Kagen no Tsuki
Naruto
By TKHM
Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Kishimoto Masashi. But this fanfiction is my work and no one can cut/edit this work, although I don't know why anyone would want to do that. Oh, Tohya Satsuki is my original character.
Chapter one - Tohya Satsuki
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Kunais. Check.
Shurikens. Check.
Exploding Notes. Check.
Anbu mask. Check.
"Looks like I got everything." Tohya Satsuki said to herself while putting on her Anbu mask. The young woman had long light blue hair tied into a ponytail, and her pale skin contrasted strongly against her black suit. One immediate difference between her appearance and the appearances of rest of the Anbu members was her black cloak with a crescent moon on the back replacing the usual Anbu jacket. The other was her blood red eyes.
Satsuki walked out of her house and looked up, allowing herself a few seconds to stare at the full moon which seemed oblivious to the commotion beneath it. This mission seemed to be a lot more difficult then her recent ones, easily being an A-level mission or even higher. It was not everyday that Orochimaru, who deserted his own village not long ago, was discovered snooping around the Konoha Village. As a result, several Anbu squads were ordered to assassinate the dangerous S-rank criminal.
"One of the legendary three ninjas...." Satsuki whispered softly to herself before becoming a blur and leaping into the darkness.
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It was surprisingly easy to find Orochimaru, even after considering Satsuki's abnormal ability to locate her targets. It was too easy, and Satsuki quickly observed her surroundings for traps. What was Orochimaru doing in a forest right next to the Konoha Village? And why was he satisfied with standing in the open like this, when he should be escaping from other Anbu members?
'He was hoping for someone to find him.' Satsuki concluded, but nothing looked suspicious in the surrounding area. Also there were no sign of battle or other Anbu members. Satsuki frowned. Orochimaru was smart and very sneaky, and falling into one of his traps would be dangerous, even for her. But she would not be able to accomplish anything if she stayed hidden like this. 'Looks like I have to make my presence known.'
She held her right hand in front and focused and a small sphere of dim red light was formed in the middle of her palm. She closed her hand quickly, and the sphere was squeezed into the shape of a short blade. It was a normal ninja short sword, except for the small image of a crescent moon that was carved into the handle of the blade.
Satsuki leapt down from the tree which kept her hidden from view, and almost immediately three kunais flew towards where she landed. Instead of attempting to dodge the projectiles though, the assassin completely ignored the threat and ran in a straight line towards her target. Satsuki became a blur just as the kunais were about to bury themselves into her body, and in an instant she was right in front of Orochimaru. She tightened her grip on her weapon, and the blade was outlined by a thin layer of red chakra.
A flash of light appeared, and Orochimaru was cleanly dissected into two pieces from head to toe.
At least, that was what Satsuki thought before the 'corpse' collapsed into two even piles of mud. Reacting quickly, Satsuki quickly leapt away from her position, not giving her enemy the opportunity to strike because of her mistake. Instead of a follow up attack, she heard someone clapping somewhere above her. She looked up, and saw Orochimaru standing on top of a tree, with the moon in the background giving him a menacing appearance.
"Excellent jutsu! As I've expected from the best Konoha assassin in this generation." Orochimaru said while grinning in a condescending way. "But can you defeat me with that?"
"Why don't you give it a try?" Satsuki answered coolly. "Nothing has ever survived my blade."
Orochimaru did not answer her challenge, instead he chuckled slightly and continued to address the assassin calmly while shaking his head, as if speaking to a child.
"Why do you continue to fight for the Konoha village?" Orochimaru asked. Then he continued. "Because of the nature of your power, most of the villagers fear and shun you, and the ones that are not afraid prepare to kill you the moment you show the slightest sign of threatening the village. Besides, we are quite alike, since both of us sacrificed part of our humanity for power."
"I will never turn against my village." Satsuki said firmly, her eyes never taken off Orochimaru's form. "I am not a traitor like you."
"Even if no one in this village wants you? I can offer you a position as one of my soldiers. You certainly qualify to be one."
"Someone needs my ability in this village, and I will always help him until he no longer wants me around." Satsuki's eyes softened a bit when she said that, and it was not lost to Orochimaru.
"Foolish girl." Orochimaru chuckled again before making a little cut on his thumb and drawing a line of blood on his left forearm. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
Three giant snakes appeared in a puff of smoke, and immediately rushed for Satsuki, intending to devour the girl. Satsuki raised her blade, and leapt up to meet the snakes. There were three flashes one right after the other, and each snake was decapitated. Satsuki turned her head after her attacks, and saw Orochimaru escaping in the opposite direction. And the moment the assassin landed from her attack, Orochimaru had disappeared from her sight.
"No!" Satsuki yelled in frustration. She pulled out a stack of exploding notes, impaled every piece onto a kunai, and threw them to where she thought Orochimaru was escaping. The tactic worked. When the notes blew up, they provided just enough light for Satsuki to locate a moving shape that resembled Orochimaru.
"You can't get away, Orochimaru!" Satsuki then pulled out several shurikens and threw them into the the area where she last saw Orochimaru, while leaping off a branch to continue her pursuit at the same time. She doubted that the shurikens would hit her target, but she had to try.
'Did I get him?' Satsuki thought to herself as she approached the area where her attack had hit. She frowned when she looked at the scene. There was a shuriken embedded into a tree, a shuriken that hit an unlucky rabbit, and several shurikens scattered on the ground, but there was no sign that Orochimaru had been hit by her attack.
"He escaped." Satsuki muttered disappointedly. She had to start all over again to find Orochimaru.
Then something caught Satsuki's eye, the object of interest looked like a symbol crafted onto the tree trunk. Walking closer to said trunk, she started to inspect the symbol with only the moon as her source of light.
'I have to get out of here right now!' Satsuki thought to herself in panic after realizing the meaning of the symbol. She became a blur just before as the area around her exploded in a fine display of fire and light. A pillar of flame shot out from the ground, and engulfed the nearby trees instantly.
The attack lasted a good twenty seconds before dying down. When the smoke and ash cleared, Satsuki was revealed standing right outside the parameter of destruction, looking more than a little shaken from the encounter.
'That was close. If I had not reacted in time...' The assassin sighed, and turned around from the devastation while shaking her head, only to find a small snake, not even a meter long, staring at her under a tree. Satsuki recognized the snake as one of Orochimaru's minions, and was about to strike it down when the snake started crawling slowly towards one direction.
'It is leading me toward him.' Satsuki thought. 'This is definitely a trap.' It did not mean she could back away though. A mission was a mission after all. Having no other choice, she followed the snake.
The snake led her in front of an abandoned concrete building, and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Knowing that Orochimaru could be hiding somewhere, Satsuki approached the building slowly. Again, there were no signs of fighting in the area. What happened to the other Anbu members?
'It doesn't matter. I always work alone anyway.' Satsuki turned the knob of the front door, and muttered a quick prayer.
Finding the Fourth Hokage lying unconscious on the ground with his back toward her was not what she had anticipated. Emotions long bottled up were let out in an instant like a waterfall, and Satsuki seemed to have forgotten every shinobi rule at this moment.
"Hokage-sama!" Satsuki screamed, before running toward the fallen form. She reached for him, and turned him over to see if he was all right. A sharp pain exploded on her right shoulder, and in her agitated state she did not even realize that a kunai had been embedded into her shoulder. The pain, however, cleared Satsuki's mind enough for her to realize that the figure in front of her was not the Fourth Hokage, but a tied-up young boy dressed in the Hokage's clothes. As soon as the assassin realized her mistake, hundreds of needles shot out from every possible place and angle around her. There was no escape route, but Satsuki would make one herself. Reacting to the situation quickly, Satsuki prepared to use her evasion technique and her body form blurred. At this moment she noticed the boy's eyes widening in fear.
'The boy! He will be killed if I dodge the needles!' Satsuki realized as she let her form solidify again the moment the needles reached the two. Then she exploded into action.
The entire room seemed to be lit up as flash after flash appeared consecutively in an instant, each cutting or deflecting the needles. After exactly forty nine strikes, Satsuki stopped to catch her breath, and started berating herself for falling for such a trap. She did not notice the boy gasping at the display of power.
"It hurts...." Gasping suddenly in pain, Satsuki closed her hand on her shoulder wound. Using her previous move had worsened her wound, and strained her already exhausted body. After preparing herself, she gritted her teeth and forcefully pulled the weapon out. She almost fainted from the sharp pain, but collected herself enough to tear a piece of her clothes to bandage her wound.
After she was finished, she checked the stunned boy for injuries. Finding none except for the big bruise on the side of the boy's head, Satsuki let out a sigh of relief. The needles did not get the boy. She untied the boy, just as the boy overcame his shock of almost getting killed.
"You....saved me" The boy stuttered. "Thank you."
Before Satsuki could reply, she heard an explosion from the other room of the building. And she was suddenly left with a dilemma.
'Should I check the explosion out, or should I stay with the boy to protect him?' Making up her mind, and hating herself for her decision she ran toward the second door in the room which went further inside the building.
"Stay here!" Satsuki told the boy, before opening the door. She immediately saw Orochimaru jumping toward her from less than ten feet away with his hand charged with a ball of chakra roughly the size of a watermelon. Surprised, but not intimidated, Satsuki answered the attack with her own attack. She charged her blade with the red chakra, and raised her weapon, completely prepared to send the missing-nin to hell with the next strike.
"Rasengan!" Orochimaru yelled out his move's name.
'What? Impossible! Only Hokage-sama and Jiraiya-sama know this move!' Satsuki thought, as Orochimaru's attack seemed to approach her in slow motion. Then she widened her eyes in realization. 'Genjutsu?!?'
The moment Satsuki realized that she had been deceived, the image of Orochimaru was suddenly replaced with the one of the Fourth Hokage. 'No!' She pulled back her attack forcefully, and inevitably lost her control of her jutsu. The loss of chakra balance was not only painful, but also prevented her from dodging out of the way of the Fourth's attack. The Hokage's eyes were filled with determination as the ninja drove his ball of destructive energy right into Satsuki's rib cage. As Satsuki flew back from the impact, a look of surprise and betrayal crossed her face.
'Why?' It was Satsuki's last thought before the effect of the Rasengan consumed her.
Pain. Extreme pain. There was nothing but pain. For Satsuki, her entire torso seemed to have been twisted, crushed and flipped inside out at the same time. The fearful force of the Fourth's Rasengan blew the girl back into the first room, through the outer concrete wall, and onto the ground outside the building. Her Anbu mask shattered into a thousand pieces. Satsuki could faintly hear the boy's scream as her back gave a sickening crack against the concrete, then her world dimmed and turned completely black.
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When Satsuki opened her eyes again, the first thing that she saw was the grim face of the Fourth Hokage. 'Why is he here? Is he here to finish me off?' Satsuki thought sadly. Then another thought came to her. 'What if he was tricked by Orochimaru's genjutsu too? That's it! There's no way he would treat me like this on purpose, since he was the only one in this village who showed me real kindness after that incident.' She hoped, but then another thought crossed her mind.
'Perhaps Hokage-sama has determined that I am too much of a threat to the village, and it is in the best interest of Konoha to get rid of me after all?' Satsuki's eyes dimmed at the thought. Her red eyes slowly changed color. The color changed into purple, before finally settling into blue. The Hokage looked alarmed at the change, but did not say anything.
"Hokage-sama...." Satsuki whispered out, not having enough energy to make her voice louder. The Fourth quickly leaned over with his right ear close to her lips to listen. Satsuki blushed slightly at this, but continued: "Are you here to bury me, since I am too dangerous?" As she spoke, she tried to lift her head slightly toward his face. If she was going to die in his hands, at least she wanted to steal a farewell kiss. He was the one...the only one who stopped her from killing herself after that fateful day, and the only one who did not look at her in fear or contempt.
However, the Fourth pulled back his body in shock right before her lips could make contact, making her effort wasted.
"No!" The Fourth Hokage replied strongly. "It's not like that at all." Looking straight into Satsuki's eyes, he began to explain what had happened.
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The Fourth Hokage was getting impatient. He and his Anbu group had been searching for Orochimaru for hours in this forest. It really did not help that the visibility was especially low inside this thick forest at night, and illuminating the area was suicidal because it would be equivalent to announcing their exact location to Orochimaru. But the most upsetting detail was not the lack of visibility or his failure in locating the missing-nin, but it was Orochimaru's various subtle hints that the group picked up. It was obvious that Orochimaru was taunting them and forcing them to run in circles the whole time. And unfortunately, the Fourth could not ignore the clues, even if they were left behind on purpose.
It was a trap, and the group was forced to walk right into it. It did not help that, as a leader of the group, he was ultimately responsible for all their lives. The Third refused to participate in this mission, saying that he would become a liability, since he could not bring himself to slay his former student. To make matters worse, Jiraiya-sensei was nowhere to be found.
'Calm down.' The Fourth mentally scolded himself. 'A ninja should not let his emotions interfere with the mission.'
The Fourth's head snapped suddenly to the right when he felt a presence. "Look out!" He pointed to a figure cloaked in shadow behind a tree. His warning came too late, however, and one of the Anbu members was stabbed in the waist. The group responded to the attack immediately. Three Anbu members quickly leapt to their wounded comrade, and the other seven formed a defensive position around their leader.
Silence greeted the group.
The seven Anbu ninjas around the Fourth looked at their leader for further commands, and saw the Fourth shaking his head. They were not allowed to split from the group and chase the attacker. The Fourth walked to the wounded Anbu member, and was relieved that the wound, while serious, was not fatal. The wound needed to be treated soon though, which meant the wounded assassin was out of the chase.
The Fourth frowned when he realized how bad his situation had really gotten. They were in the middle of a forest. One ninja had been injured and required immediate medical attention. The wounded needed to be carried back to the village. And Sending only one or even two ninjas for the job would be too dangerous if there were an ambush, so he had to send three of them to carry the wounded, which meant his team of twelve suddenly lost four of its members for this mission. After sending the three back to the village, the Fourth and the remaining Anbu ninjas continued on their chase of Orochimaru along the trail where the shadowy figure disappeared.
It was almost fifteen minutes later when the Hokage was forced to make another difficult decision. Orochimaru decided to leave two hints, and those two clues happened to be pointing in opposite directions. The Fourth forced down the urge to punch a hole through the tree, and gave his signal to the remaining Anbu members. The seven ninjas seemed surprised at the command, but followed it nevertheless.
The seven Anbu ninjas would go one way, and the Fourth would go the other way, alone. It was the most obvious choice. Orochimaru was one of the legendary three ninjas, and a student of the Third. The Fourth could only hope that seven Anbu members were enough. Even though they were carefully chosen for this mission, they might not survive a fight against the missing-nin. He, on the other hand, had a good chance of surviving this mission alone even if he fought Orochimaru.
The first thing he wanted to do was to wipe the annoying smirk off Orochimaru's face.
It was another ten minutes or so when he reached the back side of a concrete building. And almost immediately the Fourth got his wish fulfilled. Orochimaru leapt down from a tree with a sword in his hand. The attack completely missed when the Fourth dodged to the side, and used the opportunity to kick the missing-nin on the side of his head. If Orochimaru wanted to have a one-on-one match with him, it was completely fine. The missing-nin, after all, was probably trying to prove that he was the superior candidate for the Hokage title. Not missing an opportunity, the Fourth quickly charged up his Rasengan for a final strike. However, he had his chance of completing the mission stolen again when Orochimaru ducked inside the concrete building like a cockroach.
The Fourth's last bit of patience evaporated at that sight.
The Fourth was normally an intelligent man. He was regarded as the village's finest ninja in history, and he would normally tackle his problem with a clear analytical mind. But the Fourth was still a young man underneath the cover of a genius. He had been repeatedly frustrated, led around like a toy, forced to witness a companion getting seriously wounded, and robbed of the chance to vent his frustration on Orochimaru with a Rasengan.
And most importantly, the Fourth felt the need to prove that he could succeed in the title of Hokage, and Orochimaru was making a joke out of his first important mission since the Fourth became Hokage.
Not bothering to power down his Rasengan, the Fourth entered the building through the back door with the subtlety of a raging bull, and continued down a long hallway with determination.
The door at the end of the hallway began to open, and the Fourth prepared himself.
The door was opened enough for a kunai bag to be shown. The Fourth continued dashing.
The door was opened halfway, and the smirking face of Orochimaru appeared. The Fourth made his move.
Jumping towards the missing-nin, the Fourth cried out his move's name while driving the spinning ball of death towards the chest of his target.
"Rasengan!"
The walls on the two sides of the impact were replaced by two big holes. The door was broken out of its hinges when Orochimaru's body flew past it. And finally, to the Fourth's satisfaction, Orochimaru created a large whole against the concrete outer wall when he exited the building in a rather painful manner.
'The Rasengan should have at least seriously injured Orochimaru.' The Fourth thought as he exited the building through the newly made hole.
It was not Orochimaru who was lying broken on the ground. Instead it was Tohya Satsuki, an Anbu assassin assigned separately on this mission. A thin line of blood could be seen flowing out from the corner of her mouth, and the Fourth was not too confident that she had survived the attack. As Hokage, the Fourth was the pillar of the village, and he was responsible for protecting all the villagers. Yet he had critically hurt, if not killed one of his ninjas outright.
The Fourth was so shocked at the sight that his mind became a complete blank for a moment, before he was snapped out of his daze by a scream. Looking back, the Fourth could see a young boy sitting in the previous room. The boy was screaming at the top of his lungs.
The Fourth felt like screaming himself.
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"So that was what had happened." The Fourth said. Wiping the trail of blood from Satsuki's mouth. "You need medical attention right now, I will carry you back to the village." After the Fourth said that, he attempted to lift Satsuki's torso off the ground. Satsuki cried out in pain and the Fourth immediately stopped.
"My...waist..." Satsuki gasped out. "It hurts when you try to move me."
The Fourth pulled his hand from her waist, and saw that it was covered with blood. Then he noticed that the ground under her had a puddle of blood that was gradually growing in size. There was a large gash across the right side of Satsuki's waist, and blood was flowing out too quickly for the Fourth's liking.
"Your waist is cut by debris." The Fourth said to Satsuki. "I will stop the bleeding."
After he spoke, he tore off part of his right sleeve, put the piece of cloth on top of the wound, and applied pressure. Satsuki winced in pain, but said nothing. The idea was not working, however, as the method could only slow down the bleeding, but failed miserably in stopping it.
Satsuki was staring at the Fourth's face while he was trying his best to stop the bleeding. She knew she was bleeding slowly to death, because she could feel her life flowing out of her body. And she knew, even if her life was saved, she would be crippled for life because of her broken back. But her brain seemed to push all these thoughts into the back of her mind, as the focus went onto the Fourth's face.
She was strangely mesmerized by the concerned expression on the Fourth's face.
"Why are you so concerned about me?" Satsuki asked suddenly in a soft voice. The Fourth stopped what he was doing and looked at her. Satsuki continued. "You should be chasing after Orochimaru right now, instead of taking care of me."
"I would not let you die." The Fourth answered simply.
"Why? I am no longer fully human....and...." Satsuki's voice dropped to a whisper again at this point. "It is not worth it to fail a mission for someone like me...."
"You are human. Stop telling yourself that you are not. You look like a normal, human girl to me." The Fourth emphasized his point by looking at her from head to toe and then nodding his head.
Satsuki blushed. The Fourth, realizing how inappropriate that action seemed, blushed as well.
"Do you...." Satsuki whispered out. The Fourth bent over to hear her more clearly again. '...have any feelings for me?' She finished in her mind. "....know where Orochimaru went?" Different words came out.
"No, but I will worry about that later. I can't stop the bleeding. I am going back to the village to get a doctor." The Fourth turned around, and found the boy Satsuki rescued standing behind the two of them. The boy probably had been there the whole time. The Fourth picked up the piece of blood-soaked cloth, and addressed the boy. "Please help me put pressure on the wound with this while I go get help."
The boy nodded quietly and picked up the piece of cloth from the Hokage. Then he used it to slow down the bleeding. The Hokage, seeing the boy was doing the job right, nodded once and stood up.
The Fourth smiled at Satsuki. "I am concerned about you because you are an important subordinate to me." With that, he turned and left the scene in a hurry.
He never saw the sad expression on Satsuki's face as her eyes dimmed even further at those words.
After the Fourth left, Satsuki turned towards the boy who was applying pressure on her wound with a determined look on his face. "Would you get something from my kunai bag for me?"
"Don't worry! I will stop the bleeding, you just relax and....huh?" The boy asked, puzzled. "What did you want me to do again?"
Satsuki opened her mouth to speak again, but an intense feeling of pain sudden exploded from her chest. She felt something warm from her throat flowing out of her mouth. It tasted like blood. Blood was flowing from her mouth again. 'I am not going to survive this.' Satsuki thought to herself.
The boy, failing to receive the message earlier, leaned closer to the girl until his left ear was almost touching Satsuki's mouth. "What did you say again?"
A feeling of panic overwhelmed Satsuki like a tidal wave at that moment. Perhaps it was human instinct, but all of a sudden, Satsuki could think about only one thing. 'I don't want to die. I don't want to die. Save me! I am too young to die.' Her eyes widened and her lips trembled in the fear of death.
Then Satsuki noticed that the boy's neck was dangerously close to her mouth.
Thump-thump.
Was this her last chance of survival?
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
If she sacrificed this boy, she would have enough chakra to recover herself with that forbidden jutsu.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
'I am sorry.' Satsuki thought as she opened her mouth, preparing to use her last bit of strength to bite into the boy's neck. 'Forgive me.' Her eyes changed from blue to red at that instant. It was a wonder that the boy did not notice the thick killer-intent saturating the air.
'We are quite alike, since both of us sacrificed part of our humanity for power.' Orochimaru's words suddenly echoed in Satsuki's mind.
'You are human. Stop telling yourself that you are not. You look like a normal, human girl to me.' The Fourth's words came next.
'Thank you, Hokage-sama.' Satsuki thought to herself as she stopped herself from committing a horrible crime, her eyes turning back into blue. Killing the boy to save her own life would mean betraying the only man that had ever cared for her, the only man that she had ever loved. He would hate her for eternity, cursing her name like spitting out venom from his mouth.
Tohya Satsuki would have none of that.
Seeing that the boy was still trying to hear her next message, Satsuki spoke. "Would you please get me the scroll from my kunai pouch?"
The boy immediately fulfilled her wish and put the scroll into Satsuki's right hand. Satsuki felt the scroll inside her hand, and start to perform a seal that she had invented recently. Some of her blood from the wound rose up from the ground and formed a bind around the scroll. She had not tested this seal before. Everything was based on her theory.
"Fuuin." Satsuki whispered as she finished her work. A flash of blue light appeared on the scroll, and the blood became symbols surrounding the scroll. The scroll was successfully sealed.
Seals that involving the soul was extremely difficult to perform. Her chance of success was near nil, but it was worth a try because success might let her survive. Satsuki did not even have time to dwell on her chance of success before she felt a familiar presence nearby.
It was Orochimaru.
"Run." Satsuki forced her voice to work, despite her injuries. "Run. Hide that scroll." Satsuki told the boy.
For a moment Satsuki was afraid that the boy would not comprehend the reason for him to get away, but fortunately the boy obeyed her and quickly ran off with the scroll in his hand.
"So what do we have here?" Orochimaru voice asked tauntingly. "Should I go after the boy, or should I kill you first?"
Satsuki tensed. Orochimaru had seen the boy running away. She thought about the current situation. The boy was carrying the scroll which could not fall into Orochimaru's hands, especially after she had completed that seal. Feeling her blood flowing freely from her wound, Satsuki poured her chakra into her last desperate attack.
Taunting the dying assassin in front of him, Orochimaru never saw Satsuki's blood from her wound flowing behind him. Her blood ascended from the ground, and took shapes of needles. Satsuki could only make a dozen needles in her condition, but she threw them immediately at Orochimaru.
Of the twelve blood needles, only two hit the target. One embedded itself into the back of Orochimaru's left shoulder, while the other buried itself in the back of Orochimaru's neck. Both had missed the crucial points, however, as Orochimaru only seemed to be slightly wounded. Knowing that her surprise attack had failed, Satsuki sighed. The blood needles turned back into blood as Satsuki lost the last bit of her strength.
"I will kill you first." Orochimaru declared, his smirk gone from his face.
'So this is the end.' Satsuki thought to herself as she turned her gaze to the sky. She found the full moon staring back at her. The full moon was there to accompany her in death, so she would not feel alone. She could feel the fear from earlier replaced by an eerie calm.
There was a sharp pain on her throat, but it no longer mattered. Her entire surrounding seemed to dim as she began to feel cold and detached from her body.
'Goodbye Hokage-sama.' A single tear escaped from her eye and slid across her face.
Satsuki thought she was prepared for her fate, but the tranquility she desperately sought was shattered by her one final thought before the exploding pain shut down her mind.
'I don't want to die.'
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The boy ran as fast as he could, before stopping to catch his breath. Thinking that he was far enough away, he hid the scroll under a pile of rocks. Feeling that his mission was accomplished, he stood up, not noticing that the symbols surrounding the scroll lit up for a brief moment. The boy then looked around, and realized that he was lost.
The boy was rescued later by Anbu ninjas from his village later, but he could no longer locate the place where he had hidden the scroll.
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The Fourth Hokage knelt down in front of the body of Tohya Satsuki, and held her hand with his own. Her body was still warm despite the fact that it was a cold night. She had died not too long ago. It was apparent that she had not died because of her injuries, but instead she was killed by an enemy. Her throat had been slit, and her eyes were staring into nothing.
"I cannot save you. I cannot save you after all." The Fourth kept mumbling to himself sadly. Staring at Satsuki's face, he used his fingers to close her eyelids. His fingers got wet from the girl's tears, and the Fourth stared at his fingers for a long while before clutching his fist.
"I will never fail anyone anymore. I will protect the Konoha village, even if it means I have to sacrifice my life." The Fourth declared. He would fulfill this promise years later, when the demon fox threatened to destroy the village.
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Chapter one - End
Author's Notes:
Tenten IS the main character, this is just a background story for my OC which has become too long to be called a prologue. (since my chapters are going to be short...) I know a lot of people hate OC, but please bear with me.
My OC looks like this: geocities.123/yurikatkhm and replace 123 with com.
Translation:
Kagen no Tsuki - Lower Crescent Moon
Tohya Satsuki - The Kanji I am thinking about for Tohya is 'Ten Nights' and 'May (month)' for Satsuki
Kuchiyose no Jutsu - Summoning no Jutsu
Fuuin - Seal
Naruto
By TKHM
Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Kishimoto Masashi. But this fanfiction is my work and no one can cut/edit this work, although I don't know why anyone would want to do that. Oh, Tohya Satsuki is my original character.
Chapter one - Tohya Satsuki
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Kunais. Check.
Shurikens. Check.
Exploding Notes. Check.
Anbu mask. Check.
"Looks like I got everything." Tohya Satsuki said to herself while putting on her Anbu mask. The young woman had long light blue hair tied into a ponytail, and her pale skin contrasted strongly against her black suit. One immediate difference between her appearance and the appearances of rest of the Anbu members was her black cloak with a crescent moon on the back replacing the usual Anbu jacket. The other was her blood red eyes.
Satsuki walked out of her house and looked up, allowing herself a few seconds to stare at the full moon which seemed oblivious to the commotion beneath it. This mission seemed to be a lot more difficult then her recent ones, easily being an A-level mission or even higher. It was not everyday that Orochimaru, who deserted his own village not long ago, was discovered snooping around the Konoha Village. As a result, several Anbu squads were ordered to assassinate the dangerous S-rank criminal.
"One of the legendary three ninjas...." Satsuki whispered softly to herself before becoming a blur and leaping into the darkness.
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It was surprisingly easy to find Orochimaru, even after considering Satsuki's abnormal ability to locate her targets. It was too easy, and Satsuki quickly observed her surroundings for traps. What was Orochimaru doing in a forest right next to the Konoha Village? And why was he satisfied with standing in the open like this, when he should be escaping from other Anbu members?
'He was hoping for someone to find him.' Satsuki concluded, but nothing looked suspicious in the surrounding area. Also there were no sign of battle or other Anbu members. Satsuki frowned. Orochimaru was smart and very sneaky, and falling into one of his traps would be dangerous, even for her. But she would not be able to accomplish anything if she stayed hidden like this. 'Looks like I have to make my presence known.'
She held her right hand in front and focused and a small sphere of dim red light was formed in the middle of her palm. She closed her hand quickly, and the sphere was squeezed into the shape of a short blade. It was a normal ninja short sword, except for the small image of a crescent moon that was carved into the handle of the blade.
Satsuki leapt down from the tree which kept her hidden from view, and almost immediately three kunais flew towards where she landed. Instead of attempting to dodge the projectiles though, the assassin completely ignored the threat and ran in a straight line towards her target. Satsuki became a blur just as the kunais were about to bury themselves into her body, and in an instant she was right in front of Orochimaru. She tightened her grip on her weapon, and the blade was outlined by a thin layer of red chakra.
A flash of light appeared, and Orochimaru was cleanly dissected into two pieces from head to toe.
At least, that was what Satsuki thought before the 'corpse' collapsed into two even piles of mud. Reacting quickly, Satsuki quickly leapt away from her position, not giving her enemy the opportunity to strike because of her mistake. Instead of a follow up attack, she heard someone clapping somewhere above her. She looked up, and saw Orochimaru standing on top of a tree, with the moon in the background giving him a menacing appearance.
"Excellent jutsu! As I've expected from the best Konoha assassin in this generation." Orochimaru said while grinning in a condescending way. "But can you defeat me with that?"
"Why don't you give it a try?" Satsuki answered coolly. "Nothing has ever survived my blade."
Orochimaru did not answer her challenge, instead he chuckled slightly and continued to address the assassin calmly while shaking his head, as if speaking to a child.
"Why do you continue to fight for the Konoha village?" Orochimaru asked. Then he continued. "Because of the nature of your power, most of the villagers fear and shun you, and the ones that are not afraid prepare to kill you the moment you show the slightest sign of threatening the village. Besides, we are quite alike, since both of us sacrificed part of our humanity for power."
"I will never turn against my village." Satsuki said firmly, her eyes never taken off Orochimaru's form. "I am not a traitor like you."
"Even if no one in this village wants you? I can offer you a position as one of my soldiers. You certainly qualify to be one."
"Someone needs my ability in this village, and I will always help him until he no longer wants me around." Satsuki's eyes softened a bit when she said that, and it was not lost to Orochimaru.
"Foolish girl." Orochimaru chuckled again before making a little cut on his thumb and drawing a line of blood on his left forearm. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
Three giant snakes appeared in a puff of smoke, and immediately rushed for Satsuki, intending to devour the girl. Satsuki raised her blade, and leapt up to meet the snakes. There were three flashes one right after the other, and each snake was decapitated. Satsuki turned her head after her attacks, and saw Orochimaru escaping in the opposite direction. And the moment the assassin landed from her attack, Orochimaru had disappeared from her sight.
"No!" Satsuki yelled in frustration. She pulled out a stack of exploding notes, impaled every piece onto a kunai, and threw them to where she thought Orochimaru was escaping. The tactic worked. When the notes blew up, they provided just enough light for Satsuki to locate a moving shape that resembled Orochimaru.
"You can't get away, Orochimaru!" Satsuki then pulled out several shurikens and threw them into the the area where she last saw Orochimaru, while leaping off a branch to continue her pursuit at the same time. She doubted that the shurikens would hit her target, but she had to try.
'Did I get him?' Satsuki thought to herself as she approached the area where her attack had hit. She frowned when she looked at the scene. There was a shuriken embedded into a tree, a shuriken that hit an unlucky rabbit, and several shurikens scattered on the ground, but there was no sign that Orochimaru had been hit by her attack.
"He escaped." Satsuki muttered disappointedly. She had to start all over again to find Orochimaru.
Then something caught Satsuki's eye, the object of interest looked like a symbol crafted onto the tree trunk. Walking closer to said trunk, she started to inspect the symbol with only the moon as her source of light.
'I have to get out of here right now!' Satsuki thought to herself in panic after realizing the meaning of the symbol. She became a blur just before as the area around her exploded in a fine display of fire and light. A pillar of flame shot out from the ground, and engulfed the nearby trees instantly.
The attack lasted a good twenty seconds before dying down. When the smoke and ash cleared, Satsuki was revealed standing right outside the parameter of destruction, looking more than a little shaken from the encounter.
'That was close. If I had not reacted in time...' The assassin sighed, and turned around from the devastation while shaking her head, only to find a small snake, not even a meter long, staring at her under a tree. Satsuki recognized the snake as one of Orochimaru's minions, and was about to strike it down when the snake started crawling slowly towards one direction.
'It is leading me toward him.' Satsuki thought. 'This is definitely a trap.' It did not mean she could back away though. A mission was a mission after all. Having no other choice, she followed the snake.
The snake led her in front of an abandoned concrete building, and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Knowing that Orochimaru could be hiding somewhere, Satsuki approached the building slowly. Again, there were no signs of fighting in the area. What happened to the other Anbu members?
'It doesn't matter. I always work alone anyway.' Satsuki turned the knob of the front door, and muttered a quick prayer.
Finding the Fourth Hokage lying unconscious on the ground with his back toward her was not what she had anticipated. Emotions long bottled up were let out in an instant like a waterfall, and Satsuki seemed to have forgotten every shinobi rule at this moment.
"Hokage-sama!" Satsuki screamed, before running toward the fallen form. She reached for him, and turned him over to see if he was all right. A sharp pain exploded on her right shoulder, and in her agitated state she did not even realize that a kunai had been embedded into her shoulder. The pain, however, cleared Satsuki's mind enough for her to realize that the figure in front of her was not the Fourth Hokage, but a tied-up young boy dressed in the Hokage's clothes. As soon as the assassin realized her mistake, hundreds of needles shot out from every possible place and angle around her. There was no escape route, but Satsuki would make one herself. Reacting to the situation quickly, Satsuki prepared to use her evasion technique and her body form blurred. At this moment she noticed the boy's eyes widening in fear.
'The boy! He will be killed if I dodge the needles!' Satsuki realized as she let her form solidify again the moment the needles reached the two. Then she exploded into action.
The entire room seemed to be lit up as flash after flash appeared consecutively in an instant, each cutting or deflecting the needles. After exactly forty nine strikes, Satsuki stopped to catch her breath, and started berating herself for falling for such a trap. She did not notice the boy gasping at the display of power.
"It hurts...." Gasping suddenly in pain, Satsuki closed her hand on her shoulder wound. Using her previous move had worsened her wound, and strained her already exhausted body. After preparing herself, she gritted her teeth and forcefully pulled the weapon out. She almost fainted from the sharp pain, but collected herself enough to tear a piece of her clothes to bandage her wound.
After she was finished, she checked the stunned boy for injuries. Finding none except for the big bruise on the side of the boy's head, Satsuki let out a sigh of relief. The needles did not get the boy. She untied the boy, just as the boy overcame his shock of almost getting killed.
"You....saved me" The boy stuttered. "Thank you."
Before Satsuki could reply, she heard an explosion from the other room of the building. And she was suddenly left with a dilemma.
'Should I check the explosion out, or should I stay with the boy to protect him?' Making up her mind, and hating herself for her decision she ran toward the second door in the room which went further inside the building.
"Stay here!" Satsuki told the boy, before opening the door. She immediately saw Orochimaru jumping toward her from less than ten feet away with his hand charged with a ball of chakra roughly the size of a watermelon. Surprised, but not intimidated, Satsuki answered the attack with her own attack. She charged her blade with the red chakra, and raised her weapon, completely prepared to send the missing-nin to hell with the next strike.
"Rasengan!" Orochimaru yelled out his move's name.
'What? Impossible! Only Hokage-sama and Jiraiya-sama know this move!' Satsuki thought, as Orochimaru's attack seemed to approach her in slow motion. Then she widened her eyes in realization. 'Genjutsu?!?'
The moment Satsuki realized that she had been deceived, the image of Orochimaru was suddenly replaced with the one of the Fourth Hokage. 'No!' She pulled back her attack forcefully, and inevitably lost her control of her jutsu. The loss of chakra balance was not only painful, but also prevented her from dodging out of the way of the Fourth's attack. The Hokage's eyes were filled with determination as the ninja drove his ball of destructive energy right into Satsuki's rib cage. As Satsuki flew back from the impact, a look of surprise and betrayal crossed her face.
'Why?' It was Satsuki's last thought before the effect of the Rasengan consumed her.
Pain. Extreme pain. There was nothing but pain. For Satsuki, her entire torso seemed to have been twisted, crushed and flipped inside out at the same time. The fearful force of the Fourth's Rasengan blew the girl back into the first room, through the outer concrete wall, and onto the ground outside the building. Her Anbu mask shattered into a thousand pieces. Satsuki could faintly hear the boy's scream as her back gave a sickening crack against the concrete, then her world dimmed and turned completely black.
---------------
When Satsuki opened her eyes again, the first thing that she saw was the grim face of the Fourth Hokage. 'Why is he here? Is he here to finish me off?' Satsuki thought sadly. Then another thought came to her. 'What if he was tricked by Orochimaru's genjutsu too? That's it! There's no way he would treat me like this on purpose, since he was the only one in this village who showed me real kindness after that incident.' She hoped, but then another thought crossed her mind.
'Perhaps Hokage-sama has determined that I am too much of a threat to the village, and it is in the best interest of Konoha to get rid of me after all?' Satsuki's eyes dimmed at the thought. Her red eyes slowly changed color. The color changed into purple, before finally settling into blue. The Hokage looked alarmed at the change, but did not say anything.
"Hokage-sama...." Satsuki whispered out, not having enough energy to make her voice louder. The Fourth quickly leaned over with his right ear close to her lips to listen. Satsuki blushed slightly at this, but continued: "Are you here to bury me, since I am too dangerous?" As she spoke, she tried to lift her head slightly toward his face. If she was going to die in his hands, at least she wanted to steal a farewell kiss. He was the one...the only one who stopped her from killing herself after that fateful day, and the only one who did not look at her in fear or contempt.
However, the Fourth pulled back his body in shock right before her lips could make contact, making her effort wasted.
"No!" The Fourth Hokage replied strongly. "It's not like that at all." Looking straight into Satsuki's eyes, he began to explain what had happened.
---------------
The Fourth Hokage was getting impatient. He and his Anbu group had been searching for Orochimaru for hours in this forest. It really did not help that the visibility was especially low inside this thick forest at night, and illuminating the area was suicidal because it would be equivalent to announcing their exact location to Orochimaru. But the most upsetting detail was not the lack of visibility or his failure in locating the missing-nin, but it was Orochimaru's various subtle hints that the group picked up. It was obvious that Orochimaru was taunting them and forcing them to run in circles the whole time. And unfortunately, the Fourth could not ignore the clues, even if they were left behind on purpose.
It was a trap, and the group was forced to walk right into it. It did not help that, as a leader of the group, he was ultimately responsible for all their lives. The Third refused to participate in this mission, saying that he would become a liability, since he could not bring himself to slay his former student. To make matters worse, Jiraiya-sensei was nowhere to be found.
'Calm down.' The Fourth mentally scolded himself. 'A ninja should not let his emotions interfere with the mission.'
The Fourth's head snapped suddenly to the right when he felt a presence. "Look out!" He pointed to a figure cloaked in shadow behind a tree. His warning came too late, however, and one of the Anbu members was stabbed in the waist. The group responded to the attack immediately. Three Anbu members quickly leapt to their wounded comrade, and the other seven formed a defensive position around their leader.
Silence greeted the group.
The seven Anbu ninjas around the Fourth looked at their leader for further commands, and saw the Fourth shaking his head. They were not allowed to split from the group and chase the attacker. The Fourth walked to the wounded Anbu member, and was relieved that the wound, while serious, was not fatal. The wound needed to be treated soon though, which meant the wounded assassin was out of the chase.
The Fourth frowned when he realized how bad his situation had really gotten. They were in the middle of a forest. One ninja had been injured and required immediate medical attention. The wounded needed to be carried back to the village. And Sending only one or even two ninjas for the job would be too dangerous if there were an ambush, so he had to send three of them to carry the wounded, which meant his team of twelve suddenly lost four of its members for this mission. After sending the three back to the village, the Fourth and the remaining Anbu ninjas continued on their chase of Orochimaru along the trail where the shadowy figure disappeared.
It was almost fifteen minutes later when the Hokage was forced to make another difficult decision. Orochimaru decided to leave two hints, and those two clues happened to be pointing in opposite directions. The Fourth forced down the urge to punch a hole through the tree, and gave his signal to the remaining Anbu members. The seven ninjas seemed surprised at the command, but followed it nevertheless.
The seven Anbu ninjas would go one way, and the Fourth would go the other way, alone. It was the most obvious choice. Orochimaru was one of the legendary three ninjas, and a student of the Third. The Fourth could only hope that seven Anbu members were enough. Even though they were carefully chosen for this mission, they might not survive a fight against the missing-nin. He, on the other hand, had a good chance of surviving this mission alone even if he fought Orochimaru.
The first thing he wanted to do was to wipe the annoying smirk off Orochimaru's face.
It was another ten minutes or so when he reached the back side of a concrete building. And almost immediately the Fourth got his wish fulfilled. Orochimaru leapt down from a tree with a sword in his hand. The attack completely missed when the Fourth dodged to the side, and used the opportunity to kick the missing-nin on the side of his head. If Orochimaru wanted to have a one-on-one match with him, it was completely fine. The missing-nin, after all, was probably trying to prove that he was the superior candidate for the Hokage title. Not missing an opportunity, the Fourth quickly charged up his Rasengan for a final strike. However, he had his chance of completing the mission stolen again when Orochimaru ducked inside the concrete building like a cockroach.
The Fourth's last bit of patience evaporated at that sight.
The Fourth was normally an intelligent man. He was regarded as the village's finest ninja in history, and he would normally tackle his problem with a clear analytical mind. But the Fourth was still a young man underneath the cover of a genius. He had been repeatedly frustrated, led around like a toy, forced to witness a companion getting seriously wounded, and robbed of the chance to vent his frustration on Orochimaru with a Rasengan.
And most importantly, the Fourth felt the need to prove that he could succeed in the title of Hokage, and Orochimaru was making a joke out of his first important mission since the Fourth became Hokage.
Not bothering to power down his Rasengan, the Fourth entered the building through the back door with the subtlety of a raging bull, and continued down a long hallway with determination.
The door at the end of the hallway began to open, and the Fourth prepared himself.
The door was opened enough for a kunai bag to be shown. The Fourth continued dashing.
The door was opened halfway, and the smirking face of Orochimaru appeared. The Fourth made his move.
Jumping towards the missing-nin, the Fourth cried out his move's name while driving the spinning ball of death towards the chest of his target.
"Rasengan!"
The walls on the two sides of the impact were replaced by two big holes. The door was broken out of its hinges when Orochimaru's body flew past it. And finally, to the Fourth's satisfaction, Orochimaru created a large whole against the concrete outer wall when he exited the building in a rather painful manner.
'The Rasengan should have at least seriously injured Orochimaru.' The Fourth thought as he exited the building through the newly made hole.
It was not Orochimaru who was lying broken on the ground. Instead it was Tohya Satsuki, an Anbu assassin assigned separately on this mission. A thin line of blood could be seen flowing out from the corner of her mouth, and the Fourth was not too confident that she had survived the attack. As Hokage, the Fourth was the pillar of the village, and he was responsible for protecting all the villagers. Yet he had critically hurt, if not killed one of his ninjas outright.
The Fourth was so shocked at the sight that his mind became a complete blank for a moment, before he was snapped out of his daze by a scream. Looking back, the Fourth could see a young boy sitting in the previous room. The boy was screaming at the top of his lungs.
The Fourth felt like screaming himself.
---------------
"So that was what had happened." The Fourth said. Wiping the trail of blood from Satsuki's mouth. "You need medical attention right now, I will carry you back to the village." After the Fourth said that, he attempted to lift Satsuki's torso off the ground. Satsuki cried out in pain and the Fourth immediately stopped.
"My...waist..." Satsuki gasped out. "It hurts when you try to move me."
The Fourth pulled his hand from her waist, and saw that it was covered with blood. Then he noticed that the ground under her had a puddle of blood that was gradually growing in size. There was a large gash across the right side of Satsuki's waist, and blood was flowing out too quickly for the Fourth's liking.
"Your waist is cut by debris." The Fourth said to Satsuki. "I will stop the bleeding."
After he spoke, he tore off part of his right sleeve, put the piece of cloth on top of the wound, and applied pressure. Satsuki winced in pain, but said nothing. The idea was not working, however, as the method could only slow down the bleeding, but failed miserably in stopping it.
Satsuki was staring at the Fourth's face while he was trying his best to stop the bleeding. She knew she was bleeding slowly to death, because she could feel her life flowing out of her body. And she knew, even if her life was saved, she would be crippled for life because of her broken back. But her brain seemed to push all these thoughts into the back of her mind, as the focus went onto the Fourth's face.
She was strangely mesmerized by the concerned expression on the Fourth's face.
"Why are you so concerned about me?" Satsuki asked suddenly in a soft voice. The Fourth stopped what he was doing and looked at her. Satsuki continued. "You should be chasing after Orochimaru right now, instead of taking care of me."
"I would not let you die." The Fourth answered simply.
"Why? I am no longer fully human....and...." Satsuki's voice dropped to a whisper again at this point. "It is not worth it to fail a mission for someone like me...."
"You are human. Stop telling yourself that you are not. You look like a normal, human girl to me." The Fourth emphasized his point by looking at her from head to toe and then nodding his head.
Satsuki blushed. The Fourth, realizing how inappropriate that action seemed, blushed as well.
"Do you...." Satsuki whispered out. The Fourth bent over to hear her more clearly again. '...have any feelings for me?' She finished in her mind. "....know where Orochimaru went?" Different words came out.
"No, but I will worry about that later. I can't stop the bleeding. I am going back to the village to get a doctor." The Fourth turned around, and found the boy Satsuki rescued standing behind the two of them. The boy probably had been there the whole time. The Fourth picked up the piece of blood-soaked cloth, and addressed the boy. "Please help me put pressure on the wound with this while I go get help."
The boy nodded quietly and picked up the piece of cloth from the Hokage. Then he used it to slow down the bleeding. The Hokage, seeing the boy was doing the job right, nodded once and stood up.
The Fourth smiled at Satsuki. "I am concerned about you because you are an important subordinate to me." With that, he turned and left the scene in a hurry.
He never saw the sad expression on Satsuki's face as her eyes dimmed even further at those words.
After the Fourth left, Satsuki turned towards the boy who was applying pressure on her wound with a determined look on his face. "Would you get something from my kunai bag for me?"
"Don't worry! I will stop the bleeding, you just relax and....huh?" The boy asked, puzzled. "What did you want me to do again?"
Satsuki opened her mouth to speak again, but an intense feeling of pain sudden exploded from her chest. She felt something warm from her throat flowing out of her mouth. It tasted like blood. Blood was flowing from her mouth again. 'I am not going to survive this.' Satsuki thought to herself.
The boy, failing to receive the message earlier, leaned closer to the girl until his left ear was almost touching Satsuki's mouth. "What did you say again?"
A feeling of panic overwhelmed Satsuki like a tidal wave at that moment. Perhaps it was human instinct, but all of a sudden, Satsuki could think about only one thing. 'I don't want to die. I don't want to die. Save me! I am too young to die.' Her eyes widened and her lips trembled in the fear of death.
Then Satsuki noticed that the boy's neck was dangerously close to her mouth.
Thump-thump.
Was this her last chance of survival?
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
If she sacrificed this boy, she would have enough chakra to recover herself with that forbidden jutsu.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
'I am sorry.' Satsuki thought as she opened her mouth, preparing to use her last bit of strength to bite into the boy's neck. 'Forgive me.' Her eyes changed from blue to red at that instant. It was a wonder that the boy did not notice the thick killer-intent saturating the air.
'We are quite alike, since both of us sacrificed part of our humanity for power.' Orochimaru's words suddenly echoed in Satsuki's mind.
'You are human. Stop telling yourself that you are not. You look like a normal, human girl to me.' The Fourth's words came next.
'Thank you, Hokage-sama.' Satsuki thought to herself as she stopped herself from committing a horrible crime, her eyes turning back into blue. Killing the boy to save her own life would mean betraying the only man that had ever cared for her, the only man that she had ever loved. He would hate her for eternity, cursing her name like spitting out venom from his mouth.
Tohya Satsuki would have none of that.
Seeing that the boy was still trying to hear her next message, Satsuki spoke. "Would you please get me the scroll from my kunai pouch?"
The boy immediately fulfilled her wish and put the scroll into Satsuki's right hand. Satsuki felt the scroll inside her hand, and start to perform a seal that she had invented recently. Some of her blood from the wound rose up from the ground and formed a bind around the scroll. She had not tested this seal before. Everything was based on her theory.
"Fuuin." Satsuki whispered as she finished her work. A flash of blue light appeared on the scroll, and the blood became symbols surrounding the scroll. The scroll was successfully sealed.
Seals that involving the soul was extremely difficult to perform. Her chance of success was near nil, but it was worth a try because success might let her survive. Satsuki did not even have time to dwell on her chance of success before she felt a familiar presence nearby.
It was Orochimaru.
"Run." Satsuki forced her voice to work, despite her injuries. "Run. Hide that scroll." Satsuki told the boy.
For a moment Satsuki was afraid that the boy would not comprehend the reason for him to get away, but fortunately the boy obeyed her and quickly ran off with the scroll in his hand.
"So what do we have here?" Orochimaru voice asked tauntingly. "Should I go after the boy, or should I kill you first?"
Satsuki tensed. Orochimaru had seen the boy running away. She thought about the current situation. The boy was carrying the scroll which could not fall into Orochimaru's hands, especially after she had completed that seal. Feeling her blood flowing freely from her wound, Satsuki poured her chakra into her last desperate attack.
Taunting the dying assassin in front of him, Orochimaru never saw Satsuki's blood from her wound flowing behind him. Her blood ascended from the ground, and took shapes of needles. Satsuki could only make a dozen needles in her condition, but she threw them immediately at Orochimaru.
Of the twelve blood needles, only two hit the target. One embedded itself into the back of Orochimaru's left shoulder, while the other buried itself in the back of Orochimaru's neck. Both had missed the crucial points, however, as Orochimaru only seemed to be slightly wounded. Knowing that her surprise attack had failed, Satsuki sighed. The blood needles turned back into blood as Satsuki lost the last bit of her strength.
"I will kill you first." Orochimaru declared, his smirk gone from his face.
'So this is the end.' Satsuki thought to herself as she turned her gaze to the sky. She found the full moon staring back at her. The full moon was there to accompany her in death, so she would not feel alone. She could feel the fear from earlier replaced by an eerie calm.
There was a sharp pain on her throat, but it no longer mattered. Her entire surrounding seemed to dim as she began to feel cold and detached from her body.
'Goodbye Hokage-sama.' A single tear escaped from her eye and slid across her face.
Satsuki thought she was prepared for her fate, but the tranquility she desperately sought was shattered by her one final thought before the exploding pain shut down her mind.
'I don't want to die.'
---------------
The boy ran as fast as he could, before stopping to catch his breath. Thinking that he was far enough away, he hid the scroll under a pile of rocks. Feeling that his mission was accomplished, he stood up, not noticing that the symbols surrounding the scroll lit up for a brief moment. The boy then looked around, and realized that he was lost.
The boy was rescued later by Anbu ninjas from his village later, but he could no longer locate the place where he had hidden the scroll.
---------------
The Fourth Hokage knelt down in front of the body of Tohya Satsuki, and held her hand with his own. Her body was still warm despite the fact that it was a cold night. She had died not too long ago. It was apparent that she had not died because of her injuries, but instead she was killed by an enemy. Her throat had been slit, and her eyes were staring into nothing.
"I cannot save you. I cannot save you after all." The Fourth kept mumbling to himself sadly. Staring at Satsuki's face, he used his fingers to close her eyelids. His fingers got wet from the girl's tears, and the Fourth stared at his fingers for a long while before clutching his fist.
"I will never fail anyone anymore. I will protect the Konoha village, even if it means I have to sacrifice my life." The Fourth declared. He would fulfill this promise years later, when the demon fox threatened to destroy the village.
---------------
Chapter one - End
Author's Notes:
Tenten IS the main character, this is just a background story for my OC which has become too long to be called a prologue. (since my chapters are going to be short...) I know a lot of people hate OC, but please bear with me.
My OC looks like this: geocities.123/yurikatkhm and replace 123 with com.
Translation:
Kagen no Tsuki - Lower Crescent Moon
Tohya Satsuki - The Kanji I am thinking about for Tohya is 'Ten Nights' and 'May (month)' for Satsuki
Kuchiyose no Jutsu - Summoning no Jutsu
Fuuin - Seal