Author's Note: I do not own Naruto, as sad as it is. I own Mizu and that's about it oh and this storyline. Onward to the story I suppose.
~The Lies We Tell~
It was meant to happen. There is always one point in life when you decide that it's time to move on and leave the nest. For Terumi Mizu, this was no different. She looked down her balcony towards the coast and sighed at what she was leaving behind.
She pushed back and began to dress. She packed her bags full of weapons that she was force to take based on Mei's request, her clothing ranging from kunoichi gear to kimonos as well as her jars to collect her medicinal herbs.
She began to get ready for her long mission. She tied her brown hair back in a tall ponytail and clipped her bang to keep it from her face. She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled slightly at what she saw. She was no longer the shy younger sister of the Mizukage, no she was now the jonin who was leaving everything behind to become a medic nin and make herbal medicines.
She rolled her eyes at the stupidity she was doing, but she no longer cared, she had so much more to do. She began to dress herself by beginning to wrap her chest pushing it down to make it more comfortable to move around during her trip. It was discomforting at first, but the more androgynous she looked the safer she was. She slipped on her short kimono that reached the top of her knees that had slits on the side allowing her quick movements if needed. She then slipped on her shorts, her short tight black that fit her like a second skin to cover her while she fought if necessary.
Lastly she looked in the mirror as she placed her Kiri band on her head showing her pride. As she slipped on her sash, she was ready to leave. Immedaitely after she was done dressing, she heard a knock.
"Come in" she heard.
She looked to see Terumi Mei walking in her room. She smiled at her sister in a shy smile, so unlike her character and tried to ignore her sister's sadness.
"Are you ready Mizu-hime?" she asked.
"As I'll ever be Mei" she said beginning to slip on her sandals.
Mei saw her younger sister, who she had raised as long as she could remember. She had to raise Mizu after the massacre in Kirigakure. They had to become strong after the Kiri gain the name of bloody mist and they did by training as hard as they could. Now as she saw her sister now sixteen, she could fight for herself and she was abandoning all she knew.
"Don't give me that look Mei" Mizu whispered trying to stop this.
Mei frowned and bit her lip, something both sisters did as habits. Mizu ignored the looks that Mei gave her as she began to pick up her items.
"Can't you wait till spring?" Mei asked following her baby sister as she began to head downstairs.
"Nope" Mizu said amused. "Summer is the best time to start the collecting process so by spring I can have the herbs that I might need I'll send them here to help the village."
Mei frowned even deeper as she figured out she wasn't going to convince her to stay.
"But-"
"But nothing Mei, I'm ready to leave now stop whining" Mizu said with the air of finality.
Mei nodded and helped her with her last baggage.
"I wish you could stay longer Mizu, you barely turned sixteen, just wait a little-" Mei stopped as Mizu was getting red from anger.
"Fine fine" she said reluctantly. "You win Mizu-hime"
Mizu smiled and wrapped her arms around her older sister.
"Imagine that when you get married you'll want to have this all to yourself with no brat like me to interrupt you" she said smiling.
Mei couldn't help but smile at it and nodded.
"Fine fine, but come often to visit?"Mei whispered.
Mizu nodded and held her close. As the doors opened, they saw that the villagers waited to her departure. She took in a shaky breath and began to place her items in the horse pulled cart to which would be taking her to the boat.
She turned to face her sister and embraced her once more, smiling bravely at her. Mei was already blubbering, but she stayed strong considering her people were watching her. Mizu winked as she climbed onto the cart and waved goodbye to her sister.
As the cart began to go outside the gates, she turned to see her world getting farther and farther away as she went into the unknown.
First year…
Mizu opened her door as she took in the sun of the spring morning. She smiled taking in the quiet of nature of it all. She was a year older and she hadn't returned to her village even though she had promised.
She pulled up her longer hair and sighed thinking that one of these days she had to get a haircut, but shook it of thinking that there were more important things to do. She smiled slightly and grabbed her basket and headed off to the woods to collect the herbs she had been growing.
The year that had just passed what nothing too exciting but it was what she needed. Years before during the bloody nin era she had fought most of her life gaining scars physically not to mention emotionally. She liked the mainland because the temperature was different from her islands and it helped the herbs grow.
She smiled as the Sakura trees were in full bloom, this season was one of her favorites and she took advantage of all the mornings. She bent down and began to pick the herbs that were ready to be made into salves. She smiled softly at how she once feared doing this on her own and shook her head in amusement at the stupidity of it all.
She decided that she needed to go towards the lake to take a bath. She looked around and smiled brightly as she saw the clearing of the lake. She let her hair down and threw her layers to just jump into the lake. She began to dance around in the water practicing the water jutsu she had not used in a while; she didn't want to lose her techniques. Unbeknown to her, as she did dance around relaxing, she was oblivious to the fact that there was a group who were carrying a very injured male in their grasp.
"Where do we take him?" Karin said scared "He might die!"
She tried not to cry as she saw a very bloody Sasuke in the arms of Jūgo who looked saddened as well. Their interruption of the Kage meeting wasn't smart at all, on the contrary it brought their near extinction. Karin tried to get ahold of herself, she had to be the brains of the group, or so she thought.
"Hey, get over here, there's a cabin here" Suigetsu said.
He was being the most logical one of the three, and ignored the pain of seeing his dear friends with such levels of pain. He jumped to the tree branch to look into the window to see an empty cabin that was abandoned or only a while as he could tell from the stew being boiled.
"Is it safe?" she asked tentatively.
Suigetsu looked at her incredulously.
"He's dying and anywhere is better than moving him around baka!" he hissed.
Jūgo walked towards the entrance and was stopped by Karin who signaled Suigetsu to check if it was unlocked and or trapped. He did as told and he turned the doorknob only to find it unlocked and no traps aside.
"Get in here" he hissed.
They rushed inside and closed the door. As they noticed their surroundings they saw levels and levels of cabins covered from wall to wall in salves. They thought that Kami was helping them somehow the only problem was that they didn't know which to use.
"Do we use this one?" Suigetsu lifted a random salve.
"You don't know which one to use!" she yelled. "It might kill him!"
Jūgo sighed and had carried Sasuke upstairs to see a bed and he immediately placed Sasuke down only to hear a faint moan from Sasuke's lips.
"It'll be alright my friends" he whispered.
As he went downstairs to try and help them, only to find them arguing over which salve to use. He sighed and walks towards them and stopped them from arguing.
"Have you noticed all these salves?" he asked.
They nodded at him stupidly.
"Well…..why not wait for the person to aid Sasuke" he said at them.
Karin nodded and wiped some tears. Suigetsu began to look around to learn more from the person. He noticed a few trinkets around the home, just like a few weapons in a chest and a headband to see Kiri engraved elegantly on the metal. He noticed that the ribbon was a slight lighter color and that it was female.
Mizu was oblivious to was going on in her home. She had let her hair dry on the way home by letting it fall down her back. Her basket not only held her herbs but some wet clothing. She hummed along not knowing that the home was invaded by criminals.
As Suigetsu looked from the window, he saw a girl walking their direction. He noticed that she carried no weapons but in fact herbs in the basket. He turned to face Jūgo who sat down somewhat tired while Karin was upstairs crying over Sasuke.
They didn't know whether to attack her or not, so they decided to hide, they rushed upstairs and pulled Karin into the closet to hide.
Mizu opened the door and sighed as her stew smelled ready. She closed the door behind her and dropped her basket on the side. She looked up immediately as she felt an awkward shift in chakra in the home. She walked upstairs tentatively only to find an injured Sasuke in her home.
She was wide eyed and walked towards the bed, her bed she corrected herself. She sat on the side of the bed and began to study him. He was gorgeous. Those were the first thoughts in her mind. His dark raven hair contradicted his very pale skin. She could tell that he had thin lips that were interesting enough in a frown. She frowned in return and lifted her finger to wipe some blood from his forehead.
"Who are you?" she whispered to him as if he could answer.
"Kenichi" someone answered.
She jumped up to see Karin, Suigetsu and Jūgo staring at her curiously.
"E-excuse me?" she asked.
"His name is Kenichi" Suigetsu said smoothly. "Kenichi Hōzuki"
They had planned that the Uchiha name was too famous to let out, thus they created an alias for the injured Sasuke. Mizu nodded and finally found her voice once more, no longer stuttering.
"And you're here for?"
"Aid him" Karin ordered.
"Please" Jūgo added.
She looked down to see Sasuke and knew she had to do something and she didn't have enough time.
"Okay, I'll be right back" she whispered.
She got up and ran downstairs and in a few minutes returned with a little bottle of clear liquid, a large bowl of water and two cloths. She closed her eyes, ignoring their stares and began to concentrate her chakra toward his chest. She took in slow deep breaths trying to not lose enough chakra to faint and to let it at an appropriate amount to allow the body to take it slowly and at a pace.
She didn't notice the looks of curiosity from Suigetsu and Jūgo, and the glare that Karin had for letting the girl to get near Sasuke. She didn't understand that luck had to bring them to the cabin of a female.
Meanwhile, Mizu's cheeks were becoming pink from the excess of energy being released. Her hands glowed bright blue as she released it and they got stronger, till it stopped immediately. She looked pale all of a sudden and gripped the bed tightly.
"Are you alright?" Suigetsu asked.
She opened her eyes slowly and nodded.
"Yes…" she whispered "Just couldn't heal his outer cuts, he's too injured."
They all frowned.
"Will he be okay?" Karin asked scared.
"Yes, I managed to heal his internal injuries, but the external are not the ones it was too much chakra" she said tired.
She got up somewhat tired and she began to fix his external injuries. She dipped one cloth in water and began to wipe his cheeks taking away the blood that slid down his face and she looked at cuts on his forehead. She tilted her head and felt some pity to whoever this Kenichi was. She knew that he had more injuries down his chest and she sighed knowing what she had to do. She was glad that she was studying as a medical-ninja very long because it helped her aid this stranger. She then began to tug at his belt which caused an outburst from the woman.
"What are you doing?" Karin hissed.
Mizu turned to look at her impassively.
"Healing him" she said. "He has more wounds down his chest and on his legs."
Karin was about to protest when Mizu lifted her hand to silence her.
"I need to work in a quiet atmosphere so could you please wait downstairs" she said softly. "Help yourself with the food, just please let me work."
Suigetsu and Jūgo nodded, and before Karin was about to cause a fit, they tugged her out and closed the door behind them. Mizu sighed in relief and turned to face Sasuke and once more took off his kimono outfit. She slid his hands out of his top and tugged his pants down leaving him in his black shorts that lay under the bottom.
She began to wipe all the injuries and noticed just how hurt he truly was. His internal were one thing, but as his externals were disinfected she bit her lip wondering just what had occurred. She would have never known that they were fighting her sister but a day ago.
"What did you do?" she whispered.
As she finished cleaning him, she dipped the other cloth into the bottle of alcohol. Part of her was glad that he was unconscious because it lessened the feel of stinging. She disinfected the cut and she began to place bandages around his chest. She wrapped his arms, then legs and lastly his forehead.
As she checked their tightness, she did not notice the patient becoming conscious.
Sasuke felt his senses beginning to function and he began to hear someone pitter-pattering around. He began to think of who it was, but if he was male, it would be neither Jugo or Suigetsu for they didn't talk with one another. He heard a soft voice humming and he knew it was a girl. She was by no means Karin considering she would be clinging to him. For a second he thought she was Sakura, since her felt a surge of chakra towards him.
He was going to open his mouth, but nothing came out. He felt a hand touching his cheek and he forced himself not to tense. He felt her warm thin fingers on his chin and inwardly glared.
'How dare you touch me?' he thought furiously.
That is until she pushed a strand of hair to the side and heard her sigh.
"I hope you get better Kenichi, at least that's what your friends and I want you to" she said smiling softly.
He tried to open his eyes as she was studying his bandage around his forehead. He noticed blearily a pair of warm brown eyes smiling down at him.
"Get some rest Kenichi" she whispered. "I'll tell your friends you're okay"
As she pulled back from him an as she did, his dark eyes closed immediately falling into a deep slumber. Unbeknown to him, those brown eyes would be seared into his mind forever.