In the Shadow of the Moon
Chapter 10: Machiko's Revenge
Cho, Mitsuki, and Neji stood alone before Tsunade.
"Lady Tsunade, please!" Mitsuki said. "Cho didn't kill Lord Machi. It was me."
"Lady Mitsuki is telling the truth, Lady Tsunade," Neji nodded. Cho glared at him.
"Stop lying, both of you! I'm not a helpless little girl! It was my kunai that pierced his heart! I am the one who killed Lord Machi, and I will suffer the punishment that Machiko has in mind." Cho said seriously.
"Very well, Cho, tomorrow, we will meet in the Chuunin exam stadium at noon so that you can be sentenced. I usually don't take these matters into my own hands, seeing as you are not even from my village, but Machiko demands immediate action, and our treaty with Mitsukigakure states that I am able to decide in such situations, especially since your village can only be entered during the full moon."
"But, Lady Tsunade!" Mitsuki argued.
"I'm sorry, Lady Mitsuki, but that is the end of the discussion."
Mitsuki sighed. Neji didn't react. Cho led them out. Once they were out of the Hokage mansion, Mitsuki slammed Cho into the wall.
"What is wrong with you, Cho! Why would you lie like that! You know that I was the one who killed Lord Machi!"
"Lady Mitsuki, it is my duty to protect you. And the coming heir."
"Your duty! That's why you're doing this?"
"Not just my duty. I want to protect you. Think of how important you are to the village. Anari, Pei, and everyone else who is counting on you to keep us safe. They all need you, Lady Mitsuki. Let me do this to protect you. I need you to let me protect you."
Mitsuki stared at her for a moment. Then she sighed.
"Anari and Pei understand why I'm doing this. Why can't you?"
"I just don't want you to have to suffer for my actions."
"This is for the best, I promise."
Mitsuki sighed again, and they headed back toward their apartment.
"Cho!" Kiba and Akamaru ran up to them.
"Go on, Lady Mitsuki." Cho said. Mitsuki nodded and continued on her way.
Cho didn't look at Kiba or Akamaru.
"Why are you taking the rap for this?"
"I have to. It's my duty to protect Lady Mitsuki. You wouldn't really understand."
"You're right. I don't understand. Don't do this. What if she wants your life?"
"I need to do this, Kiba! And if you can't accept that, then maybe I was wrong about you."
"What is that supposed to mean!"
"Oh, look, it's a lover's quarrel…." Ino whispered to Sakura as they hid in an alley, spying on Kiba and Cho.
"Why are we watching this?" Sakura asked. "It's not like either of us are interested in Kiba or anything…. Or are you?"
"No, of course not! I just like to know what's going on."
"Oh, of course…. Hey, look!" Sakura pulled Hinata into the alley with them. Hinata blushed.
"Look, Hinata!" Ino pointed.
"Uh…."
"Oh, come on, Hinata, we all know there's always been a thing with you and Kiba."
Hinata just blushed and watched.
"That's supposed to mean that I thought you were sensitive and understanding! And I thought you cared about me!"
"I do! I care about you more than anyone! That's why I don't want you to do this!"
"If you really cared about me, you would understand that I need to do this. So don't even bother coming to the stadium tomorrow if you aren't going to accept that I have to do this." And Cho stormed away, leaving Kiba glaring after her. Then he growled and turned.
"Come on, Akamaru!" They stormed away, passing by the girls, turning to them, glaring and growling, then continuing.
"I've….I've n-never seen Ki-kiba so…." Hinata blushed.
"Mad?" Sakura asked.
"Furious?" Ino suggested.
"N-no…." Hinata continued. "H-hurt…."
"Oh." Sakura and Ino looked after Kiba and Akamaru.
"Anari!" Kiba ran up to Pei and Anari, who were enjoying ramen with Naruto and Iruka.
"Hi, Kiba!" Anari smiled.
"No time for that! Are you aware that Cho is going to put herself in danger?"
"Of course!" Anari smiled cutely. "I understand why she has to do this! I plan on being right by her side!"
"You support her?"
"Of course! I know it's hard for you to understand, but put yourself in her shoes. She's being really brave, taking this punishment for the savior of our village."
Kiba growled, glaring at him.
"Why are you going to let her do this?"
Anari smiled. Kiba growled, throwing a punch at him. Pei grabbed his fist, glaring darkly at Kiba, pushing him backward, onto the ground.
"Hey, calm down, now, boys," Iruka said seriously. "We don't want a fight."
"Come on, Kiba!" Naruto cheered. "Show him what Konohagakure is made of!"
"Naruto!" Iruka hit him upside the head.
"Ow!" Naruto rubbed his head.
Pei stood up, glaring down at Kiba. Kiba growled, jumping onto his feet.
"I can't believe that the two of you are going to not only let her do this, but that you are in full support of her!"
"Pei," Anari put a hand on Pei's shoulder, smiling gently. Pei closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, then returning to his ramen.
"Kiba," Anari turned to him, smiling seriously. "You need to understand that this is what Cho wants. If you care about her as much as you seem to, you will go and think seriously about this entire situation."
"Why the hell would I do that?"
"Because then you will understand."
Kiba stared at Anari's calm smile, then he frowned, leading Akamaru away.
"He's not gonna think about it." Naruto said, downing his ramen.
"I think he will," Iruka said. Anari smiled.
"I have to say," Anari said. "I am very honored to be sharing a meal with you, Iruka."
"Huh?" Iruka and Naruto looked at him curiously.
"Shouldn't you be honored to be having a meal with me?" Naruto asked. "I'm the future Hokage!"
"But that doesn't mean as much to our village as what Iruka has done!" Anari smiled.
Iruka blushed slightly, looking away from them. Naruto looked at him curiously.
"What did you do?"
Iruka didn't say anything. Naruto turned then to Anari and Pei. Pei shrugged as Anari smiled happily.
"Iruka has given us an heir!"
Iruka hid his face in his hands. Naruto just stared blankly. Anari smiled, amused. Pei shook his head slightly.
Later that day, Iruka found Mitsuki in the library.
"Um, Lady Mitsuki…."
"Oh, hi, Iruka!" Mitsuki smiled pleasantly.
"Um…. Hi…." He blushed slightly and looked away from her. "It came to my attention that you told your team…."
"No, I only told Anari. He is my personal medic-nin, so it is his business."
"But he told the others…."
Mitsuki stared at him for a moment. "He wouldn't do that. I'm sure that he had only mentioned it to Pei because the two are very close. He wouldn't tell Cho because if he had, you would know it."
"But he mentioned it in front of Naruto…."
"Hm. Well, I'm sorry. You aren't ashamed, are you? I didn't realize it was such a big deal…." Mitsuki closed the book she was holding and turned away.
"No, it's not that…. I just…. I didn't know that you could know so soon if you were…."
"Anari is the best medic-nin our village has ever seen. He helped the medic-nin of our village develop the technique used to detect pregnancy within the first few days. They developed it specifically for the heir to use."
"Oh…. I would have liked to have known…. After all, I want to be in their life…."
"That's not how it goes. You can't. I'm sorry, I would love for the baby to know his father, but you can't leave your village for me."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm a monster, just like our son. Well, at night anyway. But Anari will be his personal medic-nin, too, and Pei will be his bodyguard, so he will always be protected."
"I don't understand…. I don't care about the jinmenjuushin."
"That's sweet, but you see, you can't be in his life because he can't know that he has any other life than protecting the village."
Iruka didn't say anything.
"I wanted to have three children. But my duty is to only have one. My destiny is to only bear one child. And that is what I will do. Your destiny was to give me that one child. You can visit him anytime you wish, so long as he doesn't know that you are his father. I never knew my mother. She was not from my village, I'm sure. But my father did not know his mother, and his father did not know his mother. That is how it is supposed to be."
"How is that fair to anyone?"
"I apologize, but that is how it has been for a long time, and that is how it works best. Again, you are free to visit whenever you wish, but I am set on keeping everything how it is supposed to be."
"Is that the only reason, then? To have an heir?"
"It is my destiny." And with that, Mitsuki put the book back on the shelf and left.
The next day, the Mitsukigakure ninja joined a rather large crowd of Konohagakure ninja in the stadium. Machiko stood in the center, a determined, pained look on her face. Mitsuki and Cho joined Tsunade, Shizune, and Sakura in the Hokage's box.
"Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Mitsuki asked. "It's not too late to recall your claim."
"I will suffer the consequence of my actions," Cho nodded. Mitsuki turned away from her sadly.
"Thank you, Cho…." Mitsuki hugged her tightly. "You are like the daughter I will never have. I am proud to have been your teacher."
Cho smiled happily.
"CHO!" Kiba and Akamaru ran up to the Hokage's box. Cho turned to them, her expression serious.
"I am going to do this, Kiba. This is the only way. I must do this."
"I know…." Kiba put his hands on her shoulders. "And I think I understand now. Our village is a lot larger than yours. And we don't have any type of savior like you do. But I know that if anything were to threaten Akamaru, I would do anything I can to protect him. And you care about Lady Mitsuki more than anything else."
"Thank you for understanding," Cho smiled, hugging Kiba. Akamaru nudged him, and Kiba brushed a stray lock of hair out of Cho's face and kissed her gently.
Cho blushed and pulled away from him, smiling. She hugged Akamaru, and he licked her cheek.
"Whatever happens, Cho," Kiba said. "I like you a lot…."
"It's noon!" Machiko yelled up to the Hokage box. "I want the girl who killed my father!"
Cho turned back to Kiba. "I love you." And with that, Cho leapt down into the stadium, facing Machiko.
Anari and Pei were sitting with Neji, Lee, Chouji, TenTen, and Naruto.
"Whoa," Chouji said. "I wonder what she is going to do to her."
"Well, Machiko had mentioned that she wanted her father's killer to rot in a dungeon!" Anari smiled. "At least that way, Cho won't get hurt!"
"But I think she wants something else, now that she thinks she knows who did it," Neji said. "I think that Machiko wants to fight Cho."
"Why would she do that?" Naruto asked. "Machiko thinks that Cho killed her dad, who was the leader of the Land of Shadows. If Cho is supposed to be strong enough to kill Lord Machi, then how would Machiko be able to defeat her?"
Neji activated his Byakugan. "I think that Machiko is a lot stronger than Lord Machi…."
"What do you mean?" Anari asked, smiling.
"She has a lot more chakra."
"Maybe Lord Machi was simply a figure head, while Machiko was the true leader of the Land of Shadows."
"I can't believe Shikamaru is missing this!" Chouji said, ""What a horrible time for a mission to come up!"
"Is that where he is?" TenTen asked.
"Yeah, he went with Hinata, Shino, and Ino. Ino was really upset about missing this. Shikamaru, of course, didn't care much."
"Lee and Gai are on a mission, too, with Kakashi and Yamato."
"I think that Cho will win!" Anari smiled confidently. "Machiko may be stronger than Lord Machi, but I'm sure she won't use the same techniques!"
Kiba and Akamaru joined them. Kiba didn't say anything, he just sat down and watched Cho and Machiko carefully.
"You have committed the worst kind of crime!" Machiko pointed to Cho, glaring. "You have taken the life of my father, leader of the Land of Shadows, Lord Machi. And for that, you shall suffer."
"I will accept any punishment you have in mind for me." Cho said seriously. Machiko smirked.
"Very well. Then I demand that you stand and fight me."
"I'm not going to fight a little girl." Cho smirked. "Why don't you send your strongest fighter? Then it will be fair."
Suddenly, Cho was knocked to the ground. She stared at Machiko's dark smirk.
"I'm stronger than I look."
"Fine, if your punishment is to fight you, then I will fight you." Cho flipped up onto her feet, taking an offensive stance, glaring.
Machiko charged her, throwing a punch, which Cho hit away her fist, but then was thrown into the wall by Machiko's other fist connecting with her stomach. Machiko pinned Cho to the wall and slammed her knee into Cho's stomach. Cho coughed up some blood.
Kiba stood up, about to jump in and rescue Cho, but Anari grabbed his wrist and smiled. Kiba gave him a confused look.
"Don't worry! She'll be fine!"
"This isn't you, Anari! Cho doesn't have a life on reserve!" Kiba growled. Pei stood up and punched Kiba in the gut, causing Akamaru to pounce on him, knocking Pei to the floor.
"Pei!"
Pei did a few hand signs, and wire wrapped around Akamaru, tying him up. Pei jumped up to find Kiba's fist coming toward his face.
Pei ducked under the attack, knocking Kiba's feet out from under him. Kiba quickly stood back up, sending his foot toward Pei's face, but Pei grabbed his foot and pushed him down next to Akamaru.
Pei did a few more hand signs, and the wire around Akamaru also wrapped around Kiba, binding them together.
"Don't you ever disrespect Anari," Pei adjusted his glasses. "Especially not after what he did for you: sacrificing a life to save yours. Show a bit more gratitude to the one who saved your life." Pei sat next to Anari again. Naruto, TenTen, and Chouji stared.
"What was that?" Chouji asked.
"Anari had two lives," Neji explained, "In a long flashback, Anari died to save Kiba, and now he has only his current life left."
"I need to see!" Kiba squirmed, and Akamaru barked. Anari smiled and pulled out a kunai, cutting the wires binding the boy and his dog. Kiba didn't look at Pei, but simply scrambled to look at Cho and Machiko.
Machiko whipped out a kunai, holding it to Cho's throat.