Bonds of Family
Chapter 2
-Konohagakure Hokage Monument-
A light breeze blew over Konaha and carried with it leaves all throughout the village. The leaves had found their way to the Hokage monument where Sasuke sat atop and inhaled deeply. He was in deep thought as a blond haired male joined him. "How is it whenever something is bothering me you always seem to be able to find me here" Sasuke asked as he laid back and closed his eyes. "Because Sasuke, we are brothers. We are linked." Naruto sat next to him and looked over the village. "You know you really worry too much Sasuke, they are going to be fine. You have raised and train them well." Naruto looks over at Sasuke to see his words didn't faze him. "I know Naruto, but I can't shake this feeling. It feels almost nostalgic and ominous."
-Outskirts of Konohagakure-
Kaname quickly held up her fist as she landed on a branch, as soon as they saw her signal Kitara and Hakoushi stopped abruptly while Ichimaru landed on the same branch next to her. "What is it?" Kaname pointed to a smoke in the distance. She signaled for Kitara and Hakoushi to move up. "Kitara,use your sensory ability to scout ahead with Ichimaru. Find out how many ninja are ahead and report back. We are approaching Kusagakure and my guess is that the smoke is coming from across the Kannabi Bridge. If that's the case we are going to need to get rid of the scouts before we can proceed otherwise they will surely alert the others of our arrival."
Ichimaru and Kitara nodded and looked at each other. "Wouldn't it be better if I went with Kitara?" Hakoushi turned his head toward Kaname. "After all I could attack from long rang with more stealth using my insects. It could make it much easier." Kaname kneeled down and thought for a moment. "No, Hakoushi I want you to remain with me. If my brother and I were left here then an ambush from the enemy would be more successful. Our sensory isn't as high as yours or Kitara's so by the time we knew they were here it would be too late. Set up a wide perimeter with your insects."
Ichimaru looked up at Kitara and signaled that he was ready to leave. "One last thing, both of you should try to use as little chakra as possible if and when it does come to a fight." Kaname gave orders and led that group as if she had done so many times before. "Right!" Kitara jumped into the distance with Ichimaru following behind her. "Good luck…" Kaname muttered underneath her breath before turning towards Hakoushi. "We don't know how long they will be gone so keep the perimeter secured at all times." Hakoushi begin weaving hand signs "Insect Dispersal Jutsu." Bugs begin to fly out of his sleeve and gradually cover the area.
"We are getting close to the smoke Ichimaru. Perhaps from here on it would be best to walk. We could convserve our energy and I can begin to get a read on the enemy." Kitara stopped and landed on the ground as Ichimaru followed closely behind her. Ichimaru looked at the kunoichi inquisitively "Can you tell how many there are from here?" She nodded slightly as they reached the Kannabe bridge. "There are 12. Once we get closer I will be able to assess their level of chakra. Based on that I could tell you if they are high level shinobi or not." Ichimaru looked at her surprised. She was even better than the sensor in their last group. Kitara and Ichimaru crossed the bridge and began to lower mask their chakra as the sun began to set.
Kitara and Ichimaru reached the group as nightfall was blanketing the night. "Only two of the shinobi ahead seem to have high chakra reserves. They must be at at least anbu levels, the other ten seem to all be at jounin levels." Ichimaru nodded, and drew a kunai. "Heh no problem we will be able to handle this with ease." Kitara looked and quickly placed her hand on his kunai. "Are you stupid? We should wait until most of them have fallen asleep to take them by surprise." Ichimaru placed the kunai back in his pouch and relaxed. "Sorry I am just alittle impatient." Kitara took this moment to question the shinobi. "Is that what happened in the last S Rank mission you were on?" Suddenly Ichimaru's eyes glowed crimson red under the moonlight and he glared at Kitara. "Focus on the mission Kitara." The words pierced the kunoichi's ears like a poison tipped dagger. "Right. Sorry" was all she could mutter as she stood.
As a few hours went by most of the shinobi had fallen asleep aside the two higher level shinobi and two jounin level. It would seem as if they were the sentry unit. "Ichimaru, about earlier… I didn't mean anything by it." Ichimaru sighed lightly before responding "It's fine Kitara. It's not that big of a deal, but you were right. It was my fault." Kitara listened intrigued at his statement. "What do you mean?" Ichimaru twirled his kunai and stabbed it into the tree.
"Back during the mission to Otogakure I had convinced Kaname that we didn't need the rest of our squad in order to complete the mission. That was my first mistake." He looked off toward the enemy camp. "The mission went smoothly and we were able to easily assassinate the leader of an opposing organization but I was cocky and thought that we could take the entire camp. This was my second mistake. Although we were able to eradicate the enemy Kaname suffered serious injuries and there were unknown hostages that were killed."
"Wait!?" Kitara looked at him in shock. "You and Kaname were the ones who took down the Moshiro organization?" Ichimaru nodded. "I had heard about it but it was never revealed who was responsible. This whole time people are thinking it was a group of ninja, come to find out it was just you two." Ichimaru smiles and takes it as a compliment and show of his abilities. "Thanks I think." Kitara turns towards the direction of the camp and her demeanor returns to a serious one. "Alright Ichimaru this is it only three of them are awake now. We should be able to sneak in and assassinate them easily. Are you ready?" Ichimaru's smile fades and his sharingan activates. "Yea lets go."
-Camp Near the Kannbe Bridge-
"Hakoushi hand me that kunai and alittle bit of wire so I can finish that last of these traps" Kaname states while she sticks on kunai into the ground. "Of course." Hakoushi quickly gave her the wire and kunai. "Kaname don't you think there are more than enough traps set already? What if Ichimaru and Kitara accidently set one off wouldn't the results be fatal." Kaname quickly finishes setting her trap and stands up. She points to the tree that was engraved with a marking that looked odd to Hakoushi. "That marking is one that Ichimaru and I used several times during our training. He will be able to spot it and avoid the traps with ease."
"I see. You two seem as though you are linked." Hakoushi stands and looks at Kaname as she leans against a tree. "Yea I guess so. It has been like this since we were children." Hakoushi looks at her in surprise. "But you are only ten years old." Kaname chuckles a bit at his response. "Yea, but most people don't look at us as children because of what they have heard about us. Ever since we awoke our sharingan we have been treated as adults. I suppose to our father it was a rite of passage into adult hood." Kaname began to walk back to the main camp site with Hakoushi trailing behind her.
"Yea the Aburame also undergo a sort of change for our rite of passage." Kaname listens intrigued as she had not known much about the Aburame clan aside from the fact that they like to keep to themselves most of the time. "Our rite of passage would be the when we become a host for a specific type of insect. Depending on the insect depends on what type of ninja you will become. I was fortunate to be able to possess the same venomous insects as my father and his father before him." Hakoushi stated as he removed his glove to show his purple hand. It was coated in the venomous insects.
"It would seem that the quiet ones are the deadliest." Kaname stated with a sly smirk toward Hakoushi. He returns it with a smile which quickly disappears and his face becomes worried. "Hakoushi, what is it?" He took a moment to answer before turning around and looking east of their direction. "It would seem we have some visitors, three male shinobi are headed this way. They weren't wearing headbands so I can't tell what type of jutsu they can use. They are approaching quickly though." Kaname activates her sharingan as she wondered how they found them so fast. She relaxed and kneeled down as she began to analyze the situation. After a bit of thinking she had played several scenarios in her mind and finally came to a conclusion.
"Torune disperse chakra jamming insects in dense around this location. It is possible that they don't know we are even here. I have a feeling they are merely a patrol group. Otherwise they would have approached with more caution. If they are moving so recklessly then it is only a matter of time before they run into one of our traps. For now there is no reason to worry." She spoke calmly as she de-activated the sharingan. As she was talking Hakoushi was already making the necessary preparations. "Bettle Jamming Jutsu" suddenly the immediate area was covered with insect. As they formed around the area it seemed as if there was merely a boulder in a clearing of tree. Nothing out of the ordinary.
"They will be in the area soon. Kaname, you realize if you have miscalculated and even one of them is a sensory type that has previously detected our location than we are sitting ducks and open to attack." Hakoushi spoke with slight caution toward the young kunoichi's plan and eagerly awaited her response. Kaname's eyes were closed and she merely began counting, Hakoushi could barely make out the numbers until it became very clear. "… five, four, three, two, one." Soon after she had reached one silence had filled the air. "Did you hear it Hakoushi?" Kaname looked at him and smiled devilishly.
Hakoushi looked at her puzzled. "I didn't hear anything…" Kaname stood up "Exactly" with that response she walked through the pseudo boulder of insects. Once outside she motioned for Hakoushi to come outside. He immediately noticed the bodies dangling about the campsite. They were mangled and the bodies were distorted and it was hard to make out which parts went where. "Holy shit. I didn't think you were making such a complex trap. I didn't even know you knew how." Kaname leapt up and cut them down. "It was a trap meant for at least nine people. I was going to save it in case we ambushed.
Hakoushi released his jamming technique. "Kaname. If three members of the patrol don't return wont that raise some suspicion as to where they went." Kaname nodded in agreement with him. "Let's hope that Ichimaru and Kitara have taken care of things on their end." Kaname looks off into the distance to where the enemy encampment was.
Ichimaru tackled a long haired shinobi to the ground before turning him over revealing a Iwagakure headband with a long cut on it. "Kitara hows it going?" Ichimaru called outtowards the kunoichi who was healing her leg. "I'll be fine the fucker blindsided me when I was covering you." She got up and walked over to the shinobi and landed a solid kick on his jaw. "Ichimaru hurry up with the interrogations we need to get back to Kaname and Hakoushi before the sunrises or else they might think we have died." Kitara looks around out of the breath. "That was more exhausting than I thought." Kitara looked at Ichimaru who hadn't even broken a sweat. Ichimaru lifted the man and tied him to a nearby tree.
"Now this is my favorite part. I'm going to give you a choice. You can either tell us what we need to know and then you will be released or you can refuse and you will be killed" Ichimaru stated to the last remaining shinobi. "Fuck you kid and that kunoichi bitch! You have got to be the dumbest little shit I have ever met! I, Ryu Gekido will die before you get anything out of me!" Ichimaru's signature grin appeared on his face. "I was hoping you would say that." Kitara watches the exchange, she had a weak stomach for torture but after hearing Ryu's outburst she was willing to make an exception.
Ichimaru began to peer into the Ryu's eyes with his sharingan but he was smart enough to close his eyes. "You think I'm going to get caught in the genjutsu of your sharingan you have another thing coming!" Ryu stated and a smirk appeared on his face. This was quickly removed with Kitara's punch that she delivered to the side of his head. "Now what are we going to do Ichimaru, if he doesn't open his eyes we can't put him under the genjutsu and extract the intel we need." Ichimaru stood up created about a yard of distance between himself and Ryu. He raised his arms and made a hand sign that Kitara didn't recognize. "Oh so you are going to go with that technique." Kitara stated as she realize that the hand sign was specific to only those of Yamanaka blood line.
"Ninja Art: Mind Transfer Jutsu" In an instant Ichimaru's body had become limp however Kitara was quick to catch him as he fell. After only three minutes Ichimaru returned to his. "Well, how did it go?" Ichimaru stood and sighed. "Well I was able to get the information about where the main base is. If my jutsu was a strong as my sisters I would have be able to dig a lot deeper and discover more. Oh well this will do." Ichimaru makes another unfamiliar hand sign in front of Ryu's face. "Ninja Art: Mind Destruction Jutsu."
Kitara looked but her hands together in the hand sign of the ram in order to focus her chakra. She began to sense the camp and the surrounding area. "It doesn't appear that there are any other encampments in the area. There is also nothing of importance at the camp except for extra ninja tools but those will only slow us down." Ichimaru nodded in agreement and the two of them took off heading back towards Kaname and Hakoushi. Light could be seen breaking the horizon as they reached the Kannabe Bridge.
Hakoushi raised up from laying on his back in unison with Kaname. "They are back, right on time." He stated as he began to stand and stretch. As Kaname and Hakoushi finished getting their supplies in order Ichimaru and Kitara landed in front of them. "Report." Kaname barked as soon as their feet touched the ground. Kitara was first to speak and she did so as she had done many times before. "Intel gathered. Enemy has been eliminated. No hostages. One major injury sustained." Ichimaru stood next to her silent. "Good work, I take it Ichimaru was the one to collect the intel." They both nodded and Ichimaru approached Kaname and she placed a hand on his head. In an instant the intel had been received. "Alright let's get going." Kitara and Hakoushi stood in confusion.
"How do you know where to go if he hasn't given you any information?" Ichimaru and Kaname turned around and smiled at Kitara as she asked the question. "It is a unique trait that we share. Whenever we focus we are able to know what is on the other ones mind. It is derived from our Yamanaka blood. We are unable to do it without making contact though." Hakoushi listened as the Kaname explained her traits but she was quickly interrupted by Ichimaru. "As much as I would love to go over every detail of our abilities it would probably be best if we got moving the sun has already risen and we have quite some ways to go."
The team stopped as they reach the Kannabe bridge alright then. Kaname turned to the other three shinobi. "From here on out we will be entering enemy territory. Our destination is just outside the Land of Earth territories. Consider everyone we run into to be a threat and we will execute with extreme prejudice. Alright lets move." Her words were planted into each of there heads. "Yes sir." The three of them stated in unison before they were off again toward the base of the rebel organization.