Chapter 4

The days passed without more surprises, they were calmly on their way to a konoha fortress, they hadn't met an enemy yet. The three kids had became close friends during the trip, and had learned to love their sensei despite of his endless and unpredictable madness.

- Which one is your strongest jutsu? – Kaede asked Minato while they were jumping from tree to tree at high speed.

- mmm.. I'm not sure, depending on the opponent it's the effect I get.

- he's really rapid, but his top speed only works with those with low reflexes. – explained Mikoto – for example, it wouldn't work against our sharingan.

- well, my most powerful.. most useful, actually, jutsu it's my sharingan – admitted Kaede – but I prefer taijutsu.

- Sharingan user and she doesn't know ocular techniques.. – whispered Mikoto

- That depends on each one – Minato said – with a good taijutsu you don't need illusion techniques. Besides with the sharingan she can see the opponents moves before hand, so it's really helpful.

- And you can't use genjutsu against me, I note it immediately – Kaede added smiling – not for nothing the uchiha clan it's konoha's most powerful one.

- hmpf, I can surely easily defeat you – Minato said – that you can see what I'm gonna do doesn't means that you'll be able to stop me.

Kaede opened her mouth to argue but stopped herself when she saw Jiraiya suddenly stopped running and made them quiet with a gesture.

- Someone's coming. – their master whispered

He hadn't even ended up saying it when Kaede felt someone grabbing her leg and pushing her down. Her scream broke the silence of the sunset.

- Kaede!

A huge man with dark skin and black little eyes was grabbing the girl by her right leg living her hanging upside down. The leg was doubling in an abnormal angle.

Kaede moved to and fro and with a rapid movement and gave him an accurate blow in the crotch, making him release her.

Without wasting any time Jiraiya jumped out of the tree and started a bloody fight with the man. Even though he was huge he moved at high speed.

- RUN! – shouted the teacher

In a normal situation neither of them would have listen to him, but when they saw the desperation reflected on their master's face, trying to protect them, they decided to obey. Jiraiya was using taijutsu to avoid harming his students, once they were away the real battle would start.

Minato loaded Kaede in arms, who was whining of impotence while looking at her broken leg. They began to run without specific direction, they ended up at the edge of a cliff.

- and now what?

Kaede, who was sitting on the ground, pushed Minato away to prevent him from receiving a blow from a man as huge as the other one, that had appeared unexpectedly from behind. The girl took the hit and this time was grabbed from the neck.

- What are you gonna do now, ah? – asked the man, he had a low could voice. – you are gonna run again leaving your friend die?

- release her! – Minato screamed running at top speed towards the man holding a couple of kunais.

- If that's whatcha want..

The man very calmly and seemingly enjoying the moment of desperation of the kids threw the already unconscious Kaede down the precipice.

And in front of Mikoto's horrified look Minato jumped behind his friend without thinking twice, running on the cliff wall accumulating chakra on his feet.

- MINATO KUN!

Mikoto's scream sounded in the silence forest. The huge man, without stopping his laugh, jumped in the edge of the precipice, making part of it fall over where a few seconds before Kaede and Minato had fallen.

- I don't think they'll live after that…

Mikoto, desperate, started to run. The tears were jumping out of her eyes without stop. Suddenly she hit a girl and fell on the ground.

- y.. you are the enemy! - Mikoto stammered, putting herself in a staggering position of assault.

- No! – the girl she had hi with denied driven to despair – I swear, I'm from the Whirlpool country, we have nothing to do with this!! Our village just stands in the middle of the war, please!

Mikoto, now more calmed, noted that the girl was also crying. They were almost the same age, she had red hair short above the shoulders, wearing orange clothes. On her forehead she had a bandage with the whirlpool symbol on it. She couldn't stop shaking.

On that moment the man that Mikoto was running away from appeared jumping over them while another one, thin and tall, appeared from behind the read haired. The girls screamed driven to despair covering their heads with they arms, but when Mikoto's fits closed they felt a warm red liquid falling over them.

- … blood? – whispered the girl

Mikoto looked everywhere, there was no sing of the men, just blood everywhere. It was like if they had exploded.

- What happened?

- I have no idea… - said Mikoto looking at her hands – but I think it was me.

- I have an idea!! – said the read haired almost jumping of joy – I'll tell you how to get out of the forest, right? If the two of us go together we'll make it alive!

- you know how to get out of the forest?

- of course! I've already told you, I'm from the whirlpool country, these are my woods. My name is Uzumaki Kushina, placer to meet you.

The girl extended her hand. Mikoto thought a moment and then she pressed it.

- Fine, but first you are gonna help me to find my friends. I'm Uchiha Mikoto, and I'm not leaving until I know if they're alive or death.

The started walking towards the place where Mikoto thought the others had fallen, while she was explaining Kushina what was happening.

- They also attacked my village.. – explained Kushina – I was sleeping when I heard screams and my father told me to escape. I was with my brother but we got separated when we entered the forest. That gut you exploited had been chasing me for a while.

They hear a loud noise darkened with the distance.

- … the cliff collapsed – whispered Kushina

Mikoto saw on the floor a trace left by something, or someone, very big, most likely the man that had thrown Kaede off the cliff. They started to follow the track left by the man, hoping to find the rest of the team.

Finally they arrived where the short but crucial battle had occurred. Mikoto got near the edge of the cliff carefully, Kushina couldn't stop talking.

- I don't think no one could have survived that fall… - whispered the read haired – we better go before more of them come… we are not far from my village, and it's under enemy attack so I wouldn't be surprised if..

- I'm going down.

- What?!

- If you don't wanna come stay here, go to your village, get out of the woods, or wharever. I don't care. I'm going down.

- that's.. insane… going down there..

Mikoto turned around and looked Kushina in the eyes holding her tears. With tighten teeth of anger and impotence she said:

- no matter how little it is, there is still a chance to my team to be alive, I'm not leaving this forest until I've seen it with my own eyes! If.. they were alive and I wouldn't have done anything to help them I could never forgive myself… I don't wanna loose the only ones that had once truly loved me.

- and.. eh.. how are we going down? – asked Kushina while Mikoto was washing away her tears.

The girl pull out a thread tightened one end to a tree and the other one on her waist.

- let's go – she said grabbing Kushina and letting them selfless fall off the cliff accompanied by the read haired screams.

Suddenly the fall stopped, they hadn't even reach the middle of the wall.

- We are out of thread… - whispered Mikoto

- eh… I don't wanna be pessimist but… now things are getting complicated, going down by jumping It's suicide and with all those rocks down there… it's just.. if we go up and get a few threads together maybe..

Mikoto wasn't listening, she just pasted her feet on the wall and untied the thread.

- W… What are you doing?! – asked Kushina with fear – we're gonna fall!

- Can't you focus your chakra?

- i.. i.. It's not that I wanna bored you by talking or something, it's just that when I'm nervous I can't stop talking… and It's not that I want you to release me and fall, I can see you can hold on very well with your chakra… and I'm a ninja, It's true! I know I should know how, but It's just that my first mission was gonna be tomorrow at dawn and my sensei was supposed to teach me..

- stop complaining – Mikoto raised the girl on her back and started to walk down – this is my first mission too.

Minato was running at top speed on the wall of the cliff, seeing Kaede fall every second faster in front of him. He run even faster and reached his unconscious friend. He jumped towards her and grab her in some sort of hug. Driven to despair in the middle of the swift fall he tried to hold on to the wall with chakra on his hands and feet, but the traction wasn't enough, the fall's speed kept him off. Above him he could see huge rocks falling product of the disintegration of part of the cliff. He did a few turns hitting the wall heavily on his will to hold on. Finally he resigned himself and grab Kaede in a way that he would be the first one reaching the floor. With a strong hit the fall stopped.

Then, everything was darkness.