The Sound Sister
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The delicate wooden flute grazed the branded katakana symbols inside of her forearm. Her hand quickly grasped the instrument, gently squeezing it with anticipation. A small gust of wind blew back her dark coat's hood, revealing her brown hair tied up in a scattered ponytail. Her light blue eyes narrowed in front of her while her body followed their direction. Her muscles tensed as she stepped closer and closer to the entrance of the unjustly glorified village. To her, the recognition it had was very undeserved. Only one thing clouded her mind from believing its greatness - revenge.
5 years earlier
"Yes, she is dead," the indifference he expressed in those words resounded in her head and stung her newly torn heart, "Tayuya and the rest served their purpose." The pale, long-haired man gave a light smile - some sort of weak way of trying to comfort the young girl. She was only twelve at the time but always showed determination to become a great kunoichi like her older sibling. Unfortunately, her one living relative was now gone, murdered by Konoha ninjas. It hurt to realize she was alone - her eyes streaming uncontrollably with tears of despair.
Orochimaru took a slight pity to the girl and placed his hand on her shoulder as she continued to sob within her trembling hands, "Come to me when you are done feeling sorry for yourself," and left her quietly to weep in her small, almost barren room.
It was hours before the young girl had expelled everything within her and was subdued into an empty numbness. Her muscles continued to ache from the strenuous tension she had experienced caused by her grieving. She pushed herself off of the bed she had laid on and went over to a small dresser where a thin but sturdy wooden flute had been sitting for a few years. Tayuya had left it there after Orochimaru gifted her the new metal flute she used until her death.
'If anything happens to it, I'll kill you.'
Tayuya always threatened her, still feeling an attachment to her old flute. It didn't matter now the words she would always express like a broken record but yet, her sister still wanted to hear them. The time she had with her sister was now a greatly held memory and her reason for being there was no longer relevant. Her reason was now changed and the new feelings that came with it were starting to cloud her mind. Finally, the girl stopped staring longingly at the wooden instrument and took it into her hand, holding tightly against her and proceeded to barged out of her room.
It only took a minute to find her way to a familiar thick metal door and opening it without caring about any negative consequences,
"I want revenge. Do anything you have to so I can have it. Give me the curse mark, experiment on me. I don't care." The young girl spoke out loud as she entered the notorious man's throne room in a huff. She tried not to sound demanding or broken but wanted to make it clear that she did not want to waste time. His body sat in a large but comfortable looking armchair. He let his lips form a devilish grin and let out a short chuckle,
"Are you sure that is what you want? You know my experimentations take time to be completed. Not to mention, I do not have time to waste on a weak child like you now that I have what I've wanted for such a long time," his eyes slightly widened with intrigue, waiting for an irrational retort.
"Please... I'll do whatever you say. I...," she knelt before him and looked down, sadly, at her sibling's wooden treasure, "I have nothing to lose."
"So be it. Kabuto, prepare her for the new infusions. If she survives, then we will continue with sealing and training." The words were cold but didn't bother her much. She looked up to find the gray-haired servant giving her a weak and forced smile. His hand extended to her,
"Follow me." She placed her hand firmly onto his, letting herself be brought up to her feet. Her body then placed itself behind him, making sure to follow his every step and turn. Realizing that whatever was going to be done to her could kill her, she turned to face her master before leaving the room,
"Thank you, Orochimaru-sama." She bowed and he responded with a slight nod.
'It's been years... Tests... Infusions... Seals... Training... All of it for this moment... finally at my grasp.'
She gripped the flute again, one last time before placing it in her side holster. Her legs continued their determined pace meanwhile the rest of her showed no trace of insecurity. Though her eyes continued looking forward, her peripherals caught sight of the guards at the gate. They were watching her intently, as her odd barge-like strides seemed too intense for their liking. She was only thirty feet away when she commenced her special jutsu. A light crook in her lips giving away her intention, as she released a quiet drone from her throat. One of the guards made his way to the center of the entrance, readying himself.
"Hey! You need to-" The guards were instantly frozen. A strange pained look falling upon their faces as red body fluid seeped slowly out of their ears. Their equilibrium had been tampered with and all fell to the firm dirt ground, dizzied and vomiting.
'Weaklings.' The young woman continued her powerful stride into the village, without hesitation.
Before she could do anything else, she was surrounded by a few odd looking ninjas, dressed in black pants and gray flaks, each dawning a unique mask. She scoffed before glaring at them,
"Step aside." Her voice growled.
As before, her vocal waves caused a profound disturbance in the ninjas inner ears, making them fall face down or onto their knees as they gripped their pained heads.
'Too easy.' She rolled her eyes at the thought and continued forward into the streets of Konoha.
In a matter of minutes, she was at the center of the village. She ignored any questioning villagers and made sure to subdue any interfering ninja with her sound technique. She came to a stop and inhaled a long breath of air as she did a few discreet hand signs.
"Where is Shikamaru Nara!?" The words came with a piercing echo that brought any villager within fifty feet to a stunned and mildly paralyzed pose. Imai looked around at her prospects. She moved swiftly behind a small child and held a kunai to his neck, piercing just the tip into the soft, delicate skin.
"This child dies in the next ten seconds if no one answers my question. I will not repeat myself again." Her voice wavered to her numb-struck victims. The little boy, unable to move from being stuck in the intruder's paralyzingly genjutsu, was still able to let out a few tears from his eyes - it was clear that the pain and fear weren't strong enough to will him out of her technique.
Imai brought the kunai up above her in the last few seconds but held it there as she watched various struggling fingers point to a restaurant a couple blocks away. She smiled devilishly as she put her kunai back in her holster and stood up,
"Alright then," the vengeful young woman squeezed her fingers into her palms and quickly made her way to the restaurant.
"Something strange is going on! A crowd of villagers is unable to move." A man came into the restaurant looking for anyone who could help. Shikamaru had been enjoying his lunch with his new girlfriend, Temari. They made sure to always spend some time together whenever Suna had business in Konoha or vice versa. He sighed,
"How troublesome. Let's go check it out, I suppose." His lips frowned but parted in surprise as the young blonde gripped the top of his hand and gave him a quirky smile.
"It's ok. We'll catch up later." Her fingers slid in between his, making his face flush and look awkwardly away. But it was this moment that distracted them long enough for a sudden burst through the restaurant opening to catch them off guard, giving the exhilarated intruder the chance to pin Shikamaru hard against the wall with her forearms at his neck and abdomen, each hand gripping a sharp kunai that dug into the wood panels.
"Hellloooooo...," her voice growled in his ear, immediately placing him and anyone in a ten-foot radius in her paralyzingly vocal genjutsu, "...you look ...familiar." Her grin exposed her clenching teeth while her pupils narrowed at him. The rest of the customers were convulsing from the wavering and instability of her tone.
"You must be Shikamaru... Yeah, spiky black ponytail, dressed in the stupid green flak vest," Imai looked him up and down, shaking her head in disappointment as she immediately took out a photograph, "You'd think a person's look would change over the years but, compared to this picture, you still look like the same stupid boy that killed my sister." Her nose wrinkled while her eyebrows furrowed in anger as she continued to compare and contrast her victim to the image she began to crumple in her hand. But then, she heard a whimper that felt very out of place. She looked towards the annoying sound and saw that it was coming from a quivering blonde young woman.
"You! You're that damn Suna blond! What luck!?" The vengeful girl's grin rose to one side. She stepped over to Temari, looking her up and down,
"So, you two must be coming together to celebrate your killing... or...," Imai stared deep into the scared green eyes that continually darted to the pinned Konoha ninja who stared at her worriedly, "... Maybe you two are a thing now, huh? Yeah... That makes sense. You two. Together..." Imai's face contorted to a devilish look as she slowly made her way behind Temari and placed both kunai at her neck.
"So, who should I off first? Pretty little thing here? Or the ponytail punk?" The brown haired intruder giggled to herself as she watched the victims bodies quiver, trying to fight the strange genjutsu. Suddenly, she threw a kunai at Shikamaru, but only nicked one of his ears. His eyes narrowed angrily at Imai as she laughed at their dismay.
"Alright! I think play time is over." The young sound ninja stopped and walked in between the couple. She held her hands in a sign and began to hum only stopping to say, "I will now sing you to death."
Her lips opened and her strange and spine-tingling vocalizations began to distort their surroundings.
It was only Temari and Shikamaru. They stood in front of each other, still unable to move or speak. The blond's eyes began to stream in desperation. They could hear and feel the despise and hate in their captor's eerie song. And in a split second, Temari began to scream in agony. Shikamaru eyes couldn't believe what he saw - her tears were burning her face off as she tried to wipe them off. She fell to her knees as she looked on at her sizzling hands, pieces of skin melting off.
A strange grunt distracted the Suna kunoichi from her pain. Her eyes looked up at Shikamaru, widening before letting out screams full of fear. Her hands covered her gasps as she watched her dark-haired companion's body start to contort in ways they should not. He let out a piercing scream with each crunch and crack his limbs would make, blood seeping through the pierced skin his bones would protrude from. Temari could not stomach what she watched and expelled all of the lunch she had eaten. Pieces of her lips burned and fell onto the blood colored vomit. They both continued to scream in pain and fear.
He was a moving blur searching for where the disturbance was. A villager had informed him of an intruder looking to settle a score with Shikamaru. The prodigy child continued to focus on looking for his fellow comrades' chakra.
'Where the hell are you!? And who the hell do you have problems with now!?'
Outside of the genjutsu, Imai continued her song smiling at every scream. She gripped her kunai and extended each arm, weapons pointing at both victims. Her wrists flicked and added various poisonous needles to each hand.
"I will now allow you to say goodbye as you watch each other die in real life," her voice echoed into their ears as they came back to reality and stared one another with tear-stained faces.
"Shikamaru!" Temari gasped for air, "I-!" She couldn't get herself to speak through her sobs.
"It's ok, Temari. We'll catch up later." Shikamaru smiled weakly at her. Imai immediately stepped between them once more,
"Alright then, TO HELL YOU GO!"
Before the vengeful sound ninja could fling the kunai and needles, a kick to her back sent her flying forward, breaking a hole in the restaurant wall. Her body rolled twenty-or-so feet onto the outside but finally slid into a crouched position. The dust settled as her eyes glared at the hole she had made - an unfamiliar young man, dressed in orange and black, had stepped through it.
"You- you wanna fight me, little boy?" Imai stood up and wiped the dirt off her face.
The blond boy stopped about ten feet away from her, looking unsure of what actions to take but decided to ignore her question and asked his own,
"Who are you?"
"My former name was Imai. But now, I go by the name of Siren," she turned her right arm to expose the branded katakana symbols that spelled out her nickname, "now that we're aquatinted, how about a little spar to the death? That way I can get back to my real mission." Her eyes stared behind the Konoha ninja, trying to see if her victims were still frozen in place as they should be.
His few quick steps diverted her attention to him as he began to speak,
"Look, I'm not here to fight. I don't know what problems you have with Shikamaru but you can settle them without killing him. I won't allow it!"
"And who the hell do you think you are? A kage?" The kunoichi laughed heartedly seeing how mighty the blond-haired boy acted.
He did his best to hide his offended pride and shouted out to her, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto and actually, I'm gonna be Hokage someday! I'll make sure people like you don't-"
"Cry me a river!" The impatient girl interrupted, "You're nothing but a- wait... Did you say Uzumaki?" She stepped closer to him, gripping her chin with her index finger and thumb, and eyed him up and down, "Uzumaki, the nine-tailed little bastard?" She continued to examine him from afar before a creepy grin fell on her lips.
"I've heard of you. A complete nuisance." Her grin dissipated as she paced within her area, "Now that I think about it, it was your fault, wasn't it? You and your little gang killed the Sound Four and Kimimaro. All because of your stupid Uchiha traitor." A light scoff escaped her mouth, its seriousness turning back to a tiny mocking smile.
'So that's what she's here for...'
"Sasuke is my friend and I wanted to save him. Just like that ache in your heart that's convinced you to seek revenge, my ache was to save my Konoha brother so... I get you." His eyes became soft, expressing a sympathetic understanding. He stepped a little closer to her in hopes of finding common ground.
"Oh please! There's nothing that you get about me. You. Don't. Know me," Imai immediately leaped forward and landed right in front of him, leaning into his ear and whispering, "But you will now."
The sounds wavering into his ear, putting him in her paralyzing genjutsu. A sinister glee seeped throughout her face. Her hands pull out a thin but sturdy rope and tugged it while she made her way behind her new victim. The rope was wrapped around his neck a couple times before she began to tighten it. Naruto gasped for air as he tried to will himself out of the paralyzation but the lack of oxygen was starting to cloud his mind.
Inside himself, Kurama roared at his comatose host,
"Naruto! Snap out of it!" The nine-tailed fox forced a little of his chakra onto the jinchuuriki to get a reaction.
The brown-haired kunoichi noted the seeping orange chakra and tightened the rope more, then wrapped it around one of her hands. Her other took out a kunai and raised it above her head, 'I'm not letting you go monster-mode, you piece of-' her hand swung down with great force but her arm was stopped and gripped painfully hard before she was thrown over the blond's head.
Before she knew it, two clones of her ex-victim gripped her arms behind her as the conjurer jumped to her with his fist going in for a hit. The clones disappeared as the punch sent the intruder flying, landing various feet away. Naruto raced to where she was, preparing to engage in a fight but was taken aback as she laid face down in the dirt, sobbing. He stepped closer and got down on me knee. He leaned in carefully, unaware of whether it was a trick or not.
"I- I just miss my sister..." Her body cringed as she weakly got on her hands and knees. The jinchuuriki's hand landed softly on her shoulder,
"I'm sorry. It's never our intention to-" Imai's hand suddenly pulled behind his head while she brought her opposite knee up to his face with great force.
"Well, killing is my intention!" She stood over him with wicked eyes staring down. He shifted in pain while covering his bleeding nose. She then took the opportunity to strike him with a hard kick but Naruto quickly grabbed her swinging leg and flung her to the other side. He jumped to his feet and wiped his bloody face with his sleeve. Imai found her footing and leaped back to her opponent to take a swing at his face again. Hate burned in her widened eyes with an out-of-place grin.
The blond dodged the punch and the kick that followed it by flipping back but the vengeful girl kept following, giving her best taijutsu moves. He finally took the offense and tried to hit her with a strong back-kick but stopped as she shielded herself with a paralyzed innocent bystander.
She continued to move behind the few villagers still stuck in her genjutsu, intentionally giving him a hard time and giving herself time to observe his moves.
The Sound ninja figured out how to counter ever punch and kick her opponent would throw at her. Her taijutsu was something she excelled at, besides the specific genjutsu technique, and made sure to always show her pride when performing. Naruto's annoyance of her cockiness rose and immediately made more clones to help stop the young woman.
Imai saw how she was surrounded, "I'm not falling for that shit again," and jumped to a rooftop. She continued to smile devilishly at the multitude of orange and black dressed clones. They all jumped atop various rooftops and started to chase after her.
"Get her as far away from civilians as possible! Use whatever you got!" The real Naruto shouted out to his clones from behind them. They all sprinted and leaped from roof to roof. Multiple kunai and shuriken were thrown at her from different directions. She dodged them easily as they didn't seem to be directly aimed at her.
'The bastard is herding me like a sheep!' She looked over her shoulder to try and figure out where they were pushing her to go but was surprised to see one of the blonds closing in on her. The kunoichi's hand reached for a kunai but in her distraction she misstepped on a roof tile and slipped, falling back first to the ground. Naruto followed inches above her and gripped the arm that was trying to push a kunai into his abdomen.
They crashed onto the ground, dust picking up around them. Their hands fought for the kunai in between them. Naruto was able to turn it away from either of their bodies and tried once again to reason with the young woman blinded by pain and hate.
"Stop this! You can change! Let me help you. Please..." His eyes showed concern, feeling sorry for his tormented opponent.
"Why the hell do you care about my pain!?" Her face contorted to a vicious frown.
"Because we share a similar pain." He continued to try and remove the weapon from her hands. Finally, a change in her demeanor caught his attention. She looked away as she became doleful and pensive. Her eyes sadly glistened as she looked back up at the hopeful blue eyed boy,
"You-you're right. I can change..." She paused and smiled kindly for a few seconds before the same twisted grin came upon her face. Naruto's eyes widen as he fell onto Imai - the sound of the kunai penetrating skin alerted him of danger.
The words he heard and the sweet smile he had seen were nothing but a ruse. The Sound kunoichi had flipped the kunai down and released her grip on it, letting the naive boy's weight put enough pressure to stab her. Naruto pushed himself up and stepped away from the bleeding young woman. His eyes continued to widen with shock as her body started to morph strangely. She hissed at him with a distorted voice,
"...But not how you imagine."
'... Only break the seal as a last resort. You cannot change back unless you die. Even if you survive the mutation, it will eventually kill you.'
Nothing mattered to her anymore. The past words that Kabuto had warned her with had no value. Siren had committed her life to avenging her sister. She was going to make sure she squashed that orange nuisance of a Konoha ninja and then crush the couple that had murdered her sibling before she experienced her own demise.
Her body contorted as it stretched upward and sideways. Her screams rumbled the surrounding area. Bubbling skin came off from her melding legs and brought on a scaly fish tail with long spines protruding in random areas. Her arms had become long and bony with more scales and spines coming out of her skin. The hair on her head elongated and had nine horns made of bone sticking outward like a crown. Eyes that were once a light shade of blue turned red with black scleras. Her height reached a few feet above the two-story buildings around them.
Naruto and his clones stared up, watching the monstrosity finish its transformation by exposing its razor sharp teeth behind an unnatural smile. It suddenly slashed a claw-like hand at one side with intent to rid of the many clones beside it - few were able to escape it while the rest instantly disappeared. They continued to jumped away, spreading out and keeping a greater distance between the siren-like chimera and themselves.
The terrifying looking creature began to slash around while devious chuckles escaped its throat. The Naruto clones continued to dodge, noting that the monstrous siren struggled to move as quickly as she had before. She was still getting used to her new body and with each miss, her unstable anger grew.
The chimera released a deafening shriek in its desperation. All of the clones and Naruto covered their ears in agony. Various nearby buildings collapsed while the stronger ones cracked and crumbled at the edges. Some of the clones were caught in the destruction and poofed away.
A large cloud of sand made its way around the real Naruto and yanked him away to safety on a sand platform. Gaara appeared beside him staring at the strange looking creature,
"I thought you'd be less careless by now. I've started surrounding it with my sand." The kazekage looked over at his friend, "So, tell me, why haven't you gotten rid of this thing yet?"
"It's not a thing. She's a girl. A girl that's damaged by unfair circumstances. I need to try and snap her out of it." Naruto jumped off of the sand while making hand signs to produce more clones.
"Naruto! Wait!" The red-haired ninja shouted after the speeding orange blur.
The clones surrounded the chimera, distracting it with punches and kicks meanwhile the real Naruto got close enough to jump towards the open wound on the creatures abdomen. A few sealing hand signs and his hand inserted itself within the cut. This caused the loudest pained shriek to expel from within her diaphragm. The clones spontaneously perished in seconds. Naruto was temporarily deafened as he struggled to remove his arm from the wound. The monster swatted him to the ground and gripped him under one of her claws. Siren licked her lips in satisfaction as she put downward pressure in order to crush the blond ninja under her hand.
Gaara instantly wrapped her with a large amount of sand, some gagging her mouth to prevent her from releasing another powerful shriek. Her claw released her prisoner as she twisted and turned, almost breaking free of the condensing sand. The Konoha ninja got up to his feet and dashed to where Gaara was,
"Stop! Don't hurt her!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, fighting to hear himself and everything else.
"She's unstable, Naruto! I can't hold it much longer! I need to do it!" Gaara shouted to his comrade. The young blond, finally able to hear his friend, tried to respond,
"No! Don't-" but it was too late. The Kazekage had fully encased the chimera and solidified his sand around it. A dulled crunching sounds could be heard coming from inside of the sand structure. The sand pulsed and vibrated oddly before it went back to its solid form.
The sand dissipated and exposed the once-chimera-now-kunoichi on the ground, fighting death's door. Naruto glared at an unfazed Kazekage. He rushed to her side and was perplexed at how she was still breathing though her bones were broken and poked through her bleeding wounded skin. Small raspy breaths could be heard coming from her open mouth.
'Why...?'
Naruto convinced himself that he could save her... but when he hovered his hands over the injured young woman, her heart and breathing stop.
"No..." He was too late. He didn't know why but he was struck with a strong feeling of grief knowing he had failed.
Gaara made his way next to the bewildered jinchuuriki and placed a hand on his back,
"I'm sorry but this person was in no condition of having a change of heart."
Saddened by the truth of his comrade's words he came to terms that he really couldn't change her heart before she died and understood that it would have probably never happened. Imai's mental state was too far gone.
He took off his jacket and covered her exposed, tattered body. His hand hovered over her eyes and slid the lids closed,
"Maybe in a different life."