AN:
To: Satanic Secretary- Thanks! And I'll try to avoid killing people when they read this out loud too :P. Really though, advice for my writing is greatly appreciated.
Thou shalt know pain when thou has to manually replace a single word fifty-three times.
Anyways, sorry for the wait. I rewrote some sections of my plot multiple times over, since they were sub-par and dragging the remainder of the plot with them.
What's going to happen happens for a reason. It's not random.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Chapter 4: Of Weaklings and Limbo
"Sochi-kun" She starts "Come here" she spread her arms as Kakashi lifted his own up parallel and I jumped onto her shoulder.
"Okaa-san, I- mission report" Kakashi straightened robotically "We wer-"
And with a 'poof' of smoke, 'her', probably fūin-aided henge dropped.
fuckofcourceIwouldoverlookit
Kakashi's kunai glinted in the moonlight as my jaw opened, revealing sharp, chakra strengthened teeth wet with webs of saliva-
Kakashi is part of the pack, protect the pack-
Then the air turned to syrup, and we watched as time, slowed, the air warped and lifted, a strong tug, like a fishing-hook reeling in the catch, through our back, joined to our navel-
Shunshin
We arrived in a dark clearing in a circle of trees, where he attached and tightened chakra strings to us as light blue, shimmering ropes.
I don't remember Kakashi being kidnapped-
He stood ramrod straight.
-no, wait, Sakumo saves Kakashi 'at least once'
Hopefully, Sakumo will arrive soon
What the hell- how much chakra control does he have? Unless you're from Suna, chakra strings are basically party tricks.
We were attached (Yes, attached) to the arms of a nondescript short, stockily-built Iwa-nin, with a sandy-brown chūnin flak jacket.
The only defining feature was his warty nose.
Oh, and the smell of…
Eew
Week-old dried blood.
The last time I smelt that was with Sakumo before he has a shower
Hmm
I should be trying to kill him at this point
The whole 'if you die, you live later' thing kinda degraded my morals, no thanks to my god-knows how many reincarnations.
My hair bristled as I arched my spine, inching closer to our kidnapper-
And then, as if I was within a dog-shaped cage, I stopped.
Looks like these chakra strings have a set amount of slack
"Why" Luckily, our unnamed captor (I'm calling him 'Warty') didn't seem to have a ninken, or a ninken summoning contract.
"What why?" I mean, as much as he is a genius, Kakashi just randomly saying 'why' doesn't mean much to the average dude.
"Why isn't he moving?"...
"'Why isn't he moving' indeed!"
'Cause 'kashi had to liven up. I mean, his dad's gonna saved him, so I can goof around with that safety-net.
Though he doesn't know that
As if Warty managed to listen to the voices I'd gone and projected into my head (More-or-less just talking to myself- with my mouth closed), he dashed off into the tree's, just as the majority of the Hatake clansmen (And clanswoman) burst into the clearing, trails of dust and pebbles following their sandaled feet as started trailing after him.
Well, that explains the movement
Apparently, based on how they were gaining, carrying a magnificent-year-old German Shepherd and a four-year-old with half his weight in his hair slows you down.
(Seriously, a plate fell on Kakashi's head once -long story- and it shattered before it even came close to his skull. I mean, his hair is practically a bone.)
Though, eventually, Kakashi's lack of aerodynamic-ness turned out to blame, as he managed to fix the distance between himself and the furious Hatake clansmen by moving Kakashi and his mile of hair.
Then the Inuzuka in the Hatake group popped their soldier pills, right before things got serious.
The thing about chakra strings is: if you touch them, you can sense the user like the best of the Uzumaki sensory squad (It's a thing).
Normal people, Kakashi included, probably wouldn't have had even the slightest clue what was going on, but as a summon, due to the way I get summoned, (that I'm not going into here), I did.
Yin chakra, rich with the mind and the light, and an unnatural smell of ozone and the crackle and hum of lightning flooded the fingers of his hand before he then pumped yang, full of life, vitality, and the fresh smell of earth into his palm-
"Ninpo:" His voice was a whisper on the wind "C1"- He opened his hand, and out of a Deidara-like mouth, came a dozen football-sized clay birds-
Heading towards the Clan Members-
And then the world turned white too white with the reverberating whisper of 'katsu' as ground erupted twenty feet into the air ,the tree's roots faced the sky and clumps of damp earth struck my nose with the smell of-
Blood
My eye's throbbed, but I could still feel them, resting under my thick eyelids.
I smell blood. Blood on my face.
Why is it so dark?
Cling
Clang
"Urgh-" Then I snapped awake as another explosion rocked the area where I stood seconds before, my four limbs slapping against dirt "KAKASHI".
My eye quickly surveyed the forest battle ground, skipping over the dead.
Yes, eye. I couldn't open my left, a thought that was just neatly compartmentalized till later.
I grimaced.
For every four dead clan shinobi, there is five Iwa shinobi. But they have reinforcements, and we don't.
The only living people were untold numbers of Iwa shinobi, three clansmen and two clanswoman, ninken and toddler included.
Hibana is sick, four capable shinobi. Kakashi and I should honestly be in nursery, two cap-
Blood splattered on a tree's trunk, spraying it with the heavy flow from a woman's jugular.
One capable shinobi.
Adrenaline or some other doggy substitute poured into me like a second source of blood, my hair standing on ends as I bared my teeth.
Thepackthepackprotectthepack
My efforts were rewarded with a familiar scent with a familiar yang-chakra-induced buzz, like a high-energy pylon and an equally familiar shout of "Satoru"
He sounded panicked.
"Satoru, your face".
Fuck
Perhaps it was time to panic.
Perhaps it was time to go and lament my crippling injury. Perhaps it was time for Kakashi to deal with me not being his backup anymore.
But there is no time to think, no time to speak, no time to breathe-
Then the air shifted, a burst of the yin and yang that I could sense popped up before it turned to chakra and camouflaged itself to my mind's eye.
My internal shout of seven O'clock was mirrored by Kakashi as I dived away and into a tree, head first.
Normally, that would be funny for everyone not called 'Satoru', however, in battle, that delays.
And delays kill.
Twenty feet of earth entered the air like a pebble in water, the earthen scent covering area
Then I heard the familiar tones of Hibana, her yin, yang and smell not tipping me off at all with her superior stealth:
Run, she said. Run far to the east, to Konoha's border with waterfall, and then head south to Konoha itself.
We tried to leave, but we were surrounded by twenty-or-so Iwa Shinobi before we could take a single step.
Warty lay dead on the floor with all but three of the Hatake clan members and several Iwa squads.
There were more casualties than that, I'm sure. But a single ninken nose and eye can only pick up so much.
Fuck I thought bitterly if Sakumo was here…
Wait
"Hibana-san, why aren't you coming with us?"
Her familiar warmth shifted to our back, Kakashi, her and myself making a triangular formation with the slowly approaching Iwagakure Shinobi.
They want us to hear them coming. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to-
A gruff voice sounded into the swirling air as stray leaves battered my face "We will give you one minute. You are young, crippled and sick. If you try to escape, the torture will only be worse".
Hibana stiffened, and with her words I realised that I'd never really angered the ex-kunoichi. Pissed her off, sure!
But angered? Truly, truly angered?
Despite the crackle of sick lungs and the pregnant pauses between words as she struggles to breathe, her voice was filled with a steel that I'd never heard before.
And will never hear again, never to the same extent.
It never raised, and never quietened. It wasn't a rage-filled shout, or a feeble whimper.
It was pure, unwavering, will.
You can beat me, she said.
Hurt me,
Burn me,
Torture me,
Kill me-
And she finished with the crack of a soldier pill between teeth and a bloody cough.
"But if you touch my sons, I will show you the wrath that only a mother can"
And as a shadow clone carried us off, as timbers cracked and crashed, as metal clanged one, two, twenty times and limbs tore, fell, as the ground was decorated with sickening splats and as Hibana, on death's doorstep fought with all the wrath of an angry god, we moved.
For four thousand beats of my heart, we dashed through the tree's Hibana's clone taking not one, or two, but five of the fifty soldier pills that Kakashi and I had with us, when combined.
The chakra backlash when it dispels will be fatal
Phah. Who am I kidding? The chakra backlash isn't going to be the thing that kills her.
Then, after what could've been a somewhere between half an hour and three to four hours, Hibana's clone stopped, putting Kakashi and me down and curling into a ball as she breathed deeply and desperately.
She refused our water, as 'she was only a clone dear'.
Kakashi sounded broken, his voice tinny and punctuated with uncharacteristic sobbing.
And with a 'poof', the clone disappeared, a kunai piercing through its head as tendrils of smoke curled and latched onto it, shooting outwards like the lifeblood from a man as a bullet pierces his head.
Well, I didn't want to be a martyr, but…
Perhaps I can do something for Kakashi, one last time.
A dozen strands of shinobi-grade ninja wire wrapped us individually.
Deep in my mind, neurons fired as yin formed and my heart pumped with a dududuudub as it released a pulse of yang chakra, trickling from it, the eighth gate to the first as yin and yang pried my restraints open.
And with screaming nerves and muscles on fire, I flexed.
Ninpo: Four-Legs-Technique.
But there is a reason why nin-taijutsu users train first.
My muscles snapped like an elastic band
Liquid fire filled my bones as I frothed at the mouth, my chakra reaching for them in desperation, pressing them to my tendon with a feeling like acid in a fresh wound.
And with an explosion of life energy, I burst out of my prison, switching with a log-
Jumping over a kunai slash-
Jaws on his head-
And as a human skull crunched under my teeth, the unnamed genin tore a kunai into my neck and tackled me to the ground, his dying, autonomous chakra blocking my escape.
Perhaps if I was Orochimaru, Kyuubi-enhanced Naruto, heck, even Kimimaro, things would've changed.
But for god's sake. I couldn't move.
I was no Hidan. I had no plot-armour.
I was a one-year-three-months-year-old puppy who had just, effectively, used a suicide jutsu.
And I was also a one-year-three-months-year-old puppy who could've fucking waited for Sakumo
So while looking into familiar onyx eyes, blurred with tears and half-covered in his annoying whit-silver hair, I died.
Faster than my eye could follow, a kunai buried itself to the hilt in Satoru's neck, severing his spine and making his blood erupt into the cold air.
He broke contact as he rolled over and he slumped unnaturally.
The world stopped.
As a shinobi landed on a tree behind me, the leaves rustling, I stared.
I should scream. I should cry. I should- do something.
I should feel something
Am I broken? Satoru i-was my best friend. I should feel the loss. The pain.
Where is it? Why am I so calm?
Callous, whispered my mind. He was just a tool to you whispered my Mind.
So I whispered back "He wasn't a tool. He was my comrade-"
You didn't really care for him. whispered my Mind After all-
Shinobi should never show their tears, rule 25.
Shinobi are tools with no emotion, rule 31.
But I'm not a shinobi yet.
So then you never cared about him to start off with.
I squeaked pitifully "But I did".
But you're weak. That killed him. You killed him.
My palms grew damp. I barely noticed the enemy shinobi's cooling corpse.
"I didn't kill him"
How didn't you kill him?
I ignored the voice, don't worry, Tou-san, Kakashi-kun was alright, Kakashi-kun was too alright.
Weaklings like you don't deserve to be 'alright' whispered my Mind
I grasped the cheap, throwaway kunai lodged into my friend's body as I stooped, my long hair brushing his glassy eyes.
He would've blinked and said 'Kakashi-
Nothing. He can't say anything. He's dead.
I still felt nothing.
I placed a small hand on the fur of his side, my left hand. I am right handed, and I don't want to risk damaging his corpse with a lack of dexterity.
My free hand grasped the blade by the handle
Glassy eyes stared into the grass at my feet.
Without a sound, just like it went in, the kunai exited Satoru's neck, scarlet liquid covering my left hand, as it was still on him-
Satoru moaned "'Kashi you little bastard. Get this mud offa me, I've got a body covered in fucking fur-"
Okaa-san crashed through the dojo wall like a demented bijū, wood chips flying everywhere.
"Right, who just-"
Oka-san clapped, bouncing on the spot "Alright, today we are going to be practising the 'Tsūga'-
-and the blood covered my tiny hand like a warm, red glove-
Yesterday was Aunty Miku's funeral.
Normally, I wouldn't say such things, but because Tou-san was on a mission, and Okaa-san was too sick and-
"Satoru, what happens when we die" I hurriedly added, "because we are shinobi?"
Satoru scoffed playfully "'because we are shinobi', eh?"
My ears burned.
In the bed beside me, Satoru rolled his warm, hot-water-bag-esque body towards me, his soft puppy coat tickling my sensitive skin.
"Imagine a warm, comfortable place. It's just like being underwater, just the water is more like a hot spring, and less like a cold yucky river. It's… warm. I don't know what else to call it. After that is squeezing, and birth. Shortened, of course. Weird stuff happens in there".
I hesitated and-
"How do you know this?"
Satoru stiffened, then pricked his ears (as if he could actually catch Tou-san or Okaa-san) for a few minutes.
He stayed silent long past when I'd given up, and as I was falling asleep, he replied:
"Alright, Kakashi, I'll tell you. But please, don't tell anyone. It'll be way too awkward. You see, Kakashi, I have something that only I have. A bit like a Kekkai Genkai, but it's even more personal. You see, when I die-"
I breathed, and the thick, putrid, horrible smell of blood entered my nostrils as I continued to stare at my hand.
At some point, Tou-san had picked me up, and we were hopping from tree to tree every few seconds, pausing after each jump and excessively cushioning our touchdowns. We were not even at genin-level speed-
My hand was cold.
The Hand, The One. The One that was glistening with blood.
I screamed, Tou-san diving after me as I jumped off his back-
The world blurred-
Getitoffgetitoffoffoffme-
Tou-san picked me up in midair, and gingerly put me down, saying something-
I plucked a leaf and rubbed my hand, but it didn't come off.
It's your fault, you know whispered my Mind just a little faster, just a little stronger…
You killed him whispered my Mind you killed Satoru by being so weak, weakling.
Yes, I thought I killed him.
I killed Satoru.
The pack will hate you whispered my Mind.
I killed my ninken partner.
The clan will hate you whispered my Mind.
I paused.
I killed my friend.
I hate me
I stumbled, not used to having human feet-
"Welcome to the Mountains Graveyard, in the Limbo Dimension, child."
Perhaps I do have a kind of plot armour...
Well…
'I hate me'.
I just went and depressed myself.
Sorry about the delay, the whole thing was written on my phone, and I needed a
computer to transfer the Google Docs to here.
Yup. I'm not lying, this is the first time I can access my pc the whole week.
*Sobs softly*
Anyways, self-pity aside, I ditched the majority of my pre-planned plot to really flesh out canon characters and ideas.
You'll know when you get to it...
Stay tuned, Jae Nae!
