How to wake a Musei

[º•.Ki-Chan.•º]

A heavy exhale of breathe woke Musei from her slumber. Her eyes slowly cracked open to reveal the giant nose of her life partner. Most people would have jumped and screamed; but Musei simply groaned and turned her back to the large beast.

“Oh…go hunt a dog or something. I’m tired.”

This was a bit of a mistake, as Tenmei took Musei by the butt of her pants and dragged her out of bed. Things only got more embarrassing from there, as as she kicked and screamed Tenmei huffed and kept walking, right out the door and dropped Musei into the middle of the street. With a satisfied murr Tenmei sat down and gave Musei a rather dirty look


“You big pimple! How dare you! Its not even…”

Musei blinked a few times and looked around. It had to be around early noon now. How had she let herself sleep so late?

“Fine. You win. Lets eat something.”

She grumbled defeated. The large orange cat jumped up and own a few times. Her giant pads made tiny pebbles rumble but the pads themselves made no sounds. Her tail lifted straight up, and she strut back towards the house with what looked like a prance of “I get my way.”

It took a lot longer for Musei to weasel herself into her clothing. By the time she’d finished and headed into the cooking area, her father had already given Tenmei a giant slab of meat and was cooing at her like she was a baby. His own partner was lapping cream off a shallow dish on the table. He seemingly didn’t’ care that her father was giving love to another feline. Then again, her father’s cat had never been one to care much about anything.

Sliding herself into her usual seat she kneeled at the table and ran her fingers over the pelt o the small cat on the table. He stopped lapping just long enough to lift his head and give her a good morning yowl before continuing his attack on the cream.

”G’mornin dear. Care for some fish cakes?”[/b]

Musei nodded just slightly to her mother. The morning, or rather the afternoon seemed to go slowly, and it was boring the hell out of Mu. After eating she slipped out while her parents began to bicker about whether or not there was a difference between shrimp and prawns. She decided she was going to stroll about the village for a while. If she were lucky, the day would go smoothly, and she’d not have to run into one of those stinky dogs. She shook herself with that thought and as if she felt Musei’ twinge of disgust, Tenmei let out a low growl and snort.

”Yeah, I know. On the bright side, we can go find some poor sap to annoy. How about the ANBU guarding the Hokage’s place?”

True they could kill her without thinking about it, but Musei couldn’t help herself but to drive them insane. As if it was suddenly a race as to who could reach them first, both Musei an Tenmei broke into a run.
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[Neji Hyuga]

It wasn’t surprising that he didn’t see the girl and the very large cat straight away. Neji Hyuga wasn’t in the habit of noting down everything he saw – in fact he didn’t usually bother to look up and look at all, at least not here in the village. He was thinking hard, which meant that he wasn’t paying all that much attention to the people around him as he walked, head down, through the village. But it was hard not to notice the odd looking pair as the raced past him, overtaking him, making a beeline for the Hokage’s…home. Neji straightened from his near slump and looked up, white-grey eyes seeking out the girl’s back. He frowned, more from annoyance than actual interest, and even considered going back to his mindless wondering, but now he’d lost his trail of thought. He couldn’t even remember where the thread had started, whether it had been from memory of mere speculation. Who’d have thought that Naruto would have gotten so far, when Neji could still see the young, headstrong boy that had challenged him that day. There he was again, he snapped his head up again, to see the girl still running, and making no effort to turn off course. He frowned again, and despite his best efforts the image of the girl kept popping up. It was really annoying. He found himself wondering why she was headed that way – it was unlikely that she had business there, and he couldn’t recall Naruto knowing a girl matching this description. Besides, his work as Hokage kept him so busy that he scarce little time for friends, even though Neji was sure he would do anything in his power to keep watch over them. So he found himself veering over in the direction that she was going, although he told himself that it wasn’t to see what she was doing. A smirk passed over his finely made features as she went up to the guards, probably to annoy them. It never ceased to amaze Neji how many were willing to try the guards patience. They usually ended up thrown in the dirt with a ‘and don’t come back again’ for their pains. But they did come back of course, again and again. Such perseverance was beyond him. He got up close enough to hear what she was saying, and the smirk widened, mocking and self-mocking at the same time.

“I wouldn’t to that, if I were you…”

He told her, whitish-grey gaze flickering briefly in some kind of strange amusement, before settling back into that annoying, mocking smirk. He knew it annoyed people. He knew that it would probably grate on her nerves. Why else would be do it? And besides, he was bored and angry at being back in the village, so close to the place where he had once lived, and wanted to take it out on someone. So being Neji, he had chosen the closest person in range at the time. It wasn’t that he was looking for a fight, but maybe a quick exchange of words would ease the unrest that had seized him. To be honest he was just stalling, taking as ling as he possibly could over waling around the village. He knew that since he was here it might be taken as an insult if he didn’t, what was it, ‘check in on the family’ and he really wasn’t in the mood to face his uncle. Not now. And Hinata might be there too, and that wasn’t a subject that he was willing to approach anytime soon. As in not in his lifetime, soon. He leaned back again the wall, watching her with unfathomable eyes. He wanted her to get angry. He wanted her to snap, to fight back, so that he could have an excuse to allow the emotions that he was feeling to boil over. He wondered if he should say something else, but then again maybe he had said too much. He shouldn’t even be here, he didn’t have to be. It was a waste of time. This was exactly why he was here – to waste time. He allowed the smirk to play across his features once more, goading her, daring her to say something back.

“Because they don’t usually let one such as you near this place. I’m surprised they let you in the village.”

He drawled coldly, not meaning a word of it, but none the less the words came tumbling out, each as cold and heartless as the next. But not one touched his heart, not one made him stop and think that perhaps it wasn’t polite, that it was wrong. Why should he care, anyway? She probably had the perfect life, maybe had lots of friends. He felt it good that he get in the way of this perfection, that he let her know that life was cold as well as dark, that not everything was handed down on a silver platter. He wondered what it might take to make her really angry, wondering what it would take to make her boil over. He waited now, noting the time as he looked into the sun. If he could draw this one out, he might have been spared for another day.

[º•.Ki-Chan.•º]

[atrb=border,0,true][cs=7][bg=f1c6e1] Here Kitty...Kitty....

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Musei's head snapped back over her shoulder to glare at the male behind her. Was he seriously talking to her? Where the hell had he come from, anyways? Flinging a few strands of her pink hair back out of her face she turned to him with slit eyes.

"Who asked YOU to come along? I don't remember agreeing to have any hitchhikers come along, do you Tenemi?"

The large cat titled her head to the side, and loud snort with a cloud of mucus was her answer. Musei seemed satisfied enough with that and leaned forward. Her green eyes opened a bit wider as her nose flared slightly. Her upper lip raised and as she breathed in air, she smelled him. The sensor on her lip picked up a faint scent; but it was there, it was most definitely there. Closing her mouth she wrinkled up her nose and let out a small gagging sound. She'd caught his insult, but really wasn't as bothered by it.

"You...know...Inuzuka."

It was not a question. It was a factual statement. Even if it had been ages since he'd met with one, he'd been close enough to pick up the scent. Musei's hair stood up on end as she let her whole body shiver.

"Disgusting. Now if you don't mind, I have better things to do."

she turned back towards the ANBU, then as if a light bulb clicked she looked back at him. Her piercing eyes looked right into his. They were silver. Silver and...shiny. Yes, they were. They were like jewels almost. She let out a soft murr of excitement and began to bounce from foot to foot.

"You have shiny eyes. Shiny silver eyes!"

Tenmei's eyes widened, almost in shock. The Orange cat grumbled and growled lowly her tail flickering irritatedly as she looked at Neji. The expression on her face was almost as if she felt sorry for him. Truth was, she did. He was about to be tackled by a crazy cat woman. Musei wasn't paying attention to her friend, though, she was too busy pawing at the air in front of him, eyes glued to his.

"So pretty pretty...I want to chase them...i want to chase you Terumaru!"

Without another word of warning she leapt up and headed right for him, she missed though, and landed behind him. She was giggling gleefully now. Who needed ANBU when she could have a shiny toy?! She hoped he was in the mood to play back, because she wasn't going to let him go so easy now. She didn't know his name, she didn't need it. He was shiny. He was Mr.Shiny.

"What other shiny things have you got, hum?"

Her voice was like a child in a candy store behind him. She was excited. a rumbling purr was being emitted from her throat as she spoke, and it made her words slightly choppy. Tenmei, whom wanted no part in a simple cat and mouse game, laid herself down and licked her chops. Her tail swished slowly as her eyes watched the younger male. She would stay out of it, unless he hurt Musei.


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[Neji Hyuga]

At first all he could think of was great: a reaction. But then things started to get a little...weird. At Neji had dealt with a lot of strange things in his lifetime, raving lunatics, madmen, even one kid who was convinced he could fly. Neji told him to take a running jump. But this was something different. One minute she had turned around, snapping at him and then talking amiably to the cat, the very large cat, and when it looked at him, it didn't look through him, it really did look at him, and he focused in on it, silvery-white eyes narrowed. That was when the 'normal' ended and the 'weird' began, as normal as things got around here anyway. She spoke to the cat again, and then leapt at him. He moved instinctively, but couldn't contain that smallest amount of surprise. When she straightened and turned, more cat-like than human, he saw something in her eyes that hadn't been there before. Was it madness? Had she lost it completely? He glanced at the cat, gaze flat and emotionless. But it just settled down with a sigh, and watched, narrow, cat eyes narrowing at him as if to say 'I'll stay put, just don't try to harm her...' and Neji snorted, turned to face her. What should he do? What was the right thing to do? The ANBU were looking with barely concealed amusement, and it looked like her pet wanted to stay out of it. He sighed and shook his head – was he the mad one, looking to a cat for support. She warbled on, walking about something shiny – probably his eyes – and she looked very much like the cat who’d got the cream. Neji folded his arms across his chest, and looked at her. What the hell did she expect him to do? Go down on all fours and chase her? He wasn’t interested in playing some stupid game, especially not here. Lucky for them, this part of town was pretty much deserted, apart from the ANBU of course, but they were always here, and they rarely interfered. He knew that turned his back on her might be a bad idea, from that last pass he has judged that she was certainly strong enough to bowl him over, and although he knew it might just be in play, he would be forced to act. Don’t act, react, that was what he had been taught, but there was no way that he was going to be conned into playing with this kid, no way.

But if he turned and left, it would leave himself open to another lunge, and there was no way he could suffer the humiliation of being brought down by this…person. No in front of the ANBU. But she hadn’t really intentionally set out to harm him, so he didn’t have an excuse to batter her senseless either. And then there was the cat. He had fought multiple enemies before, but he hadn’t been out to start a serious fight from square one, just a bit of crash-talk and leave before it came to blows. It usually got the blood pounding and ceased any kind of boredom that might happen to come over him. But this was slightly different, and he was unsure about what the wisest thing to do would be. If they had been alone, he’d probably just had sneered down at her and legged it, but that might seen as running away from a girl, and he knew how quickly gossip could spread. He looked closer at the masks that hid the ANBU from sight, wishing that one of them would step in and do something, for a change. But he didn’t want to get his hopes up, so he stepped towards the girl, hesitant, unsure. He decided the best option would be to appear uninterested and to look down on herm maybe that would make her go away. Or it might goad her into attacking him for real, and he would actually have an excuse to knock her senseless. Either way, he won, so he resisted the urge to get into a fighting stance, and just stood there, steady as a rock, hands folded across his chest, ignoring the constant gaze of the cat.

“Play? A game? With you? Don’t be ridiculous! Best start acting your age, or I might take it as a personal insult and teach you that people play at being ninja – ninja don’t play.”

He was as perplexed as he was contemptuous, Neji edged cautiously to one side, deciding that the girl must be mad. He could tell from her height that she was actually older than he was, if only by a couple of years, and that he was probably a Chuunin too – or maybe a Genin. He would be surprised if one much as her was a Jonin, but Neji was arrogant, even if he wouldn’t admit it to himself. Still, even after his run-in with Naruto, he still didn’t have a clue about people, he still didn’t really know what people felt. Nor did he care. He could read actions, sometimes thoughts, like a book, picking and choosing as he pleased, but emotions were something else. Something that didn’t come into his careful calculations. He waited, sneering at her coldly, eyes like granite, and as white as snow. He wasn’t going to play her game – not unless he could play it his way, and by his rules…

[º•.Ki-Chan.•º]

[atrb=border,0,true][cs=7][bg=f1c6e1] Here Kitty...Kitty....

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Musei let a tiny pout cross her features for a moment, but only a moment. With her playful nature shining through, all she could allow was her tongue to flop out of her mouth with an annoying "nnng!" sound following it. With hands on her hips she leaned forward and winked at him, her smile returning; if not even bigger then before.

"Oh! Come on now Terumaru! No need to be so icky! RIIIGGHHTTT TENMEI!"

The large cat let out a rumble and flicked her paw in Musei's direction, though she made no effort to move otherwise. Musei snorted at the cat and waved her hand in a dismissal manner. Her green eyes never left those of the boy in front of her though. They were so very pretty. So...pretty.

"Oohhhhhhh! Please Terumaru! Ninja always play. Battle, one big fun game! Always hopping, jumping. Catching and throwing. So much fun! Hehe! Only those that are good at the game can come out on top though!"

She flopped herself down on the ground and rolled onto her back, her hand lifting up to paw at his eyes, and from her position they did claw at them. She rolled slightly from side to side, her throat still vibrating those purring sounds. If she'd of had a tail, it would have been flickering back and fourth quietly and slowly in a contented manner. As it was, the only one of them with a tail was waving hers around in an annoyed manner. Tenmei was not amused by this kid. But she also knew he'd make a mistake eventually. Musei would take any opening to play; and that meant practically any movement.

Musei sat up into a squatting position. She could just pounce, but that would be no fun. No, it was always more interesting to toy with your prey. Yes, you always played with it first. This young boy saw her as silly, she knew it. But that was the problem with young children...actually...the problem with shinobi in general. All so cocky. His eyes did send her into a trance and fury of shiny happiness, but she didn't completely loose all of her control. He'd make a move; towards or away from her. Either way, the game would be on then. He wanted her to act her age hm? Suppose he didn’t know just what he was in for. Sure she didn’t know him from one rats behind to another, but he was way too condescending to just let her slip by.

”Or is Terumaru too afraid to play with the little Taikoneko? Aww. He IS isn’t he? Poor boy! Don’t worry, I won’t scratch your vital organs!”

She giggled loudly. Oh! How much fun she was having and he didn’t even have to move. Tenmei let out a few chortles of laughter. She stretched out her front legs and flexed her claws. Maybe she would be entertained after all. Her eyes briefly shot over at the ANBU. They stood unmoving, but she could just tell they were amused by it too. They all knew Musei too well, if anyone knew her tactics it was them; she supposed they’d never seen it used on anyone else before. The orange cat murred and rolled onto her back and let out a giant yawn. Her lips drew back and a loud ear piercing grumble came fourth. Musei’s eye twitched, annoyed that the cat was yawning. How dare she. Still Musei felt her grin widening by the minute. This kid was going to screw up. She felt it.


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[Neji Hyuga]

Neji frowned, looking at her angrily, knowing that he must look like a fool. He hated that. His team mates had moved on, become Jonin of ANBU, but he had never seen the need to become a teacher, and he didn’t think much of the ANBU – why should he waste his time protecting someone else? Better to accept missions and do them rather than stand around half the time. He shifted slightly, measuring his chances at escaping. Next to none, she was fast. He sighed regretfully, this had turned from a simple baiting of a lesser ninja into a situation that he wished he was out of. And on top of that, the cat looked like I was going to sleep. That was it. He wasn’t going to be goaded into playing her game, but it looked like he didn’t have another choice. What if he did decide to play – but with his rules? He looked around, once again noting that they were alone apart from the ANBU, who were enjoying the break from their monotonous watch over the Hokage’s tower, and who were smirking under their masks. Neji frowned, lined creasing into his face. He hated it when people ridiculed him, it was usually him who did the ridiculing – not the other way around. He wanted to turn and walk away, that would be the most sensible thing, but then there wouldn’t be anything preventing her from bowling him over, which would be a whole lot worse than the current situation. He did the math, and realised that he was just going to have to play along, he narrowed his white eyes slightly and moved into an offensive stance, hoping that this worked. His gaze flickered at the cat, which just looked back, calculating. He had a feeling that if he decided to harm the girl, it would attack, and he knew that this ninja would be twice as powerful with her partner. They always were. He decided that he would faint, and then try and goad her into attacking him for real. He would react in kind and then everyone was happy. Well, that depended if he could beat her and her cat or not. He smirked and when he spoke he was careful to keep the tone mocking and full of contempt.

“Sure, I’ll play with you. But I’ll do it my way.”

Then he dived. He ran at her, but deliberately missed, passing within a centimetre of her shoulder. Now he was behind her, hopefully she had see enough to know how fast he was. She was probably faster though, and he hadn’t done enough research into the whole partner concept of jutsu’s. For all he was concerned, such a partner would slow him down, but he had see enough of Kiba to know that his team with Akamaru was stronger when they fought together. To be honest he had been hoping to avoid a fight altogether, hopefully she’d get bored if he did what she wanted and would leave him alone. She was irritating him, and when he was irritated, Neji wasn’t the nicest person to be around. He wasn’t the nicest person to be around anyway, but especially so when he was irritated. He set his mouth in a grim smile and reasoned to ignore the presence of the big cat altogether. It didn’t seem to have any reason to attack him, so he wasn’t going to give it one. As for the girl…she would eventually get bored, when she couldn’t catch him.

“What’s the matter, kitten? I thought that you wanted to play…”

He sneered, goading her into attacking him, daring her to try and leap at him again. This time he would be ready, and he wouldn’t be dodging. If he could just blind her long enough to slip away, then he could get on his way and never think of her again. Neji was like that, although he did think that maybe something might have drawn him here. He wasn’t all that keen on making himself look like a prat in front of the ANBU, so he refrained from knocking her senseless. If they had been alone, then he wouldn’t have hesitated, he would have taken his chances at running away before she turned and leaped on him, but in the close quarters of the town, she would probably catch him. And then he would look twice the fool. The most annoying thing was that he knew she would be playing off his uncertainty, and wouldn’t hesitate to point it out, He wasn’t sure if this was some kind of joke, if she was mad or if she was ill. If it was some kind of trick to make him look bad, it was working, and he didn’t like that. Neji didn’t like that at all.

“You want to play, kitten? Fine. I’m game…”

[º•.Ki-Chan.•º]

[atrb=border,0,true][cs=7][bg=f1c6e1] Here Kitty...Kitty....

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Little chortles of laughter screeched through the air. Oh goody! He was going to play! She stood, stretching up on her tip toes to seem taller, though the bottom of her heel still clacked softly as she leaned back and fourth, playfully swinging her hips to and fro.She could near about see the gears in his head turning. He was thinking. She liked it when they had to think before acting.

It meant they weren't sure.

She had seen it coming, her pupils opened to their full extent as her muscles tensed as he came at her. She chose not to move, she hadn't needed to. In fact, the wind caused by his body nearly brushing against her made her fall into a whole new, louder, fit of giggles. She assumed he was trying to intimidate her. It hadn’t worked. She was more interested in him now then she had been before. Her ear twitched slightly under her hair. She could hear the scoff of one of the ANBU.

Hm. Must have been one she screwed with before.

"Oh! Terumaru! You're so much fun!"

She shouted, her hand clasping together just under her chin. Her eyes were nearly filled with hearts as she spoke. Tenmei flexed her paws, showcasing her claws once again as they tore in to the ground, soft ripping noises accompanying the action. She was completely bored. Musei could handle the boy, she was sure. Usually she had to drag the Taikoneko home by the butt of her skirt, but she would do no such thing for an arrogant brat. Her giant head rolled back and her eyes slid sideways to look at him, her sarcastic expression tell him."You're on your own kid."

Musi however, whirled around, her short pink hair puffing up with the action. Excitedly she hopped from foot to foot, her hands still clasped under her chin. She leaned forward, her lips puckering out to him in a mock kiss.
"Oh but I DO want to play! I just don't want to scratch up those pretty little eyes of yours. They're so silver...and shiny...and purrrrrrfect."

she nearly began to purr with the last word, her tongue letting it roll on for a long time. She finally unclasped her hands, letting one fall to her side to rummage in her pack. her lips twisted into a rather innocent looking smile, which seemed all too suspicious on her. Her fingers twisted hand curled around a object, slowly pulling it out.

"A kunai for each of us, yes? Want to see who can catch one first, you or me?"

Before he could even part his lips to answer, her arm drew back slightly, and her wrist flicked forward, sending both the weapons at him. She wasn't going to hit him, no no! She had to show him that he may be fast, but she was just as quick.

hunkering down she boosted her legs with chakra, her feet barely making a sound as she sprinted forward, nearly letting her back hit him as she turned her body midstride. One Kunai slipped between her pointed and middle finger while the other she caught in her mouth. Before he could blink she had done all this and returned to her original position, where she twirled the one in her hand with a smug grin on her face.

Sure she wasn't the fastest. She wasn't the strongest either. But he was a kid to her and he was in over his head. She knew it. She cocked her head to the side, tongue pushing the sharp weapon from her mouth.

"Terumaru! You didn't even try! You could have gotten hurt you know!"

She wiggled the pointer finger on her other hand at him, her tone like a mother scolding a child. The ANBU below let another cough-like chuckle sound, and the giant orange cat seemed to be hiding her muzzle under her paws.


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