Tree Amongst the Leaves
Chapter One: Reluctant Reminiscence
The continuous landscape of sand had been traveling past her for almost two days now. Even at her top speed, she hadn't seen the endless dips and dunes of the Land of Wind give way to her home forests of Fire country yet.
Kami, when will this damn sand trap end! she bemoaned, and not for the first time considered going on strike if she was offered a mission anywhere near sand anytime soon.
As if the aforementioned deity had heard her irreverent prayer, outlines of trees appeared in the distance.
Yes! Oh please, please, don't be a mirage.
With renewed vigor, her strides grew longer in her haste to return home and escape the never-ending desert. The vague, shifting shapes took on the definite image of trees behind a short plane of desert scrub. With relief, she let out the sigh she had unconsciously been holding.
Home at last.
(Later, she'll regret that she thought too soon and jinxed the possibility of an easy return.)
As she entered the field that transitioned from sand to grass, a whistling kunai embedded itself into her right shoulder-blade. A shriek of pain began to escape her throat before she abruptly clamped her mouth shut.
"Morie, Hikaru, Takahiro, keep your pain to yourself. It is not essential to scream, hence unnecessary. Ninja code: Energy is to be preserved at all cost. Any unnecessary action should be effectively avoided. By this interpretation (and as it is mine it is your law and world), you have violated code."
Ragged breathing escaped her from the wound and accompanying memory. She scanned the area with a quick, expert eye, narrowly avoiding collisions with various well-aimed projectiles.
Ah, three Suna-nin — most likely jounin — positioned one o'clock, nine o'clock, five o'clock.
A flurry of familiar handsigns brought carefully controlled vines to entangle the ninja at one o'clock. Her hands reached to the memorized spot, and twin swords flew out of their holsters in a practiced movement, ready to hunt, ready to prey, ready to devour their enemies.
Great, now I'm giving my swords personalities. Bloodthirsty ones at that.
She stood in basic defensive posture; her swords crossed and prepared to strike when the time was right. The Suna jounin flew at her. A tanto was hastily deflected before striking her throat, and a quick turn of her hips and spine spared her from near paraplegia.
"Ah, do you two really need to tag team me?!" In the brush with death, she hadn't noticed the ANBU mask falling from her face.
A smirk that could almost be described as a playful tilt of the lips graced the tanto-carrying man's face.
"No, not really Morie-chan,— "
"But better safe than sorry!" the man's identical twin finished. His poisoned senbon continued to barrage her as she danced away from the two.
"I see. The Onihara twins of Sunagakure. Very disrespectful to treat strangers like that, though hats off gentlemen, very good form, but I really should go back and report on that assassination." She really wanted to abstain from potentially (imminently) violent conflict in her current injured condition. Coupled with her already battered state, touchy sarcasm began to leak through her voice.
"Likewise here, but we require proof of purchase, so please lend us your head!" The Tanto twin feigned towards her abdomen, then twisted last moment to hit the back of her neck. If not for a lot skill and fool's luck, she would have been blacked out instead of just being grazed.
"Hey, I thought you wanted my head, not me!"
The third ninja sprang out from her prison of vines. She sent a soaring kick that left the clearly Konoha-nin sprawled on her back.
"Well, information is rather convenient as well, you know. Maybe a few positions here, a supply base there, you know, the works." She whipped around to stonily glare at her deadly, playful colleagues. Yes, unfortunately, I have to work withthem, she thought. "You two should be ashamed. You two should be ashamed that you left me when one of you was more than capable enough to knock her out." As the disgruntled kunoichi railed against her (in her opinion) mentally handicapped teammates, a puff of smoke was let out from the "body."
"What was that?!"
With lightning speed, the Konoha-nin's sword pierced the nearest Suna jounin to her. Senbon-twin crumpled in on himself, giving one last gurgled breath before going still.
"Sora!" The remaining twin ran over to his brother's side, trying in vain to awaken him.
"Tsubasa-san, you really shouldn't turn your back to the enemy. It leaves you much too vulnerable." She moved to strike the man, but the kunoichi ran in to attempt to save her teammate.
"Come on, would you let me get a clean hit every once in a while?" The Suna kunoichi attempted to deliver a blow to a pressure point, but had to duck and weave away from the deadly wakizashi carried by Morie. Morie's exasperation and weariness grew with every deflected hit and every parry she had to make.
"Get over here! You killed my brother! Die, Morie-hime." Hate was dripping off his words, the malice almost tangible.
Strong, callused fingers brushed through her hair. Normally she would have died at such attention from her (possibly) careless crush, but circumstances had changed. "Your hair was always so beautiful, Morie." His typical lilting tenor began to take on a darker tone. "Too bad defection requires such drastic measures…" His next words were an echo of the remaining twin's words, perfectly similar, right down to the loathing hiss.
"Die, Morie-hime."
"Don't you dare remind me!" Tears, hot and fresh, rolled down her cheeks, her heart still in the past even as her mind traced out a move that would finish the fight. With an angered, sorrowful cry, she swung her swords with her last store of strength, and the two enemy ninja fell to the ground.
Panting heavily from exertion, Morie grabbed her mask then launched herself onto the final leg of the journey into Fire country forests.
As the adrenaline wore off and the pain increased, Morie stopped on a platform-like tree branch. Callused hands gripped onto rough knees as great pants escaped the kunoichi. Her muscles were screaming at her, telling her to collapse and get the hell on with dying.
"Damn, that was a shit job on my part."
She looked over herself, running shaking hands over her newly acquired wounds. She hadn't realized how nasty the shoulder wound had been. She had left the kunai in during battle so she wouldn't just bleed out. With a sigh of resignation, she groped through her bag until she found a half-emptied bottle of sake and a head scarf she had used in the harsh sun of the desert.
"Smooth, Mo-chan, smooth to forget your first aid kit… again." Hyuuga Haruki was trying with all his patient might to get through to his sister-lie teammate the importance of a first aid kit, even if it wasn't necessarily required by the village. Mayu-sensei wanted them to have one, at least, they were fairly sure since she only made a passing comment on it. If she thought she should break her perpetual silence for that, then it must be important.
"I didn't forget it; I misplaced it. There's a difference, Medic-san!"
"Sensei's gonna get early wrinkles from you, I swear."
"Haru-kun, I still need you to get on my case." She took a swig of sake to occupy her, and then swiftly pulled the kunai out, keeping it straight so as not to compound the damage. "Oh—shitshitshitshitshitshit." Deft hands poured the rest of the sake into the wound as a makeshift antiseptic. The stinging, throbbing agony was too much for her to even get a coherent word out, only managing a pain-filled groan. Using her left hand, she tore the clean head scarf into a manageable strip. She managed to get it on as a half-decent bandage. Wincing from all her efforts, she stood back up to continue her journey.
"You're lucky that wasn't poisoned,Mo-chan." Haruki was tying off a carefully wrapped bandage on her abdomen as he spoke with a gently chastising tone.
Morie was grimacing. "Haruki, please shut up."
Always the same response to his motherly comments, present or past. She looked up to the sky to see dark clouds congregating.
"Oh, just what I wanted right now. Sonice to be drenched in autumn weather." With a quick surveillance to check for any trackers, she took off towards Konoha for hopefully the last time this mission.
Her hooded figure arrived at the ANBU entrance gate, soaking wet and rather in a bad sorts. The ANBU guards keeping post were taking shelter under the arch.
"State ID number, family name, given name, mask, rank, purpose, and check question three," a gruff male voice barked out.
"ID #006709, family name Senju, given name Morie, kitsutsuki-san, regular ANBU operative, returning from an individual mission without my team, Sensei's favorite book was Paper Crane Wishes and Butterfly Wing Kisses."
The ANBU operatives bowed politely in reply, then stepped to the sides and formed the handsigns to opened the gate. "Welcome back, Sempai. Hokage-sama will be awaiting your mission report."
A courteous nod acknowledged the man's words. "And hopefully for the last time," was what the guards thought Morie mumbled as she stalked past him.
AN: This would not be possible without .be., my wonderful bestfriend/beta/co-writter/everything. Elly, you are my saving grace.