'I'm floating.' Shiryoku thought as she began to regain consciousness. Her head was gently lolling from side to side as she glided through the air. As her brain grew steadily less foggy, Shiryoku became aware of a pressure on her stomach. There was something solid beneath her, and her inner ear told her that her head was hanging upside down. 'No. Not floating. I'm being carried.' Shiryoku's hands were bound behind her back, but she couldn't tell if her ankles had been tied as well.
She attempted to stay as still as possible, trying to figure out her surroundings. From the humidity of the world around her, she was still somewhere in the Land of Fire, but the smells that filled her nose did not match the green countryside. She could smell the ocean. There was a slight hint of fish amongst the salty sea foam that curled inside of her nose. It reminded her of her home along the ocean side, before she had been forced inland to live with her father in River Country.
It had been fifteen years since she had seen the sea. Yet this smell instantly took her back to a time when she would watch the sunrise every morning. The golden, red, and orange hues that threw the world into light reflected across the blue waters surrounding her home were her was her favorite scenes of her long gone childhood. Once the sun was up and Shiryoku would spend her entire day out on the ocean. Her mother would joke that if she hadn't known better, she would have sworn Shiryoku was an fish. She had always found this humorous, but after moving inland, jokes quickly became distant memories. The young woman focused her mind around her sense of hearing- cursing herself for dredging up memories that meant nothing anymore. Other than the birds and cicadas, there wasn't much to her to hear.
Two distinct footfalls slowly came into her periphery. The one who was carrying her was large, well over six foot tall. From the crunch of the gravel under his feet, she had to guess he was somewhere close to 180 pounds. The feel of the shoulder she had been hoisted over, Shiryoku would bet that the majority of his weight was muscle. The second of captors was smaller and lighter than the one holding Shiryoku. This one was a little over 5'5", maybe 120 pounds. Judging from their sizes, they definitely weren't her siblings. The twins were both somewhere around 5'9", 135 pounds. Other than her siblings heights and weights, she knew nothing of what they looked like. Shiryoku hadn't met either of the twins until after her eyesight was taken from her.
But if the people carrying her weren't her brother and sister, who were these people? They were cloaking their chakra, Shiryoku couldn't get a read on if they were her clansmen or not. 'How did they get me away from the twins?' She asked herself. 'What happened?'
A leather bound rod rubbed against her face, pulling her attention away from the sounds around her. Strangely, the rod seemed to soften at her touch, and wrap around her chin. She tried not to react to the sudden appearance of the object. Shiryoku needed them to think she was still unconscious. The longer she had to figure out her captors, the more information she could gather about them and the easier it would be to escape. Shiryoku could hear a strange purr that came from somewhere on her captor's back.
"She's waking up." The man who held her spoke. The pair turned so that they were no longer walking along the road. Shiryoku heard the soft rustle of grass and leaves shift under her captors feet. The man threw Shiryoku to the ground. She landed hard, falling backwards into a log.
"What's your name?" A different male asked. He was the smaller of the two who had taken her.
'They don't know my name⦠Means they aren't clansmen.' Hotaru inferred. 'Then who the hell are they?'
When she did not answer, Shiryoku felt a sharp jab in her side. One of them had kicked her ribs. Judging by the size of the shoe that had made contact with her, it was the big one that had done it.
"Talk." The large male demanded. The calmness in his voice made Shiryoku nervous. This was a man who took pleasure in creating pain. Shiryoku remained silent.
"Tell us your name." The small man spoke again.
"I think she needs a little persuasion." The large one spoke, taking a step toward the girl.
"Kisame. We don't know what set that explosion off. Be careful around her."
'Explosion?'
"What was that chakra surge you gave off?" Kisame asked. His voice changed from a measured calm to genuine interest. It was an almost imperceivable change, but Shiryoku picked up on it. She let a smirk escape her. It all made sense now.
'So, that's what they're after.' The explosion caused by the release of her Kekkei Genkai was what brought their attention to her. Her siblings must have gotten caught in the blast wave and these two stumbled upon the scene.
"If you won't cooperate, we will leave you here in the woods. I'm sure you can fend for yourself?" Kisame asked with a nasty smirk as he tugged on the bandages covering her eyes. Shiryoku snapped her jaw, trying to catch his hand. He laughed as he pulled his hand away. "Oh, I like her." Shiryoku turned her head toward the man. If there was one thing she did not tolerate in this world, it was people trying to use her blindness against her. As she looked in the man's direction, hoping she appeared to be glaring at him, the strange purring noise started up again. "Stop it." Kisame scolded Samehada, tugging at the greedy sword.
Shiryoku swept her legs out from under her. She kept them low to the ground as they sailed toward the large man. Based on how tall she believed him to be, Shiryoku let her legs drift about four inches from the forest floor. The kick connected seamlessly with the man's ankles, sending him plummeting to the ground. She was surprised by how thick his ankles were despite being one of the weaker points on his body. Ignoring the mild pain in her shin from hitting the solid man, Shiryoku raised her leg in the air, preparing her heel to land just south of his tenth rib, her true goal being a direct hit to one of his kidneys. As her downward striking heel was gaining momentum, it suddenly stopped. Itachi threw her leg back at her. Shiryoku's knee collided with her chin. Shiryoku sat in a state of shock. The only ones who had ever been able to stop her attacks were her two older siblings. This was mainly because they were the ones who had taught her how to fight, but a small portion was owed to the fact the no one ever expected the sightless girl to fight back.
"Let's go. If we leave now, we'll get back to base before dark."
"Fine." Shiryoku was lifted to her feet by the big one, and guided back to the road. He roughly pushed her in the right direction, forcing her to walk. Itachi strode in front of her while Kisame took the rear.
"Why didn't you stop her before she took my legs out?" Kisame asked after a couple moments of strained silence.
"I didn't see her move until you were already down." Itachi admitted. Shiryoku could not tell if Itachi was impressed by her swift movements or angered by his admission.
"You're telling me this kid got the drop on you?" Kisame laughed. "Your brother is one of the quickest kids I've ever seen, and you still managed to stop him back at that inn. How can she be faster than an Uchiha?"
'Uchiha?' Shiryoku's mind flashed red at the infamous name. Just how dangerous her situation was finally dawned on the runaway. If she was in the company of a man who slaughtered the arguably most powerful clan in the history of the shinobi world, her little tricks and Kekkei Genkai would hold no defense against the Uchiha. And whoever the large man behind her was had to be equally as dangerous as the man before her. Shiryoku realized the easiest way to stay alive would be to comply with whatever the two men asked of her, no matter what they were planning to do with her. If they eventually gave up custody of her, she would be able to fight her way out of that situation.
Itachi did not reply to Kisame's questions. He walked quietly ahead of the other two, keeping whatever he was thinking about Shiryoku's speed to himself. The trio remained silent as the miles passed them by.
Frequently the young woman would start to veer off course, falling out of line with the two missing nin. Kisame would catch her by the shoulder and push her back in between himself and Itachi. He doubted she meant to leave their formation on purpose, instead thoroughly believed she lacked the ability to walk in a straight line. It may have something to do with her inability to see, or that her leg seemed to still be reeling from the kick she took him down with. She hadn't made a smart move to take him down with physical force. He was much more solidly built than the girl, than most anyone really. Kisame had a feeling that at least one of her bones was fractured. And from the way she was lightly favoring her left leg, he guessed it would be on the lower section of her fibula.
Shiryoku was trying to figure out where they were and which direction they were heading, when the scent hit her. The fragrance of water and shale drifted into her nose. The smell was of her home country, Land of Rivers. The plethora of water that spawned endless crags and valleys was the most unmistakable aroma she would ever know. She had loved her country as a child, but now it was a terrifying place. Her home was an unforgiving land of never ending waterfalls and canyons. And she could not return, because the closer they came to the country, the easier it would be for her family to find her. The dreadful thought of her clan finding her glued Shiryoku's feet to the ground, stopping her until she could work up the courage to run away. Kisame had not been paying attention, and continued to walk right into the girl's back.
"What the hell are you doing?" He asked, seemingly enraged by the girl's unexpected stop. She tried to back away from the border, but the wall of a man behind her didn't allow her to retreat. "Keep moving." Kisame nudged her forward. She lost her balance, and fell ungracefully to the ground. Shiryoku tried to turn her body so that her shoulder would take the brunt of the fall, but misjudged the distance to the ground. Her skull hit the gravel road with the crack of bone hitting rock. The impact knocked her unconscious, as a small pool of blood began to puddle around her ear. "This girl bleeds too easy -"
"Kisame." Itachi whispered, looking off into the distance. His sharingan was active as he scanned the area. "There are nine people waiting just inside the border. They all have chakra signatures similar to hers."
"What do you want to do?" Kisame responded, bending down next to the bleeding girl to examine her head. A low growl was issued from Samehada as Kisame's stomach tied itself into a knot. An interesting scent wafted from the blood that was easily hidden behind the iron of her blood. The odor was somewhat akin to the mist that had shrouded his old village; elements of dust speckled about in the ionized ozone of an oncoming rain that refused to break.
He lifted her head to reveal a long gash ran from her left temple to the middle of her forehead. He removed a bandage from within his cloak pouring water from his canteen on it before lightly dabbing away the sticky ichor from the girl's wound. Kisame ripped off a clean section of the bandage before wrapping it tightly around her forehead. He thought momentarily about replacing the gauze around her eyes, but it had almost no blood on it and he didn't want to use up all of his dressings. "Samehada may like the snack." Kisame joked, throwing the girl's arm around his neck to carry her bridal style. He didn't want throw her over his shoulder. Blood might rush to her head, forcing the wound to stay open longer than it needed to.
"We should find a way around. If they have the same chakra as her, they could be capable of the same destruction. It would be better not to engage them."
"If we backtrack into Fire, there's a path about 20 miles south that is hidden by a couple mountain valleys and ridges. It'll will take us south of the base, but we can walk the river north." Kisame suggested, trying to shifting the girl in his arms to a more comfortable position.
Itachi nodded, deciding this plan was their best course of action. "Since when do you treat other's wounds?" He asked, walking shoulder to shoulder with the shark.
"Couldn't let her bleed out if we're taking her to Leader." Kisame partially lied. The wound on her head would not have killed her, but he needed to dress it the moment he caught a whiff of her blood. The same sensation he had felt when Kisame sensed her chakra overcame him when he smelled the blood. It wasn't nearly as potent as her chakra, but Kisame could feel the desire to gorge himself on her slowly build. If he left the wound undressed, he knew his intoxication would grow until he would no longer be able to concentrate on the upcoming terrain of the River Country. One false step along the slippery, treacherous ridges would send both him and the girl plummeting to their deaths.
Itachi and Kisame turned their backs on the border with the Land of Rivers to retreat into Fire country and find their way around the people who waited for them. Itachi wasn't sure if this plan would work. But, he would much rather deal with the hidden path than engage in a battle with nine people who could potentially do as much damage as Deidara's bombs.
