She knew something was going terribly wrong when screams sounded outside. Like any sane person would think, it was pretty alarming. They were a small farm village on the outskirts of Hi no Kuni, and the population was barely nearing one hundred people. Even the occasional injury that was typically acquired from farming didn't ever sound so frightened or shrill.
There was still screaming. Screaming and.. Laughter? The girl cautiously left her bedroom, still donned in her sleeping shorts and spare shirt.
Her grandmother met her in the hallway, bleary eyed and likewise cautiously confused.
"Rin-chan," The elder woman murmured to her, eyes looking warily at her door as she passed. Rin followed the woman, curiosity now peaking, despite the frightened screams.
When the reached the door of their small home, they walked into a nightmare.
Doors were kicked open, some broken off their hinges, and blood was seeping into the dirt as her neighbors, her friends, were drug out of their homes and kicked to the dirt. The laughing man was there, donned in a strange black cloak with red clouds. He was drawing circles with blood, and a similarly cloaked man standing a few paces away with a bored look on his face, eyes roaming and seeming to be searching.
Something grabbed at her sleeve and she whirred around in fright, only relaxing minutely as she recognized the older figure. They were saying something but she couldn't hear them. She could only turn back to slaughter and they were saying something. Searching?
Her heart was beating furiously, and she felt heat in her skin as Isobu sent his energy in her veins. He was saying things too, but it was harder to ignore and was ringing in her skull.
"Snap out of it! Do you want to die?!" She jumped, as he was usually more polite and never yelled, but, still she couldn't-
"Isobu." Her breathing was frantic. What did they want. They were nothing, nobody. But still, he- a little boy was brought out next. The grey-haired one taunted the little boy, dragging the blade slowing across the boys skin- Haruto, his name was Haruto. Eight years old, lives with his- lived- lived with his mother. Her body lay crumpled and bloodied to the side, still moving, trying to put herself back in, but-
Four lacerations. One to the liver, one across her jugular, two to her torse, splitting her in two and spilling her entrails. Lost cause.
She jerked at her cold diagnosis, not knowing where the knowledge came from, nor where the apathy stemmed from.
"Rin. They're after you" That, after everything, caught her attention.
"What. Why would they-" She started to listen to the men invading her home.
"Hidan, you need to focus. We're after the girl. This is a waste of time" She felt a flare of rage and another dose of confusion. A waste of time?! How dare they! This was her home!.
She unconsciously pulled at the chakra pouring through her at this point. Her home, this was her home and they came here and were-! Why her, what did they want?!
Both of the men turned towards her and she felt a flash of fear. She had seen some of her fellow villagers attempt to fight back, and their bodies were perfect examples of the futility of attacking, but she didn't care. She was so angry and how DARE they.
She ran forward with reckless abandon, bodily pushing the grey-haired one, Hidan, off the boy. She snarled and pushed him to the dirt, moving to punch him, but a thick cord of thread punctured through her wrist and she moaned in pain and used her other hand to rip through it. It tore easily with the weird energy wafting off her, and she leapt at the one who attacked her.
He dodged around her easily, merely sidestepping and his hands flashed through some signs before the ground beneath her quaked and sprung up to grab her. She barely dodged the twin trails of earth, twisting around them and leaping away.
Rin skidded back, panting already and Hidan pulled himself off the ground. His shoulder was out of socket, but he only spared it an idle thought as he pulled it back into place and ran towards her. He was faster than she was, but regardless she tried to twist around the swing of his scythe and she felt a burning pain as he inflicted a deep score onto her side. She held the injury as backed away out of immediate range, casting desperate looks around at the town. The boy was still there, curled into himself and sobbing. The little that remained were running in the opposite direction of their fight. She wanted to shout at them to grab him, but she didn't want to draw attention to them.
She saw the boy crawl to his mother's side before her attention was drawn back to her fight by her opponent.. stabbing himself in the shoulder? She felt her shoulder be punctured at the same moment and yelped, jumping away from an attack that wasn't there.
"Hidan, don't kill her. You know our orders". The addressed man rolled his eyes and giddily twisted the scythe still in him shoulder and she screamed.
"Yeah, yeah! You always have to kill my fun." His looked different, she noted distantly. His skin was black now, with white marks mimicking his skeleton. He pulled out the blade and she almost sobbed in relief. It ached, but was healing? The skin was quickly pulling itself back together, closing the gaping wound.
"You're welcome, but we don't have time. We need to run." She was already shaking her head, Eyes flashing to the still-retreating villagers.
"We can't! They're still-" He roared in her head and more energy was pushed into her, giving her headrush.
"Don't be an idiot, there's nothing we can do for them!". She charged at the still smug man.
"We can give them time!" She slammed her fist into his face, nearly breaking his jaw, and he didn't even attempt to dodge. Rin found out why quite quickly, as she felt the blow across her own jaw as well.
She leapt back again, cupping her jaw and eyes cautious and tearing up. Her eyes completely focused on him, so she didn't notice the threads seizing her arms, legs, torso and neck, squeezing and preventing her from breathing.
Rin thrashed against her restraints and struggled to breath, more chakra rushing to the surface, but more threads came to join the snapped ones, and she felt the tendons in her arms and legs being cut and healed in a cycle, preventing her from escaping.
Her watering eyes opened and found the boy's.
Rin bitterly thought that she didn't give them any time at all.
Then she blacked out.
She woke slowly, aching everywhere and extremely weak.
Rin could tell that she was bound; her arms and legs were secured behind her, her joints aching at being in an unnatural position for an extended period of time.
She kept her eyes closed, however, because she wasn't alone. She could still feel Isobu, silent and kept in the back. He felt.. sad… Which was strange she supposed, but considering they were about to die due to her stupidity, completely understandable.
'I'm sorry.." She whispered internally before focusing on the outside, straining her ears to pick up everything.
"You're late." A gruff voice with an annoyed inflection began, soft steps tapping closer and she struggled to keep her breathing even. This felt almost familiar for some reason.
"I had to prepare sacrifices for Jashin-sama." He was bored and unapologetic and she recognised his voice and almost broke cover to spit curses at him, but refrained, barely.
"We're waiting in the room. Preparations are complete." That.. didn't sound completely ominous. She yelped as she was grabbed roughly by the scruff of her shirt, snapping her eyes open any twisting wide eyes to her captive.
She hadn't had the chance to get a good look at him before in her rage. He was terrifying: Black mask, red sclera, green eyes, and no pupils. He didn't even react to her weak resistance, continuing on into a wide cave.
Her frantic eyes attempted to process everything, but in their haste, processed nearly nothing at all. Weird, freaky, huge eyeball statue, more people, one was a plant, chains. Chains bolted to the floor and she didn't even need to think about it; they were for her.
"Wait!" Her voice was wrecked from all her screaming, croaking and cracking like she was going through puberty again. "Why-?! Where-?" She couldn't even articulate anything with the terror of what was going to happen. She didn't understand, but she knew it was going to be painful.
They ignored her, like she didn't exist, like she didn't even matter- and then she was chained to the floor. She bucked against them weakly-too weak, useless- and then there was a flash in front of her and then she couldn't breath.
The air was so heavy and she broke into a cold sweat, shivering from the intent bearing down on her. Her eyes glanced around and she could tell that they felt it too-didn't expect it either.
The cause stepped forward and she automatically flinched bodily, attempting to escape, but being unable due to the bindings.
He wore an orange mask, red eye barely visible and scouring her face. He knelt to her side and grabbed her jaw in a bruising grip.
"Is this meant to be some joke, Hidan, Kakuzu.." He turned his head minutely in their direction. Hidan rolled his eyes and smirked at the man holding her.
"What? She your girlfriend or something? That Bit-" The arm to his side snapped up lightning fast and tendrils of wood shot through Hidan's body. The tendrils pierced through his chest and one through his mouth, halting any words. He kept moving somehow, however he was pinned thoroughly and couldn't free himself.
Rin whimpered in his grip and trembled pitifully, tears making salty trails down her cheeks. Kakuzu glanced at his partner before eyeing the masked man.
"She was the girl that we found in the town. My contact sensed the chakra of the Sanbi there and when we arrived, she used it to fight us off." Kakuzu shifted and straightened, looking like he was ready to dodge if needed.
It wasn't however as he focused back on Rin once again, releasing her jaw and reaching into a pouch on his thigh. She gasped at the blade he pulled out, squirming and breathing heavily in panic as she attempted to distance herself from the masked-man. He grabbed the edge of her shirt, using his odd knife to cut a straight line up through the fabric. It parted easily, leaving a thin red line that weakly welled blood. She was left bare, looking panicked right into his one visible eye, exposed to him and-
His head snaps away, looking towards someone out of her view.
"Explain. Now." The intent doubled if possible. Her chest was exposed, showing off the ugly scar on her chest right over her heart. She didn't know how she got it, but then again, she didn't know a lot of things. If her scar or something caused that reaction, did he know something about it? What-
"It shouldn't be possible" A strange voice spoke from above her, but she was still staring at the masked man, fear making anything else impossible at this moment. "We know he killed her" There was a strange emphasis on that word and she knew that it was important, but right now, she hardly cared. The man's hand was still holding his blade in a white knuckled grip. His other hand was on her stomach, inserting some energy and making a strange tattoo that she had never seen before appear.
"I wouldn't want to interrupt your moment," Another man stepped forward a bit, arms cockily crossed and seemingly unaffected by the atmosphere, but his shoulders were stiff and stance ready. "But shouldn't we continue the extraction?" He was blond and young, shouldering the same cloak as all of them, but-
The hand on her stomach removed itself, and the man himself seemed conflicted. He was facing her again, red eye boring intently into hers, searching for.. For something. Something she should know, should recognize. The intent was lessening, but that didn't relax her any, if fact, it made her more wary. At this point, she didn't even think it was possible to be anymore stiff.
The man seemed to had come to a decision and he shifted to her restraints, snapping them easily. That casual show of strength sent her heart in her throat and she didn't dare move. Didn't dare avert her eyes.
Simultaneous with a sound of protest, he grabbed her arm and they were gone.