The Day the Leaves Turned Red
"Have you ever waited for death? It's horrible isn't it? Not knowing if he will be late." - Anonymus.
Getting back home was a lot harder than she expected, and it was mostly because she had never been good at orienting herself without some kind of tool to help her determine where she was. She cursed under her breath at not paying attention at her academy classes. This could have been a great time to get that training into action, but like many things in her life, she had been too damn impatient to actually understand the long term benefits learning brought; like say pay attention when the Chunin explained which way was east. Stopping on a branch, Kushina looked behind her. She could count on one hand the number of times she had traveled back to Whirlpool since moving to Konoha. Three to be exact. The first two times she had been guided by ANBU shinobi that had taken her to and brought her back from her native island. The third time, her older brother, Naoto, had been in charge of the trip that had taken place by boat, so she couldn't base her actual location on any of those past experiences, which meant that she was most likely lost.
'Great,' she thought, looking around for something that would tell her where in the Fire Country was she exactly. She only saw the same kind of trees she had been seeing since leaving the village. 'This is just great. Now what?' She couldn't take the main road, since she had no idea where she was and how to get there. Looking at the sun was useless too, judging by the lack of shadow underneath her she could tell that there was no sun in the sky today. The rainy season this year had been longer than in previous years and she was too impatient to wait for night and try and guide herself with the stars. That only left two options: either resume her journey and hope to reach the ocean in two days or turn back and take the road that connected Konoha to the other roads, which meant risking crossing paths with that man. Was she desperate enough? She asked herself. A horrible pain traveled down her spine, forcing images onto her mind. Being chained to the wall. Being hit numerous times by multiple shinobi. Being starved to the point of not even having enough energy protest on the abuse. No. She couldn't go back to that. There was no telling what would happen to her if they captured her again.
Deciding that the best way to get to safety was to push forward, Kushina resumed her tree jumping. She would eventually cross paths with someone else, she would have the chance to ask them then. She was forced to stop dead on her tracks when an unusual sound of footsteps reached her ears. She barely dodged a kunai that was thrown her way, forcing her to press herself against the tree steam to prevent being attacked again. She had been a shinobi long enough to know that other shinobi didn't attack one another unless they were after something. But what? She wondered. She hadn't taken anything of importance that would-
"There she is!" she heard someone say behind her. Crouching, Kushina tried in vain to look through the thik leaves that blocked her vision. No wonder Konoha meant the village hidden in the leaves, she couldn't even make out the shape of her attackers.
"Contain her!" anther shouted. "We mustn't harm her. We must bring her back with us alive!"
"But she's a jinchuuriki!" a third voice countered, making her heart race. How in the hell did she know that? There were only five people who knew that, and one of them was already dead. "She's far more dangerous than we think."
They were from Konoha, Kushina concluded, jumping on a higher branch and accelerating her pace. That much was for sure. Danzo was the only one risky enough to send people after her, and stupid enough to tell them a village secret. 'If I'm not wrong, they must be Root ANBU,' she thought, jumping illogically from branch to branch to try and confuse them. 'Danzo probably found out about me escaping and is trying to get me back before anyone else from Konoha comes to look for me. That bastard, I need to shake this guys before they catch me.' Yet doing so proved harder than she thought.
Kushina had never fought along ANBU shinobi before. They ran in different circles. ANBU were under the direct guide of the Hokage, or in this case, Danzo, so there was no reason for her to know about them other than their reputation, which was notable. There was no telling what would happen if she were to confront them in a fight. And three against one…she was no coward and she had great respect for herself and her abilities, yet she couldn't be sure who would win if they confronted each other in a fight. Deciding that best way to escape was to confuse them, Kushina made three other clones that quickly scattered. She jumped from the branches onto the floor and rolled around a tree, choosing to head back in the direction she had come from. If they followed her clones she would have time enough to choose another route and find a better place to hide. She had no rush to get back to Whirlpool, yet she knew that Danzo was not a patient man. He would be expecting answers in less than a few hours.
Pressing her body against a tree, Kushina watched as no less than five Root ANBU shinobi jumped passed her in the direction one of her clones had taken. A whole squad after her? Either Danzo was really desperate or he really thought she was that dangerous. Either way she had no interest to find out. Glancing one last time at the direction the Root had taken, Kushina turned on her heals prepared to jump on the highest tree branch and make her escape when four Root ANBU shinobi closed in on her.
"Uzumaki Kushina." A girl with a fox mask spoke, jumping from the branch onto the floor where she was standing, no less than ten feet away from her. "Under Danzo-sama's orders, you will be returning to Konoha with us.""
Her first instinctive was to laugh at such idiocy. Did this girl really think that just naming Danzo would make her cower in defeat? Really, what exactly were they teaching this kids at that Root Academy? 'How to Make Your Enemy Surrender by Naming Your Master theory'? Please.
"Please kid," Kushina scoffed, waving her hand in dismissal. "Don't make me laugh."
"Don't make us use force." A cat's masked kid said, showing kunai in his hands. "You are out numbered here."
"And you are out trained here." Kushina waved her hand again, not even bothering to glance his way. "You are one hundred years too early to fight me. Leave now. Don't make me shame you."
The original girl with the fox mask took a step forward. She was obviously the leader here. "Don't make us kill you. We have explicit orders to take you back unharmed, but if you resist we will use force on you."
A kunai flew past her ear, making a sharp hissing sound. Cat's mask had obviously thrown that. It would have been a good tactic if she hadn't been stabbed by kunai multiple times. This kind of things didn't even make her flinch. If they wanted to scare her, they would have to do a lot better than that.
"Let me guess," Kushina asked, taking her eyes off fox mask and centering it on cat's mask. As she did she realized more shinobi had arrived, making her original assumption of just a squad wrong. The number had grown from four to thirteen and more seem to be arriving. She was seriously outnumbered here. This was the time to start thinking of a plan of escape without harming this kids. She had no intention of tainting her hands with blood. "Was that meant for my head?"
"That was meant as a warning," cat's mask growled under his breath. His stance had tensed and so had the others. They were prepared to fight. "Come now and no harm will come to you."
The laugh came out involuntarily. It wasn't that she found his words funny exactly, but the irony of them made the reaction inevitable. No harm will come to her? Aside from being experimented on and then tossed aside when the desired conclusion were drawn? Which would most likely come at the cost of her own life and sanity? This kids were either really stupid or really loyal to Danzo's cause.
Her laugh triggered a mass of kunai coming her way. She had assumed it would come ever since she noticed the number of Root around her. Kunai was the easiest and most effective way to harm your oponent. Fifteen shinobi with five kunai each would make seventy five kunai thrown at her under five seconds and from all directions. They would aim them well enough that none would touch her body, since their explicit orders were to take her back unharmed, yet they were meant to immobilized her so they could seize an opportunity to grab her. It was good plan, she thought gathering wind chakra on her palm, too bad they were far less experienced than her in battle.
Spinning on her feet she caused the air around her to react to the gust of air that circled her arm, creating a shield around her. It was an old trick she had learned a few years ago, yet it had taken her out of deeper trouble than the one she was facing now. When the kunai hit the air they broke in half, falling to her feet with a clank. Wind had always been sharper than metal. Steading herself she waved her hand in front of her, creating a greater gust of wind that pushed the fox masked girl ten off her feet.
"Like I said," Kushina smirked cockily. "You are one hundred years too early to fight me."
Kushina heard a battle cry behind her and jumped forward to stand on her hands kicking the shinobi on the face in the process. It was low, she knew that, but what else where they expecting? They were shinobi and she was highly outnumbered, even though she was more experienced than they were. Another tried to stab her from behind but she deflected his blow easily by making a circle of wind around her, pushing three others away from her. A guy with a frog mask surrounded her with some chains that trapped her in place, but before he could even celebrate their victory she disappeared in a puff of smoke. He looked around him confused. He could have sworn that had been the original one, but before he could even form a coherent thought, Kushina slapped him across the back of the head, knocking him out cold. She looked around when he fell to the ground. Six shinobi on the ground more than ten still watching her from the trees. This was gonna take longer than she originally planned, and there was no telling how many Danzo had dispatched just to capture her. There could be the whole Root division. She couldn't fight over two hundred shinobi without others noticing. She was supposed to leave the Fire Country in secret. Letting people find out about her disappearance was the last thing she wanted at the moment. She had to end things quickly before more came, but how?
"Give it up," a female dog mask shinobi told her, not moving from her position. She was either seizing her up or waiting for the others to find them so they could take Kushina on all together. "We have your friend under custody. If you come with us, he will be liberated with a small warning. If you refuse to get back with us, he will no only be accused of helping a rogue ninja but wont have a chance for a trial and Danzo-sama will make sure that he is executed before dawn."
Was it true? Kushina wondered. They could just be trying to get her to agree to something that might not even be true. Satoru had still been in the hospital when she decided to flee the village. The last time she had seen him was when she had sneaked in to visit him and explain about the seal. He still had some wounds that needed strict medical attention, so she knew for a fact that he wouldn't get leave anytime soon. Besides, Satoru was part of the ANBU, he was under the Hokage's strict orders, even if Danzo did find a reason to arrest him, he would have to ask the Hokage first and then take it to the Uchiha police. Kushina had more than enough reasons to know that Aoi Uchiha, head of the Uchiha police and his father, wouldn't let a cunning old man get away with something as complicated as executing his own son. This guys had no leverage here.
Kushina chuckled in laughter. "Please if you want to threaten me, find a better reason for me to-" but she wasn't allowed to finish for a scroll was thrown at her feet. She hesitated slightly. She knew about hidden seal in scrolls, ones that would trigger on contact with the paper. They could be using that trick on her now to trap her. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction, so creating a shadow clone, she took a few steps back and never took her eyes of the dog masked ANBU as her clone took the scroll from the ground and opened it. A shriek was heard from her clone.
"What?" Kushina asked, taking the scroll from her clone as it disappeared.
Written on the scroll was an execution solicitation signed by both the Hokage and the Uchiha Police Capitan. The name under execution was Uchiha Satoru. Kushina couldn't believe her eyes. He had really done it. That fucking old man. She was going to kill him. She was going to kill him and it wasn't going to be pretty. Gripping the scroll on her hand, she felt a wave of rage pulsate through her. She had only felt this once before, but she still could remember the pleasure that it brought her. Rage and power. That's what it was. Throwing the scroll behind her with such force that it decapitated an ANBU shinobi standing right behind her, Kushina charged forward, grabbing the dog's mask girl by the neck.
"How did Danzo get those signatures?" Kushina asked in voice that wasn't quite her own. It was deeper, darker, thirstier. It was the kyuubi talking. "How did that old man get the Hokage to agree to kill someone?"
But before the girl could even make a sound of reply Kushina closed the hand wrapped around the girl's neck and snapped it with a sickening sound. She was dead before she hit the ground. They hadn't even taken their kunai out of their pocket when she jumped on to her next target, cutting their hands or their heads off their body was easy. She just needed to create massive gust of wind that looked more like a giant sword blade that would get the job done beautifully. There was no escape. Not as long as it was controlling her.
Blood dripped from the trees like it was pouring down rain. The scent of death was palpable in the air. Mutilated bodies scattered around her. She'd never felt more satisfied in her life. It was as if the act of killing brought peace within her. She looked at the concealed sun with fascination. With this much color its seemed as if it already was sunset. Closing her eyes for a moment, she spread her arms wide and let the smell of blood fill her nostrils. 'This is it,' she heard inside of her, 'this is who you've become.' Before she could even form a coherent thought on that, she heard a rustle of dirt next to her, forcing herself to snap back to reality. Were they back? Were there more? She saw as a boy with a bird mask fall to the floor hopelessly. She couldn't see his face, but the desperate movements of his body told her more than his facial expression ever could. She was on him long before he could get himself on his feet. Grabbing him by the hair, Kushina pulled him up and forced him to look at her, pinching his face with her hand. He was the only one that could appreciate the lack of humanity her eyes carried. There was nothing there, only darkness. Before he could even open his mouth to beg for mercy, Kushina spoke.
"Listen to me boy, you are going to tell that old man that there will be a day when I'll dine with his head on my wall. He better not touch him or what I've done here will seem like child's play. Can you remember that?" he barely nodded. "Good. Now go before I change my mind."
She let him go and he fell to the ground once again. At first he didn't know what to do, was he supposed to stay and wait for death? Fight and risk being killed like anyone else? Or risk it and turn his back on this monster? Kushina didn't seem interested in him any longer, so he took his chance and disappeared onto the tainted leaves. He just prayed he would live long enough to deliver the message.
Cleaning some sweat from her forehead, Kushina dug the wooden made shovel onto the ground once more and extracted the last piece of dirt she needed before placing it on the grave. She tossed the tool aside and used her hands to smooth the surface as best as she could. She graved a wild flower she had found a few meters away and placed it on the mountain of dirt before clapping her hands before her face and saying a small prayer. Dusting her hands she looked at the graves she had dug. Seventeen she had counted. Seventeen more people she had killed without really knowing it. Seventeen more lives she had been responsible for ending. Seventeen times she could have fought for control but she hadn't.
"This can't keep happening," she warned herself, clenching her fist at her sides. "I have to find a way."
Looking at the fresh graves with remorse one final time, she jumped on the branch behind her and didn't dare to look back.
Not content with the way the story was heading, I decided to rewrite the entire thing from the beginning and so the previous chapters have been deleted for they are scenes that will happen down the road. I will try my best to update every chapter on the same date each month, but since the only predictable thing about life is its unpredictability I can't assure you anything.
L. D. Nicolescu.