A/N: hey! sorry for being so weird with updating. ive been completely blocked, not to mention my friends got me distracted by Homestuck. I've been in a weird mood.
Anyway, i hope you appreciate this chapter, since i have to get up in five hours for school. XD
thanks for all the support! TENTH CHAPTER BABY!
lol. enjoy 3
xoxo, Lala
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Even I was surprised at how well I kept in my feelings. So well, in fact, that I knew I was just shoving them away. The priority now was finding her and making sure she's still… alive. I contemplated this while I followed the ANBU squad through Soul Society forests. I was positive we weren't being tailed, so I tried keeping my mind busy with thinking about Ayumu or just not thinking at all.
"Where's Ayumu?" I asked quietly to Neji.
"Hinata and Naruto are watching him," he replied, his voice even more void of emotion than mine. We kept running in silence.
"Stop here," the leader signaled the four of us, and we balanced ourselves in the tree branches. "Listen."
"…I don't hear anything," I said.
"Really?" he replied. "Try again."
"Still nothing," the fourth person, one who I didn't recognize at all, confirmed.
"Strange," the leader commented. "I can't hear it anymore."
"Hear what?" I wondered.
"…Nothing. Nevermind. Let's keep going. If we keep searching, we might find something." Hesitantly, we followed him. I looked over to Kiba, running behind us silently with Shino. He shrugged back and I pursed my lips.
"So what are they after, I wonder," I commented off-handedly after a moment. "Whoever took Miharu obviously wants something from Konoha."
"Agreed," the leader nodded. His black hair, slicked back to fit his mask, blew rapidly with the wind from our speedy movement. "And the only Shinigami that know of Konoha are the Punishment Corps and the Taichos."
"I doubt the Punishment Corps would do anything without command from Soifon," I put in. "Not to mention they don't work individually. It wasn't them. And we can rule out Soifon as well," I told the group.
"Is there a captain that might dislike you?" Shino asked.
"Kurotsuchi, maybe, but I'm pretty sure he lost interest in us; he's the only one I can think of."
"Interesting."
"You two go ahead back to Konoha with the support team," Leader told Kiba and Shino. "Tell the Hokage what happened."
"Right," they said together and they were gone. As we ran, I pulled my ANBU mask out and hooked it on my hip in case I needed it. For a long time, we just ran around searching for a familiar reiatsu or chakra. After a couple hours, we found a very faint trail that felt like the person who had taken my child. After and hour or two following that, we felt it go from very faint to extremely strong in a half second.
I blocked the blow with my kunai, and felt the others back into me in a tight manji formation. I couldn't find my attacker, but that problem was remedied as soon as a thick katana smashed into my knife again. I parried and threw my kunai, which was easily dodged. I pulled my katana and we fell into blows and parries that consumed my mind. I had no time to think about who my assailant was or anything of the like.
"Could use some help," I cried out as her sword made contact with my shoulder, piercing it. As Neji and Leader took over the fight, I stepped back and healed my wound, only daring to use enough chakra to stop the bleeding. The fourth member, name still unknown, knelt next to me and patted my other shoulder. He or she then launched into the fight, covering for Leader.
Suddenly the crisp metallic clangs stopped, and I leaned forward to avoid a kick from behind me, then swung my leg across the ground to sweep them off their feet. He or she fell over and all four of us were on her in a second, knives pointing at his or her neck, heart, temple, and eye. I finally got a decent look at her.
She was grinning like she knew something we didn't, not at all fazed by the lethal weapons less than an inch from her vitals. Her eyes were glittering silver: a color I'd never seen and hopefully never would again. Her hair was the same color, perhaps a shade or two darker, and with black lowlights, tied into a long ponytail on the side. She was beautiful, and terrifying. Not to mention that her unwavering stare was fixed on me.
"So you're the infamous Sora," she chuckled lowly. "I expected a little more."
"Sorry if I don't meet your expectations," I growled back. I pushed my kunai a little closer to her neck. "What are you after?"
"Not telling," she sighed.
"Maybe you don't get it," I mimicked her tone. "You are going to tell me were the child is, as well as why you took her. Then and only then can you start making deals."
She stayed silent. We stared unblinkingly at each other for a moment, a long and tense moment, and then, as I blinked, she was gone. I whirled around just fast enough to see her face as she stabbed her zanpakuto once more into me. I looked down to see the blood staining my right side, and coughed blood.
"Sora," a quiet voice, panicked but restrained, called when my vision sarted getting blurry.
"Swallow the enemy in shadow," the woman commanded.
"Everyone get away," I choked out over the blood in my throat. "That's her zanpa—" I coughed again.
"Kojihoshi," she grinned and my vision tunneled into black.
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Being blind was definitely something I wouldn't wish on anyone, particularly a ninja who depends on his or her senses. Here, stuck in this black world, I couldn't see or hear or smell. I could barely feel what position I was trapped in, and I was having a difficult time with breathing and thinking. And that was without counting the wound in my side.
"You shouldn't fall asleep here," the woman's voice chided, reverberating through my mind. I felt a sort of black power enter my brain and I released a scream of anguish: I was positive I did. I kept screaming. I couldn't stop. It wasn't for a while that I got the idea of releasing chakra like a genjutsu. I clapped my hands together and focused what chakra I could feel in my body out of it. I yelled again, and waited for something to happen.
But nothing did. I was still being tortured from the inside out, and none of my ninja powers could do anything.
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BACK AT THE CAPTAIN'S MEETING
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"Sensei," Ukitake muttered, "don't you think we should go help them?"
"They will do fine on their own," Yamamoto barked.
"Sōtaichō, do you know who is behind the kidnapping?" Soifon was brushing herself off, trying to regain some dignity.
"The logical guess is the rebels from before," Shinji, long since sitting in on the meeting, put in. Everyone looked to him. "Especially if they knew about Konoha."
"Speaking of," Kyōraku leaned out of line. "Did they know?"
"Yes," Byakuya answered shortly.
"Gee, now they're going to trust you," Shinji rolled his eyes. "Why didn't you just tell them the truth?"
"They didn't need to know," Kurotsuchi shrugged. "Besides, they act like children. They can't deal with something like this."
"And I repeat my question," Ukitake insisted. "Shouldn't we go help?"
"You are very adamant about this," Unohana commented.
"She did the procedure," he told her. Her eyes went wide, and everyone else looked confused. But before they could ask, Yamamoto slammed his staff/sword into the floor.
"Ukitake Juushiro, go after them. Bring them back here. If they resist, come back and we will send another squad with you," Yamamoto ruled. "Avoid force if possible."
"Of course," Ukitake nodded and was gone.
He followed what seemed to be only Sora's chakra. It was like she knew they would go after them eventually, and left them a trail to follow. Ukitake didn't bother trying to figure out what that meant; he'd only end up confused. The trail led him everywhere, but sometimes he would be able to skip a loop or two and definitely saved time that way. However, he still took a long time before he found the reiatsu trail the shinobi were following.
He guessed it was almost ten or so in the morning, by the warming air. Ukitake relished in the feeling of crisp air moving through his lungs without trouble. His brain, however focused on following the shinobi, seemed to wander toward thoughts of birds and flowers and things he would be capable of now, instead of staying in his room sick all the time. He smiled and made a mental note to thank Sora and her friend Sakura for their help.
Ukitake was thrust out of his daze when piercing, tortured screams, clearly a woman's screams, rang out not far from where he was. He flashed even faster and tried his damnedest to get there. As soon as he neared the area, he was assaulted by two of the masked shinobi, ANBU as he recalled, and he threw his hands up.
"What are you doing here," the one with the green flag on his ear demanded. "Are you with this woman?"
"Woman?" Ukitake glanced around the two and saw a silver haired woman with a sword standing in a black-lit bubble over someone else. He didn't have a chance to see who it was before he was jerked back to his captors. "No, I'm not with her. What's going on?"
"You tell me," the other ANBU growled and released Ukitake. The white-haired captain stared past him, finally seeing the screaming person.
It was, as he had feared, Sora who was making the awful sound. The silver-haired woman's protective bubble stretched enough to envelop Sora as well, making it impossible to help her. Another ANBU was trying to break the force field, but to no avail.
"What was the command?" Ukitake asked the green-flagged man.
"What?"
"The sword's release command, what was it?"
"She said 'swallow the enemy in shadow,' then 'Kojihoshi,'" the other ANBU replied for him.
"So it's kido-based," Ukitake breathed a sigh of relief. He stepped forward, not breaking eye contact with the woman. He stared at her delicately closed eyes, watching to make sure she didn't go anywhere. "Waves, become my shield; Lightning, become my blade; Sōgyo no Kotowari." His sword split, and he lifted the left one to the force field. Slowly, the field was sucked away, and Ukitake released the energy from it on the woman herself. It wouldn't kill her, obviously; it was just a force field, after all. But it would maim her enough to make her behave.
Sora's screams stopped, but her panting and faint whimpers gave way to a belief that she was still nearing death. Ukitake flashed, grabbed her, flashed back to the ANBU, and put her down.
"I'll go after her. Bring her to Unohana-taicho, back in Soul Society," Ukitake told them.
"We're going with you," the green-flagged man, Ukitake was seriously thinking he was the platoon captain, retorted. "Neji, bring Sora back to Soul Society like he said. Gather as much information as you can."
"Wait, Neji…?" Ukitake's eyes went wide and he watched in shock as Sora and her evident husband ran back to safety.
"Let's go," the captain said curtly. He could see that Ukitake had pieced everything together. But they would deal with that later. The assailant wasn't far away. They barely had to hop over a dozen trees to get to where the blast from Sōgyo no Kotowari had taken her. The leader roughly pulled her dirt-caked arms into a lock and put a knife to her neck. Ukitake watched in mild surprise at the harshness of the Shinobi. After all the talk about protection and kindness, he hadn't expected any sort of cruel treatment.
"Your name," the leader demanded.
"Tsukiko," she tried to lose his grip, to no avail.
"Your purpose."
"I already said, I'm not telling."
"But the difference now is that you're not getting away," the other ANBU pulled on a roll of what Ukitake recognized as trip wire and shuddered.
These shinobi were not to be underestimated.
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WITH NEJI AND SORA
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"Neji…" I felt blood bubble over my lips. "Let me move my hand." He moved his elbow a little so that I would move. Carefully, I put my hands together in seals to start my medical jutsu while I was conscious. However, I couldn't find my chakra.
"Faster," I choked. "No chakra."
"What are you saying? You haven't used any chakra," he told me incredulously.
"LOOK AT ME NEJI. I HAVE NO CHAKRA," I snapped, despite my condition. Then I winced at the massive throbbing in my side. Neji's chakra fluxed and I knew he was using Byakugan. His arms tensed and his paced picked up, trying to get me there sooner.
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"Get me sutures," someone was saying. I couldn't see clearly, blood red tinting my vision. I groaned. "Sh, sh," the same person hushed. "Don't move. Stay calm, and try to get some rest." I didn't dare nod or speak, but I understood. I let my eyes slide shut again, a dim light going off in the back of my brain, saying the Unohana was taking good care of me.
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"Come on, wake up," Neji's voice was impatient. I felt his warm hand holding mine, and I squeezed a little. "There she is."
"'Course," I smirked, eyes still shut. "Mednin."
"Press the button," he told someone. A little buzz was heard and very soon, a nervous shuffle came into my room.
"What is it?" I recognized the voice of Kotetsu Isane.
"She's conscious," Neji replied.
"Oh, good," she breathed. I still kept my eyes squeezed shut as she checked my pulse. I felt the odd tickle of an IV in my elbow when she nudged my arm. "You seem to be recovering nicely. Keep resting."
"Right," I sighed.
"Can you tell us what happened?" I recognized the voice of the leader.
"As soon as she said her command," I started, my voice still frustratingly shaky, "most of my senses cut off."
"Interesting," his voice was pensive. "What else?"
"Well, this sort of… light, if you will, came into my mind and exploded. I swear it triggered every sense of pain I have. My mind, my body, and pretty soon after that, my soul," I shivered involuntarily.
"That sounds terrible," Isane said quietly. "Are you still in any pain?"
"No," I affirmed. "As soon as the power went away, so did the pain. Remind me to thank Ukitake-san," I tensed, realizing what I'd just said. Did that mean I trusted him again? Well, he had saved my life, but at the same time….
"He'll be here soon," Isane was probably trying to be comforting.
"Fantastic," I almost whispered.
"This is strange," Neji finally interjected.
"What is?" the leader said in that familiar voice of his.
"Her chakra system is… clouded. I can't see it clearly," Neji replied, confusion coloring his tone lightly.
"Interesting," the leader repeated.
"Can you open your eyes for me?" Isane instructed quietly. I squinted my eyes open, trying to let them adjust to the white light. As I did, they quickly took in my surroundings: the beeping machine, the two ANBU leaning against the far wall, Neji sitting in a chair next to me unmasked with his Byakugan activated. Isane had apparently not noticed his veined face, because she had yet to react. I then faced her, and she shined a light into my right eye, then my left. Evidently finding nothing wrong, she went back to her clipboard. It was then that Ukitake decided to walk in.
"Is she awake?" he asked calmly.
"Hai," Isane nodded. Neji helped me sit up, and I faced the captain full-on. Isane and the others left, and I was left with Ukitake alone.
"So it's my daughter," I told him, emotionless.
"I figured that out," his voice and face were sympathetic. "And I talked with Neji-san while you were in surgery."
"Oh goodness," the corners of my mouth lifted a little. "Whatever he said, I apologize."
"Oh, it's fine. He explained why you were so suspicious of us, and it makes sense that you were so angry when all of this happened," he sighed.
"So?"
"You should know that we keep many secrets here. It's all to protect a great many people, contrary to your belief," he smiled. Watching his face, I got the idea that he was trying to apologize for the entire Soul Society. "We may do it differently, but we have the same goals."
"I can understand that," I shrugged a tiny bit. "However, it doesn't explain your secrecy with me. I had been under the impression we trusted one another," I managed to keep the betrayed feelings off my face, confining the emotion to my eyes. He still seemed to see it, though. His eyes softened. I looked away.
"I trust you with my life," he told me offhandedly. "With good reason."
"I suppose that I trust you the same," I thought about it. "You did save my life earlier."
"Then can we start over?"
"I don't see why not."
"Maybe I should tell you this now, then. We know their true objectives now," he sat next to my bed, where Neji had been waiting for me to wake up.
"They are former followers of Aizen. We don't know how or why, but they have evaded us since his defeat. They particularly want the head of Ichigo-kun, but their main objective is to cut off our connection to Konoha. You are human, and Aizen looked down on humans," he explained. When I started to reprimand, he cut me off. "More than most Shinigami. He saw humans as pieces of dirt instead of fighting beings."
"Damn," I whispered, looking down. "I guess it makes sense that I'm the first target. That's why they took her…"
"Right," he exhaled. "But I'm getting support from other captains. Hitsugaya-kun volunteered immediately. After that, Ichigo-kun and Hirako-san joined my party, so I think we'll be able to go after them."
"Do you mind my asking who Hirako-san is?" I wondered.
"No, that's a valid question. Hirako-san was the Taicho of the fifth squad. He and a few others were taichos over one hundred fifteen years ago. Maybe we'll see them around. They visit every once in a while," Ukitake smiled nostalgically.
"Visit?"
"They live in Ichigo-kun's world. There's a long story behind that."
"I hope I hear it eventually."
"I would tell you, but I'm not the right person," he apologized. "Not to mention your friends have returned." I turned to see that, in fact, they had. They had their masks on, not trusting the Shinigami.
"Hey," I smiled.
"Feeling better?" Neji asked.
"I haven't even noticed I was injured," I lied a little.
"I wanted to say something while we're all together," the leader announced. "I know that the enemy is after revenge, so I believe I can help find them." His voice was strong and confident, like a true leader's should be. His hand went to his mask, and it unhooked with a small scraping sound of metal against polished porcelain. My eyes bulged at the sight of his face.
"Sasuke?"
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"So if they're out for revenge, they'll generally do three things," Sasuke reasoned. "Gather strength without being found, assert their power, and then they'll try getting the target alone for a fight to the death."
"How does this help find them?" Ukitake asked a valid question.
"They've already finished the first step, from what I can tell," Sasuke explained. "That means that they're asserting power. Now think, what would be the ideal way to assert power over such a large and powerful force like Soul Society?" he looked to Neji.
"High places, or conquering helpless areas," Neji replied. "So for us, it would be the land of rice paddies, or small villages on the outskirts with large mountains."
"Do you have any large mountains where someone could hide?" the mystery member asked the white-haired captain.
"I would say Soukyouku hill, but it's regularly monitored."
"Anywhere in Rukongai?" I asked, reentering the conversation.
"Maybe the outer rings. I'll send a squad to search," Ukitake turned to the door. "Heard that, Sentarou, Kiyone?"
"Yes, Taicho!" the two co-seats were with us in the blink of an eye.
"How long were you there?" I gaped.
"Since you awoke, Sukai-san!" Sentarou replied in a half-yell.
"So, since the beginning…" I summarized.
"Go check it out," Ukitake ordered. "Take as many as you think you'll need."
"Hai, Taicho!" they disappeared.
"That's odd," Neji said after a moment.
"What is?" I asked without looking at him. I found a glass of water next to my bed and sipped a little from it. When I looked up again, Neji's eyebrows were scrunched over his Byakugan in confusion. I gave him a wondering look.
"You've healed quickly," he said. "But as you heal, your chakra is coming back."
"Seriously?" I lifted an eyebrow. Sasuke tapped my shoulder and pointed at Ukitake, whose eyes were large at Neji's skill.
"Oh, Ukitake-taicho," I chuckled, ignoring the twinge of muffled pain in my side. "Neji has an ocular power, called the Byakugan," I explained with a hint of pride in my voice.
"In your eyes?" Ukitake asked Neji incredulously. "Isnt it painful?"
"No," Neji released his power. All the veins went back into place and he shook his head. "It's just like any other jutsu. It just resides in my eyes. I can see a person chakra network and points, and I have 360 degree vision."
"I was wrong in thinking our abilities are similar," Ukitake concluded. "They are quite different."
"They are in some ways," Sasuke put in. I figured he wanted his two cents in, considering he'd probably looked at the Shinigami with his Sharingan as well. "The source of power is generally the same, but the way we have to use it is very different."
"I see that," Ukitake nodded. "For instance we can store our reiatsu in a sword or object, but you cannot."
"And I've noticed you have fewer people capable of reconnaissance," I added. "It's mostly attack power."
"Good point. But we've managed for many, many years."
"Well, if we find them, we won't need much recon power," Sasuke pointed out. "The big part now is finding them."
"Do you know how big their group is?" I asked.
"We've cut them down to five. But naturally that means those are five powerful Shinigami," Ukitake warned.
"Taicho!" Kiyone appeared once again.
"What is it?"
"Sir, Sokyoku Hill is empty, and there aren't many mountains in the outer rings of Rukongai."
"I wonder where they are…"
"Sir, if I can make a suggestion?" Kiyone asked nervously.
"Yes?"
"Karakura town is at high elevation, and has easy access to Soul Society… Not to mention its reiatsu-rich atmosphere," the girl made a point.
"I had overlooked that," Ukitake whispered. "Thank you Kiyone."
"Sir," she vanished.
"It's the most likely spot," Ukitake said.
"What is 'Karakura town'?" Neji asked.
"I live there," Ichigo walked in, flanked by Rukia. "And if those guys are starting to act, my family's next. I'm going home; care to join?"
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review!
Also: Tsukiko's (the evil lady) zanpakuto's name is Kojihoshi, meaning 'Orphaned Star.' just FYI.