Disclaimer: dont own the Naruto series or any of the character that belong to it. I only own my OC's.
Chapter Six:
Fear was consuming Inare again and, as much as it annoyed her that she was being overrun by the emotion, she couldn't do anything about it. Her body was frozen, brown eyes locked onto the shinobi ahead. Again, Inare was completely aware of her lack of skill in combat. I am going to die today, was the only thought running through her head, as unpleasant as it was, she couldn't help but think that it was true. The man ahead of her continued to step towards her, but her body was frozen to the spot and didn't react. All she could do was stand there as she silently watched as the man advanced upon her.
A small part of her mind was telling her that he was showing no signs of wanting to harm her, though she didn't have the heart to fool herself into believing that. After all she had been though today with shinobi, she knew that they where unpredictable and cold. This man would probably have no qualms with killing her. When the shinobi was no more than one step in front of her, was Inare suddenly all to conscious of the closing distance between them.
The shinobi though, didn't make another step towards her, he just stood there, neither of them saying a word, not that pleasantries where to be expected, as an unnerving silence settled around them. Inare knew that she had to move, or else she would be collateral damage for whatever this shinobi really wanted. Move Inare! Move! She repeated in her head over and over again, all in attempt to get away from this dangerous man. The mysterious shinobi was the one to eventually break the silence.
"Medic, you are coming with me" he said monotonously. His words seemed to leave no room for argument, his face showed no change in expression when he made his statement, or order, Inare was too confused to note the difference.
What? Inare though bitterly, he is going to order me around? She continued with her internal rant. Shaking her head and breaking her frozen state, Inare gave the man a hard stare. "No" her voice mimicking the man's monotonous one, though with hint of mock in it. Quickly turning on the heels of her feet, Inare dashed back the way she had just come. In an attempt to get the man to lose sight of her, Inare jumped back into the tree branches and started to leap
Five full minutes passed with Inare traveling as fast as she could with chakra enhanced feet, and even with the adrenaline rush she still didn't seem to go fast enough. While in mid air, Inare turned her head back to take a quick look over her shoulder, she\ could see that her pursuer was effortlessly gaining on her. Dammit, it's like he's taunting me! With that thought, tears of frustrations started leak from her eyes. To clear her thoughts Inare briefly shook her head. Shaking her head though was a big mistake. The lack of focus for that second caused Inare to lose her footing on the branch she had leapt to and Inare started to fall backwards onto the forest flood. Acting quickly, Inare grabbed onto the branch she failed to land on, and pulled herself up. Panicking that she had given the shinobi the opportunity to reach her, Inare shot off to the next tree branch with more speed that she thought she was ever capable of. This time around she didn't even dare to look behind her, the though just scared her too much.
Looking forward and focusing entirely on what was head of her, not wanting to risk another fall, Inare suddenly realised that she was likely heading back to the camp of the shinobi she had just left from. With her current predicament though, Inare was willing to risk the lesser of the two evils. Pushing aside all unwelcome thoughts about what the Uchiha shinobi could do to her if she showed up with her pursuer. Inare made one last though on the topic before she turned her attention on keeping a safe distance between her and the shinobi behind her. I just hope that they don't think I'm attacking them or something like that.
Inare was now starting to run out of breath and energy to keep on going, her legs where screaming at her to stop, but the adrenaline was still rushing through her veins and her mind was telling her not to stop. She knew what would happen if he caught up with her, and she didn't want to risk that. A scream escaped Inares mouth when she felt a pair of arms grab at her shoulders, but was quickly covered by a rough hand over her mouth. The momentum that was carrying her forwards caused her to gasp into the man's hand once she was roughly pulled backwards. She was finally caught.
It was inevitable, this was clearly a trained shinobi, Inare had no delusions that she could have outran him, but that part of her that demanded she survive caused her to run and test her luck. Despite knowing this, tears of fear and frustration now started to steam down her cheeks while her chest was raising and falling rapidly as she tried to gain her breath from the long run. The hand over her mouth didn't help her at all in gaining her breath, it only cause her breath quicker out of panic.
The grip on her right shoulder tightened as Inare started to move out of his grip, the hand on her mouth pulled her backwards. A sudden sensation of déjà vu washed over Inare as she thought back to the bar with the Uchiha shinobi and the one she attacked, and ironically healed. The small part of Inares mind that was screaming for freedom pushed her to try that strategy again. Quickly gaining chakra into her right hand, she started to wildly thrash it in the area this man's leg should have been. Before she could make her first attack, the hand on her shoulder was lifter, but only came back to grab her by the wrist and pull it behind her back. The strain this new position put on Inare caused her to whimper with pain, though it was muffled by the shinobis hand covering her mouth.
"Don't even bother girl. I know what you medics are capable of" the man's monotonous voice spoke into her left ear. From the closeness, Inare could feel his hot breath on her neck, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Her plan had failed, last time she clearly had the advantage of surprise, the Uchiha shinobi didn't know she could use chakra, while this man surprisingly did, so didn't treat her as an enemy. If anything the Uchiha's were just playing around with her, while this man was serious. This realisation cause more tears, Inare was almost on the verge of sobbing uncontrollably.
Not knowing where the thought came from, Inare lifter her right leg and kicked upwards as she pushed her body forwards. Shockingly, Inare hit her mark on the shinobi, causing him to lose the grip he had on her to cripple over and grab at himself in the crotch where she had kicked him. Inare didn't look back as she blindly leaped forwards onto the next branch ahead. Relief that she had got out of his grasp almost made Inare smile, but the hard reality of her situation made her stay serious. All sense of direction was lost to her as she continued to leap from branch to branch, but that was the last of her worries as she tried to get away to prevent another situation like before.
As soon as Inare felt she had gotten far enough from her pursuer, she jumped down from the branch to continue her run on ground level. Not before long, she came across a river. While she really wanted to stop for some water and a quick rest, Inare knew she couldn't risk it. Running parallel to the river, and going down stream, Inare ran, pushing her body to its physical limits. Wanting to confuse the shinobi, Inare took and immediate turn back into the forest. She still had no idea as to she was going, and she hand even thought about using instincts or logic to navigate herself. For now all she could do was hope she didn't run into her pursuer again.
The continuous and rapid movement of her legs was suddenly halted when Inare tripped over, falling head first into the ground. Using her reflexes, Inare was able to roll over and land on her back, saving herself from any mild injury that could slow her down, such a sprained ankle. As she lay there catching her breath with her eyes closed, Inare knew that she had to get up and keep going, but the pain in her lower body refused to let her move. Opening her eyes, Inare noticed that it was easier to see here. Lifting her head she saw why, not too far ahead of he was an orange glowing light.
Seeing that it was obviously a fire, made Inare push herself up off the ground. Despite her lungs and legs being in pain, Inare pushed herself to walk towards the fire. She internally hoped that it was the Uchiha clan shinobi, but then again she was almost ready to just give up and let her pursuer catch her. Stumbling into the light, Inare found herself in a deserted campsite with the fire was still burning. There wasn't anyone there, and not even a single sign to indicate people having been there to begin with.
Someone must have been here! People don't just go around lighting fires in the middle of the forest! Inare thought angrily, unless they want to lure someone in. The last though made her tense up. Was that the reason? She pushed that thought aside, refusing to believe that she had fallen for a trap. It must have been the Uchihas, Inare tried to reassure herself, the camp did look the same as the Uchihas camp, after all. Unless they were working with the man who was just chasing me. That voice again, Inare was really beginning to dislike the pessimistic thoughts that where coming from that voice in her head. Inare summed it up to stress.
Leaning downwards and supporting herself with her hands on her legs she continued to struggle to regain her breath. There was little sound except for the occasional cracks from the fire and Inares raspy breaths, a few minutes must have continued on like that before Inare began to worry about her safety. Standing back to her full height, she took another look around the abandoned campsite. Seeing that she wasn't going to find anything, Inare took a few unstable steps to leave the area. Just as she was about to reach the edge of the orange and yellow glow coming from the fire, she stopped and tensed.
The feeling of being watched came over her, along with a lot of paranoia. Quickly tensing, she slowly turned around, Inares eyes wildly looked over the campsite again in search of any clue as to why this feeling came over her. Again, she saw nothing of suspicion.Releasing the breath she didn't know she had been holding she whispered to herself quietly, "I'm just scaring myself". Not wanting to do so again, she cautiously turned around to continue in the direction she had stated to go in. Out of the corner of her eyes, Inare spotted something sparkling next to the light of the fire. Turning around to face the fire, Inare walked towards it and crouched down to investigate she shiny object.
Upon close inspections, Inare saw what appeared small and thin crescent objects that where shiny. There seemed to be a few of them in the same area, as she reached down to pick one up, she attention was drawn to a lump lightly covered in dirt close to her. Picking that up along with the other unknown object Inare realised that she was holding the stomach and intestines of a fish, and the other piece of flesh handing from her finders she could only assume was the liver. The anatomy of a fish was one that Inare knew perfectly, it was part of her training she had done with Kirno, that and the fact it did smell sort of 'fishy'. Looking at the object in her other hand, Inare guessed that they where the scales that once belonged to the fish that had most likely already been eaten.
The thought of someone eating fish made Inare instantly realised that she hadn't really eaten the whole day, unless poisonous berries counted. Putting the scale and fish indised back where she found them and wiping her hands on her skirt, Inare started to stand. She was stopped by a loud rumble coming from her stomach. Looking down she moved her hands to the area and rubbed her belly in a form of reassurance to it. This only resulted in another growl from her stomach, though louder than last time. Inare continued to rub at her stomach and she whined out "Shhhh, not now! Don't do this to me now". Looking down to her clothed stomach, Inare patted it in reassurance.
Deciding that whoever was here before was long gone, along with their dinner, another growl from her stomach. Inare stood back up and looked at the fire, not able to understand that why they left it burning. Surely they should have extinguished it and buried the evidence, that way someone would be less likely to pick up on their trail. Her thoughts where quite logical for a change, but it only brought a surge of paranoia, It must be a trap, she quickly thought to herself, there could be no other explanation. A trap that I fell into. What happened next confirmed her assumptions.
"Lighting a fire was foolish" the unexpected voice broke Inare out of her thoughts suddenly, spinning around to the source of the emotionless voice, Inare was face once again with the brown haired shinobi. "Did you really think anyone would have some to rescue you" he said as her took a step towards her.
Inare would have laughed hysterically at the man ridiculous statement, if she wasn't so filled with fear. Of course I take the time to light a fire while being chased by deadly men! Who doesn't? With the aid of the fire, Inare could see that he had blazing green eyes. His face also had a deep scar that ran down the left side of his lips. Inares heart was racing again, and despite already having caught her breath from the chase, her breathing became ragged once more. Brown eyes where wide at all the new realisations that came to her, she was going to be caught again, and her captor looked furious. "I know that you are alone, no one is going to come for you" he continued, most of his words went even being processed by Inare, "I'm tired of chasing you, so just give up now."
Still walking towards her, Inare took a shaky step backwards. Why me? She whined to herself in her mind, she also fed up with being chased, she had no care at all if he was tire of chasing her, her life want suppose to be like this. It had been boring, ion comparison, up until now, and she would have been happy if it had stayed that way. Fire burned in her heart at the thought of her life ending by this man, he had no right to end it, he was no better than her and she was certainly not below him. Passion for survival overtook any fears she had in her, thoughts on all the actions she could take at that moment began to gather in her hair. Thinking from all her training up until now, to the equipment she had on her.
With an idea half formed in her mind, Inare made her move. Reaching into one of her pouched at the waist, she pulled out one of the glass vials. I can believe I forgot I had these! Holding a breath, Inare threw the vial to the ground, the fragile glass breaking instantly upon impact. The small amount of gas and liquid in the vial reacted quickly with the air to form an invisible gas and the only evidence of this was the slight hissing sound that could only be heard by Inare.
Inare stayed exactly where she was inside the area she knew the gas would be, she had no worried about being caught in the gas, she was already immune to it effects. If the shinobi really wanted to get her, he would have to risk being harms by the poison. It wasn't fatal, but it would make him quite sick and render him unconscious, and that was all she needed. With him unconscious she could get away, and back to Kirno, where she would then demand she be taught how to fight.
"That was pointless" the man simply stated as he began to walk towards her again. Snapping her eyed towards the man, she was sure that he had just insulted her.
"No it wasn't, and you would be foolish to come any closer" she snapped out at the shinobi, while emphasising the word 'foolish' in order to mimic the shinobi. Green eyed hardened at what Inare said, but he didn't head to her words, he continued to walk to her. Inare was starting to doubt the effect of her gas, she knew that he was a little too far to be effected by the poison, but the thought of him getting any closer made her all the more nervous.
As soon as he was close enough, the brown haired shinobi began to stumble slightly, and with taking one more step, he completely fell to the ground on his knees. Snapping to look at her he growled out at her demanding she tell him what he had done to him.
"It was a gas" she explained as if it was the most obvious think in the world, "Of course it was going to have some effect on you" she continued.
"But you weren't effected and I didn't see any gas" he said, most like to himself rather than Inare.
"What? Why would I make the gas visible? It completely defeats the purpose of it being an attack and it would be stupid for me not to make myself immune to the effects of my creation" she said to the shinobi. I thought that shinobi where suppose to be smart!
A grunt came as her repose from the shinobi, it almost sounded like a laugh. "So what is the gas going to do to me?" he asked her.
"I'm not entirely sure" she stated absentmindedly, Inare was curious to see the effect of the poison against a human. "I have only ever tested it on rodents, so it could have a different effect on people. Though it will probably knock you unconscious and might make you sick, but, as I said, I don't know completely"
With another grunt, the shinobi fell to his side, finally giving into the effects of the gas, "Don't think that you are safe, I have two other teamates out there" he mumbled out as he lost consciousness.
"What!" Inare shouted, quickly covering her mouth with her hands at how loud she was. Dammit! She screamed in her mind. Two other shinobi, now she was furious, just when she thought that she had got away and was home free, the unconscious man had to tell her that there were others like him looking for her. Why me? She repeated to herself for seemed like the hundredth time. Stomping her feet on the ground where she was, Inare kicked some soil onto the fire, almost extinguishing it.
Looking back at the man, Inare was conscious of the fact that she could have done some serious harm to his body. Walking over to him, she crouched down to where he lay. Placing a hand on the back of his head, she pushed some of her chakra into his system to feel for any damages done to his body. There wasn't anything too serious done to him, he was in a deep sleep and his immune system had slowed down a little, none of that would put him into any life threatening situations, especially with it being summer, the shinobi was at no risk of getting sick.
With her conscious clean, Inare stood back up. Not wanting to hang around and wait for the next shinobi to show up, Inare ran out of the camp and into the forest in a random direction. Mulling over in her mind why these shinobi where after her, Inare began to worry about Kirno. Hoping that they hadn't hurt her teacher in order to find out more information about Inare, she continued to think over everything. They knew that she was a medic nin and they wanted her. Inare was confused as to why they would want anything to do with her. I have never had anything to do with shinobi until today, and I'm not the best medic nin, and I'm sure there are plenty of others who are better. So why me! The Uchiha shinobi wanted nothing to do with her, two of them had even seen her use her skills, and they just let her go. So why did the new group want to get her. Unable to come to any form of conclusion, Inare decided to think about it later, if she was alive to do so.
Inare still had no idea as to where she was going, and figured that it would be pointless for her to continue going as she was. Slowing down to a half, Inare pushed some more chakra into her feet and started to run up the tree, once at the top she balanced herself perfectly on the tree top. Looking around her she could see the moon lit up the top of the entire forest, before Inare would have stopped to appreciate the stunning view, though she was now too preoccupied with trying to find Narithen.
The expanse of the forest seemed to go on for miles, and Inare struggled to find any source of light that could indicate the town. After some time of squinting in the dark, Inare finally saw something that might have been the town, a slight streak of yellow light. She knew that she was taking a huge chance, but she was willing to risk it at the moment. Facing the direction of the light, Inare walked down the tree facing the forest floor. Kicking off from the tree, she effortlessly landed on a branch and started jumping to the next one.
She travelled in silence for some time. She didn't want to give herself any false hope, but having not seen any of the shinobi for some time did give her some confidence. After some time, Inare saw some light in the distance, she knew that it wasn't the light she had saw from the top of the tree, she hadn't gone far enough for her to have arrived there yet. Jumping down to the ground and going a little closer for a better look, she saw that it was the campsite from before. "You have got to be kidding me!"She exclaimed as she stared on at the camp with her mouth wide open. She couldn't believe that she was back here again, she had gone in a complete circle! Having no reason, or any desire, to go back to the campsite Inare continued to walk in the direction she was going, passing the camp.
Even when the camp became out of sight, Inare was still muttering curses for doing something so stupid, because of that she failed to notice the kunai until it hit the tree right where her head had been only moments ago. Not waiting to see who had thrown the weapon, she dashed off like a wild animal, using a little bit too much chakra to push herself into a run. She would have gotten far, if it wasn't for a well build body of a shinobi that she slammed right into. The impact made her head spin and lungs empty out on her. Gaining her senses, Inare prepared to push herself away from the shinobi, but a pair of hand gripped her shoulders before she could get away, and then tightened when she started to struggle.
"Calm down Inare-san, it just me" the familiar voice of Isshin Uchiha spoke to her, shooting her head upwards she noticed the familiar features of the Uchiha shinobi.
"Isshin-san" Inare whispered looking up to the shinobi, a slight amount of relief washed over her at the thought of him being there, but then vanished when she remembered that he too was a shinobi and was just as dangerous. He wasn't here to rescue or save her, no one was. "No, no, no!" she cried as she resumed the twisting of her body away from Isshin, his strength and height giving her a huge disadvantage, "I don't want anything to do with you shinobi. Let go of me!" she shouted even louder this time.
Seeing that she wasn't going to calm down anytime soon, Isshin released one of her shoulders and out a hand over her mouth. It would do both of them no good it she continued to shout out like that. Inare tensed when the hand was place over her mouth, memories of the other shinobi flooding through her mind.
"Now" Isshin started, his voice roughly soothing to the point where it almost calmed Inare down, "I want you to tell me what happened from the moment you left our camp". Again he was reluctant to try and reassure her with words he might later regret, so getting her to just talk it out was his next best option. "When I take my hand away from your mouth, don't keep screaming. Ok?" He paused no moving, only looking right into Inares eyes.
Seeing that he wanted an answer from her, Inare nodded. She really had no option, and he didn't appear to want to harm her, not that she could be sure though. Isshin hand instantly left her mouth, leaving her free to take a few good deep breaths. Looking back up at Isshin, she felt a little more confident.
"I started going back to Kir..." she stopped herself before she gave the man more information than he needed to hear, "Narithen, I was heading back to Narithen when another shinobi blocked the way for there, he told me that I had to go with him. He chased me and..." she didn't know is she should tell him that she had gassed the shinobi, although it was hardly deadly, she wasn't sure how Isshin would react to hearing about it, "... here I am" she ended silently.
Isshin almost smiled at her answer, she was a smart girl, only giving him the information he really required, but she did forget to mention one big thing. "So the man you poisoned was the one who blocked your way home?" he asked casually, almost instantly he could feel her tense up even more from the hold he still had on her shoulder, suddenly noticing that he let her go.
"He was going to kill me!" she snapped out in her defence.
"I don't think so. If he intended to kill you he would have done it when you weren't looking"
Inare hadn't thought of that, and now that he had said so, it did seem reasonable. Inare unconsciously bit onto her lower lip and her mind began to think though her encounter. The shinobi probably had tonnes opportunities to kill her if he really wanted her dead, but the possible reasons behind the shinobi not wanting to kill her scared her more than death.
"Why?" she asked herself more than anything, looking away from Isshin.
"You're a medic" Isshin stated obviously with a raised brow.
"What has that got to do with anything?" Inare asked Isshin as she returned her gaze back to him. Just after she had said it, she was aware of something Isshin had said before, "And what did you mean when you said he could have killed me when I wasn't looking? How did you know that he caught me by surprise?" she growled out as realisation came to her, as she took a step backwards, now all too conscious of the fact his man knew too much.
Isshin knew that he should have warned her, but her reaction would have probably only resulted in her getting hurt. Despite that, when Inare did unknowingly walk into all too welcoming arms a shot of guilt did cross Isshin, but was gone as fast as it came. Irrelevant of how stubborn and loudmouthed Inare might have been, no young innocent minded woman deserved to be tormented by Madara Uchiha.
AN: Sorry for the delay! I kinda lost motivation for a few days on this... and I had a lot of work to do!
This is where things kinda start to develope... the main plot idea hasn't come just yet, and it wont for some time, I pretty much have to whole story planned out now (...kinda), but dont hold out for the updates to be regulated... I kinda update when I feel like it. Yes, I know its bad... but moving on.
I have an exams comming up in two weeks, so there might be one more update before wednesday... though i dont know. After my exam week, my updates will be a bit more frequent!
p.s. sorry for ending on another clifhanger, ill try and stop doing that XD (yer i think ive said that before!).
I hope you enjoyed this chapter!