Something New
Chapter 10: returning home
Koomahana
Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine; you want the real stuff get off this site
Thoughts
Paragraphs are memories
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Recap
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"I don't know," the nurse admitted, "but today's tests were different, two Anbu agents were present while they... uh..." the nurse paused and looked down, fingers ringing together as if she was nervous, "uh... they... they uh... lo-looked at her uh her—"
"Diamond?" she interrupted with a frown, eyes narrowing in on the nurse "What happened during the test?"
"Everything was the same but Lord Hokage's presence with two Anbu agents and their request to look at Sakura-chan with her hair pulled back," the nurse in formed them, knowing that said little girl didn't like people looking at her forehead and avoided the task whenever possible.
"We'll both go," her husband replied shifting his hold on their daughter, "Whatever he has to say to Mebuki he can say to me." she smiled as her daughter sighed again, letting the man place her into the nurse's arms carefully.
"Come back," Sakura whispered over the nurse's shoulder as they walked away, "Be safe."
They shouldn't have thought it to be so cute of their daughter worrying over them, they should've seen how her green eyes looked just a little bit darker and how her voice seemed just that little bit older.
But no, they looked back at their solemn daughter and smiled, waving cheerfully at her before they entered her exam room that she just left—never looking back
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End Recap
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He went from calmly sitting at his desk with a mountain of paper work in front of him to suddenly standing at the window edge behind him, eyes locked on the gates six hundred feet directly in front of him. He smirked as his shinobi automatically swarmed the road leading to his tower, all remembering the familiar feel of the two hosts they had lost over a decade ago and had failed retrieving a year ago. He watched as three black cloaked figures continued to walk down the road as if they didn't see the hundreds of shinobi lining the road and surrounding them threateningly, all ready to fight to the death should they attach. He didn't ask why none of his civilians were present at their arrival; he figured it had something to do with the early morning hour or the thick mist that had rolled in the night before. He burst out of his tower about the same time that five of his men moved to attach the tallest cloaked figure; the two smaller ones instantly fell back sliding into defensive postures with their backs together as if they had been standing in such away since the beginning. The taller one didn't stop moving, she—because it could only be one person who dared to return to this place with their jinchūriki—moved forward gracefully as if she didn't even see the five grown men bearing down on her like the hounds of hell.
"No," he hissed, watching how more of his men burst forward to attach, three running straight at her, once the ones jumping down on the woman were within reach the woman paused and in that hairs breath of a movement her image flickered. He thought that she disappeared but no she merely paused, the men surrounding her were suddenly thrown away from her like a bomb blast had erupted in front of them with enough force to make a soundless concussion wave that knocked everyone to their feet. The two smaller figures returned to the woman's side eagerly, one looking a little more frightened then the other, but didn't dare to let go of the other as they followed the woman further into the village.
"Halt!" he shouted sliding to a stop between the woman and his knocked out, seriously wounded men laying in the road. "How dare you return here and attach us," he hissed, hands already forming his signature move of dust release
"I attach you?" The woman's voice sounded, a mixture of amusement and disgust. Like an escort was disgusted at the sight of him but knew he had what she wanted and would corporate with him for a short amount of time. "You must mistaken Tsuchikage-dono," the amusement had left the woman's too smooth voice, "Your men attached us and for what reason? Walking down a street? Is that a new crime in this village?"
"You kidnapped two of our children nearly a decade ago," he growled, "For you to be walking around in anything less then the after life is a crime."
"Huh...Am I supposed to be impressed?" she asked, her hooded head tilting to the side curiously, "I've been to the after life before, I didn't think much of it so I came back."
"Of course you would," he rolled his eyes, somehow not surprised by her answer, "Why are you here? Come to finish what you started?"
"Finish what I started?" she asked, he could imagine her raising an amused eyebrow at him, "I have come to return my little brothers to you, did you not want them back?"
"Of course," he growled, feeling his brow twitch wildly, "I didn't lose fifty men just to leave them with you."
"To be fair I did warn those men," the woman sighed, "not my fault they didn't take the hint." He could hear the angry grumbling and growling of his shinobi around him, the loud thumping of two of his more trusted men landing behind him protectively.
"Return them," the kunochi growled out dangerously, crouching lowly as if she was a very pissed cat ready to unleash hell on the other woman.
"You seem to be of the mind that I had forcefully removed them from your custody," the woman sighed as if disappointed, "if you wanted to keep them you shouldn't have given them a reason to leave."
"Are you saying it's our fault that you took them?" Oonoki growled lowly, his signature attach held at the ready in front of them
"I'm saying that if you treated them like a normal child they wouldn't have been tempted to leave with me," the woman replied, "after all, Iwa kept their child for the simple reason that he didn't wish to leave with me. I do not force the children away from their homes, it is their choice and their choice alone." He watched as the two smaller children stepped out from behind the woman, standing on either side of her like scolded puppies.
"Roushi is the eldest," the woman said, watching how said boy lifted a hand and removed his hood. Showing the gathering shinobi how he had grown over the near decade that he been away, Onyx eyes smoothed of emotion and cold like ice, tanned face just as empty as his eyes, long crimson hair was smoothed out into a high ponytail tied with a black hair band, his once Band-Aid across his nose was replaced by two small black chakra tempered Iron bands on his cheeks.
"It is his time to return to you, though it remains his choice in weather or not he remains," The woman warned, one hand on the boy's shoulder comfortingly, the other figure shifted uncomfortably as if he wanted to stand closer to Roushi.
"If you harm him," Oonoki stiffened a the sound of the woman's voice in his ear
Imposable! Oonoki thought with wide eyes, he didn't need to look to know that the two shinobi on either side of him were already down for the count and he didn't have to be a genius to know that the icy feeling at his throat was the woman's kunai. "How-when—"
"If you harm him," the woman hissed interrupting him, killing intent rolling off her like the suffocating feel of a mountain resting atop of him, "I will destroy everything you hold dear."
"Good luck Ona," he replied just as icily, trying to sound confident in his predicament, noting silently how the woman in front of him had yet to move from the two boy's. which meant that one of the women, the one in front or the one behind him, was a fake. "I have no kin to speak of," The woman chuckled in his ear; he could feel her lean just that little bit closer to him.
Smart, he thought trying to ignore the feel of her chest on his back or her one hand resting on his right arm with her left hand pressing the kunai a little closer to the left side of his throat. Most assassination attempts had the assassin standing tall behind or before him, looking confident in their ability to get so close to him without being killed by his guards—this woman wasn't so foolish. She kept her hands on him, her head resting at the same level of his own, a kunai a hair's breath from his throat and still she assumed that he could get out of her hold, still she acted as if they were standing face to face at the peak of a deadly fight that had yet to be decided.
"Oh~ how amusing," she whispered, laughter in her voice, "You think I speak of kin. Did you think that I didn't know you were an orphan raised by the previous Tsuchikage? Did you think that I didn't know that you hold nothing above your village?" he stiffened margent-ly at her amused tone of voice, sounding like a cat playing with a mouse before it decided to eat the measly creature. "You harm him, any of them, I will start with your defenses civilians, like your babies and elderly, then do the same with your shinobi and then target your cute little academy and then your adorable genin, then of course your measly chunin followed by your Jonin and then—"
"You plan to massacre my village?" he hissed at her, fury sounding in his voice
"Oh something along those lines," she whispered, suddenly pressing another kunai into his stomach, as if she thought that he was about to escape her hold, "Oh don't look at me like that, you don't have to worry too much Tsuchikage-dono." He growled when she chuckled again, as if finding the thought of massacring an entire hidden village was amusing to her. it had never been done before, no one in all of the hidden villages was strong enough, had the mentality for it, or even the stamina to fight so many well trained shinobi so just the thought of it was immanently dismissed by anyone with a sane mentality. Obviously, this woman wasn't planning in doing in one night or day, she planed to do it over a long stretch of time that would properly seem natural to everyone else but him.
"I'll save you for last," she whispered in his ear, confirming his thoughts on her little plan, "You'll watch as little by little your village slips into the hands of the Shinigami—knowing there isn't anything you could do to stop it."
"You would murder thousands of innocents—"
"Don't play to be so clean," she interrupted with a hiss, "you've wiped out whole villages your self without a second thought about the consequences."
"What are you—"
"Did you think that no one survived those little mental breaks on your part?" she asked lowly, her breath rounding around his head to fill his nose with the scent of fresh fruit and lilies. "I and I alone have swept through those villages, saving those I can and taking them back with me to my village. My village lives with the survivors of your attempted massacres, my village is proof that your hands are by far more blackened with blood then any of the Bijuu could ever hope to have."
"Fine," he hissed, okay so he screwed up a time or two when he was younger and he got controlled once by a Yamanaka once before he became Tsuchikage, that didn't mean he was responsible for the crimes that particular idiot made him do...Right?
"I won't touch them, they wouldn't get harmed, in fact I'll order my men to avoid and flee at first sight. That good enough for you, Ona?" he hissed back to her, if he knew what the damn woman was called or even what she looked like then he would have the same order for the woman herself, but sadly she was smart enough to keep herself covered at all times. The only ones who would have a chance at knowing the woman's face or even her name were the two little boys standing sullenly before him.
"Good," she whispered and disappeared with a splash of water, soaking his back mockingly. Figures that she wouldn't risk getting within touching distance of him, he should have known that she would have used a clone to get so close to him.
"Tsuchikage-sama," Roushi called taking a step forward hesitantly, he glanced back at the other cloaked figure who moved as if to follow him before being pulled back by the woman standing between them. "If you are willing to have me... I will return to service for you," the boy took another step forward and kneeled before Oonoki with a bowed head, one arm bent over his right knee.
"Recite," Oonoki ordered coldly, knowing that the boy wouldn't have a clue about what he was talking about.
"The river may roll over a rock, the wind may pass a rock, the storm may cross a rock, the fire may scorch a rock, a rock may strike a rock," Roushi started surprising Oonoki as he had yet to look up from the ground where he kneeled. "The river rolls over the rock, eager to return to the ocean from where it had been born. The wind dances past the rock, happy to find the easy path home. The storm may strike the rock but a storm dose not last. The fire may scorch a rock but it'll find no fuel in a stone. A rock may strike a rock, but only a rock can know another rock"
"...That's not quite what I had in mind," Oonoki admitted, slowly a smirk crossed his face, "But it'll do. Better then what we teach the graduates" slowly the boy looked up at him, as if he wasn't sure if he should or not, "Rise brat, You're a genin of Iwagakure, you kneel to no one. Not even me."
"Yes sir," Roushi smiled, rising to his feet with a faint blush and twitching lips
Poof
He stared at the empty space dumbly, then he looked at the woman, realizing that she was at fault.
"My apologies," the woman said, a smirk sounding in her low voice, "I could not risk their lives."
"Where is Roushi?" Oonoki asked with a low growl, not liking being made a fool
"He is safe," the woman answered, "he will arrive tomorrow at sunrise." The small shadow to the woman's left tugged on her sleeve urgently
"I-I" he paused and looked at Oonoki, his hand still fisted in the woman's dark cloak, "Ca-can I-I—"
"You will have to speak to Tsuchikage-Dono about your return Han," the woman answered the boy's stuttering easily, as if reading his mind. "I thought you'd like to finish your training with me before you returned here?" The shorter cloaked child shook his head verdantly, "You still wish to be with Roushi?" Eager nodding, "You do realize that he wants you to finish your training right?"
"He-he can fi-finish it!" the woman chuckled at Han's loud declaration. He wasn't one for being shy or stuttering but when faced with possibly losing his brother forever, even he reverts to his original personality.
"Well?" the woman asked turning to look at Oonoki pointedly, "my earlier words apply to this one as well."
"I guessed as much," Oonoki replied tartly, "I thought you were talking about all Jinchūriki but what ever."
"So~ I can stay with Roushi-Nii?" Han asked curiously
"Depends," Oonoki smirked, unable to help himself from a little teasing, "What's your recitation?"
"Oh! Roushi and I have been working on those sense we left!" Han answered; he could almost hear the smile in the boy's voice
"Really?" Oonoki asked curiously, receiving court nodding from Han, "interesting." He thought his men were joking when they returned the previous year to tell him that Han had informed them that he and Roushi were trained to remain loyal to Iwa because it was their home village and that their parents would want them to remain loyal despite everything that may have happened to them because of the other villagers. "Well boy?" Oonoki asked, turning his dark eyes onto the still hidden boy, "what's your recitation? Don't forget to speak up!"
"yes sir," Han agreed, stepping forward to remove his hood, revealing his copper orange eyes and mask covered face and the little white hat he wore to control his smoky hair. "The river may roll over a rock, the wind may pass by a rock, the storm may cross a rock, the fire may scorch a rock, a rock may strike a rock. The rivers flow, the wind sings, the air dances, the fire dies, the storm fades. Still the rock remains, growing stronger with every second, growing wiser with every day. The waters move on, the wind never stays, the storm never lasts, the fire always dies. A rock may strike a rock but the rock stands tall, weathering it all and out lasting all others."
"heh, that's almost as good as Roushi's," Oonoki smirked, "Not half bad brat. I suspect that you'll disappear now right?" Han bobbed his head, "Alright then, don't forget to arrive with Roushi at dawn to morrow."
Pop
"I wasn't done," Oonoki grumbled to the empty air beside the woman
"As for where the boy's will stay," the woman spook up, not flinching as his men burst forward to surround her with weapons drawn, "I suspect that you should put them some place close to the mountain. Roushi likes to use magma style and I have yet to do anything about the matter because there is no place for him to practice in my village. At least no where that wouldn't possibly get someone killed."
"And Han?" Oonoki asked, raising one hand to still his shinobi, knowing they were no match for this faceless-nameless woman
"Han uses Steam release," the woman answered just as calmly, "Mostly water and fire release as well, the water release I've taken great pleasure in teaching him as for the fire release I'll have to leave that up to you. There are only so many elements under by my belt and fire isn't one of them."
"Nice to know," Oonoki smirked at her
"I'm sure," he could hear the amusement in her voice again and he would bet on his title that she was smirking again, "I've put you through so much trouble, I figured I could give you some kind of treat for the headaches I've given you." He was about to respond with a frown twisting his features but she disappeared before he could open his mouth, sighing he went to turn away but one of his Jonin appeared beside him, confusion and concern written across his face in big black letters.
"Tsuchikage-sama," the young man started, "are you okay?"
"I'm fine," he grumbled, "Why?"
"We were concerned when the woman was suddenly whispering in your ear," he explained glancing at the army slowly loosening their stances, "we wanted to move and attach but suddenly the woman was behind each of us with a kunai to our own throats." He looked down in shame, "None of us could move." Oonoki was quiet for a moment before a smile slipped onto his face and a chuckle slipped past his guard, he hobbled back to his tower, needing to return to the paper work waiting for him. He knew the woman was strong, if the reports from the previous year were to be believed then she was inhumanly strong, but he never would have guessed that she was able to pull of so many clones as to have all of his shinobi immobile without any of them taking notice of her presence until it was too late.
Interesting woman, Oonoki thought with a smirk, any village would be lucky to have her... Why hasn't she joined one? The thought stilled the old man as he went to open the door to his tower, his eyes narrowing at nothing in particular. Was it possible that the woman was a nuke-nin? Did she defect from a hidden village? What hidden village would be insane enough to get rid of her? She was strong enough to be a Kage for crying out loud, why wasn't she?
With new thoughts and concerns, Oonoki traveled back up to his office and returned to his paper work; his mind not really focusing on the documents before him as his mind continued to whirl around the strange woman with no identify.
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The bar was loud like always, it was full like always, there were couples littering in every booth that he could see making out in away that said they were inches away from needing a bedroom, there enough women dancers to make his stool sitters get up and take notice. Yes for this little nowhere bar in this little nowhere village on the border of a nameless country between fire and stone, was doing wonderful—better actually. The Bar hadn't been so full where they were in need to get rid of paying customers at the door since the village had been a popular road to Iwa and Konoha during the third Great War. Bar/club had suddenly become popular two hours ago when a pretty brunet walked in and took a seat, quietly nursing whisky on the rocks. Truthfully the majority of the men in the bar wanted to walk straight up to the pretty brunet in the cute crimson halter top dress with a slit up her thigh that dared to show a little more then her crossed legs were willing to give—but every last man in the bar seemed to be a cowered. Although more then half of them were watching her like a starving wolf to an abounded meat carriage, every time she so much as bat an eyelash at a man who was trying to walk up to her the man would lose their nerve and leave her in peace.
"Another refill?" The bar tender asked kindly, the woman blinked and smiled at him, her head bobbing just enough in the sign of acceptance. "I don't mean to be rude or anything Ms. But could I ask you a question?" The woman's smile widened and she hummed gently, another positive sign, "Why are you here? I mean, i-it's just that... um, I mean I wouldn't expect a girl like y—I mean—"
"Memories," the woman said with soft smile and amused eyes, answering the young man's stuttered out question and preventing him from continuing to making himself look foolish.
"Me-memories?" he repeated dumbly, as if surprised that the woman had answered her or perhaps it was her voice that had surprised him. It sounded like honey tasted; sweet but not overly so, low but just enough to be considered feminine. "Good or bad memories?" the boy asked and the woman's smile suddenly became a mixture of mocking and self hatred
"Both," she whispered simply, leaning forward against the bar, pressing her chest against her arm and giving the boy a gracious view as well as the mirror behind the young man.
"Can I ask of who?" he asked, not paying attention to those surrounding the woman and how every male within hearing range was paying very close attention
"My younger brothers," she answered almost mournfully, "I gave them up to the Iwa Kage today. I have yet to decide whether or not I should go back for them, regardless of his promises I don't trust the old man as far as I can throw him."
"Why not?" the woman turned and found herself watching a group of Iwa ninja frowning at her, as if they couldn't decide to hear her story or go on the offence and attach her. It was a young female genin with inky black hair and big black eyes; an early graduate by the headband on her head and her younger appearance then her pears who surrounded her almost protectively. "Why don't you trust Tsuchikage-sama?" the girl asked, her brows pinched together in confusion
"Because," the woman smiled at her over her shoulder as if she found the child to be painfully familiar yet amusing at the same time, "He has no need or reason to keep a promise to a stranger."
"But if Tsuchikage-sama made a promise to you then surly he would keep it," the girl replied in a tone of conviction only an innocent child could posses, "He's Tsuchikage-sama." The girl's added mumble only seemed to amuse the woman further, she actually giggled at the little girl sitting with her teammates.
"Oh child how innocent of our ways you are," the woman giggled, signaling to everyone that she herself was a kunochi, though without her headband no one knew which village she was from (obviously she wasn't from Iwa). "Someday you'll understand that not everything can happen because of a given word, Kage's don't need to keep their word. If it benefits them they'll easily break a word-promise for their own agendas."
"I don't belief you," the girl replied defiantly
"Oh~" the woman smiled her, "Tell me child, have you heard of the Hyūga incident between the leaf and lightning countries?"
"Yes," she replied with a frown
"Lightning and leaf had just signed a contract when lightning's ambassador infiltrated the Hyūga compound and kidnapped the Hyūga clan heir." The woman said, her eyes growing cold and voice turning frigid with each spoken word, "To avoid another war that would undoubtedly kill you little one, Lord Hokage was forced to accept that Lightning wasn't going to take responsibility and that he had to pay the price their treachery. The Hyūga clan then gave lightning the man responsible for the ambassador's death, the young heir's uncle and younger brother to the clan head." The woman spun in her seat, glass forgotten on the bar and face in a mask of neutrality but eyes just as cold as the air that now surrounded her. "Get it now girl? A Kage has no need to keep a promise that wouldn't benefit them. If they decide that a treaty is doing more harm then good they'll get rid of it, if they want something that another village has they'll sign a fake treaty and steal that something. If they want a political influence dead the Kage will put a bounty on their head, if a Kage decides that someone needs to die then one way or another that person is going to die."
"I...I" the girl shook her head and glared up at the woman defiantly, "Tsuchikage-sama isn't anything like the lightning Kage! Just because one Kage dose something doesn't mean that the others would!"
"You're right," the woman agreed rising to her feet smoothly, "but it's good template for others to use to judge what they can and can't do with that hidden village." The woman smirked at the girl coldly before she walked away gracefully; her heals clicking on the hard wood floor in the wake of the silence of her little speech to the child. The bartender shook his head and sighed, turning to the small group of Iwa Nin still sitting at their table in shock.
"Alright you guys, I've let you slid long enough," the bartender said in a tone of voice that was all business, "come on, no kids on this side of the bar." Slowly the group left, the Jonin gently tugging the genin with him out the door, possibly knowing that he'd have to explain the political world to the poor kid.
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