Dōkutsugakure no Sato

Dragon: Hey guys! Sorry about the break from this story. Spirit and I agreed to let it sit for a while, while we focused on our own individual stories. But we're back, and with the second arc ready and waiting! Hope y'all enjoy it!


Chapter 8: Weight

(Flashback)

The meeting with Kakashi, Yugao, and Itachi didn't last too long. After making a schedule for guard duty, the three ANBUs left, and Aku and Aki decided to go to bed.

Hours after, Aku began dreaming about the Third Great Ninja War. Memories of the mission he went on, the people he killed, comrades he saw die beside him flooded in his dream. The memories caused him to scream.

"Aku! Aku, wake up!"

Aku woke up with a gasp, sitting up abruptly. Memories of kunai clashing, blood being splattered, men and women screaming in agonizing pain is kept fresh in his head.

"Aku, Aku, calm down. It's just a dream. Just a dream." Hearing his sister's voice, he took a couple of deep breaths to calm himself down. In. Out. In. Out.

Finally, he turned his eyes to see the concern stare of his twin sister. "I've been screaming?" He asked her. A nod was his response.

"You were dreaming about the war, weren't you?" She asked him softly. He sighed and nodded. The two of them are in his room, which consist of a single bed, a desk, and a shelf of weapons, books, and scrolls. His sets of armor is hung up on the wall, both his ANBU armor and his clan's armor.

Aku nodded. "It something I can't forget." He whispered. "All the death and destruction….the screams, metal meeting flesh….it's gonna be haunting my mind for a long time."

Aki hugged her brother in comfort in response. She couldn't say she knew how he felt. Unlike Aku, she was spared the horror of fighting in the war. The only person who could relate to him is Itachi.

"Did Daria, Seimei, or Naruto hear me?" Aku asked Aki, bringing the twin out of her thoughts.

"They did, but I brought them back to sleep." Aki reassured him. "Told them that I'd handle it."

Aku nodded. "When do you think we should reveal the news to Naruto?"

"I say after we fill out the adoption papers." Aki stated. "I don't have any doubts that we can adopt him, but better safe than sorry."

"It pays to be paranoid. Especially if you're a shinobi." Aku said with a chuckle. Finally, laid back down on his bed. "Well, we better get some sleep before the adoption. It would be hard to deal with villagers if you're irritated."

"Yeah." Instead of going back to her own room though, Aki slid into bed and lied down beside Aku. That didn't surprise Aku, though he did let out a sigh. Whenever he had a bad dream, his sister would stay by his side in case the nightmares reappeared.

The first few times he argued with her about, but each time she remained stubborn about her position. Eventually, he gave up and accepted it. His sister was very protective of her family, especially after the Kyūbi attack years ago.

(End Flashback)

"Why did it have to rain the moment we lost our pursuers?!" Ino shouted as the group ran through the rain. Like Ino said, soon after they last the Konoha and Iwa nin, it began pouring out rain in a matter of minutes.

"I don't know, and right now, I don't care! Let just find somewhere to take cover quickly!" Seimei stated, trying to cover his head.

"Neji, Hinata, look for any place nearby to rest!" Shikamaru ordered. The Byakugan users nodded and activated their Kekkei Genkais.

After a moment of looking, Neji spotted a cave nearby. "There's a cave near the left of us. It's deep enough to give all of us plenty of shelter, as well as we make camp."

"Then let's go there!" Aku stated. "Let's go!" With that, the group moved to where the cave was at. They all quickly got inside to escape the rain.

Seimei look back outside to see it pouring. "It's really raining cats and dogs out there," The younger Chōwashibō male said. "Good thing we found this cave so quickly."

"Not quickly enough," Ino complained, looking at her dripping clothes. "My clothes are all wet."

"Same here," Yakumo whined with Ino, holding up her wet kimono slightly.

Meanwhile, Kiba and Akamaru moved away from the others before shaking the water off of them. "Phew. That feels better," Kiba sighed in relief. "Don't you agree, Akamaru?" The dog bark in confirmation.

Aku laid the unconscious Naruto on the wall of the cave before speaking to Shikamaru. "So, I assume this will be a good place to recuperate?"

Shikamaru nodded. "We'll set up camp here, and have our bodies, as well our minds, rest up," The young Nara instructed. "After we've rested well enough, we should talk where to permanently stay at."

"You mean finding a new home?" Tenten asked. A nod was her response.

"Okay, then. Everyone set up camp," Aki called out to everyone. "Kotetsu, Izumo, can you two watch for any hostile shinobi near the cave?"

"We will," Kotetsu agreed to. "Will be like watching the gate of Konoha."

"You mean when we had to sit around all day, not doing much of anything?" Izumo remarked.

Kotetsu chuckled. "Yeah. Except we'll need to be a bit more alert."

"True." As they bantered, the two moved up to entrance of the cave.

Aku began digging through his bag. "I'm going to make begin dinner," Aku told the others. "Hinata, would you mind helping me out here?"

"O-Okay, Aku." The former heiress help gather the ingredients while Aku began a fire.

Soon, camp was set up and everyone was waiting for Aku and Hinata to finish the stew they're making. A big bowl of rice that was made before the stew was set aside.

After a moment of silence, Ino spoke up. "So, we actually did it," Ino breathed out. "We actually defected from Konoha."

"Yeah. It's really hard to believe," Tobia agreed, rubbing the back of his head. "Didn't wake up thinking that I'll leave home, that's for sure."

"Don't forget the fact that we're traveling with the granddaughter of the Tsuchikage," Seimei added in.

Kurostuchi huffed. "It isn't like I enjoy traveling with you Konoha dogs."

"Well fuck you too, you Iwa rat!" Kiba growled. The two glare at one another with obvious hatred.

Aku decided to cut in before it could escalate. "The two of you, stop it. Insulting and glaring at each other isn't going to do anything right now." The two turn away with a huff.

Tenten looked down. "And now, we're at the point of no return. E-Especially since..." She sniffled. "I killed so many of our fellow nin." Her frame shook as she fought off her sobs. "I...I didn't mean too...I-I only t-t-tried to use my family's store's seals t-to disorient them! B-But I couldn't think straight when one grabbed me and I..." She grabbed her head and squeezed it tightly. "I'm so sorry..." she whispered brokenly.

Lee, along with a few others, looked at the girl in concern and shock, while Neji and Kiba bowed their heads, remembering their kills. "...You're not alone, Tenten," Neji said, voice heavy with guilt. "I killed the Hyūga elder earlier, remember?" His mind slackened at the thought. Despite knowing it was inevitable that he would have to kill, he never expected his first kill would be one of his own kin. His body felt weighed down, like he was wearing Gai-sensei's and Lee's weights at the same time. He felt numb, so numb that it was hard to feel anything.

"And remember the smoke that covered my senses badly?" Kiba reminded them. "Well, when I was still inside the smoke bomb, I….I ended up killing one of my clansmen," he whispered, his hands shaking badly. He stared down the clean digits, but he could still feel the blood coating them. Staining them. He fought off the urge to wipe them on his jacket, knowing there was nothing on his fingers to wipe off.

The rookies looked at Kiba and Tenten in shock while the chūnin and jōnin held sympathetic and understanding looks. However, before anything else could be said, a groan entered the room, getting everyone to turn the source. The source was Naruto, who's slowly waking up.

"Uh...w-what happened?" Naruto mumbled under his breath. Everyone winced and tried to think of a way to tell him what had happened.

Kurotsuchi, however, didn't care about his well-being. "You hit that Iruka guy with your Yondaime's cursed jutsu and sent him flying through the forest, and you most likely killed him," she said bluntly. "You did preceded to grow majorly hysterical and-"

"KUROTSUCHI!" Aku growled fiercely, making the girl stiffen in terror at the irate jōnin, but the damage had been done.

Naruto's eyes grew wide as he remembered the last several hours. His form shook as he stared down his hands. He tried to think of...something. Anything! But all he could see was Iruka's pain-filled face before the man was sent flying away from him.

"I….I killed Iruka?" Naruto finally said, his eyes now filled with horror. He shook his head. "No….no, he can't be dead! He can't be!" Getting on his feet, Naruto turn to his adopted older brother and sister desperately. "Aku, Aki, we need to go back! See if he's-"

"Naruto, we can't go back." Aki said softly, her eyes getting filled with tears. Beside her was Daria, who clung onto and buried herself into the older sister's side, tears sliding down her cheeks. "The Konoha and Iwa nin are still hunting us. We don't know even know if Iruka is still at the same spot."

"B-But-"

"Besides, Naruto….it's extremely doubtful that he's alive," Aku said gravely. He hated to break the news to his adopted little brother, but he couldn't hide the facts from him. That would only hurt him in the long run. "No one could've survive an attack like that."

That got Naruto silent. The blonde looked down at the ground, despair clear on his face. Around him, his fellow rookies developed grieving looks, the girls silently crying at the loss of their former teacher.

"Iruka…." Naruto slumped onto his knees, the look of horror still etched onto his face. Tears slowly build up into his eyes. "I….I killed my teacher….my precious person…." A sob choke through Naruto's throat as his tears started sliding his cheek.

Daria, seeing her brother crying, moved from Aki and went over Naruto's side. The young girl wrapped Naruto in a hug, something the whiskered blonde returned tightly. Off to the side, Aki let the tears from her eyes side while Seimei clenched his fist and teeth, memories of seeing Iruka getting launched away hitting them hard.

"Tch. Pathetic." Those words brought everyone out of their trance, and their attention was brought towards Kurotsuchi. She looked at them condescendingly. "Crying over the fact that you killed someone? Did you forget that your ninjas? Rogue ones at that."

Anger slowly build up in several of them. Slowly, Aki stood up from the wall she was laying on. "Oh boo-hoo, you killed your own people. Get over it. You should've expect to do that when running away," Kurotsuchi continued. "If you didn't, then you're all idio-"

Before she could finish, a blur pass through the group and pinned her to the wall. The blur was Aki Chōwashibō, her Kekkei Genkai active. Red slitted eyes glared menacingly at Kurotsuchi. "One word!" Aki hissed venomously. "One more word, I dare you! And you can see whether or not you'll survive!"

Kurotsuchi is both shock at the speed the now blond girl showed, as well as terrified of the threat and venomous thrown at her. Maybe she should learn to keep her mouth shut around these Konoha nin. While she wasn't afraid of the rookies, Aku and Aki terrified her right now.

Aku kept his eyes on Aki and Kurotsuchi. If Aki actually does try to kill the Tsuchikage's granddaughter, he'd have to stop her. They still needed her with them, and killing her would only have Iwa targeting their group even more. Still, he would let Aki send the fear of kami inside the girl. He didn't take kindly to her condescending and heartless words.

When the Iwa kunoichi didn't say any more, Aki dropped her on her butt. Kurotsuchi quickly scrambled as far as possible. After her hair and eyes went back to normal, Aki spoke once again. "Now, tell us the reason why you are running from the rock village." She demanded. "And if I have to guess, it has something to do with their T&I division."

Kurotsuchi's eyes widen in shock, and her skin paled at the mention of that group. "How did you-"

"I saw your reaction when we got surrounded by rock and leaf shinobi the first times," Aki answered curtly. "Now, tell us. What the hell does the T&I do that made you pale so much?"

Everyone payed attention to the conversation, momentarily pushing off four of the rookies killing Konoha nin. Anko was especially interested, seeing that she was in the T&I group. She knew that what they did wasn't pretty, but from the looks of it, Iwa's T&I division was doing something worse than usual.

After a moment of silence, in which Kurotsuchi gathered her thoughts, the Iwa kunoichi began speaking. "I found out two things about my home village," She said quietly. "I'll save what the T&I did for last though. The first thing was that….was that they frame fellow Iwa shinobi of horrible crimes before executing them."

Several eyes widened in shock at this. "What?" Kiba growled in anger. "They make up some sort of crime before blaming it on their own people? Their own shinobi?"

"If it looks like they're a threat to the old man in any shape or form, he'll take steps to make sure they're executed or sent out as rogue nin," Kurotsuchi informed them, her hands gripping in anger. "He doesn't care how much loyalty one of us show, if there are any signs in his eyes, he'll make sure to get rid of you."

That angered the Konoha nin, especially Naruto and the Chōwashibō family. Many, if not all of them, valued loyalty to their village, as well as their comrades and family. To hear that Iwa would frame and cast out or kill their own people, just because they seem like a threat, made their blood boil.

"And what's the other thing have you heard?" Aku inquired, his eyes narrowed slightly to express his anger.

At that, she shivered, pulling her knees up to her chest. "They're…..inhumane with their treatment of prisoners," She confessed quietly. "Treated them like mice. The T&I group tortures them, not for info on their enemy, but as mean to get powerful jutsus. They performed experiments similar to Orochimaru's."

Several paled at this revelation. Aku and Anko is the worst. The two of them have seen the results of his experiments, saw what he did, Anko more so. To hear that a village is doing Orochimaru like experiments is hard to imagine. Even Kumo wouldn't go that far.

"Seriously? There experiments is as bad as that sicko?" Seimei questioned in disbelief. "No way. That isn't possible."

"Trust me, I would love to believe that," Kurotsuchi retorted, though her tone didn't have the usual bite when talking to them. "But I saw the proof myself. Those experiments were used to make other ninjas loyal to Iwa, as well as steal Kekkei Genkai. Any Iwa shinobi that was accused of treason, and is still alive and didn't get the chance to run, are a part of those experiments."

Everyone was horrified at what they're hearing, especially the rookies. True, Konoha hasn't been friendly with Iwa for a long time, but they would have never imagined them doing something like that. "I don't think I want to know what are the exact experiments are," Ino moaned.

"Yeah. If you say they are as bad as Orochimaru's, I'm taking your word for it," Kiba said with a grimace. He had seen the results of those experiments in the mission to get back Sasuke, and it wasn't something he would like to remember.

Naruto, Neji, Lee, Chōji, and Shikamaru silently agreed with their canine friend.

Aku was the first to recover. "Alright then. We'll avoid the rock as far as possible." He then noticed Anko clenching her fist angrily, slightly shaking. He gently placed his hand on hers. "Hey. You're alright?"

Anko took some deep breaths before turning to Aku. "Yeah, I am." Aku stared at her before nodding.

"Alright. Just let me know if you want to talk about it." Turning his attention back to the group, he spoke up. "Alright genin, after dinner is over, get some sleep. It's been a long day for all of you, so you'll need the rest. We'll reconvene about what will be our next move tomorrow." He then went over to the pot of stew above the fire. "And speaking of dinner, the stew should be done by now. Hinata, you mind helping fix up dinner?"

"H-Hai, Aku." Soon, the two served everyone a bowl of stew and rice. Since Kotetsu and Izumo were guarding the cave, Aku went over to where they were at to give them their meal.


(Later)

Soon, the rookies and Kurotsuchi were all asleep. The ones who had their first kills looked the most exhausted out of the group. The older chūnin and the jōnin stayed up, their guard up for anything. Even though Kotetsu and Izumo are in watch, it was better that the more experienced fighters were still up.

Aku and Aki are sitting beside each other, with their siblings, full blooded and adopted, asleep near them. Naruto and Daria are entangled together, dried tears on their cheeks.

Aki smiled sadly at the sight of the two sleeping with one another. "Took them long enough to get to sleep. Not that I blame them though." She looked down, her smile gone. "Iruka's death is one of the things that's keeping me awake, too."

Aku grabbed her sister's hand in comfort. When Iruka began caring for Naruto, began seeing him as Naruto rather than the demon fox, the rest of the siblings got close to the chūnin. He was there for Naruto whenever Aku or Aki couldn't be, and became another brother figure for Naruto. So they, along with the rest of the rookies, were taking his death hard.

"Too late for regrets now," Aku sighed, looking worn. Almost as worn as he felt during the third shinobi war. "We made our choice. None of us imagined that Naruto would've killed him."

The two siblings stayed silent, mourning the loss of their friend. Anko remained silent as well, knowing that the two need the silence.

Finally, after a long moment of silence, Anko spoke up. "So, where are we going to go from here, Aku?" The snake mistress asked him. "We'll need to find a place to make a home."

Aku was the first to speak. "Yeah, I have a few ideas," He answered. "Haru no Kuni and Nami are two options. We have allies there that will help hide us. Suna is also an option as well."

"But none of those villages are sure things," Aki said with a frown. "Who knows what lengths those idiots in the Council will go to, to get Naruto?"

"Not to mention the heirs and heiresses of each clan," Anko added in. "But I don't see any other choices. Mizu, Kumo, Iwa, and Oto are no goes, and we don't have any other allies in the other minor villages or countries."

"Well, there is one more place we can go to." Aku mentioned. "It's something that came up in my mind a while ago." That got the girls' attention.

"Really? What is it?" Anko asked him.

"It's a place the Chōwashibō clan formerly stayed at before coming to the Leaf." Aku informed them, a thinking frown on his face. "A place that has been destroyed for a while now."

It took a second for Aki to realize what he was talking about it. But when she did, her eyes widen. "Wait, you're talking about….?"

"Yes." Aku confirmed her silent question. "The Chōwashibō clan's old compound, deep within Sanmyako no Kuni."


Dragon: So, arc 2 is up and running now! Hope you guys enjoyed it!

Translations:

Sanmyako no Kuni-Land of Mountain ranges