Kiriko
Have you ever been hated, not for anything you have done, but because of what you were? When I look back that's all that ever happened in the orphanage, hatred. Which is a contradiction when it was supposed to be a place where if not loved, you were accepted.
The hatred started with the adults, the adults hated us. They hated us when we weren't quiet, when we weren't reasonable, if they paid any attention to us at all they hated us. They punished us, not to teach us, but because it was the only way they could vent that hatred. Sometimes they beat us, sometimes they didn't feed us, sometimes they screamed at every little thing. No behavior except quiet and compliant was acceptable, you couldn't cry, you couldn't complain, no one would save you, no one would care. This hatred created another kind of hatred, a more poisonous kind that the children experienced nonstop.
The hatred of those who got to leave.
In the end, leaving was the goal of everyone there. In our minds, adoption was our hope. Though we knew that older kids left after a certain point, we didn't know where they went. We just thought they went to an older kid orphanage, a place where they could be more miserable. No one ever wanted to go there. So the older kids were all the more desperate to leave, which meant they absolutely despised the younger kids because the younger you were, the more likely you were to be adopted. It was strange but that's how the adults worked. So the older kids hated and despised the younger kids, and the younger kids were terrified of the older kids. But in particular I was a special case, everyone hated me.
According to the adults, according to adopters, I was pretty. I never thought so, but that was what they said. So whenever a lineup happened, whenever an adopter came along to look at us, something would happen to me.
Who did it, well it really didn't matter, it was always an older orphan, they were vicious and desperate to leave. Being tripped, elbowed, having things thrown at me, on me, sneezing to make me sick, pushing me behind a door and wall so I couldn't line up to be adopted, or that I would appear broken or clumsy or just dumb. Every day was the same, they hated me and I had no idea why and I had no idea it wasn't normal.
Then someone who wasn't normal appeared.
Infants were kept separate from the other kids, the adults knew somewhat what was happening and didn't want them to die from the abuse. As much as they couldn't handle it they made sure as many kids stayed whole as possible so they could come of age. When I found out where the older kids who weren't adopted went it made much more sense why. But once they could walk and move around, toddlers could interact with other kids. I watched them sometimes, they were so cute regardless of the trouble they could be, but I didn't interact with them directly. Truthfully, it was because I was afraid they would run from me, or that they wouldn't like me either like everyone else seemed not to. But one day one approached me instead.
She was smaller than the other toddlers, with a mop of red hair. Her face was thin and grey eyes looked at me tugging at my shirt and pointing at the bookshelf. I froze as I stared at her, not understanding why she was here, but she tugged again to try and pull me along. Not that she got me far. But I looked again and pulled the book she wanted down and handed it to her. She immediately opened it flat on the ground and sat flat on her butt staring at the words intently. It was strange for certain, no other toddler was interested in books. After a few minutes of her just staring she reached out and grabbed me again. This time on my sleeve and pointed at the page. The entire time she made no sound, she just pointed trying to get me to, to read. I could read a little bit, they taught us hiragana, but not a lot. But she was insistent. I looked down at her arm and realized why. There were light bruises on it. She had probably asked another older kid and they squeezed her arm or pushed her away. But here she was, still insisting to be read, insisting I read to her.
I remember the warmth, the warmth as she crawled into my lap and I read to her. Sometimes I'd get stuck, sometimes I didn't know a word or a sound. I would get an adult to help, sometimes they would if only to get rid of us, sometimes they would turn us away but we kept at it, and she kept coming to me.
And that was the day I realized I probably would have done anything for that little girl, for my little sister Ume.
I remember the day we were taken away. I remember how much I wanted to cry when I had to leave her behind. How much fear I had when she ran out after us and was taken away by the shinobi only for her to show up a few hours later, fine and ready to be by my side in this new place.
It was strange because in the new place, the place we should have feared or hated, we found acceptance. It was the contradiction I noticed but also the contradiction that my little sister had become the big sister. Almost overnight it seemed the little girl who needed help and comfort in turn became the one who gave help and comfort. Not just for me, but for everyone.
With music and food she created fun, with commands and plans she created a platoon, and with love and patience, she created a family. Despite being the youngest of us, the smallest of us, and the weakest of us, in a lot of ways she held us together. She became the parent, or at least the dream of a parent we all longed for at the orphanage.
It was all the more strange because the entire thing weighed on her. She was strong but fragile, a person with a smile for everyone but herself. Not that she would ever admit to anyone that she wasn't okay, if only to keep us from worrying for her sake. It was most obvious when she slept, when she would cry out into the night and I would go to her side. Only in the darkness would she allow herself to appear weak and despite taking the role of the parent it was by my side that she allowed herself to be a child.
Which was why when we left the village with her absent I was worried for her and us.
We'd been walking on glass it seemed since we learned the truth. The preparations we took to leave were already done, but we still couldn't leave. Not without Hiroshi.
Our teammate, our friend, the quiet boy who disappeared after the exam only to be found to have been sent to the Mizukage's side. I don't think I'd ever seen Ume so scared before, even at the wall she had been less pale. But then, I didn't see much of her there. I had hidden then, the moment the line broke I ran and hid.
Because that was all I could do.
Not much has changed since then because I, like every other person, ran when the chakra sweeped over the village. When it did I couldn't think, couldn't breathe, all I knew was I had to get out of that place, I needed to leave because something was coming and it would kill me. I knew it in my bones, knew it to my very core that where that chakra went, death would follow. But even while I ran I still acted. We had a plan and we would do it. I summoned the rabbits.
Six rabbits, one for team four, one for team three, one for Shiroe and Kotori, one for Ume, one for Suigetsu and one to direct me. The rabbits were, according to them, primarily non combatants, they described themselves as prey and acted as such. But they were sensors and according to them they could sense all of their rabbits as well as anyone they had previously met. I had to summon the rabbits before, one by one on separate days to get to know them. The six rabbits were the only ones I could summon at the moment, they were Tamanegi, Daikon, Momo and her twin sister Mikan, Koyo who didn't seem to like me very much and Nana who was the oldest. They were all siblings and all from the youngest generation of those who could be summoned, which is why it took relatively little chakra to summon them one at a time.
Though all at once they still staggered me and made me pause for breath. It still made me only pause, I directed them and kept running. Strangely enough, they weren't startled or even scared about the demon's chakra.
As I stumbled out with the people rushing out of the village I went to the first checkpoint.
It was a small cave, not very far from the village, one that hadn't existed before. Gonmaru had made it for us and Minami had marked it with a seal the rabbits could track. It was a simple seal according to her, one that just let out a small amount of noise that we couldn't hear. It was amazing she made it at all. You couldn't find it otherwise, it was under a rock that was easy to miss in the mountain side. I pushed it aside, slid in and closed it behind me, waiting in the darkness.
In the dim light the first to come arrived. It was Benjiro. but I held down low as I locked eyes with him.
"Hello darkness my old friend."
"I've come to speak with you again."
Benjiro responded quickly. A few moments later Gonmaru appeared, pushing the rock around to make room for his larger frame.
"I was left to my own devices, many days fell away with nothing to show."
"And the walls kept tumbling down in the city that we loved." Gonmaru said quickly.
"Kami, things really are falling apart, aren't they?"
"You guys have really weird code phrases, you know that?" The girl with braided brown hair that was crawling in after him said.
"You know…"
"Gotta keep, one step ahead of the breadline, one swing ahead of the sword. I steal only what I can't afford." Benjiro started on her this time.
"Guys this is stupid. You know… hey!" Gonmaru had an arm around her neck a moment later and held her. "Let go!"
"Sorry" He said, but still held her.
The three of us stared at her and she let out a huff before speaking.
"One jump ahead of the lawman, that's all and that's no joke. These guys don't appreciate I'm broke."
Gonmaru put her down and she dusted herself off, glaring at him he shrugged his shoulders.
"You could have been switched out. We talked about this before."
"I was right behind you. Besides, no one knows we were coing here and everyone was fleeing. Besides, we have her."
Nana jumped through the hole a moment later. She was larger than Tamanegi or Daikon, but only by a little bit, her fur grey and brown. The rabbit looked at her.
"You were separated from us in the crowd for several minutes. It would have been a good time to switch you. But you smell the same, Kumihimo-san."
"My name isn't…"
"The rabbits like giving nicknames. She didn't mean anything by it." I said, holding up my hand. "Anyway, we need to sit and wait for the others."
"If we're gonna wait around, shouldn't we be trying to get more people? This is the start of something, I can tell. People are too scared to let this rest." Fujiko said again, her hands balled into fists as she looked at us.
Benjiro started this time.
"You know it's not that simple. I wish we could, but…"
"But information leaks, yeah, yeah." She said as she sat against the wall. "I doubt anybody would even wonder at this point if some people never came back, that was…" She shuddered, wrapping her arms around her.
"Yeah, it was, but we're getting away from that. Once we're all together we're going to get out of here." I said it this time and tried to smile at her in the dark. She didn't seem reassured.
Even after Minami, Mitsuki, Shiroe, Kotori and finally Suigetsu arrived we stayed until nightfall, if they were searching for the people who left they would do so almost immediately after things were calmed down. It took a bit of time, but it was still several hours later when we left to make sure they were either elsewhere or not looking around the village. Staying close to the village for the first checkpoint was the decision made because it would be easy to overlook. Surely someone who was trying to escape wouldn't stay so close.
We left without Ume, she had sent word back that we should leave without her, I would have argued to stay, but I knew it wouldn't have done any good. Nothing good would come from us staying in one spot for too long, plus we had a mapped out plan. Everyone memorized it, with some auxiliary spots in case we were discovered. It took forever to map out and we had to keep a tight time. Thankfully, despite now being a clerk Shiroe had been a shinobi, while she was wasn't in the best shape she could keep pace even while carrying Kotori.
We stopped at Kinto, a small trading outpost about two hours from the village and stayed there until morning. Some of the others slept, but I couldn't. It wasn't that far, not for someone like Ume. She'd know where we were and when we were, but I still couldn't shake how long she was taking.
The next morning we changed and started traveling at civilian speeds. There was a very real temptation to just rush for the shores and escape the country in the confusion at shinobi speed, but that had a very real danger of immediate pursuit. There was also the problem of obtaining passage. The Land of Water was several days by boat to the nearest island countries, let alone to Land of Fire, which was at least a week away on a fast vessel. According to Shiroe she could use her connections to find a smuggler vessel, but if we let slip we were shinobi they'd be more likely to turn us in for the standing bounty on missing nin than actually try and help us.
The safest way was traveling through the islands at a civilian pace until we got to one of the furthest islands from Kirigakure to catch a sailing ship where we'd be least likely to be intercepted by the barricade.
Not that this didn't meet some resistance as we walked down the path.
"Kami, this is taking forever."
"Walking does that, yes." I replied to Suigetsu in his disguised appearance.
Most of us were using tactile disguises, but Suigetsu simply changed form to make himself look completely different. Instead of his lanky self he redistributed the water to a stouter form, with dark hair and differently colored eyes. I hadn't known he was capable of such drastic changes, but then again, much like a normal henge, his cover would be blown by any attack that broke the water tension revealing his liquid form.
"I'm thirsty." He said.
Reaching into my pouch I pulled out a canteen and tossed it to him. He took a sip and made a face.
"Ah, come on, you don't have any smoothies."
"I only packed essentials, imouto-san will have those when we meet up again." I avoided using names.
"Whatever"
He emptied the canteen and took a few steps to place it in my bag before he started jogging backwards. His hands went behind his head as he looked at us.
"So what're we gonna do then, til we get there? Sing a song? Maybe we can do one of those stories." He looked back. "Seriously, something, anything."
"Can't you take anything seriously? We aren't exactly going on vacation" Fujiko snapped at Suigetsu.
Gonmaru was next to her and just shook his head.
"You don't need to be so testy Fu, he's just talking. Maybe we should sing a song, it'll lighten the mood a bit."
"The mood? You think we should lighten the mood, we're…" She clenched her jaw. "Nevermind, what's the point of even talking about it. It's not like he's in any danger anyway."
Her head just motioned towards Suigetsu as she walked.
"Excuse me?" Suigetsu said, raising an eyebrow.
"What? There's nothing on the line for you, you can just go back and they won't even touch you. Is it a wonder you're treating this like a vacation?" She said, letting out a huff
"You think this isn't dangerous for me?" He said, looking at her.
"I know it isn't. I'm no…"
I grabbed Fujiko by the back of her shirt and she stopped cold at the sudden tug. I wasn't much stronger than she, in fact she probably could have pushed out of the grip if she tried as she was a little taller than me. But it was a clear set.
"What?" She looked at me, then at Suigetsu. "You defending him?"
"I understand why you might feel that way, but you're being inconsiderate to him. Apologize." I said with a neutral tone.
"Who are you, my mother?" She said as she pushed my hand off her collar and started walking again as she was looking at me. Running forward, she dashed ahead.
I looked at Benjiro and Gonmaru. Gonmaru just shook his head while Benjiro shrugged.
Letting out a sigh, I looked at the others and dashed after her to keep pace. I couldn't let her get too far ahead and this wasn't going to resolve itself.
Maybe I could have done some grandstanding gesture to put her in her place, but honestly I preferred things to be a bit more private. Though when it came to actually talking I kept things simple.
"Stop." I said it simply and she paused mid stride to look back at me.
"Stop what." She said. "Am I…"
I held up a hand.
"This isn't productive, and it certainly isn't helpful. I know you're scared."
"You don't know anything." She said. "You and your little pact with your spoiled he…"
"His status with his family has absolutely nothing to do with any of this and you shouldn't snap at people in your group nor can you just go running ahead." I replied.
"Who gives you the authority to…"
"It's not about authority, it's not even about stature. That's not how we work." I replied.
"Why, because your chibi commander isn't here?" She said as she walked forward. "He's only here because they're friends, I wouldn't be surprised if he or that Kishi aren't spies fo…"
I ran in front of her and cut off her walking.
"His brother was killed no less than two weeks ago as a political ploy and that Kishi's husband was my sensei, who not only taught us but died protecting us."
I met her eyes and kept my voice level but I didn't think I could stop the shaking.
"So, it's his fault we're leaving. He dumped this on us, and the implication may as well have killed us all the sa…"
My palm hit her face as she stepped into it. The shock hit her more than the actual hit and she looked at me startled, her face red.
"You hit me, you think you can ju…"
"I said stop." I added emphasis on the last word.
"You've been complaining this entire trip, the entire plan, you've been pushing against it. You hadn't even given any good reasonable explanations for it. Just petty grievances and empty words to split up the group." I looked at her.
"Do you honestly think you are the only one who doesn't want to do this? You think you are the only one who is doubting every action we take, every step away from the only world we know? You throw out accusations, but what good do they do? You're not the only one who is second guessing, you're not the only one who is scared."
"Then why are we here? Why so few people, why all this secrecy?" She said, pointing at me. "Why are we bringing them but not my sensei, or my friends? They're probably scared too, they're in teams and are going to be dragged into this war too. Why didn't we grab them to escape?"
"We don't know where they are! We waited as long as we could but they hadn't come back from that mission. As for your sensei, we had no idea whether or not we could trus…"
"Trust? She's my sensei, she's your brother's sensei and you didn't think you could trust her with this. She could have helped." She said. "She still can."
"She wasn't always your… Wait, what do you mean by that?" I looked at her again and she turned away. "What did you do?"
"We're heading to the way point, right? It won't be much longer." She said, walking forward.
By this point I could hear the others coming closer. They had gotten a bit of distance but were coming closer.
"Did you, did you tell her?" I said, standing there, a little stunned.
She didn't speak, but I could tell from her expression she was guilty.
"Fujiko." I said, walking over. "You can't have…"
"Can't have what? Saved the people I loved too? You're so selfish you…"
"Stop!" I said, my eyes growing frantic as something glinted in the distance.
She grit her teeth and ran ahead.
"Will you stop telling me to..."
The senbon flew out of the treeline and caught her in the neck, freezing her place. There was a snap and I cried out even as I jumped prone. The wire snapped through the air, very visible in the morning mist. It slung around the tree in a snap, doubling with some wire already there and constricting together. The level was low for an adult, it would have wrapped around the midsection.
In Fujiko's case, it wrapped around her neck, constricted for all of a second before severing the flesh, then severing the head.
I didn't see it fall, I was already running as I ran through the hand signs.
"Yin Release: Mirror's False Army"
The bunshin appeared around me scattering in different directions as I headed for the others. I met Gonmaru first, his staring form almost stopping me flat as I grabbed his arm to move him.
"Move!" I said as I pulled his arms.
He stared in shock even as his feet moved and followed after me. I did another release and sent two pairs of us scattering in the other directions as we moved in the treeline. Everyone else was separating in pairs to avoid capture as we went.
"Do the dowsing maneuver."
Gonmaru didn't respond, his body going only following the minimal movement as I pulled him along. It wasn't fast going.
"Gonmaru! We have to…"
He grabbed me with his arm and turned his body, pulling me along. Several senbon embed themselves in his back and he let out a huff.
"Gonmaru!" I cried as he slumped onto my body.
Grabbing him under my arm I pulled us to the ground as more senbon flew. Doing the signs, I created an illusion cloaking us from sight.
Placing a hand on his back I felt the points where the senbon were. It wasn't a lethal hit, some of them might have been had he not turned so quickly, but he'd have trouble moving his arm for a while and I could feel there was poison. That wasn't good, but I couldn't move us. I had to stay still while I maintained the genjutsu and the air around us. I created an air bubble to mask our breathing, our body heat and the smell of our bodies. I also pushed my chakra down as much as I could while I did so. Whoever was out there, they might have had tracking summons like the rabbits.
I started humming to myself as I closed my eyes in concentration. Doing so much at once would be taxing on my concentration but I had to remain calm, I had to take care of Gonmaru. We had a plan for this too, if we ever got attacked we'd scatter, separate and pair off. No one alone, everyone would grab who they could and run. It wasn't exactly the plan for me to stay here but I wouldn't be leaving Gonmaru as he was. For the moment that was all I could do.
I don't know how long we were there, or how long I held the illusion of dead brush. But I would hold out as long as I could while I treated the wounds.
Most of the senbon came out readily, either they hadn't been aiming for him or hadn't expected it to hit as much muscle. It would hurt later, but it wouldn't kill him. They had managed to get some pressure points, that along with the poison on them was probably what caused him to black out. I knew some pressure points, I also knew the pain alone could take someone out if they weren't prepared for it.
The poison was a paralytic or some sort of sedative. I wasn't certain which, but I could tell that, while fairly concentrated, it wasn't enough to kill someone with Gonmaru's sheer bulk. But then, if I looked at it, they hadn't been aiming at him, they had been aiming for me and even in shock he took the hit.
It probably would have been better if I'd been hit and he could still move, he could have carried me away or taken us underground instead of us being stuck here. I wasn't confident enough to try and move him, even if he was only lightly injured it would slow me down and make us easy to capture.
When I was done I held out smelling salts under his nose as I held a hand over his mouth. He started to come to slowly, but a moment later tried to jolt up, almost knocking me off him.
"Down, stay down…" I said in a whisper and he looked at me, his eyes scanning around.
He winced as he tried to move, I reached over and placed an arm over the places in his shoulder and arm where the senbon hit muscle and released a light numbing technique to reduce the pain as I signed for quiet, then that there were possible unknowns in the area. He nodded, wincing as he moved to a crouching position.
He did a few hand signs and whispered.
"Earth Release: Vibration Sense."
He placed both hands on the ground and closed his eyes. I stayed as still as I could while he surveyed the area. He signed to me that there were two to the northeast and I nodded, asking back how far.
He replied far enough and we started to move in a crouch. We couldn't stay for longer than we already had, they might double back and do a more thorough sweep. He pointed at the ground and I nodded to him to wait for his cue. He took a deep breath and concentrated before doing the hand signs, grabbing me and pulling the both of us into the ground.
I'd never done the earth walking technique before, let alone been pulled along underground by one. It was rather claustrophobic, being so surrounded by dirt, really encased in it, yet we were flowing through it like it was, maybe not water, thick mud might have been a better comparison. It was strangely cold too, the only warmth being his side, which I was pulled up against with his arm pinning me to his torso. I didn't fidget even though I wanted to, I didn't know what would happen if I lost contact with him.
We went on like this for a short while, just him propelling us through the ground, his arm pulling us along like he was swimming and I was all but a dead weight against him. Sometimes he dipped and turned, sometimes small rocks or roots brushed against us and he had to move around or power through them. When we finally surfaced we pulled ourselves up onto one of the black shores. A lot of the shorelines were jagged rocks, or steep cliffs, but some of them were black. It wasn't a pleasant feeling as we surfaced, the black sand clinging to our skin and clothing as he pulled us from the surface. The rough material was not pleasant and I placed hands on my face to draw it away by sticking it to my hands with chakra then shaking it off.
Turning towards him I was about to ask him why here when I saw him slump down onto the beach, panting. Sitting down next to him I pulled out my canteen before remembering it was empty. Looking around I saw the beach water and signed I would be right back.
It only took a few minutes to pull an orb of water out from the sea and to draw all the salt out with one hand to make it drinkable. It was a hard technique, water bonded really well with salt naturally and didn't want to separate, but it was one of the techniques taught to everyone in support company. No matter how bad you were at ninjutsu, you couldn't get through the training without it. Thankfully, the technique was towards my nature, so I could do it well enough. I did another technique to make sure it was sanitized before pushing the water into my cantine.
When I returned Gonmaru had laid himself onto his back, his eyes staring up at the sky. I sat next to him but hesitated to move. Taking in a breath I held out the cantine.
"Drink, we'll have to move soon."
He didn't respond, just looking upwards, staring into the darkness of the night. It wasn't a clear night, the overcast of the day blocking out the stars. I didn't know if he was looking for them, or anything really, he just lay there in the quiet.
"We can't stay here, it's too exposed."
He turned his head towards me.
"Is it even worth it?"
My breath caught in my throat but I pushed it down. I wasn't going to start down this, we were still in danger. We had to stick, to something really, some sort of plan, some sort of actual plan. It's why we spent so much time preparing, so we wouldn't be caught unaware again, not like then, not like the last time…
I let out a choke as the images flashed into my head. The smell, the body parts, the screaming. I clenched my fist and bit down on my bottom lip, trying to focus on the pain. It was hard, hard, another contradiction. Wasn't that supposed to be the day of build up, but then, that, them, Enji.
That single thought, that single word corroded what was left of my control as I curled into myself.
I closed my eyes as my head started pounding and my stomach started to clench in on itself. Old pain, it was an old pain, but this made it new again. Why did this have to come now, I couldn't, I couldn't do this.
"Stop, stop, stop…" I said, looking at the ground. "Why won't this stop."
"Because it's our fault."
The words forced me out of my haze as I stared at En… Gonmaru laying there, eyes to the sky.
"We pushed against them, and they won, they always win. Why are we surprised, why are we even trying?"
"Gonmaru." I let out the word weakly.
"Why did we even run? Now they have a reason, kami, they didn't have that before."
He said, a sand covered hand going to his now wet face.
"We couldn't have stayed there." I leaned forward to look at him. "They would ha…."
"What!" He shot up so quickly I had to rear back from the sudden movement. "Killed us! Made us fight! We're already doing that!"
"Gonmaru we can't go ba…"
"Of course not! Because now they have a REASON. They didn't even need that before. Not with the wall, not with…" His teeth gritted as he took a fist and hit the sand, once, then twice, then three times. "She was right! We should have gone back. We should have!"
"We made a decision, we can't…."
The hand grabbed my throat and lifted me in the air before I finished. He had big hands, even for a boy, and it only took one to grab it completely.
"We, we! You made a decision, you and Ume, we just went along with it, and now, now Fujiko's DEAD!"
He was standing now, in a fluid motion maybe from his anger, maybe from adrenaline he'd brought the both of us up on the beach and he was holding me there in the air. I had trouble breathing as I tried to grip the fingers to get free, but his grip was iron around my neck and as I looked around I tried to get a look at his face, but I couldn't.
Panic started to set in as my world started to fade, air pushing away from me. I had to calm him down, I had to get down. I couldn't help if.. If…
I removed my hand and did the signs before grabbing his wrists. The emotion I gave out was what I was feeling, panic, fear, despair, desperation, all pushed from me into him. I didn't know if it would work, if I could push down his grief and anger, but as the world started to go dark the fingers loosened and I fell to the dark sand. Gasping for air I held a hand to my throat and felt a bruise starting to form. I applied chakra to it before turning as I saw Gonmaru crumple to the ground. He didn't look angry, he just looked, empty. His eyes were tearing as he stared at his hands.
I looked at him and started to move slowly towards him. He looked up and I flinched back out of memory of what just happened.
That wasn't the right thing to do, because he slumped down even more,
"I'm" A throaty sob came out. "So, sorry, I'm, so, so sorry. I didn't, I couldn't…"
The emptiness turned to anguish as he buried his head in his hands. I walked forward and held my arms around his neck. That was right, this wasn't the second time for him was it, it was the third. His parents died too, he was there though I didn't know the details. I don't think any of us did except maybe Benjiro, we didn't ask because we didn't want him to have to relive it again. We knew he'd lost them, that was enough and he'd lost, he'd lost his best friend at the wall too. Now, now he'd lost his teammate. So I couldn't stay mad or scared of him. He'd had a moment of weakness and lost his temper in his grief and he regretted it.
I couldn't find it in me to be mad about it, I hadn't even seen it coming. He'd never hurt any of us before, not even in spars. He tried so hard to be gentle in spars, to keep from going too far because he hated hurting people so much. It was another contradiction, someone so gentle being someone who could cause the most harm.
I really should expect it by now.
We weren't able to completely regroup until about two weeks later. We had to lay low to prevent us being caught into the group. We couldn't go to any of the prelaid way points that Fujiko knew of for fear of there being more ambushes. There were still a couple that she didn't though, each person had their own safe point the others didn't know about. The only person who knew where everyone's retreating points were was Ume, which was still rather nerve-wracking as she hadn't gotten in contact with any of us yet.
I used the rabbits to regroup us, tracking down a pair at a time. The first one I did was the one with Benjiro in it. It was no secret I was doing it for Gonmaru's benefit, we found them three days later and the two of them separated to have their own vigil for their lost teammate. Benjiro had paired off with Shiroe and Kotori. We found Minami and Mitsuki five days later, they had kept moving, so it was harder to track them down.
Last we found Chojuro, who had apparently been scouring beaches looking for Suigetsu. When we got to him he was distraught that they got separated. Apparently Chojuro got injured and Suigetsu said he'd lure them away. Chojuro protested but Suigetsu knocked him out and hid him, by the time he had come to Suigetsu and the ninja hunting them were gone, so Chojuro started searching for water sources since that's where he would have gone to fight.
Suigetsu was at his strongest around large water sources. I tried to help with the search, but the rabbits couldn't find him. Maybe because he did go into the water, or maybe because he was already gone.
That was another person gone, this wasn't looking good.
We were all together in a small coastal town, it was on a cliff overlooking the water. People were coming and going, more nervous than not. The word of what had happened was spreading, and fighting had already broken out.
The war was starting, and we were still here. The decision wasn't entirely my own, but I am sure they considered it when we tried to discuss where we'd go now. Leaving the country would get harder the more time went by. It was already hard, we had money saved up, but getting that far would be hard and there was one real factor to it.
Ume was still gone.
I'd tried tracking her with the rabbits around the points, but there were no new trails for them to follow. No evidence of her moving or her going to any of the waypoints we set up. It was concerning, and speculation was starting. We didn't say it as a group, but I knew the others were discussing the possibility. But we had no way to confirm so we were just stuck.
Until the one night.
Daikon woke me up one night in a fit. I kept a rabbit summoned while I was sleeping as a guard, he was positively scared as he jumped on me.
"There's a predator outside, we need to run, need to hide."
"What?" I bolted up, feeling around in the dark. "Is it a, wait…"
Predator, that was a strange word. They didn't use that when they thought it was other shinobi.
"What do you mean, a predator?" I said as rolled out of the futon.
"A bird of prey, not a normal one, a hunter who could eat us or take us back to our world. We have to flee before…"
I put a hand on his mouth.
"A summon"
A bird summons, a hunter summons…
An owl.
I jumped up and padded forward. With my foot, I nudged Mitsuki awake.
"Get up, there's a summons here."
The girl blinked, her curly hair framing her face as she rolled onto her shoulder.
"A summons, an enemy?"
The voice was tired as she pushed herself up.
"An owl. That might mean..." I said, looking at her hopefully.
"You shouldn't be so quick." She drew herself up and grabbed her bow from her bag. "This may be a trick or a trap. He shares that contract with the other Kishi."
"No, he doesn't. Only heads can sign the clan contracts." I said quickly. "And why would his father seek us out?"
"Because he was ordered to." Mitsuki said in her normal deadpan.
Though her expression gave away some flicker of doubt in her words, it was slight a twitch of her eyes as she adjusted.
"Don't wake the others, they aren't quiet. If it's true, if it is his, we don't know what this could mean."
"He's my teammate." I replied.
"He was your teammate." She corrected. "Your team dissolved officially with the death of your sensei." She set two fingers on the side of her head. "There was no contact, no set-up. I understand you and Ume were trying to contact him but..."
"He was with, he was with that person." I didn't say it directly, not out loud. "And that freaked out Ume. It might have something, look, we don't have time. Owls are hunter birds, maybe even tracker summons. If he wanted us dead he'd have sent them out earlier to help with tracking us, he didn't. A summons can find us if they've met the person at least once, Hiroshi's summons saw us all at the exams."
I said as I headed towards the window to peer out. In the moonlight I saw a small owl perched on a fence outside the small inn. It was a large owl, larger than a normal owl would be, large enough for a teenager to ride on.
Looking around, I jumped over the window frame and walked forward slowly. Truth was, I wasn't entirely sure this wasn't a bad thing. As Mitsuki said it'd been six months. But then, I didn't see why I should doubt Hiroshi. Despite what happened in our academy days, he wasn't a bad person. Not only that, he tried so hard to be a better person. Not just a better ninja, a better person. If he saw or heard something wrong he tried to fix it. In Kirigakure that took the form of money, not direct help of course, he found out very quickly that if he tried to help people directly they'd be suspicious of him. It's why he would sometimes ask me who was struggling, which families needed money or support and then he would make big orders to their businesses through his clan.
He was like Ume in that regard at least, or maybe he was trying to imitate her. But if he couldn't help us directly, couldn't be here himself I could see him doing this, sending us a summons.
The bird looked at me, its head swiveling slightly to the side as it examined me. I glanced around a bit nervously but decided maybe I should introduce myself. Leaning forward I did a deep bow to the bird.
"Konbanwa." I kept my head bowed as I tried to glance around in case of ambush. A moment later I saw a flicker of shadow to indicate the bird had bowed back.
"Konbanwa, owner of the rabbit contract. I have come here bearing a message from my contract holder."
The owl's voice was female, higher than I expected for its size as she looked up.
"The lost rabbit has been strung up, there is not much time before the slaughter even though she has not strayed from the burrow."
I recorded the message in my mind, my eyes flickering through the code. It wasn't a hard one, though it would be nonsense to anyone else listening I knew what it meant and that made me gasp. I watched the owl bow shortly and start to fly away. I didn't stop her, didn't even move from my spot as a hand on my face shook. This was, she might be, no, no…
I don't know how long I was out there but I felt a hand on my shoulder. Looking up, I saw Mitsuki along with Minami standing there.
"What is wrong?"
I looked up at her, eyes locking with hers as I said in a shaky voice.
"Ume, she never left the village."
"We can't come with you." Shiroe said it as firmly as possible. "I can't take the risk."
Kotori was in the other room with Gonmaru and Benjiro, going over words and sounds. Shiroe had put a seal on her daughter to render her deaf and mute to keep her out of the academy. I'd call it cruel, but as much as the academy was a home for us, for her it would have separated the little girl from her family and eventually made her a shinobi. I understood the fear behind the action, even if I didn't condone it.
"We prepared as best we can, we'll get out as soon as possible." I said as I got our things together to leave.
"And if the worse has happened?" Shiroe said and I winced at it.
I really didn't want to think about the possibility. I had to go, if what I got from the code was correct she was being tortured. I'd never seen the torture chambers myself, but I knew it was bad. Ume one time spent months cleaning them, she had nightmares for weeks.
"We'll come find you. Kansen wanted you safe, so we're going to keep you safe." I gave her a smile. "It's the least we could do."
She nodded.
"I don't want to put this on your shoulders, but at the same time I won't reject it. I, I don't know what he… they would do if they caught me."
I wanted to ask the question but I let Shiroe keep that to herself. If she was running from someone in particular, well it wasn't my place to dwell. She helped us so far by finding the contacts for the smuggling vessels.
We left in the middle of the night, running at shinobi speed. We weren't worried about subtlety, because that was going to be out the window once we started. Instead we were betting on confusion and the battles to act as a backdrop.
Well, that and Minami's ability to blow things up.
When we got to the edge of the mountains we set up our groups and we started. There would be much activity late at night, but if we were seen the alarm would go up quickly. The two groups were set and we headed out. I went with Minami, Benjiro and Gonmaru while Mitsuki was look out with Chojuro at the mountain.
Our team of four moved along the wall, stopping at gaps Minami assured us the guards couldn't see us in. We slipped into the wall at a gate by waiting for a guard to request it open. We ambushed him and those opening it by throwing the smoke grenades in there with them. We used the air bubble jutsu to keep the grenades from putting us to sleep and split into two groups to distribute them among the wall. Daikon was tracking Ume, though it was taking him time to get a read on her. That wasn't good.
From what I understood, the rabbits were natural sensors, they could find someone through their chakra or really the imprint their chakra made on the environment. The more active a person was, the more chakra they used and the more recent it was used made tracking easier. The fact that he was having trouble finding her meant she hadn't moved around the city much, she wasn't able to use chakra or that she couldn't produce chakra at all because she was dead.
All three were in fact entirely possible if she was being held somewhere.
He led us into the city but towards our apartments, no, it wouldn't do. That meant we needed to head towards more obvious targets. Where they would hold shinobi who were captured, interrogation.
It wasn't until we got to the building that we met real resistance.
Minami and Benjiro rejoined me and Gonmaru before we got there, Danny guiding her instead of the rabbit. Danny actually attacked Daikon and desummoned him, but I couldn't be mad. If Danny could find Ume somehow he'd be more use than Daikon, who wasn't sure. Minami had been trying to cover the city in the smoke, which she got a fair bit done especially with Mitsuki helping her using her arrows. The mist mixed with the smoke grenades, spreading it into the evening. As we approached we saw the small band of shinobi standing, faces masked and on alert. We approached quietly under the mist and I looked at Minami, signalling her to set the attack.
I moved to the side and she threw a small bomb at my feet. It made a quick bang and flash, nothing big, but all shinobi immediately turned towards me as I stepped out of the mist.
I had the seals done before I did it, locking eyes with them.
"Yin Release: Frozen Prison"
I had to keep my breathing steady, I usually didn't do so many people at once, but I got all their eyes with mine. I could feel the connection, feel the halt to their minds as I forced them to stop everything. They were like a picture, the lot of them frozen in mid step or mid draw of a weapon. I felt myself shake as I kept the connection until it was suddenly severed.
The wire slung out from the mist wrapping them all together and breaking eye contact. A moment later it blew up and we ran. There was no point in subtlety at this point.
The corridors were three people wide, I took the lead keeping jutsu at the ready. As soon as someone was in view I froze them then either Gonmaru would slam their head into the wall or Minami would blow them up. Benjiro was rear guard while we followed Danny, who just sprinted ahead, not even slowing until we were down to a door. It was like all the other doors in the corridor, dark and ominous, well, not just that, the smell. I knew the smell, how couldn't I working in the hospital as much as I had? Blood, fecal matter and death, the hallways smelled like death. So much so I hesitated to open the door.
I needn't worry about it, Minami yanked it open.
"Yep that's her, get her down, we need to go."
I didn't hesitate then, even as I ran in, even as I took it, her, in.
She looked so small, given she had always been small, but she was thinner. Naked from the top up she was laid out on a board. I could see her ribs and her thin arms. She'd lost muscle, maybe from not eating enough. She had a fast metabolism and they couldn't have been feeding her enough here. Her hair was a mess around her face, which was starker and more drawn than ever. Her normally thin face looked hallowed, hair stuck to it from what was probably dried sweat. In the dark she looked more dead than alive, but as I approached I saw Danny jump on the table and place a furry paw on her face. Not clawing, but mewing.
Her eyes fluttered open and she exhaled a breath.
"Danny."
I ran to her side a moment later. Her eyes were foggy, her form weakened, she was in pain, from what I could take from the diagnostic she was low on blood, malnourished, burned and beaten.
But she was alive, she was still here, I could fix it if I worked, if we got out of here. I could keep her safe, I could make things better.
We just needed to survive.
Just as a note, Fujiko isn't a bad person, she's just lashing out because she's scared. She doesn't have the same sort of trust the others have in any of this and she has no reason to trust Shiroe, Kotori or Suigetsu. We trust them because we know they aren't bad people either, but again most shinobi don't see them and see people, they see members of the seven families who are universally feared or hated.
