Chapter 1 – Reminiscent Aftermath
A gentle breeze blew through the trees, cooling the air of the warm morning. Two figures were walking at a casual pace along the dirt path near the field. As they walked, the two figures were quiet, each pondering how long until they reached their destination. One of the figures stopped and sighed, her face quickly turning as red as her shoulder length red hair.
"Heh, again, Tayuya?", The other figure asked.
"Yes…", Tayuya responded, with her typical attitude.
"Well, hurry up", The other girl stated.
"Shut it," Tayuya demanded, walking into the trees near the dirt path.
After a couple minutes, and a few instances of a rustling-esque sound, the red-headed kunoichi emerged from the trees, with the same scowl she always carried, planted firmly on her face. Tayuya said nothing to her partner, and continued on the path. Her partner followed, just a step behind. Tayuya looked at her partner, Oshime Shiruba, her long, silver hair gently blowing with the slight breeze. Her piercing orange eyes stared straight ahead, not noticing, or much more likely, not caring that Tayuya was looking at her. Tayuya looked back ahead of her, thinking of the past as she walked.
Tayuya slowly opened her eyes, as an incredible pain engulfed the lower half of her body. Her head upside-down, she looked at her surroundings, too afraid of the potential pain to attempt to sit up. As she stared, she saw naught but demolished trees spread across the forest floor. She did not even need to sit up to know that she was currently lying under a tree trunk. Her memories came pouring back to her, remembering that shit-faced little shadow brat and the whore who came out of nowhere and defeated her. Since it was twilight, Tayuya reckoned she must have been unconscious for hours. She managed a small smile despite the pain, as she realized her attackers must have only assumed she had been killed.
"Dumbasses," She managed to state, coughing a bit of blood in the process.
With the only strength she could muster, Tayuya managed to lift the log off her abdomen just enough to slide her damaged body out from under it. She rolled over, noticing the wetness across the lower half of body, assuming it was blood.
"H-how much blood did I lose…?", Tayuya sputtered, before once again blacking out, this time falling asleep, instead of unconscious.
"Hey, Tayuya!", Oshime yelled, yanking Tayuya out of her memories.
"Huh, wha-!?," Tayuya said, oblivious to the surroundings.
"We're taking a left at the fork in the road, not right," Oshime said, standing on the left-bound path.
"Oh, right…," Tayuya replied, walking towards the left path.
"What's with you?," Oshime asked, "You've been distant and vacant all day."
"It's nothing," Tayuya stated, not looking at Oshime.
"C'mon, Tayuya, you haven't even been as mean as you usually are," Oshime said jokingly, not even getting a scowl in return.
The red-headed kunoichi continued walking, not wanting to give her partner the satisfaction of a response.
"Seriously, Tayuya, if you don't have your head in the game, there's no way we can pull this heist off", Oshime said, showing concern.
"I know, I know, relax," Tayuya said, "We're at least a day away from the village, so it's no big deal."
"Ok, fine," Oshime sighed, "But if you screw this heist up, don't be surprised when I lop your head off with my Sui-Riu"
"Ok, ok, keep your damn sword sheathed," Tayuya stated, "We all know you're quick to draw that thing to compensate for your lack of breasts."
"You're one to talk, with those mosquito bites of yours!" Oshime shouted, glaring at her. "At least I don't have to wear…" She added, before stopping herself.
Tayuya shot her daggers, but decided not to press the subject. They continued silently, Oshime deciding not to apologize, despite feeling bad. The sun was beginning to set, as the sky began changing color to match the eyes of the silver-haired ninja. Tayuya found her mind wandering again, once again pulling her towards her past.
Tayuya once again found herself opening her eyes among the fallen forest. This time, however, she was coming out of sleep in the early morning, and was no longer being crushed by a tree trunk. She felt that she was lying in a wet patch, but looking around showed no signs of rain. Nervous that she had lost massive amounts of blood, she pulled herself to sitting position, and looked herself over. The lower half of her was soaked, but she noticed it wasn't blood. Not really caring where the liquid came from at the moment, she looked herself over for any significant wounds, and found that she had lost a moderate amount of blood, but nothing life-threatening, and found that her left leg and abdomen had suffered a good amount of damage.
"Fuck!" She yelled, as she pressed her arm down onto her left leg.
She didn't think it was broken, but nonetheless, she could only put very little weight onto it. Her right shoulder was in some pain, too, but she placed that out of her mind. She knew her abdomen had suffered massive damage, but that was to be expected after having a tree fall on it. Not knowing how to diagnose such an injury in anyway other than "fucking painful", she could do nothing but hope it wasn't life-threatening, and would heal soon. It was then that her mind wandered back to the wet patch on her pants and on the ground. Now that she had analyzed her situation more, she couldn't help but wonder where this liquid came from. It was cool against her skin, but she couldn't help but think it wasn't water. As she pondered, a certain odor reached her nose. Recognizing it as urine, she looked around for an animal that had snuck up on her. It only took a few seconds for her to put two and two together, and realize she was sitting in a puddle of her own urine.
"Dammit!" She shouted, wiping the hand she used to touch it on her shirt.
After a bit of thought, she realized she shouldn't be surprised. After all, she had been crushed by a tree, and had been passed out for many hours now. Summoning her effort, she pulled herself to her feet, yelling profanities as weight was put on her bad leg. She quickly lifted that leg, and balanced on the other as she snapped a branch off one of the down trees to use an impromptu crutch. She began hobbling, hoping she could find her teammates before too long. As she made her way towards the edge of the debris, she noticed a small object shining beneath the leaves. She winced in pain as she bent over enough to pull the object off the forest floor, and stared dejectedly at the twisted hunk of metal that had once been her flute. She placed the broken instrument into the damaged holster around her waist, and continued hobbling.
"Let's set up camp here for the night," Oshime said, once again pulling Tayuya out of her daydream.
"Yeah, sounds good," Tayuya said, looking around at how dark it had gotten since she began to reminisce.
The two quickly set up their two tents, and had a quick meal using the fire Oshime created with a simple jutsu. They ate in silence, Oshime noticing that Tayuya wasn't her usual obnoxious self.
"I'll be right back," Tayuya said, as she finished her meal.
Oshime nodded, knowing what Tayuya needed to do. The red-haired girl glanced at her friend, noticing her lustrous eyes seemed to pierce the darkness like small flashlights, and made her way to her tent. Oshime gave her friend privacy, hearing the rustling sounds she had come to recognize since they had been traveling together. She took the opportunity to find a tree she could use to go to the bathroom, making sure she grabbed a few tissues before she went. Both girls returned to the small fire at the same time, sitting back down on the small log on the ground.
"We should turn in for the night", Oshime said, getting a nod in response.
"Yeah, I can't wait to get this damn cloak off," Tayuya stated. In actuality, she found the cloak to be quite nice looking, but being almost entirely black meant it was sweltering to wear outside during the daytime heat.
"Don't complain. Just be lucky I'm letting us take them off to sleep," Oshime replied. "The Akatsuki never take theirs off. In fact, if a member took theirs off, it probably meant they were about to die."
"Yeah, yeah, but we're not Akatsuki, Oshime," Tayuya stated, "We're just masquerading as them."
"Well, duh, that was my idea, you know." Oshime said, "We need to keep the guise up as long as possible to fool who we need to."
"It can't be that hard to fool such a small, bumpkin village," Tayuya replied, "I mean, I've never even heard of this place."
"We'll talk about this in the morning," Oshime said, "Right now, we need to sleep."
Both girls removed their cloaks, and placed them in their supply case, along with Tayuya's flute, and Oshime's Sui-Riu. Tayuya made a few handsigns, and put a sealing jutsu on the case, which would now neither open, nor move from its current location unless either Tayuya or Oshime performed the necessary handsigns. Tayuya bid her partner goodnight, and entered her tent, content with sleeping in the outfit she was wearing under her robe. Oshime, not wanting to do the same, entered her own tent, and changed into a long, blue shirt that reached her knees. There was a black symbol across the chest, round on one side, and with two, curved spikes on the other. Oshime sighed as she looked at it, and got under the covers, extinguishing her own lantern. Ten feet away, in her own tent, Tayuya lay under the covers of her sleeping bag, trying like always to find a comfortable position in which to fall asleep. She put out her lantern, and closed her eyes, falling into a deep sleep not long after.