Hey guys! I am so sorry about missing last week's update, my family situation has been kinda crazy for the last two weeks. Most everything is sorted out now, and I finally bring you the next update of The Will of Fire. Thanks for waiting, and I hope you enjoy the read!
Chapter 10
The village was as if it was empty; not a voice broke the silence as Baki and his men marched down the main street, friends and foes held on their backs. Shinobi and civilian knew better than to ask questions now; answers would be given in time, and their duty was to wait and be respectful now.
Baki felt hundreds of eyes on him as he trudged, head hanging, farther into the heart of the village, where they would hand off their comrades to doctors and their enemies to jailers. He knew there was nothing he could have done, yet the shame of failure did not ease up in his mind. His student was over his shoulder like a knapsack, he had arrived too late to help him. If he had been quicker, if he had been strong enough to get there just an hour earlier...
His reverie was broken by a shriek. He looked up, startled, as a brown-haired kunoichi stared at him, tears welling up in her eyes. He walked up to her and beckoned her to follow him, and her unsteady footfalls echoed in his mind.
"Matsuri, Gaara-sama is alive. He is just, indisposed." Baki whispered, although he wasn't sure if she heard him; her eyes had not left her teacher, petrified in a fighting stance, her dark eyes meeting his pale green, and he could read the pain, confusion, and anger on her face as plainly as he could her headband
"Baki-sensei..." Her words were soft and barely audible, and he struggled to hear them, even in the near-absolute silence the village provided for this solemn exchange. "Will, will Gaara-sama..." He sighed and hung his head again, and she clutched her hands to her mouth, sobbing quietly as Baki walked, and he willed himself not to lose control of his emotion.
I'm sorry, Matsuri. I failed you.
Deeper inside the village, an old man sat by a small pond, a fishing pole in his hands as he waited to die. No fish went after his bait, and after all these years he wondered whether there were any fish to be caught, or whether he had chosen to fish in an empty pond all those years ago.
His eyebrows hung down on either side of his face, and he often felt them tickle his cheeks when a wind blew by. The wrinkles in his face were deep, and his eyes were heavy-lidded and sunken back into his face, almost like they, too, wanted to escape life in Sunagakure.
He looked around the fishing hole, and noticed the other fishing rod close to his, with no fisherman to claim it. He reached for it, slowly, and just as his hand was about to grasp it, an old woman jumped out from behind a rock and shouted, "Boo!"
"Ahh!" The old man reeled and the old woman cackled, hobbling over and taking a seat behind the fishing rod.
"Thought I'd gone away to die, Ebizou?" She grinned a toothy grin and checked her line: nothing again.
"You crazy old woman, you nearly stopped my heart!" Ebizou scolded, checking his line as well: also nothing. He shook his head, clutching his chest as Chiyo laughed and laughed. "Why were you hiding behind that rock, Chiyo?" She stopped laughing, wiping a nonexistent tear from her eye.
"Word from the brats in the village. They found the Kazekage, and brought him, his team, and his enemies back." Ebizou raised an eyebrow, a more arduous task than most imagine.
"They're all alive?" She nodded, and he sighed. "Tactical risk, if they allowed themselves to get captured that easily. Might be a trap." Chiyo shook her head, her face stern.
"They're caught in the Toki no Fuuin."
Naruto, Sakura, Jin, Kakashi and Temari, many kilometers away, were unaware that the silence they traveled in was what awaited them in the Sand. Naruto, for all his usual bluster, found himself out of jokes to tell.
The trees were just as silent, barely a rustle as the five ninja rushed through them, and the silence was as all-consuming as any that Sakura could remember. She glanced at Naruto, whose face was blank and staring pointedly ahead, and she noticed how different he looked without his usual smile; the lines on his cheeks seemed darker, his eyes as well, and his lips were drawn tightly together, the face of a killer shinobi, she thought to herself. It's what I expect Kakashi-sensei's face to look like, she noted to herself.
Also looking at the formerly-boisterous ninja was the Sand kunoichi, although for different reasons. The haze over her had faded from her sudden exercise and fresh air, but she still felt a an occasional slip in her step as she ran, slips that normally different affect her. And with her eyes mostly on the blond, she found herself wanting to be carried in his strong arms, feel his hot breath on her neck and his rippling muscles underneath his shirt... She shook her head. Drinking always made her eyes feel lecherous, and in the back of her mind, a different face, a stern yet relaxed one, was what she truly wished for as she dashed through the seemingly-endless trees.
"There's no doubt about it. If Deidara and Sasori had succeeded in their mission, they would surely have sent word back. Something has gone wrong in their mission." The voice filled the cavern as two grey eyes, with rings encircling the pupils, scanned the other shimmering figures in the low light.
"It's entirely possible they were held up. They are fighting the Kazekage, after all. Lend some faith towards Deidara and Sasori." Across the room, a red-eyed figure spoke, with almost-boredom in his voice.
"Faith?" The first figure blinked, stock-still in the deep silence of the room. Six other sets of eyes were fixed on him, while the seventh had his blood-red eyes fixed on his nails. "Faith is not something a god gives, it is something He receives. Konan, Zetsu, I want you to do some reconnaissance over Sunagakure, report back whether Deidara and Sasori have failed or succeeded." Two quick nods met his request as they faded out of sight.
"Hidan, Kakuzu, ready yourselves to go after the Nibi. If Deidara and Sasori have failed after all, we should prepare for more resistance at the next target."
"Ugh, dammit. Whatever, let's get going." Two more figures faded from the room, leaving just three.
"Itachi, Kisame, continue your surveillance of the Yonbi and await further orders." They did not respond as they disappeared, and the eyes closed slowly, letting the silence wash over him.
"Soon, this world will see the dawn of our new age."
Inside a hospital, deep inside Sunagakure, the hum and rhythmic beeping of machinery soothed Baki as he watched his two former students, motionless and stony on two plain, white beds.
The doctors hadn't been able to decipher the complexity of the seal, and as such could not modify their position; Gaara lay on his back, arms extended and face set in determination, while Kankuro was crouched, his hands in front of his face and his fingers in the middle of his puppet ninjutsu, the chakra threads hanging limply: they had been cut by the admitting nurse. In the next room, Baki knew that Isago was still fixed in his fuuinjutsu stance, the tiniest hint of fear in his eyes.
The Toki no Fuuin... Baki had never been anywhere close to good with fuuinjutsu, and he was just as baffled as the attending medic-nin were, if not more so; the Toki no Fuuin was a Sunagkure S-rank kinjutsu, only taught to one trusted jonin a generation, and currently, one of the only two ninja who knew how to perform it was sealed inside it, lost to time until the seal could be undone. The other, Baki knew, was retired from active duty, and had never seen the seal performed before.
Still, as Baki sat among the beeping machines in the sterile white room, he hoped for a miracle that may never come. All of the recorded uses of this seal had been as traps or in battle, and the sealed enemies were immediately killed with the sealer activating it from a distance.
Hurry home, Temari. Your brother needs you. Baki thought, as he clasped his hands together and lowered his head.