Song: Just Breathe/Author: Kylee
Song: Chang Me/Author: Lee Hom Wong
Konoha Gates
The silhouette of the brown haired women was seen as she passed the only entrance and exit to Konoha. Night persisted to overcome the day as her journey took her to Otokagure. Trees were all but a blur as Amaya sped, only pausing when Konohagakure became but a spec on the horizon. 'I have three more hours until I reach the coordinates.' Amaya set up camp and stared at the instructions on the scroll. Location: 901° 32" 5' latitude, 36° 6" 3' longitude: Otogakure. Retrieve Genma Shurinai and Kin Maki. Gain information on new village. 'A new village? I was not aware that one was organized enough to become a village.' Amaya put the scroll away along with the pictures of the two spies. The brown haired man and green haired woman looked like the best spy's' Konoha had. She slept lightly waking at the tiniest of sounds every few hours but nothing came. Amaya erased the trace of her camp and she had begun to run toward Otogakure once again.
Two days had passed before she passed the border and had finally entered into Otogakure. Forest slowly turned to grassland as she furthered traveled into the country. Amaya caught sight of a small hut and came toward it. No one was outside so she knocked at the door. It came off of its hinges and fell to the ground.
Amaya stepped over it to find objects strewn across the floor. Broken glass was everywhere with blood. She picked up a sample and deposited it into her pack. 'So someone must have been taken from here with resistance. It was a rather bloody battle with one party losing the battle most likely the resident. I can't get a trace of where the resident was taken. The blood is flaking so it's over a week old.' Amaya exited the hut and found a grassy path from what could have been the backyard but was trampled down to nothingness. She followed along the grassy path until she reached a deep and extremely wide ravine. Below Amaya saw her first sighting of otogakuran people. They were farmers cultivating the rich soil of a once grand river down in the ravine.
'How did they get there? I see no village down below.' Her answer came as she looked across the ravine to see the base of roped ladders rope ladders as well as a small huts clustered together farther away from the ravine. 'The distance is over 20 feet. I'll have to use chakra and the wind for this jump.' At the moment the wind was blowing against her. So Amaya breaked for lunch in the middle of it she felt the wind change. 'Ah, it's here.' She stuffed her lunch in her pack and stood. Bunching her leg muscles and filling them with chakra Amaya made a running leap. She had barely cleared the ravine and landed when she felt the loose cliff she landed on begin to give way. Running on insulin she jumped onto safer ground and crouched their waiting for her normal pulse to return as the sound of rocks hit against the floor of the ravine. She was relieved to find that no one was harmed when she peeked over the edge. The only problem was that she had given away her cover as farmers looked up to see who had caused the rock fall. Amaya ran toward the village as she heard the farmers yell. She henge'd before entering the small town.
A thirty year old woman with red hair entered the village. She looked like a traveling merchant with wares traveling on her back. Town people stopped what they were doing to look at the mysterious person as she walked past and went in the inn. Amaya booked a room. She felt going into an inn was better than getting creepy stares from the towns' folk was better any day. She found a local bar and was listening on an interesting conversation of shinobi taking the local's children away every year. The three men out of four had left and so she came up to the drunken man.
"Have you seen my adopted siblings?" Amaya showed him the pictures and the man became somber.
"Yeah… I knew 'em. They'em were town heroes… in the end. We didn't… like em 'cause to us they were strangers. But they were our… friends when they killed rogue shinobi trying to… raid our town. But a few weeks later they… took the place of our children when the yearly hitate shinobi came around. Their hitates had a… musical note on em. The… hitates." Amaya heard this with hope. 'Bingo.'
"Where did they go?" Amaya tried to ask reasonably with a not so sober man.
"That a way. Rice country; don't know where… after that." Amaya nodded and disappeared from the bar. She went back to her inn room and grabbed her pack with a last look around the room she left into the night. Morning came earlier at midnight for the innkeeper as he heard a bang from one of the nearest rooms. He rushed with his keys at the door and slammed it open to see a vacant area.
The only sign of his temporary resident leaving was of an open with curtains billowing out. That morning all the tenants heard the keeper mumble was, 'crazy baka.' Looking at the map showed that she was at the right coordinates but rice country was smaller than the map had shown. Many people working in rice fields were not friendly as she came to realize. When she tried to speak to one, the man merely took his sickle and waved it threateningly at her.
'Perhaps I should henge again? I'm not sure if it would matter either way. But what if I henge'd into Genma Shurinai?' Amaya nodded at the plan. 'I want to see their reactions.' She stepped into the field and henge'd there, she then began to walk along the path once again. Villagers stopped their work and stared at her. A man in his late sixties with graying hair and a cane came up to her henge'd self.
"So, you escaped did you." Amaya nodded at the man. "Well come with me I'll house you until things are settled." Amaya frowned internally. 'Settled? Why did he accept me so suddenly?' Amaya followed the man at a distance through the city. They were leaving behind the buildings. 'Is his home on the outskirts of town?' She wondered as they began walking among fields.
"Sir, where are we going?" Amaya sensed chakra signatures ahead of them. Two kunai's slipped into her hands as she went into defense. She stepped in front of the man as ninja's jumped out from the rice patties. Just as the drunken man had described there were musical notes on their hitates'. 'I don't know any of their specialties so I'll have to just test them and see.' Amaya looked at the old man behind her. "Sir, once I've begun fighting I want you to go back towards town I advise you to not look back." He nodded and Amaya turned toward the ninjas.
"So you've escaped have you? I'm afraid it's too dangerous for you to be walking around with such a wide mouth. That will have to be taken care of. It's a pity your wanted alive. But our leader did not specify how alive you're supposed to be." One particular man with two heads spoke with venom dripping from his voice. 'It's like he went through a test experiment.' Amaya shuddered inwardly but kept a calm face.
A man next to him ran at her and made a punch but missed as Amaya dodged. Pain erupted in her ears and she fell to her knees as she covered her ears. Blood flowed through Amaya's fingers with ease. She didn't let the scream out but bit her lip instead. The ninjas watched with pleasure. Another came up and put his hands on her arms. Chakra began to be sucked from her body forcefully. Amaya felt her henge begin to fade as she slowly became unconscious. 'I must stay awake!' Amaya thought forcefully as her henge disappeared. Pain filled her body. Darkness was a sudden welcome as the pain became too unbearable.
Kakashi
Kakashi walked leisurely along the path along with his students.
"Kakashi-sensei, daishitte do we have to watch the blind ojii-san again?!" Naruto whined for the fifth time. Sakura glared at the blond haired boy then hit him on the head.
"Baka! He's not just a blind old man he used to be a ninja. We are improving our stealth skills that way! Isn't that right Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura looked up at the man as he flipped the page on his book.
"Sakura is correct Naruto; with your patience you won't be able to be stealthy." He stated dully and went back to his book. Naruto began to tip on his toes at that moment as he tried to get closer to Sakura without her noticing. Sasuke came up behind Naruto and rolled his eyes at his teammates stupidity.
"Baka." The superior tone upset Naruto further as his face became red.
"What did you say teme?!" The loud mouth blonde yelled at the brunette. Kakashi tuned out the rest of the bickering as his thoughts brought him to Amaya. 'So, she's Sarutobi's niece. This certainly changes things. That explains the trust he has in her. Now that I think back I remember that a relative of Sarutobi's was signed up at the ninja academy.' Kakashi sensed that they were at Reimei's door and snapped his book shut. The door opened wide to show the grumpy old man glaring at them with blind eyes.
"You're here again! If Amaya were here she would have the decency to knock and clean my sink before I got to the front room." Ryuu growled as he stepped aside and let team seven inside his apartment. The previous three times they had helped Ryuu, came up with the result that Amaya did a better job than they. The old man was mad by the time Naruto made a mess of things anyways.
"Hey! Ojii be happy we are even here!" Naruto yelled back at the blind man.
"You're late! My garden needs to be watered, my laundry needs to be done, floors swept, and mopping and the dishes need to be cleaned. Get to it!" Ryuu walked toward his study and sat at a desk listening for the sounds of cleaning. Kakashi came into the study after making sure that his students were busy cleaning.
"How long did Amaya live in Konohagakure before she moved?" Ryuu brought his head slowly towards Kakashi and seemed to stare straight through his soul with sightless eyes.
"Its not my place to tell. But know that she was hurt a long time ago. If you hurt her again you will pay." Ryuu growled irratably. Kakashi stared at the man but decided not to go further with the subject. A crash came through the window in the study as a bird flew in with a black orb gripped in its talon. Kakashi was alert as Ryuu heard the screech of the bird and held out his hand for the thestral to land. He touched the orb with his chakra and the orb opened to have a note inside.
"Read this for me Hatake-san." Ryuu stated urgently. Kakashi took the note and scanned over the page before he read.
If you have recieved this then I am dead or captured. Grandfather for the time that i've been with you i've realize how much you have grown onto me, thank you... for everything.