Chapter 8: Crossing Borders
" Oi!"
" Huh?!" Hiroshi muttered, snapping back to attention.
" Damn, you must be really distracted today. I've lost count on the number of times I've insulted you within the last three minutes, and I have yet to receive reply from you," Sora replied as all seven of them were crossing the desert. " You don't seem yourself today. Didn't get enough sleep or what?"
" Something like that…" Hiroshi gave a half-hearted reply.
" Typical, really…" Sora mused.
" Are you implying something here?" Hibiki asked.
Hiroshi still couldn't get the dream out of his head. It was all a dream, yet somehow he couldn't just accept it as just a dream. Something about it reeked of some form of foul play, and despite him hating it, he seemed to be subconsciously distancing himself from Suzumi, as if scared that her alter-ego would somehow pop out of her and start killing him. The sickening feeling of having his gut stabbed still lingered. It is not that he couldn't withstand pain, but the feeling of having a stab wound that was not there, it somehow made him somewhat sick.
All of them left as soon as Hiroshi had prepared breakfast and ate on the way while they continued on their travel back to the Leaf village. Nothing eventful happened, save crossing several kilometers in the desert. From where they were now, they were close to the Fire country border. From there, it should take just another day to reach their destination, assuming they were keeping at the pace they were travelling. Suzumi seemed to be doing well in keeping up with the entire group, with Sora insisting on travelling at top speed.
" Why don't you stop pestering the poor kid and pay more attention to your surroundings?" Mayuri replied.
" Hey, I get to bug him however I want!" Sora replied.
" …Poor kid?" Hiroshi mused, unsure if he fancied the use of such words to describe him.
" Urm, where are we now?" Suzumi asked.
" Pretty close to the borders of our countries. It's a little far, but can you spot the forests at the distance? Once we reach there, we are pretty much entered the Fire country border already," Ryouta replied. " Actually, we are pretty much on the border itself. It's hard to draw the line where your country actually ends, you know…leaders can get picky over such simple things."
" Interesting…" Suzumi mused. " Will there be an outpost? Or a patrol?"
" Barely," Makoto answered. " Ever since our villages and our lords have signed the treaty of the Second Alliance, patrols and outpost duties on our countries borders are down by 95%. It's hard to keep watch over a large area, so if our villages can trust each other, we can keep our internal borders safe while we use shinobis to guard other borders."
" There is still this skeleton crew working along the border just to make sure everything is fine, but we are not likely to run into any shinobis along the border anyway," Ryouta answered.
" It's not like we are going to run into any trouble, right?" Sora replied.
" Typically, whenever someone says that, they almost always run into trouble," Hibiki replied. " Can you please not jinx us?!"
" Wait!"
All of them skidded to a halt when Hiroshi shouted all of a sudden. Hiroshi didn't realize it at first, since his mind was too busy thinking about Suzumi, but he figured something was odd with the desert somewhat. He couldn't put his finger on it, and it was merely a gut feeling, but his team had survived multiple scenarios based on gut feeling alone, and he wasn't going to pass this one up.
" What is it, Hiroshi?" Ryouta asked, slightly concerned.
Hiroshi frowned, wondering what was wrong. " …Makoto, this may be a dumb question, but could there be any indication that…someone passed through this area recently?" Hiroshi asked.
Makoto wasn't sure where this question was leading. " …I can't say. The desert is very good at hiding tracks, and it was windy since 4am. I can only confirm that nobody was here since 4am, but if anyone did pass through here before, I cannot tell. So, the only thing I can say is that nobody has passed through here for the last 4 hours, besides us," Makoko answered.
" …But…why do I get the feeling someone did pass through this area before then…and I somehow sense we are walking into a trap?" Hiroshi mused.
"…He's…joking, right?" Suzumi muttered.
" No, Suzumi. Hiroshi is one of the best trap expects I have ever encountered, and he has this uncanny sense of sensing traps far better than anyone. All of us here are still alive only because Hiroshi has saved us at the very least once from getting ourselves killed in a trap before," Ryouta replied, turning serious. " …Hiroshi, what's your basis for your feeling?"
" Something is out of place…I can't…I can't really put my finger on it," Hiroshi answered, his voice trembling slightly.
He wasn't even sure why. Something about crossing this place felt dangerous to him, like his six sense told him the minute he passed this patch of desert, he will be returning to a place of no return. The rest of them looked at him warily, while Sora looked impatiently at him.
" Makoto, what can you sense so far?" Ryouta asked, turning to their team's tracker.
" …Nothing suspicious for a 5 kilometer diameter," he answered.
" I can confirm at 1 kilometer," Sora answered. She had managed to learn some of Makoto's sound tricks, since she utilizes sound jutsu as well, serving as the Leaf team's tracker. " …Although, I think Hiroshi is getting somewhere. There is something odd about the desert."
" Really?" Hiroshi asked. " What is it?"
To reply, Sora bent down and scooped up a handful of sand, before placing it close to her nose and sniffing it. " …The sand smells weird," she replied.
" You know, the sand smells like sand," Hibiki replied.
" No, she's right!" Hiroshi exclaimed, before jumping on the spot where Sora had picked up the handful of sand, before started to dig furiously. " Help me dig!"
" Hey, you are wasting your energy…let me do it," Makoto replied.
Forming his hand seals, Makoto collected the chakra in his lungs, and then expelled it. All of them covered their faces as Makoto blew a powerful breath of wind, kicking up a small sand storm. Countless amounts of sand flew all over the place, and after a while, he stopped, and Hiroshi founded what he was looking for.
At a small sand hole about 4 feet deep, there was a faint trail of what looked like blood. From its smell, Hiroshi could tell it was human blood, and it was made fairly recently, although the recent could be anywhere between 1 hour ago to 4 hours ago. Assuming Makoto was right about a sandstorm, this mean the blood here was split just before the sandstorm ended on the wee hours this morning.
" Oh God…is that..human blood?" Mayuri gasped slightly.
" I can confirm that it is," Hiroshi replied, reaching down and touching the blood-crusted sand. " Something bleed here some time ago, and from the looks, it looks like it is headed in the direction we are going…"
" …What does this mean?" Hibiki asked.
" Someone died here?" Sora asked.
" No, not quite, but at least from the amount of blood I see, at least someone was wounded," Suzumi replied. Jumping down the hole, she touched some of the sand with her fingers, before gingerly licking it. " …Female, probably 12 years of age. AB blood type, most likely taijutsu type shinobi user…and I think she's a foreign shinobi."
" Holy crap, you can tell that all from taste?!" Sora exclaimed in surprise.
" Yes. Using micro chakra control, I can sort of analyse data at a microbiology level…" Suzumi replied. " Strange…I don't even remember learning how to do this…is this something I had forgotten from my amnesia…"
" Where does this lead?" Ryouta asked.
" As I said, exactly where we are heading," Hiroshi answered.
" How cold is the trail?" Ryouta asked.
" …4-5 hours, the most…" Suzumi and Hiroshi answered at the same time.
" Alright, I want a vote. If the majority wins, then we go find out what happened, if not, we will continue with the mission," Ryouta replied.
" Vote? Why is there even a voting? I mean, Suzumi just said some foreign shinobi is here, apparently having bled some amount of blood here. This seems to be some form of foreign intrusion," Sora argued. " We have to check it out!"
" I am inclined by duty to check it out, but hear me out first," Ryouta replied. " I, too, feel like this is a trap. Here is my reasoning for why I think so from the facts we have gathered so far: One, a 12 year old female shinobi. Now, can I ask what is a 12 year old foreign female shinobi doing in these parts? From her age, I doubt she is anything higher than a chuunin, and she is most likely a genin. What is she doing here? Did she come her by herself, or was she brought here?"
" Second, this trail leads to exactly where we are heading. Now, how the hell does a foreign shinobi know the routes for our own highways. These routes are merely set out specifically for us to traverse. Not even our normal villages use them, so how would a foreign shinobi know it, and coincidentally use it?" Ryouta replied. " If she wanted a treat her wounds and find a place to rest, there was an oasis a kilometer back. Why cross 5 kilometers of desert just to reach the forests?"
" You are basing it on guess?" Hibiki asked.
" I know, but this is what I feel," Ryouta replied. " Now, I hate walking into traps, but I want to hear your vote. Do we continue on to see what's ahead, or do we divert our path? I am inclined to divert our path, because I think this is a trap somehow. I vote no," Ryouta replied.
" I second that," Makoto replied.
" Are you a chicken?! I'm saying yes, cos we need to find out what is this woman doing here!" Sora exclaimed.
" …I hate agreeing with her, but I think this suspicious circumstances need to be investigated. Yes, that's my vote," Hibiki replied.
" No," Mayuri replied curtly.
" …Yes…" Hiroshi answered quietly.
" The deciding vote goes to you," Ryouta replied to Suzumi, who was still inside the hole Makoto dug. " What do you say?"
-
All seven of them continued on their way, following their original path, all of them quiet and solemn now, with the blood giving them some form of an ominous, dangerous warning. Hiroshi had no idea what was in his head, considering that he figured this was a trap anyway, but perhaps the word of an injured 12 year old female shinobi made him feel guilty if he decided to leave her unattended.
" Alright, we have managed to cross the desert, and we are at the border of the forests," Sora said as they stopped just before the boundaries of the forest trees that grew around the area. " Find anything yet?"
" No, nothing remotely suspicious…so far," Makoto replied, keeping his ears peeled.
" Do you think we were just being overly paranoid?" Hibiki asked.
" I think being paranoid is a job requirement for us," Ryouta chuckled.
" Oh, right…I am always paranoid," Hibiki replied.
" Mostly when Sora's around, right?" Mayuri answered.
" Of course, he has to," Sora replied snarling.
" Hey, stop arguing! Where is Suzumi?" Hiroshi snapped at them.
All of them looked around, only to realize that Suzumi was nowhere around them. " Damn it, she went into the forest. Come one, follow me!" Makoto exclaimed, dashing through the trees, with the rest of them following him closely.
It didn't take too long, since Suzumi didn't go too far, as they found her standing shell-shocked at the sight before her several meters into the forest. The rest of them approached her cautiously, not sure if they could stand the sight before them.
Pinned up high on a tree was the said shinobi in question. Like Suzumi said, she was 12 years of age, and had long lustrous hair hanging down by the side of her head. Her arms and legs were stabbed by kunais, all of them pinning her body on the tree. From the looks of it, she looked like she was already gone from the world.
Without wasting any time, Ryouta and Makoto leaped up the tree, taking out the kunais and bringing down her body. Her face was stuck in a painful expression, and it was obvious she suffered a lot before she expired. Her blood was still fresh, so whoever did this had done it recently.
" Poor thing…" Suzumi whimpered.
" Would you look at that? She's from the hidden Blood village," Hibiki noted, noticing her forehead protector that was tied around her left arm. " …What's she doing so far away from home?"
The Hidden Blood village was a village of a small country somewhere very far up north east, somewhere past the hidden village of Cloud. It was a relatively isolated village, and due to it being so far away from the other countries, especially the major ones, it didn't stand out much and did not manage to garner any influences, but despite its rather quiet take on the political arena, it was still quite a major village, even for a minor shinobi village. Some of the lords there were powerful enough to influence countries, and Konoha has listed them as a threat to their security, despite them staying quiet throughout history.
" She apparently wasn't alone," Sora replied.
" What?!" Ryouta exclaimed.
Sora moved off towards the left, and they followed her, leaving the poor girl behind. They were greeted by the sight of three other shinobis, all around 12 years of age, two boys and another girl. All three of them were sprawled on the ground, having suffered multiple wounds on their body, and were covered in blood. However, the difference between them and the girl they found was that they were apparently still alive, even if barely.
" They are still breathing! We might be able to save them!" Suzumi exclaimed, before immediately leaping towards the injured Blood-nins. However, Ryouta grabbed on to her arm, stopping her from moving. She looked at him with an incredulous look on her face. " Ryouta, why are you stopping me?! Are we not going to help them and leave them to bleed to death?"
" …I don't like this one bit…" Ryouta replied.
" …Are you that heartless?" Suzumi exclaimed.
" Listen, this isn't whether I am heartless or not. I am looking at the bigger picture here," Ryouta answered sternly. " This area is on the outskirts of our countries, and here we find 4 shinobis from a foreign land, not to mention from a country who is slightly hostile towards us. Moreover, they are kids, looking from their age, 12 years roughly. Getting here from their country would take a good 9 days, a week at the best, to come here, and they would have to pass through 3 countries that bar entry to Blood-nins. Even I can see this is a sort of set-up!"
" Ryouta is right. I can't imagine anything other than a set-up," Makoto replied.
" Question is: do we accept this set-up?" Hibiki replied.
" What?!" Sora exclaimed.
" I don't know about you, but even if this was set up for us to rescue them, I think it'll leave a bad taste in my mouth if I let them be," Hibiki replied. " I don't know what this is, but I, for one, don't want them to die on my watch."
Ryouta folded his arms and started to ponder. " Ryouta, we don't have time! They are dying as we speak!" Suzumi shouted.
" Makoto, what do you think?" Ryouta asked.
" …Do we have a choice…?" Makoto asked.
" Damn it! Keep an eye on the surrounding area! I want to be informed the moment you hear anything remotely suspicious," Ryouta replied. " Hiroshi, Suzumi, treat them immediately! We are moving out the moment we are done."
Hiroshi and Suzumi reacted so fast it was almost as if they were just waiting for Ryouta to give them the signal. Hiroshi immediately went to the closest shinobi, who looked like the youngest amongst the lot. Checking for a pulse, he was barely able to feel it, and he ran his chakra on his hands to check his status. The kid had multiple stab wounds on his body, so Hiroshi quickly started to close his wounds, making sure his internal organs were in relatively good shape. Some colour managed to return to the boy's face, and he managed to take deeper breaths now, but he was still unconscious.
Suzumi didn't seem to manage to lose any of her touch in healing people, since by the time Hiroshi was done, she was halfway done with her second patient, the girl. Like Hiroshi, she managed to treat their more serious wounds first to stabilize them.
" I've managed to administer first-aid, and they are safe for now. I'll need to treat them later," Suzumi replied.
" How did they sustain those injuries?" Mayuri asked.
" …Stab wounds…mainly cause by kunais…" Suzumi answered.
" Guys, let's get out of here now," Makoto replied. " Hiroshi was right. This is a trap. We are being ambushed right now!"
