardly mentioned you.”

 

“Well, he probably wouldn't of. Ghiki was always too popular to acknowledge me, even though…” For the first time, Zaki gave him a watery smile and abruptly changed the subject. “I suppose we should be getting back, right?”

 

“Yeah, we don't want the others to worry. There are enough people dead already, they don't need two more to worry about.” The two walked off towards the village.

 

--

 

The village was chaos. Well, at least at the homes of the Juko and Kaikoza clans, they were. The kage of Hidden Rain was there, surveying the wreckage and destruction. No one noticed the two new genin walking through the rubble. Apparently, almost all of the two clans had been wiped out, except for the Jounin who were still at the academy.

 

Lizo counted the houses; his old retired Chuunin examiner uncle and aunt, the blacksmith, his father's cousin, that made the forehead protectors for each year's new genin, the owner of the Noodle shop down the street, his mother's godsister…they all seemed so familiar to Lizo. Just last morning, he had stopped on his way to the Graduation ceremony to converse with them, but now…

 

He refused to believe they were gone.

 

“I'm going to go home.” Whispered Zaki as he touched Lizo's shoulder briefly in greeting and was gone. A moment later, a voice shrieked,

“Kaikoza Lizo! You're alive!” Matsu rushed towards him, pulling Lizo into a bone-breaking embrace.

 

“Gerroff me…Matsu-sensei, I can't breathe!” gasped Lizo as the Chuunin finally let go of him.

 

“It's a lucky thing that you were at the graduation.” Said Matsu, and Lizo nodded.

 

He couldn't help but think of his fallen best friend, brutally murdered on the day he had finally achieved his dream. “Do the other students know?” he asked, trying to get his mind off it, but Matsu shook his head.

 

“No, only the Chuunin, Jounin, and the Kage know about this. We have been instructed not to say anything until further notice; we still need to search for any more survivors or clues. Did you see anything?”

 

“There's a man I don't know inside my house. My father killed him.”

 

“We must tell the Kage immediately. Come with me.” Matsu led Lizo through the winding streets as the clouds above finally let loose their tears. It soaked his clothes straight through, but Lizo didn't care. He knew that they were crying for all that was lost that day, and he didn't mind, for in the rain, no one could see the raindrops mingling with his tears.

 

--

 

“Dead…” the word was like vile through her lips. Amaya looked at Lizo with eyes that did not see him. “Is that true?” she asked, and Lizo nodded bitterly.

 

“I found him in his house the day we became genin. As far as I know, only Zaki and his family and I survived.” Lizo hated having to tell everyone the events of the past few days. He had retold it to the Kage, all the Jounin, and everything in between.

 

“I can't believe it.” She turned away from him, trying to conceal her tears. Suddenly, she whipped around and pointed a finger threateningly at him. “You're lying, aren't you?”

 

It took a moment for Lizo to comprehend what she had just said. “What? Why would I lie to you?”

 

“You knew I wasn't happy to be on the same team as you, so—“

 

“So you think I lied when I said that the whole of our two clans died? Why do you think they didn't call Ghiki's name when they were announcing teams this morning? YOU THINK IT'S A LIE THAT MY PARENTS ARE BOTH DEAD AND THAT MY LIFE IS A LIVING HELL?! THEY DIDN'T TELL ANYONE YET BECAUSE THEY THINK THERE MIGHT STILL BE PEOPLE ALIVE! WELL, GUESS WHAT? THERE AREN'T!” he exploded and stalked away, leaving Amaya speechless. When he had disappeared from view, she sniffed.

 

“I…I knew…oh, forget it!” she said to nobody in particular. Then, she noticed the book Lizo had left on the bench behind him. Gingerly, she looked at the leather-bound cover. “The Way of the Ninja.” It was the book that she had lent Ghiki. Flipping through it, she found a whole chapter that was splattered with dried blood. She scanned one of the pages.

 

“Rule 66: Your comrades will speak the truth that you are too afraid to hear.”

 

--

 

He didn't want to get out of bed. He didn't want to meet Hirana-sensei or his teammates, especially Amaya. Haizaki, he could understand, them sharing the same scenario and all. Ever since he had blown up at her yesterday, he had made no effort to neither apologize nor acknowledge her in any way. Angrily, he had roamed the streets, ignoring anyone and everyone. The night before, the Kage had made the announcement that the funeral would be in two days' time.

 

Lizo had never liked funerals. He had been to many before; the death of his grandfather on his mother's side, various cousins, family friends, and even a funeral for a pet bird.

 

On that gloomy rainy day in June, all of Amegakure turned out to see twenty-six souls laid to rest beneath the Persimmon trees they worked so hard to cultivate.

 

“Where's Lizo?” whispered Matsu to Enrai as they lit ceremonial lanterns and placed them on each grave.

 

“I don't know; I haven't seen him since Graduation day.” She answered as they stepped back respectfully. “But if I know Lizo, he'll be on the roof of his house, talking to the sky, probably. He's been doing that a lot as of late.”

--

 

“I'm sorry,” stammered Amaya as Lizo pushed open the screen door and walked into the room. He had spent twenty minutes debating in his head whether he really wanted to become a ninja at all. The words of his father came into his mind again, so in the end, he was here, though five minutes late. “I believe you, I really do. I went to the funeral because my brother worked with your father before they…”

 

Lizo gave a wan smile. “It's fine, forget it,” He shrugged it off, “They can't come back.” The two took seats as their instructor walked in, carrying a thick black book underneath his arm.

 

“I am Yoko Hirana, your Jounin instructor.” He placed the book on the table, and it gave a loud, dull thump. “Let's see, this is the team of Lizo, Amaya, and Haizaki, is it not?” All three students nodded and Hirana smiled.

 

“Good. Now, why don't we all get to know each other a little bit? Tell me about yourselves.”

 

“…why?” Lizo leaned back and stared up at the ceiling. “I don't know about you, but I'm not really in a bonding mood right now.”

 

“Whoever said this was a bonding thing? This is a regulation; a teacher must know his students.” Hirana tapped the black book.

 

“What's that?” asked Zaki, pointing to the book.

 

“Your records,” answered the brown-haired Jounin, opening it up to a bookmarked page. “If you don't feel like telling me about yourself, I can always read about you. Now let's see…” His blue eyes scanned the page. “Ah, here we go…Kaikoza Lizo: You are twelve years old, only slightly above average as far as grades go…huh, compared to your father's records…good stamina…a little above average amount of chakra as well…you have the chakra control of a female…”

 

“Hey!” Lizo stood up indignantly as Amaya and Zaki chortled quietly. “Are you comparing me to a girl?!”

 

“No, but it does say here that your control over your chakra is excellent; you were able to create forty-seven bunshins in one sitting. That's impressive. Anyway, you score pretty high on the ninjutsu and taijutsu list…can't say anything for your Genjutsu, other than the fact that you learned how to repel at seven…and you can now use the metal enhancer. So overall, you're not too bad as far as a ninja goes.”

 

“Personality-wise, you're loud, take things too personally, and have a quick temper.” continued Hirana, reading aloud from the book.

 

“Sorry, Lizo; can't argue with you there.” Agreed Zaki, grinning.

 

“Did they actually put that in there?” asked Lizo, and Hirana nodded, turning the book around so they could see. “What does it say about Amaya and Zaki?” Hirana flipped a few pages.

 

“Well…” He read the entry. “Maemi Amaya: age twelve; your grades are pretty much the same as Lizo's...says here that you fell asleep in Matsu's class a lot.” Amaya tinged slight pink as it was Lizo's turn to snicker. “…stamina is average…you have a higher chakra level, but your control isn't nearly as well as Lizo's is…but it's still good. You passed with a high-level fire-jutsu, I see. Let's see…as for your personality, it says here that you seem to enjoy arguing.”

 

“Hate to say it, Amaya, but that book has you down to a tee.” Zaki was up for stating the obvious, and Amaya's eyes glowed red as she turned slowly in his direction.

 

“And as for Zaki…” Hirana flipped back a few more pages. He blinked and then started reading. “Juko Haizaki: Twelve years old…he has the best grades out of you three. High stamina, high amount of chakra, and average control. Haizaki ranks the highest on the ninjutsu list, and is right behind Amaya on the taijutsu list. He's never performed any Genjutsu, and used a very-high level water-jutsu for his final exam, in an area where there was no steady resource of water, might I add. I don't even need the book to tell you Zaki's personality: he's calm, collected, and has a good head on his shoulders when it comes to practical things, although he's probably the type of person who doesn't engage in battle until he is needed. Basically, he makes up for everything that you two are not, and vice-versa.” Their sensei closed the book and put it on the table.

 

“So it's a battle of the elements here; Amaya's a fire-jutsu user, Zaki's a water-jutsu user, and Lizo is a metal-wielder. Now this could be interesting.”

 

--

 

(End Chapter 4) 

(A/N) Paralleltodarkness here, and Crystalazer and I are arguing slightly over who writes better chapters. Course, we both hate our writing, SO…

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