DISCLAIMER: 'Naruto' is not mine, that happy honour belongs to Kishimoto Masashi! All I own are the new characters and my continuing plot and storyline.
My sequel to "Flower of Konoha" …
Now, having said that, I'm pretty positive you can still read this without having to read that one … I'm going to try as hard as possible, because "Flower" IS a long story. It'd be nice of course, if you would read it, but it's way too long :P
SPOILERS! Heck, I can't even give you a chapter reference … I think I'm literally going to be playing by ear for this story; so far, I can tell you the spoiler is up to the CURRENT chapter, which is 320-something, and may increase as the story goes on
Dedicated to: Alex, Cara and Laura, swedenfc19, sakurali19, Fiery Winter, Nightshroud
You guys (in no particular order) have been with me through much – we've either bullied each other with a bit of TLC or you've pulled me through emotional conflicts and supported me likewise, or we've been yakking like, forever … thank you so much
(man, now I feel bad, because I know there are so many others … )
Also: PG-13 rating for language. Yeah, it'll be a bit more reflective of those adolescent years from now. Darker themes …
Chapter 1: The Boys Are Back In Town!
Background Music: Jennifer Saunders - Holding Out For A Hero
It was only when it was really dark that one could see the stars.
Her eyes gazed upwards, past the thick canopy of leaves she couldn't see, past the overhanging branches, into the pitch-black inkiness beyond.
Hmm …darkness and stars … a story only told for the dreamers …
The wind was chill against her bare arms. A wearied hand rose to her shoulder, prematurely wrinkled fingers tugged listlessly, pulling the breastplate armour that didn't fit into place, adjusting the strap of her ANBU uniform.
She hurt. She really hurt all over. But she couldn't move. She wasn't allowed to shift from her post. Under no circumstances could she disobey orders. Especially not now, not right now when …
"Do you read me? North-sector … Do you read me, North-sector …?"
She hadn't even moved when her headset crackled into life, when the deep, baritone voice of her Captain crackled from somewhere that was surely the other end of the world. Somewhere far, far away from this deep, dark forest, a forest that at the moment seemed to be hiding something frightening, something terrible … the wind whistling through seemed to be telling secrets of something unspeakable that had taken place within its walls tonight …
There was silence and heavy breathing from the headset when she didn't respond. And when he spoke again, there was a quiet hardness to his voice, a fury that lurked right underneath.
"We have had communication from Eastern-sector Commander, his team is down, I repeat, his team is down …"
She didn't move. She didn't respond.
"Dispatch of emergency medical team to Eastern-sector was ordered, so command station here requests that you and your team keep to their posts."
Crouching on a tall tree branch, one knee drawn up, upon which her chin slightly rested. One arm lazily embraced her knee, the other lay limply by her side. Head tilted back, gazing upwards into the blindness, seeing nothing. What moron said you can see the stars when it's dark?
"Do you read me, North-sector? Maintain your positions, we will arrange backup to be sent to you immediately. Under no accounts draw attention to yourselves …"
She squinted and frowned. Obviously they didn't take into account that there may be so many things blocking the sky … idiot …
He took a deep, long breath.
He snapped.
"This is your last warning! Your behaviour in UNACCEPTABLE! I am SICK and TIRED of dealing with your CHILDISH and IRRESPONSIBLE –"
"Captain … Jakuchu-sensei …"
He stopped short, like a tap turned off. Her own eyes slid open slowly, refocusing. She allowed the soft words of the third voice to sink into her mind …
"Captain, please … we acknowledge your message. We will endeavour to maintain our positions until the back-up is sighted …"
It was a soft voice, a voice full of gentleness and beauty, a calm within a storm. She had come to love and cherish this voice … it was one of the voices that kept her heart beating. One of the few voices that forced her to remember that on the other side of the darkness there was the balancing light …
And it wasn't only her. When their Captain answered, it was his usual grave, deep voice, no sign whatsoever of the storm he had unleashed only minutes previously. "Thank you, my dear. Keep in touch. Out."
"Roger."
The silence that followed was thick, as thick as the blanket darkness around them. But perhaps she would have been able to see a little through that darkness if only … if only her eyes would settle down, if only they would stop watering and – there! Now the pools that had filled up had become streams, cheerfully racing streams down her cheek, beading at her chin, and small, soft, inaudible plops! landing somewhere on the fabric of her uniform. And as her eyes became blurred from the tears, the chill wind around and her height from the ground made it slightly more perilous.
The silence from her team was also something unpleasant, uncomfortable. She knew neither of them were enjoying it at all, and she knew very well how hard she was making it for them.
How hard it had been for them all, in fact. But especially …
"I'm … sorry."
The words had crept out of her before she was fully aware. Without her even knowing. Her own voice was, as it had been so often lately, foreign sounding to her ears – like something unpleasantly hoarse, grating; like something continually sticking in her mouth. And the sudden silence that immediately followed was thick, was electric. And that sweet, soft voice, that lovely gentle tone was joined by another, this one brighter, cheerful, exuberant just like her owner.
"It's all right, there's no need for you to –
BANG!!
When the first explosion shook the ground, all their minds just went into a blank haze.
Their first thoughts had been, 'Attack!' Somehow, despite their care, the enemy had sensed them. The hours they had been traveling after receiving the order for the medical team to evacuate NOW, racing through a thick, impenetratable forest, no lights in the sky to guide them … they had left the main platoon team long behind, hours behind, and who knew what fate they had encountered, since medical shinobi had been told to dispatch instantly.
She felt the sharp wind race against her skin as her body automatically propelled itself away from the branch. Vaguely, from the corner of her eye, she noticed the tall, dark tree in which she had been hiding had completely been obliterated – not even a bolt of lightning could have done to this tree what the explosion did to it.
Spinning, spiraling, somersaulting at top speed, a result of years and years of conditioning of her body for the fluid movements that signaled a shinobi, a proud member of Konoha's ANBU … but in her case, she had gone into automatic pilot …
A whirlwind of dust rose as her slender body made contact with the ground, the speed of her hurtling jump causing her to slide backwards, her sandals scraping the ground harshly. Again in automatic mode, she unthinkingly twisted her body swiftly to one side, avoiding the barrage of flying knives that embedded themselves forcefully into the ground.
When she heard an anguished gasp to her right, her eyes darted swiftly towards the tree there, registered a sudden scuffle, the inaudible rustle of clothes as the hidden figure suddenly collected herself and leapt away from the shadowy danger that had crept up.
Twisting her body sideways, she suddenly planted both sandaled feet on the ground firmly, and an elegant poise followed, a half-crouch and her right arm spread out, away to her side … sword … I need my sword …
And she waited. Her palm suddenly went cold with sweat.
She gritted her teeth. Damn. I don't have enough damn chakra –
"Hm. Looks like you're all used up, Princess."
Her head snapped up. Her eyes darkened.
The man is grinning. His uniform is black and grey, but the grey has dark black spots on it. Irregular spots. Blood. The blood of a Leaf, no doubt …
He wears a single eyepatch, the scars on his face stand out as vivid white criss-crossing lines, and his teeth are rotting. Nevertheless, he's grinning. There's a joke going on here that perhaps she doesn't know about.
She stared at him. She stared at the giant katana he was holding in enormous powerful hands, the tightness of his grip. She stared at his clothing, at his weapon holsters. Then she noticed something else … her eyes widened.
The man couldn't see her face. No one could ever see the face of ANBU. But he might have noticed the way her tense position eased, however slightly. He might have noticed the barely conspicuous way her posture shifted. Had he been able to see her eyes, he would have known that she had seen something, and that he was already a dead man.
But he couldn't see her eyes. And though he saw her slender figure shift, he blinked.
And she had vanished.
The man barely had time to curse loudly before –
"You won't be needing this one."
A deadly whisper right against his ear. Too late, he barely had time to hear the scraping of sword against scabbard as the twin blade at his waist was slid outwards, her slim fingers curled tightly around it. He had only just heard her voice behind him, had not even deciphered her meaning before his right arm exploded in a shower of red.
No one heard his scream of agony. That is, the others there were too busy – the forest and clearing around them was a flurry of activity, of moving shadows and other things that couldn't be seen. Neither knew what their comrades' situations were, but that didn't matter now. Because this wasn't a game either.
His giant katana dropped to the ground with a light thud, followed soon by his knees as he also dropped to the ground, head spinning, dizzy. The blood was spurting so freely from his right arm, a healthy red river rapidly racing cheerfully from between chilled, numbed fingers which tried to cover the vicious slit.
A slice across the arm normally wouldn't bring any shinobi down, except …
Damned … she's a … damned medical ninja … she knew exactly where to cut me …
She wasn't even breathing hard, not even her heart was thudding. It was exactly the same speed and force it had been mere seconds ago, just before the tree she had been in had exploded. Her eyes never left the hunched, writhing black-cloaked figure on the ground before her. Her eyes didn't miss a single motion, not even a single twitch. They hadn't missed the shape and formation of his weapon holsters, the way the leather straps had crossed at his waist, signaling that he carried twin blades. Even through his thick, bulky clothing, her ANBU trained eyes didn't miss the finer detail.
She didn't need the ANBU mask over her face – even behind it, her face was as expressionless as an empty sky. There was no emotion crossing her face as a single, dull thought made its way sluggishly through the emptiness … Telling us not to draw attention to ourselves … what an idiot …
Her hands tightened on the katana. Her heart hardened just a little more …
Theirs was the last medical team, the absolute last one reserved for the missions. The horror that had been Konoha's shadow the past few years had seen some of the best and top-rated medical shinobi come and go; the brilliant inspired idea a beautiful eighteen-year old Tsunade had had so long ago, to include a doctor as part of the standard four-man platoons had, backfired in one of the cruelest and tragic ways imaginable. Because medical shinobi had now become something of a necessity, a priceless keepsake – 'finders keepers' it was for whoever managed to capture one, whichever country they happened to be from. And Hidden Leaf had always had a knack for fostering the best and brightest of the medical jounins. Which was no surprise why they had gone missing at such a rapid pace lately …
Lightning doesn't usually come out of a clear sky. Perhaps that's why the first few painful drops of rain stirred her dulled senses into surprise. Her steel mind registered the thick, close weather, thoughtfully foresaw an impending storm, and her gaze slid just as emotionlessly back towards the man writhing and screaming in agony at her feet, his own bloodied katana gripped in between slender fingers.
The cloud descended before her eyes.
Memories, images of the rooms of the hospital, the wards, the children's area came flooding into her. The blood, the listlessness, the blank eyes. The forced smiles. The horror of the past couple of years …
Hew jaw set. Something hardened inside.
She viciously swung the katana.
The abruptness with which the man's screams stopped were lost in the sudden flurry of noise around her. Somehow, the hidden shadows had become shapes, shapes of more tall, terrifyingly, monstrous things.
And as her katana sliced easily, fluently through layers of black clothing and armour, sunk easily into flesh, the hardness around her heart intensified. It had stopped a long time ago – a long time ago, the way she had bled inside whenever she'd forced her katana into another human being, into another person whom Kami-sama had given breath and life to … the bleeding had long ago stopped, dried out, and ceased flowing.
No longer did she see a masked enemy and see beyond him as a man, as a husband, as a father. No longer did the pain settle behind her eyes as she saw in her mind's eyes an image of a young woman, holding her baby, her children, and waiting for this husband to return home. Once, those images would have made her hesitate, would have struck something raw and tender within her, and made her hold back. But not anymore.
Not when she had seen into the eyes of the patients in her own wards. Not when she had seen the brutality these very same men were capable of. The brutality with which they had risen one morning, put on their clothes, kissed their families goodbye and set out to do. Nothing else in their minds, in their goals, except to torture.
He rose up in front of her, white teeth almost luminous in the darkness, a sneering tilt to his mouth, his eyes covered by a visor. Faceless. To make their jobs easier, they decided to be faceless. The last thing that a girl, a boy, a mother, a father, a child would see before the end would be that sneer. As their bodies succumbed, defeated to the torture the men would put them through, the last sight that graced their eyes would be the faceless, brutal assassin. An assassin that had taken everything away from them, had forced them to witness horrific acts before ending their lives, their souls trapped forever in the pain of what their eyes last looked upon.
The leering smile.
The luminous smile vanished abruptly, replaced by horrified shock. His head slowly, slowly lowered, his gaze dropped to his stomach.
Or where his stomach used to be.
She stood before him, her breaths coming out controlled, slightly heavy, muscles tensed from the vicious, fatal stroke she had just delivered across his abdomen.
The last thing the man saw before he dropped was the sight of his own entrails, long, stringy, squishy, a thick blackness slowly pumping itself out of his exposed stomach, large unwieldy sack-shapes following as his insides vomited themselves out, following the blood as it oozed out in a mess, not even having time to coagulate and thicken into a congealed mess.
She had leapt away before he'd even dropped, face-first, into the ground.
Shadows, just like shadows materialising, gaining flesh and blood, they seemed to spring up before her. But her mind had shut itself out – it forced her to focus on one, only the one before her, and pay no heed to the multitudes of other emerging shapes. Altogether, the assassins couldn't have numbered more than perhaps six or seven, but in that darkness, in that close, heated air around him in the closed in forest, they could have been limitless for all the three young women cared.
In her mind, she saw a woman, an elderly woman, bruises forming on her face, her body tortured with cigarette burns, the blankness in her eyes replaying again and again the vicious torture of her husband …
And she looked upon the shadow before her, and that glazed hardness coated her vision.
Was it you? Are you the one who tortured and brutally murdered a gentle old man in front of his wife?
Metal upon metal clashed as the man drew up his sword, his jaw setting, teeth gritting as he held it in place, diagonal to hers. The enormous bulk of his body leaned forwards, applying great pressure to the junction of their two swords, and he was able to stare directly into his enemy's eyes. He was only a few inches away from her eyes.
And when he saw her eyes, his grip almost faltered.
Because there was nothing there, in those deep, blue depths. They were empty …
His scream joined the other cries in the air, lost in the loud gust of hot wind that had descended and was now sweeping through the forest. As soon as she'd sunk the katana into his chest, she spun around, sensing the murderous intent of another assassin directly behind her, the fury of a man who had seen his comrade go down in one of the most vicious ways possible.
Then his eyes locked with hers.
And what about you … Perhaps it was you brutalized that young girl while her parents and brother were tied and gagged in the next room, so they could hear her screaming and screaming …
He however was ready for her. He'd seen the deathly accurate and fast movements, and he twisted behind her, his own speed rivaling hers. Sparks seemed to fly with the sheer force their katanas clashed, metal scrapings falling away upon the contact.
But the image was on instant reply in her mind. She could see nothing except a white haze, changing to red, then white again, now red … the girl's body when she and her team had burst in …
He gasped, caught unawares as she moved with unsuspected some devilish speed. He'd only had time to turn his head slightly, just that little bit to see her run up halfway against the sturdy trunk of a tree a short distance from him. Saw her crouch, her feet still firmly planted along the height of the trunk, her lithe body poised, the flash as the katana steadied …
No time, no time to move as she flew, slicing through the air, the tip of a deadly blade piercing through the man's next, the lethal speed and thrust with which she had propelled the katana, severing the tips of his spinal cord.
He was dead before he hit the ground.
Grabbing the hilt of the sword, she yanked it violently from his neck, and then saw the shadow which had leapt from nowhere, the shadow which was now advancing upon the back of one of her girls, the unsuspecting soft-spoken beauty who was engaged in her own fight, against the onslaught of yet another of these monstrous giants.
And then as rage filled her, her mind supplied yet another image, yet another atrocity that had been seen and stored away …
A boy … a boy perhaps no older than the sweet little one she had at home …
The air screamed around her with the speed she reached the coward. The man turned momentarily to see a flash of black, of gold and of silver reach him. He barely had time to raise his katana to deflect the charge she was making at him, the enraged, inhuman accompanying scream of fury.
And perhaps you … you might have been the one who set alight that little boy and hung him from the front of his house …
And once again, the image of the enormous brown eyes, the beautiful, vibrant little boy she had at home rose, unbidden, to her mind. She knew … she knew that someone had come home that day, perhaps someone like her … they had come home to their own little boy only to see an atrocity done to him that was unspeakable … unthinkable …
She could only imagine what her own actions would be if she had seen that done to her own little boy …
Shock and surprise took over the man when he saw she had suddenly lowered her katana, that she had darted behind him. His momentary surprise, his hesitation was enough. The next thing he was aware of was the broad, flat and dulled hilt of a katana pressed against his back – not the tip of the blade but the direct opposite end, the hilt which the user held.
Then a small but surprisingly strong and firm hand pressed against his chest, right against his heart. It was only when he felt the small hand apply pressure against him, when he felt himself being propelled backwards with amazing force and speed, that he realized what she was doing …
But again, his surprise once again having taken over his reactions, his senses, he didn't respond, couldn't move …
The katana had been at right angles to his body with the blade outwards. The tip of the blade had met the strong, stout and perfectly unyielding branch of a tree, and the speed and force with which she had pushed him against the handle of the katana had caused a terrible, awful shock.
He could only scream and scream as the jarring force reached his spine, as the katana's long blade still quivered from the force with which it had been jolted against the tree trunk. The fatal shudder had carried all the way through, into the man's spine.
She let him fall, and she leapt away, knowing that he would never rise again. That his screaming would go on forever and ever, and that that was all he would ever be able to do for the rest of his life, unless someone else took pity on him and put him out of his misery.
Close by, the rose-haired girl shuddered to her feet, staggering slightly as she breathed hard, clutching her right shoulder which had unknowingly caught the tip of a slicing blade. She forced her lungs to slow down, her blue-green eyes staring from the figure who had just leapt away, to the man, to the ear-piercing, shrill screams coming from him, while the rest of his body was as still as if it could be dead.
She's … severed his spinal cord … she's broken all connections from his brain to the rest of his body …
… So she finally mastered it …
As she watched the young woman leap away and engage another shadowy assassin, Haruno Sakura had never understood why this young woman had been so determined to master that technique. When she had heard it described, when she had read in her textbook what jarring the human spine at exactly the correct angle would do to that victim, she had been horrified.
But then deep blue eyes had quietly turned upon her, and examined her for a while, so intense that Sakura became uncomfortable, unconsciously terrified of having seen something in those blue eyes that she knew, she positively knew shouldn't be there. The young woman had beckoned, and turned, walking out of the current hospital office they'd been in.
Confused, hesitant and somewhat frightened, Sakura had followed the young woman. Down corridors, into a smaller section of the hospital she had never ventured because she just hadn't been required there, ever. She noticed that as she continued, something in the very air seemed different. It wasn't that this area looked like it wasn't inhabited much – it was more something dark, something thick and engulfing. Something else lived here besides the patients.
And then Sakura had stepped into Ward OP, a ward name she had read many times in some of the hospital record forms, but she had just casually flicked over, it seemed nothing interesting. It was just an out-patient (OP) ward, so these people didn't need intensive care. And she and the doctors and nurses had enough to worry about anyway. These people were evidently fine …
It took only a few minutes in that closed off ward for Sakura to realize several things. The first was that death was the only hope that ruled this place. In each and everyone's eyes was the fervent expectation and trust that death would finally come, because only that could relieve them of their pain. No words, no gentleness, no time. Their souls had already died within them. The only things alive in their minds were scenes on continuous replay, burning and burning horrific imagery, on top of a previous one, again and again and again.
There were a few nurses here, moving in between beds and closed off areas, where curtains had been pulled. The place was spotless, just like the main wards. It was evident someone was looking after this place, but …
An old woman, lying back in her pristine white bed, the sheets so white and clean they hurt to look at. Something had died in her eyes, and on parts of her arms, Sakura's breath caught in her throat as she saw burns … cigarette burns …
A smaller family, a mother sitting listlessly by her son as he sat up in bed. The father lying in a bed next to his wife and son, gazing up at nothing in the ceiling. The little boy holding a photo frame in his hands, and his eyes empty. Dry. There was nothing left inside him to cry.
Sakura had turned around. And she had looked into Danah's eyes …
… And seen nothing there.
That was all Sakura had needed to see, wanted to see before she had turned abruptly, and raced out into the corridor. That's when her tears had started, that's when something so painful, so horrible had flowered inside her that she felt she couldn't bear it. What happened to these people? There's so many in there … what happened …?
A soft, wrinkled hand had alighted on her shoulder, and Sakura had turned, tearful, and looked up into blue eyes. They too, were empty, but they were still beautiful.
"They're families who have lived around the Fire Country. When the soldiers and shinobi from the surrounding countries get bored of having no one else to torture, they make a trip here."
Horror upon horror was building up inside the young girl, and her hands flew to her mouth. But Danah continued, gravely, emotionlessly. A bitter, twisted grim smile tilted her lips horribly.
"War has always been senseless, but this kind of thing … I can't, and I will never understand. Man who has always wanted to brutalise his own kind, man who has always taken sadistic pleasure in seeing his own kind writhing, screaming, agonizing in pain …" A bitter, humourless laugh had escaped her parched lips.
"Someone has to look after them. You couldn't stay there a few minutes, my dear. Neither could anyone else, anyone with any sense or feeling left in them. Because anyone who did, would become like those people. Empty. Soulless."
Danah had abruptly turned, and pushed the double doors, back into the ward. And Sakura had heard her barely whispered words before she had disappeared.
"As I have …"
And it was after that, that the rose-haired girl began to understand the slow, painful, subtle change that had come over the young woman. It had been coming on slowly, but Sakura couldn't trace when it had begun. At first, it had started almost three years ago, when a light had dimmed down in her eyes as she'd said goodbye to the boy she had raced back home for … to the little boy who had suffered intolerably in his own growing up … but it was after that when a steep slope had put her careening downwards. Something else had happened …
Shocked by the emptiness, the brutality, the unhesitating way she moved, she acted, and by the cloud of her own pain, Sakura didn't immediately register the approaching horror.
Her head turned, with an almost painful slowness, dulled by terror; as if her consciousness had already sensed the approaching terrifying level of chakra, and had decided to shut off its senses rather than face it. But her head turned, nonetheless, and blue-green eyes, darkened with pain and desperation, widened in frozen horror.
He was leering, teeth showing up starkly white as his enormous body poised, both hands gripping an enormous sword, arms raised above his head as he prepared, even in mid-air, to slice the girl in half.
Danah had turned slowly as well, her own eyes widening, her senses screaming in shock as she saw a monster bear down upon her own teammate. But she had seen something else …
A blur.
Something that wasn't a shadow, something that barely seemed to have substance, with the terrifying speed with which it had moved. But in essence, something that was indeed true flesh and blood, something lithe, and slender and beautiful, but deadly. Terrifyingly deadly …
The speed was so fast, dizzying to the eye that Danah blinked, and in that split second it took her mind to process who it was, she had already turned away, parrying a would-have-been vicious blow while she had turned away from a new attacker. She didn't have to worry about defending Sakura …
The enormous giant bearing down upon Sakura must have sensed something ethereal, something otherworldly approaching, because he committed a first-class mistake.
He hesitated. And turned his head.
Fast. She was fast. A blur of midnight black and silvery-white. The mask hid her face, but the delicate grace and flawless accuracy of her movements – he never had time to admire or appreciate them.
Hovering in mid-air, her body so sinewy and light, it was as if the very air was willingly holding her up. A sudden eerie electric blue-green glow sparked up around her entire right hand, which she drew up towards her left shoulder …
… and brought it down in a fluid, swift slicing motion …
"CHUUSUUSEI SHIKEIKIDEN!"(CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM ELECTRICAL SHOCK)
So powerful was her control of chakra, that wasted as she was, as fatigued as all three young women were, her mastering of the fatal medical ninjutsu was so perfect, that it only needed the air to transmit it, full force, to her opponent … that same air which seemed to carry her on its invisible wings so cheerfully, so willingly …
Sakura watched, fearful, as the man's face contorted in confusion, fury and pain, and managed to leap out of the way as he fell forwards, face down into the dust, his body twitching and writhing hideously.
She felt her rescuer land lightly beside her, and felt her body relax as her companion gently placed her hand on her shoulder.
"Sakura-san, I don't think either Danah-san or myself have enough left to heal you. Perhaps you had better stay by my side, for now …"
A small smile tilted the rose-haired girl's lips. "Thank you, Hinata-sama …"
But both were thinking, wondering at Hinata's words. For now …? What exactly does 'for now' mean … and until when …?
Because … because …
… No one is coming to help us …
The thought was now firmly inside the girls' minds, even as a barrage of short kunai came flying through the air from the thick grove of trees, even as Hinata placed her arm around Sakura's shoulder, and they both leapt swiftly to one side, into the shade and safety of the branches.
Deep blue eyes lifted, rose and gazed up at the blackness above.
Above her, the inky black night sky stared back down, empty of its million sparkling watchful eyes, the ancient inhabitants that had looked down for centuries upon centuries. And tonight, empty. Nothing.
"See? One can't really see the stars when it's dark …"
A grim smile touched her lips as the thick rain droplets now intensified. Even as the closeness of the air with the strange thunderstorm became more and more apparent, her mind and her body moved mechanically. Automatically.
And yet, somewhere inside, a place within where all feeling had gone some time ago, something throbbed. And yearned …
Where was everyone … what has happened to us all, these last few years? The times when a platoon always, always, had a back-up team ready, where that platoon knew they could count on them to arrive, to burst in at that last minute when we'd all lost hope, only to find it burning again … the way the leaves burned and the shadows danced …
Gone are our Elite, our pride and joy … scattered, all around this country, and infiltrating neighbouring countries too … and to replace them, our standard four-man teams have been both reduced and expanded – reduced in skill, which is made up for by having expanded the numbers. Now we have more people's backs to watch …
It was when her katana felled the man before her, as his screams eventually died away into horrendously writhing moans, as the last few fatally acidic contents of his stomach oozed around his surrounding organs from the brutal cut … it was at that instant that she realized something else had descended upon that quiet clearing.
Unconsciously, she felt herself stepping backwards, sandaled feet carrying her slowly to the centre of the clearing, where she could feel Sakura and Hinata join her in a similar manner.
And it was then, when that deep, gravelly voice sliced through the thick, blind silence, that for the first time that night, she felt her blood chill.
For as the owner of that voice stepped out of shadow, it wasn't the leering grin that curdled her insides. It was the mass upon mass of shadow, rising up, behind him …
"Well done, well done … indeed, Princess, you have done very well. Three of you again seven of my best frontmen, may I add. And so admirably, the speed and skill with which you have taken them down … commendable, highly commendable …"
She heard someone gasp and step up closer against her back. It seemed the girls were only now realizing the twenty or thirty tall, huge giants who seemed to materialize out of the air, as if stepping directly from shadow and acquiring flesh, blood … and sword. Enormous, terrifying meaty swords brandished from thick, beefy arms and hands.
"Yes, we were told you three in particular were something special. And as you may know … medical shinobi are a rare occurrence these days, especially –" Here a blood-curdling, humourless laugh escaped his thin lips – "Since they seem to have a habit of just … how shall I say – disappearing from the Hidden Villages? Oh, I wonder now, I really wonder …"
The man's voice was chilling, horrifying in its grating, harsh, gravely tone. It went right underneath her skin, and the accompanying sight with it …
"Yes, yes, such a pity the way they seem in such short supply … but as my men were so – so colourfully describing to me … we truly hadn't been expecting such beautiful young women. In fact, I would say – " And here, a leer as he glanced slowly across to his right and left – "That capturing a medical shinobi is a bonus, but anything beyond that is an added bonus, wouldn't you say?"
A low growling murmur, that could have been anything between wicked, evil, chilling laughter or …
And all the time, something built up inside her, something painful and raw … her chest was tight, her breathing constricted … wells of tears sprung up from some dark place within …
"I am sure, my beautiful ladies, you will, in between your duties, have ample time to … shall I say … entertain us –"
It didn't burst from her. The savage incivility and crudery she was capable of these days had not so much been building up inside her as they had more become a part of her, ingrained into her own being, however terrible that was. The only thing was that it was something she fought hard to keep from showing in front of others …
"Fuck you."
The silence was electric. Even the two backs pressed up against hers stiffened, and she could almost imagine the horrified looks, the shocked blue-green and silvery-white eyes, perhaps the blush on Hinata's face. But Danah was past caring. Way past all that …
She raised her eyes. If indeed he could have seen them, something different may have happened … but he couldn't see them.
The man seemed to regain his composure somewhat, and his blood-chilling chuckle was accompanied by more growling laughter from behind him.
"Well well … I would reply, 'Gladly' – however – "
Her entire body tensing, she had made a move to leap at him before Hinata had given a strangled gasp and swiftly wrapped her fingers around Danah's arm.
"However, I am tempted to say first … what, oh what would your brother think if he heard his beautiful onee-chan say something so vulgar?"
Danah froze. This time, as if for real, every pore of her skin froze, and her lungs seemed to forget to draw breath …
Evil, vicious laughter. "That's right. It's just you and him left now, isn't it, pretty little one? After Daddy so willingly – oh, so willingly – gave his life for this village, leaving his children as orphans …"
Most of his words had drowned within her, the blood pounding with terrifying ferocity in her head. She was shaking violently, and not from fear either …
His words were like repeated, brutal slashes across her skin, revealing wound after wound after wound … the pounding in her head dulled, and each sentence he uttered settled themselves like a slow-working poison in her pained, sore, scarred soul …
"Yes, yes, little princess … I know of how you ran away ... ten years in that mountain with that old goat …" A wicked smirk. "Come now, was it really the sign of a good sister, abandoning her little brother to the wolves like that?"
No … no it wasn't, but …
"I know of the man you love ..."
She froze.
"Oh yes, which self-respecting ninja in all the countries has not heard of Captain Hatake Kakashi, the only son of the White Fang himself …? I know of how he has gone, disappeared … what is it now, almost a year? Two years? Doesn't he love you anymore?"
Breathing … so tight, I can't …
"Oh yes … a very talented one, that. In ten years, how many jutsus has he learned? More than a thousand ... and it's not only that Sharingan eye - you need real TALENT for his type of accomplishments, you know. Talent."
His last word was spat out, an accompanying jeering, maniacal laughter.
"Yes, indeed, princess! Even your brother, in the few years since he graduated from the Academy and from when he left, learned a great many jutsus … that seemingly good-for-nothing brat, holding no trait, no bloodline inheritance, bottom of his class … amazing, truly amazing the speed and talent with which he picks up and masters jutsus. But you …"
Another smirk. He held up his hands. Long sinuous fingers, slightly off colour, spread out.
"I can count all the jutsus you've acquired in only both the fingers of these two hands. And that's in all the miserable years of your life. You and Captain Hatake Kakashi, both twenty-somethings, and yet … look at the universe of difference between you both. You ran away from Konoha, you abandoned your village to leave to get stronger, and he stayed on – you left even that boy you loved behind, alone. When all your friends died, one after the other, where were you to comfort him? Hmm? Who was truly the one who got stronger? Eh? Now, surely that sounds pathetic, even to you, does it not …?"
And the laughter started up again, and this time he was joined by the faceless shadows behind him, covering every retreat angle from that small forest clearing. Laughter that escalated, went on and on …
Her body had stopped shaking. Some time ago, in fact. Although she could feel the fury from the girls behind her, her heart had settled into its rhythmic beat.
She stepped forwards. The men tensed, but the jeering laughter didn't stop.
A slender hand rose to her face, fingers tightly holding the sides of the mask … Then she slid it off, and let it fall to the dust beside her.
The laughter died down, and they stared at her.
Through his visor, his eyes narrowed. He stared at the young woman standing before him. The slender, willowy body of a ninja, the kind that becomes one with the wind, the kind that could fly. Long golden hair cascading down her back, strands of faded sunlight that the wind suddenly touched, and started to play with.
He had known of her beauty … the beauty her mother and grandmother were so renowned for ... but …
She looks … she looks like she's aged … her eyes – they look so much older … and they're so … so empty, as if she stopped feeling. Something cold and bitter has taken over her soul, from within …
… as if so many worries have landed on her ...
Then he smirked.
Well … it isn't really her appearance that we care about … as long as she does her job of healing our ranks after we capture these three and take them back. Although …
"It's all right. My men don't really have to look into that aged and withered-looking face when you're entertaining them. Or even if we give you to one of those now notorious whorehouses; one year on your back, and you could pay a king's ransom, especially if everyone knew who you were!"
The loud jeering, guffawing of the men seemed to penetrate into every shadowy area of the thick forest, ringing through her head, her ears. The sudden movement behind her, the gasps of shock and anger, the tensing of their bodies. But Danah raised an arm, holding them back. The smile never left her face.
She raised her other arm that held the katana, and let it fall to the ground.
Now she stood, tall, slender … and defenceless, the weapon she had used now lying in the dust.
She locked eyes with the man. And she still hadn't stopped smiling.
"Well. You know all about me, it seems. And not only that, every single thing you've said is right. Whatever your source of information was, it's been spot on. I commend you for that …"
Furious and confused gasps from behind her. She ignored them.
"Though you have such a low opinion of me, you seem to have spent considerable time and energy in locating your information about me. Now, I wonder … why?"
Only a sharp eye would have noticed the slow degrees to which her body had been tensing, standing poised, as if something was coming, something building. And he noticed it now.
"I'm not denying that what you're saying is true. That my abilities are only second, or even third-rate compared to the top Elite of Konoha. I'm not denying that I have always known this, either."
Uncertain tenseness from the girls behind her, which, with a little sad smile, she decided to ignore.
"But it is obvious for all your long-windedness and gasbagging, you have never actually fought me …"
Slowly, her left hand rose, a little forwards and above her head. Something electric tingled in the air, and even he tensed.
"That's just as well, because when I had been a real proper shinobi, I could boast on at least one particular point just as well as ANBU Captain Hatake Kakashi ..."
Something truly shifted within her eyes, because as he watched, it seemed they had suddenly gone black … black with rage …
And as she spoke, the raised hand slowly began to lower in an arc ... leaving in its wake, a careful controlled line of curved electric blue-green chakra ... she had traced the arc of a circle from her fingers …
Suddenly sensing the power of that chakra, he stepped backwards. What the … how could she have …
Now a tall curved arc of chakra had formed, the top reaching just a little above her own height. Her hand movements had stopped halfway down the arc, but the chakra continued on its path, all the way down to her feet, as if drawn by an invisible hand.
Then suddenly, Danah's fingers curled around the direct middle of the chakra arc at arm's length … because suddenly, it had become firm and solid. And a thin, barely visible line formed, connecting the top and bottom arcs in a vertical line …
What on earth …?
She paid no attention to the gasps, but her eyes remained locked in their blackness with the man, and her voice was as even as ever.
"I could boast, that no enemy who has ever encountered me, has ever lived to escape …"
He stared at her, stared at the giant blue-green chakra arc she was holding. The curve reminded him of something, but what …?
He unconsciously tensed again as her right arm rose, but this time only to her shoulder level. Holding her fingers up before him, he noticed how they were curled, as if holding something invisible … something that was like a short rod …
"I would like to say THAT is why you have never heard of me …"
Then he gasped as a thin blue-green line formed from between the fingers of her right hand … something that was straight and tall, and pointed at the end. Even despite it being made of chakra, the arrow that had materialized between her fingers was as real and tipped and deadly … streams of precious, deadly chakra swirling, racing throughout the form she maintained …
A quick, elegant twist of her fingers, and the arrow was now balanced between her two fingers, as she placed it mid-way down the giant chakra arc …
… the bow.
Meeting her eyes, he hissed. "What's this? You're not meant to have enough energy! Not meant to have any chakra left!"
She smiled, a smirk tilting her hers as she took aim with her beautiful, shimmering blue-green bow and arrow.
"It's true. When your men fought us, we didn't have chakra left. Literally, we decimated them with our bare hands."
The beautiful enormous bow was shifted, straightened, and the gleaming chakra arrow rose. Squinting, closing one eye, she gazed down to its tip, aiming it directly at him, noting with some satisfaction that he had tensed, that beads of sweat had formed on his visible skin.
"Let me show you something. You're very honoured tonight, because you get to be the first to actually see this. To those ten or so jutsus of mine you counted in your hands, add an eleventh. My chakra bow …"
And the tide had shifted, the tables had turned. Because standing before him now weren't three defenceless young women. Her posture, the sudden straightness of her body, the smile in her lips. Even the strange glow of the blue-green chakra bow-and-arrow upon her face …
"You know, in that other world, they talk of a 'magic bullet' ... an instrument that always finds its target …"
While her voice, soft and light, spoke casually, easily, she set the arrow. The thin line of chakra that had connected the top and bottom of the arc became taut … it was the string of the chakra bow …
"Likewise, I guide my arrows right into their targets, no matter how hard you try to run."
He stared at her. Tall, elegant. And suddenly beautiful. It was as if, in the short time between, years had fallen away from her. Now, what was standing before him was the lovely young woman they had talked so much of.
"It's true that I don't have many jutsus. But what I spent my years learning, is to completely and fully master the ones that I do know. And yes, it took me three years to learn this one new technique, three years in which others would have mastered so many more. And I make no excuses for my abilities. I do only what I can, and with what Kami-sama has given and decided for me. Nothing more."
Tensing her arm further, a grim smile settled on her features. Shifting her foot into position, her sandal scraped slightly against the ground. "I have been raised to always be part of a team. It was evident from the earliest that I was never to be an outstanding shinobi, as far as talent and abilities went. So I was trained to be the stopgap, to fill in holes and help make a team whole. I believe that that itself, is something precious …"
Suddenly, Hinata's soft fingers were on her arm, the girl's panicked whisper against her ear.
"Danah-san … pl-please don't do it! You know you don't have enough chakra left to take out all of them … and Sakura and I don't have, either … we can't – we can't …"
Danah's eyes flickered. Yes she knew. She was fully aware that this was one of the oldest tricks – fire a terrifying-looking attack to frighten the enemy into doing something silly enough, so that the truth would be hidden … the truth that the defending side had just given it their all.
Her eyes narrowed. And hardened. There's only one thing to do then …
Slender, wearied fingers flexed, tightened their hold on the arrow. Her returning whisper was low, carried only to the ears of the two young women beside her.
"I'm sorry, Hinata … but no way are we going to let ourselves be taken. Even if I fall, you and Sakura must, at all costs, escape immediately and make your way towards the village. If the back-up team is indeed arriving, they will meet you half-way. I was assigned your Captain, and no way am I letting anything happen to you …"
Ignoring Hinata's strangled, shocked gasp, she pulled back the arrow. The whisper that escaped her lips was almost deathly.
"Chakra Kasen-Yumiya …" (CHAKRA FIRE ARROW)
Yells, screams of surprise filled the close air of the small clearing as the clear arrow suddenly left her bow, the air screaming as it sliced effortlessly through it.
And as the arrow left her bow, her heart suddenly dampened … all the tears that had accumulated that night now lay heavy within her. And now …
Lost … abandoned …
All of them, all of those good men who have looked after us, and whom we have in turn been looking after …
Told, ordered to leave immediately … what happened to them? In what fate did we leave them …?
Hinata's breathing was heavy, her entire body tensed. Quivering fingers clutched at Danah's shoulder, the thin black material strap of her ANBU uniform. Her own eyes wide with nervous anxiety, panic … then she happened to glance up.
She was crying …
Blue eyes that had suddenly become young again … as if, with the tears coursing down her face, the years were falling away again. She was still just a girl, after all. Like with so many of Konoha's sons and daughters, she had aged before her time, she had become, to them and so many others, a mother before she had finished being a child, a sister before she had finished being a daughter, the old voice of wisdom before she had fully, properly fallen in love to be married even …
Danah's own sobs sounded so loud and soft to her own ears. But she ignored them. It was her heart that was twisting, breaking, hurting … as she thought of them, thought of all of those men … it broke a little more each time.
Where have all the good men gone
And where are all the gods?
The vision of her tall, beautiful silver-haired god … now gone so long … so long she could barely remember … barely remember …
Where's the street-wise Hercules
To fight the rising odds?
The last time they had seen Asuma, the cheerful, cheeky grin, the cigarette dangling from his lips, his deep laughter … the fond way he'd pat Chouji on the back, the cheeky way he'd tug at Shikamaru's hair while the young Chuunin captain scowled …
Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed?
The giant of Myoubokou Mountain … the ancient Frog Hermit … the man whom she had known, despite all his ridiculous eccentricities, she could always, always rely on … Jiraiya's long, streaming white hair, power and strength contained in his tall frame …
Late at night I toss and turn and dream
Of what I need …
Even as the man's screams filled the air, even as the chakra arrow twisted, swirled, spiraled in the wind, even as it spun ridiculously around his enormous sword, even as his henchmen watched in paralysed shock, even as it found its target, she prepared her body … her knees bent slightly, any minute now prepared for flight. One hand finding quivering fingers, her other hand alighting on a slender shoulder, the two young partners beside her.
"When I tell you to move, you move, understand?"
She could feel their sudden shock, the sharp movement at the corners of her eyes witnessing the girls turning to stare at her, aghast.
"No … no, you can't –"
"We won't let –"
She gritted her teeth. Her voice dropped. "That's a direct order from your captain. Are you going to disobey an order?"
Silence. Only their numb, shocked, horrified, anxious silence.
"You know what Captain Jakuchu-sensei's orders were. You know how important we – you – are to the hospital right now. We're the last field platoon team left; they can't afford to lose anymore –"
That was when she felt the thick mass of bodies turn towards them. The sharp outlines of white teeth as they settled into a now-familiar sneer. Even as their leader went down, writhing on the grass as the deadly chakra arrow found its target, they moved, as if of one body, towards the three …
"NOW!"
I need a hero!
Even as the girls leapt, even as their souls screamed 'NO! Don't leave her!', their years of training in high-level ANBU had taken over any other sense. When their Captain gave them an order …
I'm holding out for a hero
'Til the end of the night …
She'd tricked them … even as her body had prepared to fly through the air, she had instead fallen to her knees, her hands flat against the dusty ground …
One more …
I have room for one more before … before …
It will at least give them time to get away, unless they are fool enough to try and return …
I don't know if I really have any left …
But I can always hope …
That, I can always … always …
The same way I can always hope that someone will leap in, that someone will arrive, just as they always have in my fairy tales in the past …
He's gotta be strong
And he's gotta be fast
And he's gotta be fresh from the fight!
Her fingers curled, nails cutting into the ground as her teeth clenched, her jaw tightened. Every last fibre of her energy summoned …
"Hijutsu …"
Just as the first wave of the forwards ranks reached her, the ground exploded around their feet … one of my first and favourite jutsus …
"DORYUUDAN KAGE GENKAKU!"(SECRET JUTSU: EARTH DRAGON SHADOW ILLUSION)
Horrendous ... magnificent ... giant …
An enormous dragon, made from the pure, raw earth ...
Sand was still falling away from the carefully sculpted giant scales on its powerful, rippling body, superb giant wings spread out in its murderous glory, its mouth a deep, bottomless cavern as it roared and roared again in fury ...
Only its eyes – its eyes were two points of intense, glowing, pulsing orbs …
Blue ... bright blue skies …
A body tied to an earthly domain, its mind to a heavenly one …
I need a hero!
I'm holding out for a hero
'Til the morning light …
Roar after thunderous roar, its giant wings outspread … Its long, sinuous, rippling muscled body flexed, tensed …
And it had been enough. The sheer force and massive size, the dust swirling in the air around it had been enough to cause a temporarily blind to the shadowy enemy while the two girls leapt, vanishing into the darkness of the trees beside the clearing. And the mass of the body had also been enough to deflect the flurry of weapons – she heard the sickening thuds as kunai and swords which had been flung at them were caught by the body of the Earth Dragon, the dull sounds as the tips of the would-have-been deadly blades instead found themselves buried in the moving earth, the body of the dragon.
The dragon lunged. The snarling mouth, with its gaping, infinite black hole, towered directly over a terrified knot of shadowy assassins …
Her entire body was now quivering uncontrollably, but even through her pain, her desperate realisation that this was her chance to get away, she couldn't help the mirth bubbling up inside …
They're just second-rate mercenaries after all … any idiot can see it's genjutsu … the ultimate diversionary tactic –
"You little whore."
Her head snapped up. There, looming directly before her, a massive, towering giant.
The tip of his katana pointed right at her.
"Did you think we came to just mess around with you?"
And beyond his tall stature, the black thick midnight sky looked down upon her, emotionless, grave, unseeing …
She didn't often pray for a miracle. Didn't often expect that Kami-sama would send one of his angels … those were just dreams in her fantasy, after all. But I was always able to dream … at least, I could do that …
He's gotta be sure
And it's gotta be soon
And he's gotta be larger than life!
Every step … almost every step of my miserable life, I have always been able to hope, and wish. I could always pray that one day I could see a miracle, at least once before I die. So why not this night?
Why not this night, surely the last night of my life?
And even as he advanced closer, as the tip of his blade was only a few inches from her face, even then, she felt she could see a rainfall of kunai, a close, shimmering silver curtain descending between herself and this monster. Even in the midst of this horror, her fairytale was weaving itself into her imagination. Even now, her stupid dreams were cruelly mingling themselves into her vision, to make her believe that her silly fairytale fantasies were coming true …
She blinked.
If it is a fairytale, why do these kunai embedded in the ground in front of me feel and look so real?
"What are you doing! What is this witchcraft?! You crazy whore, you stupid little bitch what are you doing!"
Another haze was over her eyes as she looked up at the monstrous man, and to her shock, he too had stopped, and was staring down at the ground. His helmet had somehow been broken, the whites of his eyes enormous. Indeed, it seemed the shimmering curtain of silver was as if touched by another world … What …? He can see them too? But it's MY fairytale …
"Well … that isn't the way to speak to a lady …"
"Yeah, you disgusting piece of shit."
Larger than life …
Voices.
Half-remembered, deep, dark, rumbling, pleasant voices. Half –remembered …
Electric. If the air hadn't already been electric before, with the hot, close, unnatural weather, then it had suddenly skyrocketed …
Already the electric shock had passed through the men in the clearing, and they stood, tensed, heads turning left, right, wary eyes searching half fearful, half defiant and furious for the voice …
However, she herself shouldn't have lost her focus. The short reprieve that had come as the man was distracted should probably have been enough for her to have gotten away. Whatever it was that had interrupted … she couldn't tell what it was; she could sense nothing outside of this deadly circle. That's good, at least … whoever those voices were, at least it wasn't the girls. At least it means the girls have probably gotten away –
In that split-second, she sensed Hinata's deadly senbon slicing their way through the air, the wind screaming as it was viciously cut with the sheer speed of the throw.
As she managed to leap swiftly backwards, she cursed in her mind. Damn those girls! Didn't I tell them to leave!
Again, her focus was elsewhere, a shock going through her mind as she sensed a figure away to her right … Sakura and Hinata had come to work well together in the past few years, and now she could sense Sakura about to complete Hinata's attack sequence …
And now the beautiful, slender figure was leaping, an incredible speed she had built up … Sakura was merely a blur against the dim sky, a struggle to make out her figure against the strange wind that blew into their eyes.
But when her fists hit the ground, they knew.
Tightly clenched, swirling with a deadly strength … from the shock waves that she felt even as she leapt into the air a split-second before the impact, Danah could tell that both fists had slammed into the ground …
An ear-shattering, tearing sound, a yawning growl as the earth split open, a strange hiss as the crack went tearing in both directions … a screaming, ripping sound as the dry soil rose up in an enormous wave. Danah seriously doubted even Tsunade-sama, at Sakura's age, could have produced such an effect, especially after being so completely drained …
She'd already shut her eyes tightly prior to witnessing the impact, and before her feet had forcefully left the shattering earth, trusting her instincts in the little she'd visualised of the landscape behind her. However, the dust still soaked its way into her throat, and she gasped, feeling an alarming faltering in her body as she hurtled backwards through the air …
… All making her a prime target.
Danah didn't see the brutal slicing motion of the blade until she felt it, directly on her arm. The man had already felt the full impact of Hinata's senbon, together with her deadly accurate aim, but somehow, the ogre had managed to scrape his strength together for one last attack – he wasn't going to be taken down alone … Even as she blinked, even as her lips opened, he was already swinging the sword.
She may have screamed – the cut wasn't a superficial one, she could tell it had already penetrated right into the artery. These assholes weren't playing around, but they weren't medical shinobi; this one may have just got a lucky break.
It was around then the white haze started. A film slipping over her eyes, blurry, unfocussed. Now it was starting to affect her hearing … she could almost fancy just after a series of dull thuds and muffled screams in front of her, a soft, gentle, half-remembered voice against her ear … the fantasy was starting, now that the final few minutes were nearing …
Somewhere after midnight
In my wildest fantasy …
Yes, there it was again, her miserable dreams … now she definitely was dreaming the feeling of being collected into strong arms, pressed against a warm, reliable body … the haze must be completely clouding all her senses, not just sight and hearing. Now her touch was being affected … my stupid fairytale fantasies …
Somewhere just beyond my reach
There's someone reaching back for me …
"Hold it there, princess. It might be time to let us handle this."
Blackness. A buzzing in her ear, a warmth against her body … his strong arms tightly, tenderly, firmly holding her …
And this voice … this beautiful, soft voice …
It feels like … something half-remembered … something so long ago …
… Who on earth …?
And the wind was suddenly slicing, screaming, ripping as the strong body holding her had lifted into the air.
Perhaps it was the sheer force of the wind, hot and sharp against her face that jolted her numbed senses. Because when she opened her eyes, it was to see the world turn around her. Trees, bushes, branches, leaves – they whipped into her line of vision, the little she could see over his shoulder, past his arms; his momentary pause as he crouched, poised for flight again on the branch of a tree, then a flip of her insides as he leapt, soared into the air …
Racing on the thunder
And rising with the heat …
"Hold on for a sec, this one's gonna be tricky …"
There wasn't anything left in her to gasp, nothing left to scream. But even if she wanted to, her breath was closed off, the precious gulps of air were purely her breathing reflex. Nothing spare to scream with …
Because he had already anticipated that he was going to miss his footing – he'd already seen the half-dead tree branch jutting out, as if it had been waiting for the unsuspecting shadow ninja to leap onto it, only to treacherously give way.
But this man had already seen it …
His arms had tightened unconsciously around her, fixing her firmly against him as his light feet barely brushed the decayed branch …
… And the scream that couldn't escape her exploded inside her as her world turned upside down; a swift somersault, powerful movements as he swung right underneath the branch, momentarily balanced upside-down, only the soles of his sandals touching the branch, the old chakra training coming into effect, before the fastest, most agile and skilful leap to land precariously against the lightweight branches of a neighbouring tree, and then, once again, airborne …
It's gonna take a superman
To sweep me off my feet!
And now, suddenly he was landing, an enormous dust-cloud billowing up behind him as he forced a landing in another larger clearing of the thick forest. Sandaled feet skidded roughly, then forced a shuddering halt as his momentum slowed, then stopped completely.
Silence.
Slowly, gently, with the most softest tenderness he placed her upon the ground, crouching down. Her fatigued body once again worked on automatic, her limbs forcing feeling back into them, forcing her to collect her damages and continue to move on, to press on, that she couldn't rely on her wonderful, wonderful angel to carry her the entire way. Pulling her body onto kneeling position, she gasped and choked as normal-flowing air suddenly rushed into her lungs.
A firm, slightly callous hand touched the bare skin of her shoulder through her ANBU uniform, and something quivered in that touch, a strange emotion that seemed to jolt like electricity through her entire being …again, something half-remembered and yet still barely recognizable …
Pained, numbed, her head rose slowly, and deep blue eyes blinked back their veil of blurriness to gaze into the face of her rescuer.
She blinked, trying to clear her eyes … Who …
Then suddenly he'd tensed, and glanced over his shoulder.
She heard a low sound, half irritated, half relieved, and a grumble sounding something like, "Took the bastard long enough …"
And before she could work her dry, parched lips to form a question, several things happened at once.
"Come on, we better get off the ground …"
Shifting to her side, he slipped one arm around her shoulder, the other holding tightly to her arm closest to his side, and he helped her rise. Then, half-supporting her and half relying on her own strength, he rose fully to his feet, his knees bent as he steadied himself, and he was flying again, holding and supporting her tightly as she leapt with him. And before she could perceive any more, two swift shadows appeared on either side of them, feet momentarily grazing the ground before they too leapt up, soaring …
And as she sensed their chakras, an unconscious painful knot in her chest dissolved, just like that.
Hinata …
Sakura …
They're safe …Oh, Kami-sama …
… They're … safe …
Once again, she felt rather than saw him glance back again over his shoulder, and then a restraining pressure against her body as he guided her and her team towards the branches of an enormous tree.
"Hold on for a bit. We'd better wait for –"
He'd paused, still holding her close to his body, and he turned his head, tensing as he seemed to watch, to wait for something. She heard a small laugh.
"Never mind. He's right behind us."
A strange, strange glow seemed to have settled around the forest. The skies above were doing something strange, because there was an expectant tingle in the air, a chill and at the same time, an unnatural warmth, that jolted through her skin. They were now skimming lightly through the top-most branches of one of the tallest trees, so she was now looking down upon the thick forest canopy. And there was a strange, otherworldly light coming from the sky …
He had momentarily put her down, still supporting her weak body as he'd paused to check behind him for a mysterious figure …
Up where the mountains meet the heavens above …
Her eyes widened.
Out where the lightning splits the sea …
… A shadow, a tall, dark silhouette that was suddenly leaping across the tops of and ducking in under the canopy of the trees, now visible, now gone …
I can swear that there's someone somewhere
Watching me …
The flashes of weakness that overtook her body now and then caused a painful blinding white vision behind her eyes, and were it not for the powerful arms that supported her, she would have crashed more than once to the treacherous ground below. And yet, through the desperation to get away, through the dangerous territory through this world of green leafy veils, she couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by the incredible raw power she could sense behind her.
It was anger. It was fury. And it was that that was driving him, that strange shadowy unknown figure hurtling through the air, leaping effortlessly across the tops of the trees.
These two men had obviously seen and heard what the girls had gone through, the conversations that had taken place.
All along, they had been watching over them …
Through the wind and the chill and the rain …
Once more, she chanced a glance over her shoulder. And now the wind was lifting him, and he was hurtling upwards through the air on the invisible wings of the wind, spinning, spinning … soft, light feet came to rest lightly on the very tip of a tree before the wings on his feet sent him hurtling to yet another.
And the storm and the flood …
Yet another chill swept through her body, tingling from the raw, awesome chakra power behind her. Another quick glance over her shoulder …
I can feel his approach …
And she saw him pause, tentatively, delicately balanced on the tree … a long way below, she saw furious, swift shadows as they leapt in and out, weaved and dodged between the trees, having already tracked him … but evidently not prepared for what he was about to do next …
Straining her eyes, she saw him crouch, poise himself unsteadily on the light branch. And even from this distance, even through the dimness, she saw his hands come together … a quick, fast, furious movement as he formed a seal …
Enormous raindrops suddenly spattered on her nose, having penetrated even the thick leafy branches, but they may as well have drenched her completely and she wouldn't have noticed.
It was as if the strange electricity in the air collected, gathered, concentrated towards one point; an invisible swirl of energy towards that single, slender figure, balanced on that tree-top …
And then a blowing in her ears and fire in her eyes as she saw him steady himself … his hands reach up to his face, cupping around his lips …
Like a fire in my blood!
The dim, unhealthy darkness was brutally pierced by an enormous, shimmering ball of red-gold fire; a glowing, living, breathing thing that was born from his very breath, a thing of intense fury and power …
It had all happened so quickly – the pausing crouch on the tree branch, the seals, the eruption of life. It was over quickly before he suddenly leapt again, the speed and strength of his slender body slicing through the air, his body hurtling through the darkness and light sandaled feet brushing against the tips of other trees before coming to land upon another. And one arm thrown out to his side to balance his weight, the other cupped around his lips …
Another breath of fire …
The impact of the fiery being into the ground was literally breath-taking. The force that shuddered throughout the forest, the magnificent explosion as a plume of smoke shot upwards, billowing into an enormous grey bulge, then dissipating with the strange eerie wind that had started up.
But the black knight wasn't finished yet. He was already leaping, already anticipating the movements of the shadowy assassins darting through the dark forest, and was springing into position, breathing deeply, body poised …
Like a fire in my blood!
And again … the birth of the red dragon from his breath …
Like a fire in my blood!
Away to the west side … And again …
Like a fire in my
Blood ...!
Back across, in a zig-zag pattern, simmering smoke and silence in his wake … And again …
Gradually making his way towards them, but covering their paths. Continuing to watch over them …
Hero!
Chilling. Tingling. Breath-taking … suddenly he was leaping down from a higher tree, and the strength and power behind the lightness of his body, his cloak billowing out behind him –
"Hey! ASSHOLE! Don't burn the forest down!"
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the morning light …
She blinked, then turned, gazing up at the silhouette of her rescuer's face. He'd paused while holding her, glancing over his shoulder, an irritated edge to his voice.
He's gotta be sure …
The girls had also stopped, their eyes also gazing back at the series of giant luminous orange-red flowers that had sprung into deadly bloom behind them. Their ANBU masks covered their expressions, but the frightened, awed tenseness of their bodies gave nothing away …
And it's gotta be soon …
As the nearest and last blooming flower simmered down, a swift silhouette leapt against it, his outline stark and clear against the brightness behind.
"Move it, moron, get them out of this place."
And he's gotta be larger than life!
He'd reached them then, and calloused, small and slender fingers wrapped around her wrist, pulling her up, staggering on her weak knees. Everything was a shadow, even when he leaned closer to her. "Hold onto one of us, we have to get –"
But his partner had now taken a deep breath, and his roar drowned out anything else she tried to hear.
"Don't call me a moron, you moron! You're the asshole burning the forest down –"
"Shut UP! We have to get them out of here, there's no time, you stupid –" A shuffling sound, all the pieces of urgency and panic firmly embedded in his movements.
A horrified gasp, as if in realisation. "You didn't … You damned bastard, you didn't!"
A furious hiss from the taller dark figure. "I did what I had to do! Now shut up and get them out of here!"
"IDIOT!"
She felt Sakura suddenly drop down beside her, as her rescuer just as suddenly rose, furious, confronting his partner. They were only two tall shadows, mere silhouettes in the darkness, and yet the pure force of their combined panic and anger gave as much form to them as if they had been visible flesh and blood.
"You're meant to capture them, stinkhead! Have you forgotten? You're meant to take them back for interrogation –"
"No, you shut up! They don't know anything. You heard the moron, he was just gasbagging at them – they don't know shit about anything, so you can just –"
A heavy silence. The figure suddenly stepped forwards, grabbing the taller man's shoulders. "That's no reason to go and plant a bloody bomb in the forest!"
Now the taller figure had fully lost his temper. Raw waves of anger emanated from him as they saw him furiously grab his partner's shoulders and give them a good shake. "For the last time! Shut your face and move your ass!"
It was perhaps with that bickering that it came crashing down upon her, that she felt suddenly light-headed with the realization that should have dawned on her ages ago …
It can't be …
… My God …
… They … they've returned …
The furious interchanges became soundless, everything faded into a strange unnatural buzzing in her ears as she felt her knees finally give way, completely.
The yelling seemed to stop abruptly, and then a gasp, swift movements as if someone was running to her side.
Hero!
It was the final realization in her mind, the sudden movement, the final feeling of strong arms around her, catching her against his body as she collapsed against him.
The heartbeat thudding in her ears … the soft warmth of his embrace …
The hood thrown back, and the face, the beautiful, beautiful, half-remembered face gazing down upon hers.
And it was his eyes …
He's gotta be strong
And he's gotta be fast
And he's gotta be fresh from the fight!
… His eyes … the neverending, eternal promise of the return of a bright, blue summer's day reflected in those endless blue depths …
… Always returning …
I need a hero!
Tired …
Just so bloody tired …
She blinked, then hated herself.
How could I be tired on a night as special as this …
"Well."
Her mind automatically snapped to attention when she heard the voice.
The room seemed to be larger than usual, but that was perhaps because there were fewer people than usual. It seemed only the scattering of ANBU along with some Chuunin officers and the remaining medical shinobi were here.
Behind the desk, she sat, her elbows resting on the table, long, slender fingers linked together, upon which her chin rested. Her beautiful honey-brown eyes sparkled as ever, and perhaps tonight, they sparkled just that little bit more, as she studied the two dark, tall figures who stood before her.
They stood, their swords catching the glint of the soft lighting of the room. Dark clothes and cloaks to match the shadows, and their faces covered with black woollen face-masks, a loose balaclava-like black fabric, like the shinobi of old used to camouflage themselves.
Well … considering who has been training them all this time …
Their clothes were bulky, evidently layers of warm shirt and jacket on top of which they had donned long, flowing cloaks, the rest resembling standard issue ANBU uniforms.
He stood on the left, the only one who couldn't seem to stay still the moment they'd entered and been told to stand to attention in the centre of the room. Impatiently he'd shifted his tall, elegant form, now resting on one foot, now the other, hands excitedly and alternately clutching the hilt of his sword – the tip of which he was resting against the ground before him.
Something no doubt which he will get told off for by …
She was right, because the thought had just sat in her mind when his partner, who himself had stood gracefully and dignifiedly tall up to this point, suddenly turned his head with an impatient movement, and growling low, kicked the man on the left lightly, his irritated hiss carrying across only barely to the others in the room.
"Don't put the tip of your sword on the floor. Asshole. Weren't you told a million times never to do that?"
A soft little chuckle, a sound that caught the attention of the others who had only been half-paying attention. The other Jounin in the room raised their heads and curiously examined the two men who stood in the middle of the room.
"Ah, relax, the geezers aren't here right now. Will you stop being such a tight-ass. Look, do you remember half these people? Man, they haven't changed much –"
"Shut up, everyone's waiting for you to stop –"
" – although there's not as many here as I remember –"
"Did you hear what I said, idiot?!"
" – maybe it's because they're all out in fieldwork, wasn't it something like there's a shortage of –"
"Shut up! I don't want to be here all night –"
Danah gazed from the Hokage seated at her desk, a strange happiness sparkling in her eyes, to these two young men. All her body wanted was to drop and sink to the floor in fatigue, but something inside her was thudding, pounding, roaring as she looked upon the black figures, quietly watching their argumentative motions and hearing the hissed fighting. It's just my exhaustion catching up to me, no doubt …
Beside her, Hinata and Sakura, both still masked, were likewise staring at the two figures, who seemed oblivious to the three of them, or indeed anyone else in the room. The furious hisses from the slightly taller figure had gotten more annoyed, the only thing that disrupted his outward facade of calm dignity. Tsunade clasped her hands tightly and set them on the table firmly.
"That's enough."
Like a tap being turned off, the bickering stopped immediately, though Danah suspected if she could see underneath their masks, she would see a mischievous grin …
"I am sure you know it's rude to speak to your Hokage in face-masks." She made a dismissive gesture with her hand, smirking. "Remove them."
Swords were sheathed, then calloused, powerful hands reached up, and gripping the top of their head-coverings, they tugged it off.
There might have been only a few people in the room, but the gasp that swept through them maybe have made up for the lack of more …
Three years … what three years could do to a boy …
When she had last let them go, she had said goodbye to mere children … two boys who had become men far before their time, eyes that had seen and hearts that had felt too much to be comfortable in their thirteen-year-old bodies. Eyes that were old, far too old …
And now … now the two young men who stood before her had finally grown up to match those eyes …
And that's not all …
As she looked upon them, even the years that had built up around her own hardened heart and frozen features melted away. It was impossible not to be melted away by their smiles.
Well, Naruto's smile had always been something that had delighted her, indeed, delighted anyone else who had taken the time to talk to him enough to get a smile from him. But this one, from this boy who had grown too quickly into a man, was suddenly cheeky, mischievous, charming, and utterly, utterly beautiful, having put all the sunlight he had within him into it.
The sons of Uchiha had always been blessed with a mysterious dark beauty, and in his time away, something had happened which had immortalised that beauty. Sasuke had attained a grace and defined elegance to his features, a stunning beauty with underlying currents of raw strength and power rippling under the surface. Indeed, if Naruto's sunshine in his eyes and hair were the sun and the sky, then Sasuke's pale radiance was the dark beauty of the midnight sky and the silvery moon.
They hadn't really changed. They had simply grown into their good looks, aided by the fact that they had already found something needed to help fill in the empty spaces inside. Since the day the eyes of heaven had given them something to fill in those gaping holes that had once contained family, those lonely dark places had been filled in with light, and the rest just needed time to fit together.
And the faces which gave these visions … three years away from here, three years. Delicate and beautifully chiselled features, as if something other than a God's hand had shaped those lines and contours on their faces, hard and at the same time, something soft and elegant.
The two beside her had gasped when the boys' masks had slipped off, and Danah didn't need to see anyone else's expressions to know they were openly admiring the two visions in the centre of the room. Only Tsunade seemed to be the only one who had remained smiling throughout the whole thing …
Something nagged at the back of Danah's mind. Tsunade-sama? As if … she already knew …?
This thought was quenched immediately as Tsunade chuckled.
"Well. Looks like you came across my remaining three precious medical officers in the nick of time, bratlings."
Sasuke smirked, and with a quick bow, he glanced across at his partner, who stood straight and tall beside him, grinning widely and hugely.
"Speak for this idiot only here, Hokage-sama. We would have been earlier to escort them personally back here if he hadn't held us up."
Naruto's beautiful smile vanished instantly and replaced with a sulky scowl. "You bastard! You were the one who insisted that we dodge into that other place to investigate that weird thing that was going on there! You should have known I'd be more anxious to get to my sister as soon as I could!"
Sasuke's tiny hint of a smile hadn't left his face the entire time, and he smirked again. "Dobe, if you'd bothered to listen to Jiraiya-sensei earlier that evening, he'd discussed the incident at that very same tavern, and that shinobi from our allies the Hidden Sand would be investigating already. I agreed only because you seemed to have a fixation on it. And because you were being a royal pain in the ass about it."
Naruto's mouth was already wide open in anticipation of more argument before Tsunade, who'd been listening with half enjoyment and half irritation to something that hadn't been heard around Hidden Leaf for a long time, decided to stop them.
"Well, though I applaud your swiftness with which you dispatched that enemy, I must say … your exhibitionist tendencies haven't diminished, I see, Sasuke."
Naruto snorted and chuckled, and Sasuke's smug little smirk turned into a slight annoyed frown. Still delightedly grinning, Naruto suddenly reached up and playfully burying his hand in Sasuke's hair, pushed his head down, momentarily throwing the taller boy off balance.
"That's right, you got to get used to his causing a mess wherever he goes." Naruto gave an overdramatic sigh and ducked out of the way as Sasuke lurched away from him, highly annoyed by now and took a half-hearted swipe at his head. "Man, the number of times other people have to tidy up behind his sorry backside –"
They all couldn't help smirking again as they saw Sasuke's lips torn between a smile, a sneer, a scowl. Quick as lightning, making his own fist, he let Naruto have it on the top of his head, burying his fist in the silky golden sunshine. "You'll get yours."
"What the –! What was that for?!"
"For being a useless layabout who always is pulling me back and getting us into trouble. Don't forget it's not the first time you ran headfirst into a –"
"You're so full of it! What kind of bastard are you anyways?! You –"
"Enough! Give me your mission scroll!"
Without even losing any steam and ranting at Sasuke, Naruto reached down to his ankle, slipped a rolled up scroll from the folds of his clothes, and without looking sent it hurtling across to Kotetsu, who was standing by Tsunade's desk.
Blinking, Tsunade accepted the scroll and stared at the two in front of her as she unrolled the scroll, glanced briefly at its contents and handed it with a quick nod to Genma, who stamped it with an official seal, smoothed it out and laid it on a pile on the desk, lazily chewing on the thin wooden rod dangling from between his lips. Brown eyes calmly watched the two boys who had been absent for so long …
The bickering had now become one-sided, Sasuke having adopted the most bored expression, beautiful dark eyes lazily scanning the room, the floor, the high windows, the rafters, indeed paying close attention to everything except Naruto. This didn't take long to notice, and deep blue eyes narrowed in fury and Naruto was puffing out his chest to probably actually begin yelling before Tsunade spoke.
"Platoon Three. Your mission scroll please."
It was Hinata who, suddenly startled into attention, tore her gaze from the two in the centre of the room, and stepped forwards, the scroll already in her hand.
Naruto may have decided to dart in front of Sasuke and grab his shirt front to snarl in his face, but all thoughts of that soon rapidly disintegrated.
The girls had been standing towards the left of where the two centre of attention spectacles were, and Hinata had stepped out of the ranks and was walking towards the Hokage's desk. Knowing not to approach the Hokage with her ANBU mask on, the hand that wasn't holding the mission scroll rose and the edges of her fingers firmly held onto the sides of the mask. She pulled …
Long, flowing, liquid ebony. Perhaps it was the noiseless rustle of the midnight silk, the waves as it tumbled down from the tight twirls into which she had tied her hair back. Perhaps he had seen it, from the corners of his eyes, the eagerness with which the ebony waves had tried to escape their confines.
Blue eyes could only widen when he saw her, her back now turned towards them as she silently handed the scroll to Genma and stepping back, dropped down to one knee in the respectful way, waiting for the Hokage to give her approval or reprimand.
Tsunade again glanced briefly trough the contents before nodding. Bowing her head briefly, Hinata rose, gracefully unfolding herself to her full height. She turned to walk back towards her team.
Long, even, measured strides, the movements of her body fluid and graceful. Whatever had happened these past three years, gone was the jerky motions, the nervousness, the darting silvery eyes, the anxious fluttering.
Tsunade's golden eyes however, had been narrowed, honey-brown slits watching the young woman in the shadows intently, a frown tilting her lips. Suddenly, she thrust the mission scroll firmly upon the table.
"Danah. Come to the front please."
Naruto's attention snapped back suddenly.
"Hey … she's not well, she –"
But Danah had already shaken off Sakura's fingers, brushing away Hinata's arm as the girls tried to help her stand.
Where Hinata's movements had been those of gracefully flowing silk, Danah's now resembled those of a lame bird … a limping, wounded swan, blood splattered across its would-have-been beautiful plumage, still trying to maintain a semblance of normality …
She didn't gracefully drop down lightly on one knee, because she suddenly felt her legs give way brutally underneath her. She only managed to control herself enough not to crumble in a heap. She lowered her head, her breaths struggling. Blinking hard, her eyes swam into and out of focus …
What on earth … suddenly, my breathing is … what is …?
Slight panic registered in Naruto's eyes as he stared at the crumpled figure on the floor. "What – what the heck are you doing?! Can't you see she's not well, what are you –?"
About to dart forwards, he suddenly felt an iron grip on his wrist. Turning back, he glared into dark emotionless eyes.
"What are you doing? Let me go!"
"She's not your sister."
Naruto's eyes widened, then narrowed furiously. "What are you saying!"
Sasuke was unperturbed. "We're in front of the Hokage. Here, you follow a different set of protocols. No brother or sister, or man or wife here. Let her and Hokage-sama interact like a leader and their subordinate. In other words, shut up for once."
Had Naruto been paying closer attention in between trying to wrestle free of Sasuke's grip and hiss at him, he would have noticed the flicker in the dark eyes, the slight frown marring the delicate features. The slight twitch of anxiety and worry …
A coldness had descended across Tsunade's face, a grey steely expression. Linking her fingers under her chin, she leaned forwards, a harsh, grating, furious level of voice that caused many in the room to glance uneasily at her.
"I want you to explain, firstly your absence of your ANBU mask. Why do you have cuts, as well as the enemy's own blood across your face?"
Danah's eyes lazily studied the grains of the timber flooring beneath her hand. Her pained arm was resting lightly across her updrawn knee, golden hair cascading carelessly over it. She closed her eyes, her breathing more and more strained …
Tsunade noticed the sulkiness, the despondence, the childishness and her temper flared. Her light fingers became a tight fist and she struggled to compose her voice.
"I'm under the impression this assembly is gathered purely for the purpose of interpreting and acting upon the mission scrolls my two teams returned to me today, not for witnessing a display of your childish and irresponsible –"
"I just wanted it to be over."
The silence in the room was …
"Explain yourself."
Even in that situation, Tsunade commended herself on her control of her voice. She had a terrible inkling of what thoughts were currently festering in the girl's stupid mind, but … to have it so blatantly expressed …
"I … I mean just what I said. Every mission has to have a sacrifice. In addition to that, I …" Her subconscious was warning her not to continue, that already her careless, thoughtless words and expression of her incompetence had already set off a very, very short fuse.
But the reckless, dull, creeping crawling cloud that had crept upon her so subtly, so very subtly across the years seemed to have found a resting place and taken hold. From the moment this mission had begun, she had seen only a grey dimness in her vision; something having broken and died inside her long ago, and only the festering soulless spirit living on …
"I couldn't take it any more. Something has been wanting to give for a while now and … I suppose it did, this night."
Silence. Deadly, stony silence.
Then …
"Have you gone completely and utterly … INSANE?!"
Tsunade had already risen swiftly, her fists clenched tightly and furiously. The shinobi in the room tensed. She had been bordering breaking point for a long time now, and indeed had already snapped several times. But always she managed to get back a cool head quickly. However, considering who it was this time, and in what context, they couldn't be sure what her reaction was going to be like.
"What good could possibly have come from you deciding to sacrifice yourself?! What were you thinking? Alright, alright, so you'd have sent your teammates ahead of you, but then what? Wasted, you're all completely wasted! Where were you planning on getting your strength from to bring down at least three platoons of your enemy?"
Perhaps later she could blame it on a sort of white fury, as well as horror that she would have lost this being, this young woman who was so important to her. Perhaps it was the secret part of her mind where she stored away her overactive imagination, which had gone into sudden overdrive, seeing blood, blood, blood … like so long ago …
"Do you imagine for a moment your girls would have got through that mess unscathed? No matter how highly you consider them, you all were severely drained of your chakra and energy. Stupid, irresponsible dimwit! Had these two not arrived just in time, and had your idiotic notions come into effect, you'd only have sent these girls into their terrible deaths …"
And irritation had risen as well, because Danah, down on one knee in the traditional respectful stance like Hinata had done, her head bowed, long hair cascading over, shadowing her face. But even with that, there was a small tilt to her lips, a small bitter smirk, a form of a smile that they had seen more and more of in the past few years, and one that Tsunade had come to intensely hate. That smile again … this girl …
Whatever direction her continuing rant had been about to go in came to a freezing, shocking halt when Danah's body suddenly jerked forwards, her hand flew upwards to her mouth as she coughed, a slow, hacking, rough cough that suddenly chilled the listeners right to the bone marrow.
Then a series of slow, soft thuds as the deep, red viscous life force of her insides spilled out in front of her, unpleasant plops! as thick blood hit the floorboards.
But even before Tsunade, or any of her attendants could reach the young woman, indeed even before her own teammates could rise with shock and sprint towards the lone figure, she was already wrapped in his strong, powerful warm arms.
From somewhere he'd pulled a handkerchief, which he was now pressing to her lips. A soft, humourless chuckle as Naruto pulled her close to his body, as her head came to rest at the junction between his shoulder and neck.
"Looks like that swipe that asshole gave you must have had some serious shit in it, eh."
Smiling, soft, withered fingers pressed the white cloth to her lips, and tilting her head up slightly, met his blue gaze. The shock, concern … the love.
Muffled by the cloth, her lips managed to move. "There's something I didn't tell you before, my little one …"
Little one …
When Naruto heard those words, it was as if the years fell away from him, as well. The soft laughter became more real especially when he saw the blue sparkle return to her eyes as she laughed up at him, even through the paleness of her face, the strange quivering of her body, the unnaturally frightening hoarseness of her voice, perhaps as the poison was working its way around.
Chuckling, Naruto shifted his body and held her more supportively, more tightly.
"I didn't tell you before … but back in that forest … when you saved me and carried me, and held me … I felt the arms of someone I hadn't felt since I was six years old …"
Naruto suddenly became very still, and though the light in his eyes shone some more, it was with pooling of unshed tears as he realised what she was saying through her broken lips.
Since she was … six?
A soft, sweet smile tilted her lips as she smiled. As understanding came to his eyes, her smile grew wider.
"It's true. I thought … somehow I thought Daddy had come to save me …"
And through those tears, through the pain within her body, the smile in the eyes, the pure happiness, the joy was all that was necessary. Years and years fell away, and it was the same laughing eyes he had looked into, her own the same half-forgotten eyes of a beautiful young woman, reaching the prime of her life, a girl so much in love, and girl so much loved herself …
The sensations throughout his mind and body momentarily numbed him to the reality in his arms. It was only suddenly when he felt their Hokage's presence beside them that he realised, that he fully became aware of the blood …
Tsunade felt as if her own blood truly had frozen in her veins. She's … she's so …
What kind of poison is this? What kind of poison that even the best Jounins in this room couldn't detect it, couldn't see just how much it was damaging her! And this stupid girl …! Just sitting there …
By now Sakura and Hinata had reached them, Sakura hovering behind, their eyes wide and terrified.
"You two," Swiftly motioning her head to Hinata and Sakura. "Admit her to the hospital. This is all I need, one of my own medical shinobi put up in bed …"
Slowly rising, he supported her body against as he had done before, and finally they were both standing. Hunched over slightly, he noticed he had already caught up with their height difference, but she was still just that little bit taller … Grinning, he grinned hugely. "I'm taking her!"
"No you are not. The girls and my attendants are more than capable of seeing to her. Naruto!" Tsunade snapped, cutting sharply across as Naruto was opening his mouth to argue again. "I need you and Sasuke here for mission and administrative purposes. You just stay where you are."
Feeling Sasuke's restraining arm on his again, he saw Genma approach, looking bored as all hell. Naruto set his jaw, furious.
"Yeah, good job you showed seeing to her all right! None of you noticed she was so ill!"
Sasuke didn't bother stopping Naruto, as it was something obviously true. Tsunade bit back her fury as she saw two pairs of eyes, calm fury flickering within, one sky blue the other midnight.
Danah only managed a small, tight smile before tightly holding onto Hinata's hand. Hinata on one side, Genma on the other, they had just turned away when Naruto growled.
"Where's Kakashi-sensei, anyway? Shouldn't he be here by now?"
Her reaction was electric. A gasp, eyes wide, and she'd spun around, almost throwing Genma off balance.
Instantly, a mask slipped over two people in that room. One was Tsunade. The other was Sasuke.
His jaw tight, he turned and glared daggers at Naruto who suddenly blinked. Oops …
"Naruto …"
Naruto's eyes widened when he heard the rasping, wheezing voice, which only a few moments ago had been the soft, sweet one he remembered of his sister's voice …
Turning almost fearfully, he gazed back into his own identical blue eyes. Genma was watching her apprehensively, serene brown eyes studying her sluggish movements.
"Kakashi-sensei hasn't reported back here for almost a year, Naruto, I don't think we understand what you're talking about."
It was Raidou who had stepped forwards, his eyes fixed only on Naruto, avoiding everything and everyone else.
Whenever the topic of ANBU Captain Hatake Kakashi was brought up, the room was always a curious mix of various temperatures, depending on who it was on the receiving end – everything ranging from icy cold and chilly to burning rage and furiously hot with anger.
Naruto stared in shock back into Raidou's dark eyes and saw a message. Shut up. You idiot.
One look at Naruto, and Sasuke could tell from his rising anger that he was about to give his own rude message back, and verbally too, at that. Grabbing the back of Naruto's cloak, Sasuke smoothly raised his voice above Naruto's half chokes and squawks.
"Yeah. Sorry, you'll have to forgive him, he's got the worst short-term memory. And long-term one, I suppose – of course we were told about his special mission and the delays that would ensue …"
"No …"
Again, that terrible wheezing sound. And this time when his eyes locked with his sister's, he saw something he didn't recognise …
"Wait until I've left the room. Then you can all continue your perfectly rehearsed game of deception." The wheezes were now gradually getting more and more painful … "Whatever else you've thought of me, you've forgotten that I'm not a complete idiot. I'm not so stupid that I haven't noticed that you've been keeping something from me about him … as if … as if it isn't already so hard not having my brother by my side, you …"
Tears, stupid horrible tears … I'm not supposed to have anything left to cry … didn't I cry this pain out a long time ago …?
"You even took … him … away …"
Whether anyone was paying any attention anymore to what she was saying was debatable.
Not when her body doubled over, and screams and gasps resounded throughout the room as everyone witnessed the revolting waterfall. The waterfall of copious amounts of thick, red, viscous blood gushing from her mouth before she collapsed.
Well, so much for my explosive beginning! Let's just say at this stage that Chapter 2 shouldn't be long in coming ... but I really really hope you at least sort of enjoyed my beginning to Part 2 ... it will be a LOT different to Part 1, and though I didn't put it in the summary, a lot more romance blossoming in here
Next: Chapter 2 – Konoha's Blossoms
PICTURES, you say? Well, they are COMING! I got my sister to draw me rough sketches of how I wanted outfits to look. And now I have engaged the services of a TOP ARTIST, a true MASTERPIECE GENIUS … I will unveil her rare-diamond-quality work when she is ready …