Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
The mist settled in deeper over the hills; the rain had stopped, but was threatening to start up again. Night was cloaking the land the same as the mist, though the sky still seemed a deep gloomy blue gray.
Yagura sighed softly, his hands tensing over the staff. His lavender eyes scanned the rolling hills, lush with soft grasses and green deciduous trees; with long, slender fingers, he touched the long, seemingly stitched scar on his left cheek, snaking down from his eye.
He was lost in contemplation of the landscape when something small collided into his legs. "Oof!" The small-framed young man was sent careening to the ground, his large and heavy ebony wood staff clattering behind him.
Yagura glowered downwards and he was met with a large pair of glimmering jade eyes. It was a little girl who had accidentally ran into him. She was maybe eight or nine years old, with long, ragged auburn hair and fair skin crosshatched with bloody scratches. He felt his own soft lavender eyes grow somewhat sad. This girl was most likely one of the many homeless beggar children of the Water country.
"Going somewhere, osanago?" he asked quietly.
The girl crawled off of his chest and stood up beside him. "No, sir, sorry sir. I was just—"
"Calm down, calm down," Yagura soothed, running a hand through his pale hair. "Honestly, anyone would think you were about to be eaten."
Her behavior didn't do anything to make him feel better. The girl twitched, her small hands with broken, stubby fingernails diving into her pockets. "I've gotta go."
"Wait, why don't you—" she took off mid-sentence "—come back with me?" Yagura finished sadly. Now what on earth's got her so spooked?
Yagura retrieved his staff, made sure the flower on the end was still firmly attached, strapped it back in, and started down the hill in the direction that the girl had gone. It wasn't like she knew how to hide her trail.
Mei had been running for days, it seemed like. In reality, it was more likely several hours. Running into that strange-looking man had taken away valuable time, she knew. But for what? Mei thought bitterly. It's not like I have anywhere to go to.
Her small bare feet spluttered over river stones. Mei knew the river was shallow, and she could swim like a fish to begin with.
The river was calm that night, but swollen with rain and deeper than Mei expected. Mei stumbled around the bank, looking for a narrow point that she could use to possibly risk the swim across the river.
But something went wrong, just as it always does.
Before Mei could do anything, the loosest of the stones gave way from under her feet. She screamed, but no one heard her. Thankfully, she was not wrong in her assessment that the waters were calm, if deep, so Mei got to the other side cold, shivering and thoroughly soaked, but otherwise unharmed.
She laid gasping, trying to regain her bearings. She had to keep running. If she didn't, those men from before would catch her and…
"Well, well, well," a malevolent, violence-filled voice sounded from behind her. Mei felt her blood go cold.
She looked up, shuddering and quaking, though no longer from the cold. The faces of the men were hidden by the mist, but she knew quite well who they were.
They must have been hiding in the trees the whole time… Mei almost started to cry. This is going to be the last time…
The last thing Mei felt before losing consciousness was a sharp, blinding pain to the back of her head. Then all went black.
Yagura began to feel that something was wrong when he got to the Keiryuu River. He was sure the little girl had gone through there; she wasn't an Academy student, who would have known how to cover her tracks.
He dropped to his knees and observed the bank. She had come to a narrow part of the verge where the rocks were loose. There was a wide area where there were no rocks, and in the place of the smooth river stones there were wide muddy skid marks. Just the right size for a child's small feet.
The Mizukage chakra-walked across the river, and what he saw on the other side worried him even more.
Four men, maybe five.
They were big men, and they didn't bother trying to hide their footprints. Means they're either non-shinobi, or they don't expect to be followed.
They took the girl with them.
This told Yagura many things. It told him that the girl wasn't simply a beggar child. She had done something to make someone very angry, angry enough to pursue her.
It also told him that he needed to move quickly.
Yagura followed the footprints in the soft ground through the dark forest, praying that whatever happened, it wouldn't be too late.
When Mei woke up, the first thing she was aware of was darkness. Her green eyes were keen, but all she saw was inky black.
The next thing was that her hands and feet were bound. This was a familiar feeling for the little girl. Rope felt coarse and scratchy, and whatever bound her limbs was smooth, so she figured it was leather, maybe belts.
The final thing was that she was in pain. Mei tried to move and wailed because of the searing sensation on the inside of her thighs, on her shoulders and deep in the bones of her arms and legs. Violent, screaming pain split her skull. She fell to a hard, wood floor, sobbing uncontrollably.
A light flicked on. A flickering lantern with red flame at the center hovered nearly six feet above her. As Mei lifted her bloody, bruised, tear-stained face upwards, trying not to cry anymore, a horrible Cheshire Cat's grin reached her eyes.
"Hey look, boys. She's awake."
As Yagura's feet hit a narrow gravel road, he wondered for maybe the fifth time what on earth the girl could possibly have done to get someone angry enough to warrant this. Most eight-year-olds he knew were usually in trouble for nothing more serious than stealing kunai out of their instructor's desks. And most instructors didn't send hired goons to "pick them up".
He bit his lip in frustration. Whoever it was who had taken the red-haired little girl had traveled down this road. That was the only explanation for why the footsteps, five sets, he knew now, had so abruptly disappeared.
Yagura smirked grimly. I'm so glad none of my shinobi are here. I'd hate for them to see that their Mizukage can't even follow the tracks of five hired mercenaries.
He surveyed the rolling hills, looking for any sign of humanity. In such a sparsely populated country as the Water Country, such a thing, a temple or a homestead, would stand out as satin among wool.
The night was growing deeper; it was quiet, almost completely silent. There wasn't even the call of owls, so common at that steel blue twilight, to liven up the air a little.
Suddenly, a high-pitched scream fills the air. Yagura starts, drawing his staff and jerking his head in all directions. Come on, come on, if you could just do that again…
As if in an answer to his prayers, there came another scream. But Yagura frowned. It wasn't the shrill scream of a girl; it was the harsh, hoarse scream of a grown man. Either way, he now knew which direction to run in.
Hold on, osanago.
"What the hell did you do?!" Kaname roared at the little girl. She didn't answer, and he knew that she had been knocked unconscious.
One of Kaname's companions had attempted to strangle the girl (their master never said that they couldn't have a little fun with the people they killed before severing their heads from their bodies, and the child was just so pretty), and received a nasty shock. At first, she had screamed and fought, kicking and biting, but then her strength began to wane and her struggles slacked off.
Just when they thought that they were finally going to kill the girl, she lifted her head and inexplicably spewed acid. Her would-be killer backed away howling, covering his face with his hands.
Kaname kicked the girl in the ribs, trying to wake her up. No response. He kicked harder, and still nothing. "Maybe she really is dead after all," he mused.
Another of the men knelt by the girl, placing his fingers to her throat. He looked up and shook his head. "No, she's still alive." There was the faintest hint of genuine sadness in this man's eyes; Kaname knew that Nasake didn't really want to be there, killing children, but he's never questioned his orders.
Kaname turns his attention to his wounded colleague, still gripping his hands to his face. His howls had slacked off to whimpers of agony.
Kaname dropped beside the injured man. "Come on," he muttered encouragingly, "let us see it. It can't be that…" He felt his mouth drop open.
The man's face…wasn't there anymore. It was stripped of skin and tissue, down to scorched muscle and bleached bone. Someone gagged in the background.
Something snapped in Kaname. He kicked the girl, again and again and again…
"What the hell did you do to him?! What the hell did you do?!"
Yagura felt his eyes narrow as he laid eyes on the ramshackle shed. He brandished his drawn staff as he burst through the door.
What he saw dumbfounded him.
His eyes first laid on the girl. She was unconscious, or seemed to be, black and blue all over and spread-eagle on the floor.
He then turned his attention to the five men, fixing them in a cold lavender gaze. Two were huddled in the corner; the other three flanked them.
"What is the meaning of this?" Yagura demanded coldly, pointing his hooked staff towards the one in the center, probably the leader.
"We have our orders," the leader replied with equal chilliness, trying to glower him down. "And please, the little bakemono injured one of my men. We'd like to finish the job."
"Oh, don't give me that, what could she possibly do against you—"
The leader abruptly turned aside, leaving the two crouched men in plain view. "See for yourself," he said grimly.
Yagura's eyes widened. One of the men looked like he had been treated to an acid bath, head first. "What happened to him?" he demanded shakily, being sure to keep his eyes on the men who glared at him like wolves ready to spring.
"She—"
"I lifted my head to take my last breath, and breathed mist instead, mist that burned his skin." A new voice entered the conversation, rough and rasping. Yagura whirled around.
The girl was awake. She hadn't risen from her place on the floor, but her eyes were half-open, half-awake, and dim with pain.
The leader of the mercenaries snarled and looked to Yagura, who positioned himself in front of the child. "You see. A kekkei genkai child. She must be killed. We have no other choice."
"The purges are over! You have no right—"
The man laughed harshly. "The purges will never be over. As long as there is one being on this earth who possesses a kekkei genkai, men like us will always exist, and nothing you can do will stop it—"
"Mizukage-sama!" The leader glanced sharply at the man who was crouched beside the injured one. He had looked up and exclaimed, his face white as ivory.
"What are you talking about, Nasake? This isn't the Mizukage; he's—"
"I didn't kick the Sandaime out of the village for nothing," Yagura informed them frigidly. "Madara-sama may have established the purges, but I have abolished them; you work for no one but a criminal."
The air in the shack changed. Where it had been heated before, now the iciness was practically palpable. "So." The three men standing were tensing, readying for battle. "You're the upstart who cast out Sandaime-sama. The one with the flowered staff. I can't even begin to articulate how much I have wanted to kill you."
The three in front began to advance on Yagura, smiling evilly, but before they could do anything, Yagura lashed out. The large hook on the end of his staff shifted and became a giant hooked claw, sweeping two of the men out of the way and flying away from the shack.
The one left managed to dodge the claw and kept on coming.
Yagura smiled almost sweetly, and began forming a series of hand seals. "Suiton: Hanpatsu Mizu no Jutsu."(1) The man and the two who hadn't taken part were blown through the wall by a colossal wave of water blasting them away. Their screams were muffled by water.
"I don't think we'll be seeing them any time soon," Yagura murmured, still smiling. "Kirigakure no Jutsu." A veil of mist began to descend on the land.
He turned his attention to the child, kneeling at her side. "What's your name?" Yagura didn't bother asking her if she was alright; Yagura didn't believe in asking stupid questions.
"Mei," she whispered. "Terumi Mei."
Well, that explains the kekkei genkai. "Mei, of the Terumi clan of Mizu no Kuni?" The Terumi clan was just one of many exterminated during the purges, though there had been rumors of survivors. Yagura had personally heard rumors of a Terumi child who had inherited both the Yōton release of her father's clan and the Futton of her mother's. This girl was probably that child.
"Yes." Her green eyes started to close again as her shallow breathing evened out.
Yagura winced, lowering his head. "I am sorry for what happened to your family, Mei-san." In that moment, he regretted not chasing Madara out of Kiri sooner. So many have died, their deaths only serving to make our village weaker. No more.
"Are you really the Mizukage?" Mei asked, something thick and painful entering her voice. "The one who chased out the bakemono who killed my parents?"
Yagura felt his throat constrict. "Yes, I am." He began to lift Mei off of the ground. "Let's go."
"Where are we going?" She wasn't even able to summon the energy to be curious.
"Back to Kiri," he answered.
The mist protected them as they journeyed back to the ship that would take them to the main island and to Kirigakure no Sato, the village Hidden in the Mist.
Yagura stared down at the child in his arms, half-conscious and wincing with every step he took, and choked. Am I the first to ever stand up for this child? Am I the only one who has ever saved her? Terumi Mei, the last of the Terumi clan of Mizu no Kuni, is under my protection. Now, and for always.
An owl cried somewhere in the dark wilderness, and Yagura smiled.
1: Hanpatsu Mizu no Jutsu: Repelling Water Technique.
I figured that Madara started the purges of all those in Kiri who had bloodline limits in order to eliminate anyone who posed a threat to his power. Even though Yagura officially put an end to the purges and tried to enforce his word, people continued to hate all those who possessed a kekkei genkai. He had to declare Mei his ward, and sort of unofficially adopt her, in order to protect her from the prejudice. Yagura's been the Mizukage for about a year, give or take a few months, by the time of this oneshot. If Mei was born in the period of the purges, there's no way she could have escaped the prejudice of her fellow villagers. You remember what happened to Haku's mother after Haku was revealed to have a kekkei genkai.
Mei wants to know. Will you review? For her?