Dōkutsugakure no Sato
Dragon: Sorry 'bout the wait guys. I couldn't figure out how to finish this chapter. But it's done now, so I hope you guys enjoy it!
Chapter 9-Rest
"You did this!"
"How could you, Naruto?!"
"You should have been the one to die!"
"Mizuki was right about you!"
"YOU ARE THE KYŪBI!"
Naruto gasped in horror as he bolted up, somehow untangling himself from Daria's arms wrapped around him. He tried to regain his breath as he looked around in fright, thinking Iruka was going to hurl abuse at him again, only to see his friends still asleep around him.
He looked around for Aku and Aki when he heard a gruff, "They left." He turned to see Kurotsuchi sitting on a rock just above them. "Went to hunt for some food."
He scowled at her, but grunted in acknowledgement. Calm again, he looked around the cave, since he didn't get a good chance last night. The cave seemed to incline down to where they were currently. The Rookies and he were actually in a depression where the cave flattened out, all sprawled around the remnants of a fire. Kurotsuchi herself was on a higher incline, seemingly trying to distance herself from them.
Naruto stopped his observations and held his head with both hands, trying to fight off the agony he felt in killing Iruka. He began shaking slightly as he attempted to force the negative thoughts away. Kurotsuchi noticed this and frowned.
"Why are you so worked up over that guy's death?" she asked, trying to keep her tone blank. She didn't want to admit she was the slightest bit curious.
Naruto glared at her for a moment, hesitant to tell her. However, he thought about it and figured she already knew of his jinchūriki status, so there was no reason not to tell her. It was a few minutes after she asked when he replied;
"Iruka sensei was one of the first people after my family that accepted me for me. Before them, the villagers saw me as the Kyūbi reincarnated and did their best to hurt, ignore, and belittle me, or all three at the same time. I barely graduated because of the shinobi instructors kept sabotaging my work. But not Iruka sensei. He saw me for who I was, not for what I carried. He tried his best to help in the Academy, and soon it felt like I had another big brother looking out for me." Naruto ended there, and didn't say anything else. He just looked at Kurotsuchi intently.
Kurotsuchi didn't react to his staring. She simply continued to look towards the cave entrance apathetically. However, internally, she couldn't help but think of a blonde haired shinobi who had constantly been there for her when she screwed something up. She frowned.
"Don't forget," she said softly, catching Naruto by surprise. "Don't forget the look on his face. Don't forget what it felt like…when you killed that man," she continued, shocking Naruto for a moment. "Never forget the pain you feel, or the nausea it brought you."
Naruto frowned at her. "Is there a point to this?" he growled.
Kurotsuchi ignored him. "Because the moment you do," she said. "The second you forget all that pain…" She looked at Naruto intently. "Is the day you finally become a monster," she finished, making Naruto blink in shock. "The day you forget the agony you felt over that kill, will be the day you stop caring. And the day you lose all sense of humanity you have."
Naruto stared at her in shock. "Why are you telling me this?" he asked, attempting to calm down.
Kurotsuchi's response was to scoff and turn away from him. When she didn't move to answer, Naruto began to grow irritated. "Hey! Stop ignoring me!" he shouted.
Again, Kurotsuchi ignored him.
With Anko, Aku, and Aki
A kunai to the neck was all it took for a deer to fall to the ground dead. Aku nodded as he Shunshined down to the buck and carefully draped the deer across his shoulders and reappeared beside his comrades.
"Nice shot, Aku-kun," Anko purred seductively. Aku grunted and looked at them.
"How did you two fare?" he asked, not rising to Anko's teasing. The snake mistress pouted at that.
"I was able to trap a few rabbits," Aki answered, holding her catches up.
"I was able to scrounge up some herbs and mushrooms," Anko continued, still pouting as she held up her quarry. Aku nodded to her.
"Very good," he told them. "This will be enough for the time being. Let's head back for now." They nodded and began racing back to the cave.
After a few moments of silence, Anko spoke up. "Do you really think your clan's old compound in Sanmyako no Kuni is the best option, Aku-kun?" she asked.
"It's the farthest location from Konoha," Aku explained. "Not to mention, it's also easily defensed against Iwa."
"Will we even be able to make it there before the tracker nin are assigned to search for us?" Aki asked.
"Probably not, but we can definitely put a lot of distance between us and them before then," Aku replied.
"So how are we going to get there?" Anko asked dubiously. "Because if I remember correctly, Sanmyako no Kuni borders Iwa and to get there we'll have to cross their borders!"
"Not if we go the long way around," Aku countered. "There's a strip of land in-between Iwa and Suna, which is considered neutral territory and right in the middle of it is a massive fissure. Like a dividing line. We go through that territory, then we can go through Akuma no Kuni and come up to Sanmyako with little difficulty."
"It's all we have currently," Aki sighed, shaking her head. "How soon should we start heading there, you think?"
"The others are tired, so at the earliest, hopefully in just few more days at the most," Aku thought aloud with a frown. "However, it might be profitable to leave before all this heat dies down. With us in Oto, Iwa after the Tsuchikage's granddaughter with us, and Konoha's animosity with both, there's a chance that they can't immediately send tracker nin after us, with the political firestorm we've started."
The girls were silent at that. They stayed quiet until they reached the cave. Izumo and Kotetsu noticed they're arrival and eased up a bit. "Good hunting?" Izumo asked. The small group nodded as they walked through the maw of the cave.
The Rookies, except Naruto and Kurotsuchi, were starting to wake up as they walked in. Kiba looked ragged as he lifted himself up and groaned. "I think that smoke had some sort of after effects," he mumbled. "I feel like I'm about to hurl." Akamaru whined and rubbed up against his master, hoping to comfort him.
"A-Are you ok, Kiba-kun?" Hinata asked, as she walked over to him. He smiled slightly at her.
"I-I'm fine, Hinata," the Inuzuka heir said. He moved to his side and continued, "I think I'll just lay here for a while."
"How's everyone feeling?" Aki asked.
"Like crap," Kiba mumbled.
"I'm ok, apart from the whole 'I just became a rogue nin' thing," Yakumo said sarcastically.
"Still alive," Tobia groaned as he moved to a sitting position.
"Chōwashibō clan is still frosty," Seimei called out as he stood and stretched. Daria nodded and rubbed her eyes as she yawned loudly.
"I am well rested," Shino said in his usual blank tone.
The others groaned their agreements. Neji and Tenten seemed a little out of it but Aku expected that since they had their first kills just yesterday. His eyes darted to Naruto, who was simply staring at where their fire was with a sad, but contemplative look on his face. Aku frowned, but decided not to say anything yet.
Instead, he shook his head and looked to Shikamaru and asked, "So what's your plan now that you all are out of Konoha?"
Shikamaru turned to Aku. "We were going to decide that after we got away," he admitted. "Obviously, any place that Naruto would have been welcomed at are out because of ties with Konoha at the moment, and going there would only bring us more trouble."
Aku nodded. "I suspected as much," he admitted. "It would have been counterproductive if you tried to plan escaping a village as large Konoha whilst researching other places to hide out in."
"We did do some research, though," Ino interjected, a little cross. "Akuma no Kuni was one option, and a few lands behind it, but we decided to discuss it when we wouldn't run the risk of being compromised."
Again, Aku nodded. "Again, smart." He looked to the Rookies and asked, "Tell me, did you all ever discuss Sanmyako no Kuni as a possible destination?"
"It was considered," Shino confirmed with a nod. "However, we wrote it off because all of the valleys and plains in Sanmyako were not the best places to hide all of us."
"Unless you go into the mountains themselves," Shikamaru continued. "But with all the dangers associated with them, we decided it was not the best option."
Aku nodded once more. "I understand your reasoning," he admitted. "But what if I told you there was place within those mountains that was safe from those dangers?"
Naruto, Daria, and Seimei's eyes shot up at that, while the others looked dubious. "No such thing," Kurotsuchi scoffed. "Iwa's searched those mountains for years. Only things there are falling rocks, deadly animals, and barbaric tribes. Not to mention the numerous outposts Iwa has in the area. We'd be caught in minutes."
"Not unless we know of a clan that used to live in those mountains," Aki said airily. The Rookies and Kurotsuchi looked at her, curious.
"You know something," Shino commented assuredly.
"We do." Aku nodded. "The Chōwashibō clan originates from there," he explained. "There's an old clan compound that we could use. It's easily defensible and no one knows about it but all of us."
The Rookies were silent until Kurotsuchi spoke up. "So that's why!" she accused, pointing a finger at Aku. "Ji-sama kept saying something about a powerful clan had come from Sanmyako being the reason they haven't pulled back troops! YOUR clan is that clan he mentioned!"
"More than likely," Aku confirmed. "Aki and I can lead you Rooks through a safe passage in Sanmyako and hopefully find the compound in working order. Even if we don't ultimately stay there, it will be safe enough for us to decide our next course of action."
"Can we even make it there safely?" Yakumo asked.
"If we are careful, yes. We can travel through the neutral territory between Suna and Iwa and hopefully avoid detection from there," Aki spoke up. "After that, we can travel through Akuma no Kuni and up into Sanmyako."
The Rookies seemed to think about that. Hinata frowned thoughtfully. "H-How long w-would it take t-to get there from here?" she asked.
"From here? A month, give or take," Aku answered. "And now with a destination in mind, we need to think about moving as soon as we're all able. With Oto, Iwa, and Konoha most likely dealing with a mountain's worth of red tape and paperwork because of our stunts yesterday, it would be best to move as soon as possible."
"Aku's right," Shikamaru said aloud. "It would be best to move after we're all sure we can make the trip out of Oto. We only have a small window to put as much distance between us and everyone else."
"That's if Orochimaru doesn't decide to investigate our presence," Anko grumbled. "Out of all our enemies currently, he's the one most likely to send shinobi after us. We are, after all, in his territory."
"That's true. And not only that, he's in a far better situation to investigate our presence here, than our other enemies," Shino commented with a nod.
Everyone was silent after that. Aki took that moment to speak up. "We can't worry about that right now," she said. "For now, let's just rest our tired bodies, and minds, and worry about returning to 100% before we concern ourselves with unknowns right now. Ok?"
No one protested as they nodded. Aku nodded at the agreement. "Alright. That's it for now," he announced. Let's get breakfast started and rest up while we can. Because when we leave here, we won't be getting many more rests like this."
Kurotsuchi hadn't moved all day.
While the others mingled around the cave and two or three of them went exploring further into the cave as the day wore on, the Iwa kunoichi stayed stationary at her spot, staring at the gaping mouth of the cave. She wanted nothing to do with the shinobi around her. Never mind the fact they helped her get away from Iwa.
She found herself thinking back to that day she wondered into her grandfather's office. She was having trouble with the fact that Deidara, the shinobi that had helped her the most since she joined the Iwa shinobi force, the man she had seen as a brother, had abandoned Iwa and went rogue. She sought out her Ji-sama for advice, but was forced to wait for him in his office when she saw the dossier on his desk.
She, admittedly, was curious. She had always sat at the Tsuchikage's desk with her grandfather as he showed her and explained the ins and outs of being a kage when she was younger. She tried to keep her kunoichi training up and not snoop, but then she noticed Deidara's name on a loose sheet sticking out of the file.
The rest was, as they say, history.
"Here," a soft voice called out to her, making her tense up and reach for a kunai. Turning, she noticed Aki Chōwashibō standing at her side, holding out a plate of food to her. The tomboy eased up and holstered her kunai. She took the plate with a grunt and turned away from Aki.
The black haired kunoichi simply sat next to the younger girl and observed her. "I don't know what you said to Naruto, but thank you," Aki said softly. Kurotsuchi didn't acknowledge her at first.
"What makes you think I said anything to him?"
"Well, since it's obvious that you were the only other one awake and near him this morning when Aku, Anko, and I went hunting, and Izumo and Kotetsu said Naruto didn't come to them, it wasn't hard," she explained. "As well as the fact, the Rooks haven't had that kind of mission yet. Only Naruto has, and he only experienced death take people he called friends, not taking a life."
Kurotsuchi grunted. "I don't know what you're talking about, Chōwashibō," she muttered. "You're obviously delusional if you think I said something to a Konoha dog like that…" She hesitated, thinking of the last time she insulted the blond. "…like him," she stuttered out.
Aki said nothing. She just stood up and said, "Well, either way, thanks. Whatever you said helped Naruto out a great deal." Kurotsuchi didn't respond. "I'm grateful for that," Aki told her, and walked away.
The Iwa kunoichi simply looked on as Aki went back down to her family, envy racing through her. Why was that blonde bastard able to have a family that supported him without question when her own supported countless monstrosities? She bit down on the response. Life wasn't fair. That was the first thing Iwa taught their shinobi. She gave out an annoyed and frustrated sigh.
"Life sucks, then you die."
'Truer words have never been spoken,' the tomboy thought.
Iwa
Ōnoki was infuriated. Not only was his granddaughter not back at Iwa yet, but also kidnapped by Konoha shinobi and now in a foreign land where he couldn't get in because of legal bullshit!
The diminutive kage paced in front of his desk in a rage when an ANBU appeared before him. "Tsuchikage-sama," he intoned. "We've received word from the Otokage. He's allowed us access to their borders to search for Kurotsuchi-sama in exchange for the Konoha rogues holding her captive."
"Finally some good news," the oldest kage grumbled lowly. "So it's confirmed the dogs holding her are rogues?"
"Hai. All we know so far is they banished one of their genin, only for a hand full of their shinobi to grab the afore-mentioned genin and leave Konoha," the ANBU explained.
"Very well, organize a team of tracker nin, and find her. I want her back in Iwa before sundown tomorrow!" Ōnoki shouted, slamming his fist on his desk, sending papers and files flying off.
"Hai!" The ANBU Shunshined out, leaving the short man alone. The man sighed and walked back to his chair when he noticed something on the ground. Picking it up, he noticed it was the T&I's report on Project Bloodline. However, he noticed something amongst the papers, something that didn't belong.
A necklace. A necklace he himself bought Kurotsuchi the day she graduated the Academy.
"Kuro-chan," he sighed.
