Cold hands. Sharp pain. I'm soaking wet. I'm… sweating?
I arose with a jolt, my limbs were numb with pain and my head was spinning with nausea.
Another nightmare… that's the third time this week.
I pushed a strand of long black hair behind my ear with a clammy hand. The pile of dirt and straw I called my bed was damp as well. As I regained feeling back in my limbs, I stood up to get some fresh air and walked towards the window. I took three steps before I felt it.
I'm not alone…
A gust of wind shook the small shack, rustling the shutters but none of the dozen other people inside stirred. A soft creak and an all too familiar hum turned my attention behind me. A man with majority of his face covered looked back at me. His visible eye in a friendly smile but the tenseness of his body told me he was on full alert.
"Hello, my name is Hatake Kakashi," his voice was friendly and inviting, "and I'm with the Village Hidden in the Leaves. I'm here to ask you a few questions."
I stared back at him, a long moment passed. I could tell his guard was up even more now. I was use to this. I was often told my green eyes had a blank eeriness to them that made people feel uncomfortable, and that feeling got worse the longer I stared at them. I tried to think of the right words but nothing came out, instead I did what I tried my hardest to never do- I continued to stare.
I searched for an reply, anything to let him know that I meant him no harm, to beg for him to take me from this horrible place, to save what there was left of me, but instead I did what I could muster. I nodded. I knew my words would be futile. I knew I would be punished, if not killed, for allowing this man into compound without a fight, but my will to fight had died long ago.
"What is your name? Where are you from? Why are you in here? Did they do this to you?" his voice was low and fast, but remained friendly. Either from unease or fear that my willingness to cooperate was going to run out soon, he moved towards me in an attempt to break my stare.
"Misako," I answered his first question. I didn't know the answer to the second question so I moved on to the final two questions he asked, "I'm here because this is the cabin of spare parts. I don't cooperate well so I'm being recycled," his brow furrowed.
I half expected him to stop me there. My limited knowledge of social queues told me this information was not to be shared lightly. At his silence I continued, assuming he was referencing my visible modification, "This is the most recent addition I've been given. They punished me and-" I stopped there. More humming and more footsteps could be heard outside the shack. The other bodies, deformed and forgotten, began to wake at the commotion.
I turned my attention back to the silver-haired man. His visible eye was softer, an understanding pity visible told me I didn't need to continue. I felt relieved that I wasn't expected to talk more. Talking was not my forte.
"We're going to get you out of here," he only directed his words towards me. I looked around at the moving bodies, mix-matched and sewn together with precision and yet still with haste. The tangle of malnourished bodies and missing limbs seemed comforting to me but from the demeanor of horror radiating off his body as he followed my gaze, I knew I was alone in that comfort.
I stared at him again. He seemed ready to leave with or without me. A handful of chakra soaked kunai zoomed through the window and stuck in the wall inches above my head. They hummed and sparked but I didn't flinch.
I nodded again and he took my hand. Moments later the shack was engulfed in flames. A strange sense of relief and regret engulfed me with the same veracity as the flames to the shack. The home of my torment was finally being destroyed but all I had known were those blank faces enduring the same pain. I closed my eyes and let his hand drag me along to an unknown future.
Kakashi's Point of View
It had been two weeks since team 7 had encountered Zabuza and Haku on the bridge and the genin were still recovering from their injuries. The Hokage had said this mission was suppose to be a simple scouting mission that would allow me to return to my team shortly, but nothing could prepare me for what I just saw.
My hand was tight around the young girls small wrist as I tugged her along. She was small in size, both in height and from obvious malnutrition, so I made attempts to be gentle in our attempts to escape. My team was wrapping up back at the compound and I knew I should be there with them.
No.
The thought was clear and concrete, I knew for certain that I had made the right choice. I couldn't shake the need I felt to save any humanity from that place.
I reached the rondevu point and waited for my team to meet up with me. Asuma, Hayate, and Shikaku would be arriving shortly. The girls empty eyes stared up at me. It was like she was seeing everything and nothing at all. I turned my attention directly to her.
"How old are you, Misako?"
The pause dragged on. I wondered what exactly that had done to her besides the obvious, which I struggled to not stare at. The cat ears on top of her head was one thing but the skeletal body and barrage of scars visible in the gap between her back and shirt were enough to make me recoil. I wondered if her silence was from the abuse or from learned behavior.
Well it's worth a shot to go for broke…
"Whats with the ears?" Her hand mindlessly reached to the top of her head but hovered just above touching them.
"Punishment." she said with a melodic voice, scratchy from lack of use but melodic nonetheless.
"What were you being punished for?" I pushed the subject, but her recoil told me I had pushed too far. The silence was thick for a few moments before she broke it.
"My twelfth birthday was two weeks ago," she stopped to wet her dry moth. Her eyes were swimming with indistinguishable emotions, but her face remained blank. There was obvious hesitation and struggle behind her words, "On your birthday you get a modification of your choice. But I was bad. So they gave me a visible modification and a week without food. Kuniko tried to sneak me food. So they killed her and made me spare parts," her voice was steady and spoke these words as if they were the most obvious series of events.
She lifted her head towards the sky and her cat like ears on the top of her head twitched.
"Your friends will be her in 5,4,3,2…" she trailed off and looked in the direct the rest of the team came barreling from.
"Kakashi what the hell," Asuma barked, a cloud of smoke being pushed from his lungs with the force of his anger. His scowl turned towards the small body at my feet that stared up at him.
"Who is this?" Shikaku asked with a much calmer demeanor.
"Team, meet Misoka. Misoka say hello," I tried to act nonchalant but the three Jonin before me just groaned and stared at the wide green eyes peering at them.
"The Hokage can deal with you, lets just get back to the village," Hayate said without taking his eyes off the girl, "Also why does she have cat ears?"
I looked at her, half expecting her to explain to them the same way she did to me but she just stared unflinching and unfazed. We stayed still for a moment, taking in the anomaly before us until her ears twitched again and her stance became instantly defensive.
"He survived," her small, songful voice was dripping with venom. Her small feet dug into the dirt and her body began to quiver, her gaze not moving from the location of the compound off in the distance.
She turned her eyes, appearing darker in the moonlight, up towards me, "We need to leave."
I traded glances with the rest of my team. After a brief moment of eye contact, it became unanimous that removing her from the situation was the higher priority than a fight.
"Climb on," I ordered and without hesitation she complied, and without another word we headed back to the village.
Back at the Village
Misako POV
The Hokage was an old man. I had never seen someone as old as him before. I tried to focus on what he was saying, but the humming from the city was hurting my ears. Hatake Kakashi was in the room being scolded, I believed, but not punished. It appeared he would still be allowed to eat and there seemed to be no intention of a beating.
The Hokage turned his eyes to mine and we stared for a long moment without blinking. He didn't seem uneasy or threatened by me which was a pleasant surprise. I knew it was wrong to stare at him like this but this whole place seemed so strange.
"Misako," his voice was gruff with age and demanded respect. Not wanting to be rude, I merely nodded in acknowledgement. "Since Kakashi found it in his heart to spare you," he sent a side eye towards the carefree silver-haired man, not bother to mince words, "he will look over you. We have an apartment in which you can stay. As for your… ears… I will ask that you keep them hidden. Until we know more about the compound and more about these," he paused as if saying these next words caused bile to rise in his throat, "modifications."
He walked over to his large desk and grabbed his pipe. He looked out over the village whose rooftops were just now being dipped in morning light. The mountain of faces peered over the village protectively. He turned back towards me and inhaled from his pipe, knitting his brows together.
"I will say this once, and once only. You are not a guest here young lady. You are not allowed to burden this nation, harm this nation, or interfere with the peace of this nation. You will have to prove yourself. Now I don't want you to think you're unwelcome, because the reality is that you are. But there is very little known about you. So please don't mistake our hospitality for hostility, but do not mistake our good nature with weakness," he puffed his pipe and continued in his cheery tone, "We will keep an eye on you. And we will not hesitate to do what it takes to keep this nation a safe place for its inhabitants."
I nodded, unsure if my words would reassure or condemn me. He scoffed a light laugh and shook his head.
"Kakashi will show you to the open apartment I was referring to. I will give you the day to rest and get settled, but please come by the infirmary wing tomorrow morning. We wish to run some test. Before you leave, please grab a hood or something to hide your ears," He turned his back, not allowing his request to be negotiated.
"Thank you, sir Hokage," I bowed, uncertain as to the correct title. His body tensed at the sound of my voice, but he did not turn around. Kakashi lead me from the room and sighed.
The walk through the city was without words but far from silent. The chakra hummed and crackled with use, the loud voices of people waking up to start their day, and the familiar rustle of animals cut the brisk morning air. Uncertainty crept into my throat and I suppressed the urge to run full speed back into the woods. I debated the options, I knew I could survive out there for months if needed, I had before as punishment for my body rejecting modifications or sneaking food to Kuniko.
"Well here we are," Kakashi smiled and beckoned to a multiple story building. The sheer size of it was mind blowing but everything here was compared to the compound.
He lead me up a stairwell until we reached a long hallway with rooms on either side. Halfway down the hall he stopped at a door numbered 19. He unlocked and opened the door that lead into a large room, equal in size to the entirety of the spare parts shack, that had a bed, dresser, kitchen area, table, and large balcony window. There were two door that were closed and upon further inspection were a bathroom and linen closet.
"It's not much but it will feel like a home in no time. I'll go down to the storage and see if I can find you some new clothing and let you get settles. I can take you to get some essentials later in the day if you like?" Kakashi seemed relaxed and unbothered but his eyes were following every movement I made.
"Who else will I be sharing the space with?" I asked, my eyes glued to the window.
"No one," his response sent my head spinning. This much space, all my own? How is that possible? Could I even be alone? I had spent my entire existence, well what I remembered, moving from shack to shack around the compound. From the more spacious elite shack of all the shiny new specimen to the crammed spare parts shack, but none of them compared to this.
"Misako?" my head turned to look at him. His eyes scanned my face before he sighed, "You're hard to read, do you know that?"
"I am very grateful, thank you. Any help adjusting to this new place will be appreciated. I apologize if I am not… normal, but I will try my hardest to not burden you or make you regret sparing my life. I…" I searched for the words. I hadn't used my voice in months, not since my talking out of turn ended with three months in the woods and now I was missing the comfort being spoken at and not expect to respond, "... I owe you my life."
"Well I wouldn't go that far," Kakashi looked uncomfortable by the intensity of my emotions. I understood and made a mental note. "I'll come back after I find you some supplies from the storage. Why don't you shower and get some rest?"
I nodded and excused myself to the bathroom area. The compound shower was more of a communal room with ever present mold and humidity despite only being used once a week when permitted or everyday after surgeries to prevent infections. The white porcelain felt odd on my callused feet but the warm water made me feel new. The shower had a bar of soap and hair products already in them. With no other clothes, I put the worn shirt and dirty pants back on and explored the cabinet's contents.
Within the kitchen there were a variety of spices and generic pots and pans. A package of instant noodles and an unidentifiable package was the only food contents. The bathroom cabinet's contained toilet paper and a small travel mirror, ironically left from the previous tenants travels. In the linen closet was a set of towels and sheets, a pillow, and cleaning supplies. I took the bedding out to make the bed, amazed at the softness of it. Even in the elite shack all we were given was a mat.
I thought back to Kuniko and when we were both in the elite shack. Her tales of the world outside the compound always seemed like fairy tales but now that I'm here, the stories didn't do them justice.
Knock. Knock.
I stared at the door. Fear tickled at the soles of my feet, as if enjoying my new surroundings was the straw that brought him back to take me away. The handle jiggled, but the door was unlocked. After a moment I realized the jiggling was a warning, an announcement of someone entering. Kakashi entered and brought three large bags with him.
The first two bags were filled with food, ranging from a variety of essentials and prepared meals. The second was filled with clothing, both for sleep and for daytime activities.
I stared at the bounty with wide eyes. He took one look at my expression and, from what I could see at least, seemed to smile wider.
"It's no bother. There's a storage facility where shinobi going on long term missions leave items that would go to waste that are fair game. And many families donate clothing that are free for shinobi as well."
"Thank you." I bowed my head, trying to show my gratitude. Kakashi cleared his throat.
"Actually can I ask a favor?" his voice was firm but inviting.
"Anything," I felt a trust for him, a blind faith, that I knew I'd grow to regret. But for now, there was nothing I could do to express my gratitude.
"Tomorrow after your test, will you meet my team?" I waited, expecting far more but the silence that followed solidified that that was the entirety of his request.
I nodded.
"Then I'll leave you to rest." And with one final smile, he was gone. And I was alone in a strange new place. But for now that fact could wait. Sleepless nights weighed heavily on my eyelids and with fresh clothing and sheets, I entered my first restful night in years.