He can hear his heart beating and feel his blood pressure soaring. More than just a few beads of sweat ran down his face as he stood with a change of clothes outside the showers for patients. He could hear the faint chatter of the female nurse keeping Kosari steady as she quickly soaped herself up and rinsed it all down the drain. It seemed Rin's faith in Kosari was dwindling; Kosari's silver hair, once reaching the middle of her back, barely brushes her shoulders. Rin didn't say, but Ko had a feeling that Rin didn't want Kosari to hang herself. Aside from keeping her steady, the nurse was making sure Kosari didn't tamper with the IV and the various liquid-form drugs Rin had re-prescribed her.
Rin didn't need a blood test to know that Kosari was skipping her medications and splurging on painkillers and more alcohol.
Kosari, what are you doing? Don't you know that you matter to your team, to the Hokage, to the village…and to me?
"Ko—"
I can't just sit by and watch you hurt inside and die. If Shisui hurt you that badly…I'll kill him. No matter what Kushina-sensei might've said.
"the report—"
Kushina-sensei would agree, wouldn't she? She might've been friends with Mikoto-sama and often took us to eat with them at the yakiniku restaurant, but that's got to pale in comparison to trying to kill you.
"Ko-san!" the nurse huffs indignantly, "Are you spacing out?"
"S-sorry," Ko rubs the back of his neck, "What were you saying?"
"I said: here's the report. It's Kosari-san's blood test. I think you should look at it," the nurse says in a hushed voice before quickly click-clicking away with her heels.
Ko frowns and looks at the report. His eyes scan the page before he pales and the report drops from his hands as he bursts into the shower room, lined with curtained stalls.
On the floor is a toppled IV drip and an unconscious nurse before the roar of the water hitting the ground. A small window's frame lies on the floor, clearly pulled off its hinges.
"Kosari…!"
That signature…there's no mistaking it!
She backflips over a cart in the middle of the street having toppled over and spilling heads of cabbage all over the path and catches the railing of a building with perfect timing before swinging herself to the rooftop and running across the building's beam.
It doesn't take long to reach the Uchiha compound.
The hospital uniform for patients wasn't baggy on her and certainly didn't take its time reflecting her body heat as she remembered as a Genin. Back then; the hospital garb was nothing more than an embarrassing gown that covered only her front with two long ties in the back, exposing her back to the sterile hospital air. Kosari was much more grateful now than ever before; whenever her chakra flow was distressed, as it had been when Itachi had reactivated her seal, the seal on her back rose to the surface prominently. Now, the hospital clothes had improved a great deal.
Yet, she's still cold.
Kosari pumps more chakra to her fingers up until her fingertips, but can't feel any warmer. The compound comes into view and she quickly slips in and makes her way to the training grounds where several signatures remain stationary. She approaches the group before seeing a flicker of white. She looks up and senses the signature moving away from her. She hops into the trees and shields her eyes from the sun to search for the signature.
Jiraiya-sama.
She extinguishes her chakra before moving swiftly where the man hides behind a tree, under the presumption that a lack of a signature must mean she gave up. Wishful thinking.
"Jiraiya-sama," she appears before him with a metallic taste in her mouth.
The man flinches, hard.
"May I ask you something?" she stands with her back straight and her black eyes reflecting his shocked expression back at him, like a deer caught in headlights. She studies his every move and sees a bead of sweat run down his cheek, his pupils turn into pinpricks, his blood pressure rise, his hands shake, his palms glisten with sweat, peristalsis move his nervous spit down his gullet, his chest expand and contract, and his feet contemplate running once more.
"What?" his voice is too high.
He's going to lie to me, isn't he?
"Hatake Kakashi has been on a mission with you approximately for the past six months, one week, three days, and four hours," Kosari's fingertips feel numb from some sort of cold, "Where is he?"
Jiraiya doesn't respond right away. He grabs his chin with two fingers and pinches his jaw before closing his eyes.
He opens his eyes after a few seconds and looks her in the eyes, "Kosari, Kakashi was a good kid. I'm sorry. Do you—"
Kosari's entire body goes rigid.
No.
The air around her goes still and her eyes go wide as the leaves and grass and sky lose their color.
No.
She vanishes in an ANBU-speed flicker and arrives at her apartment before flying through the stairwell and bursting through Kakashi's apartment door.
No...!
She drops to her knees when the apartment reveals itself to be devoid of any life. She stares at the ground, not believing it. Impossible…Jiraiya…Kakashi…? He let Shisui, the man who murdered his own children…die? Jiraiya should've been able to hold off Itachi and Shisui with his senjutsu and let Kakashi escape.
Dead?
Or, they both should've been able to defeat at least one of them and wound the other before escaping. There's no way that a Sannin was able to get away scot-free while Kakashi fell into the Shinigami's realm.
Died?
A crash echoes brashly behind her. Her fingers remain frozen and stuck to the ground, keeping her from striking whoever dared come near. She feels warm fingers lightly grip her shoulders before a figure lands on the ground in front of her and places much warmer fingers atop her own frostbitten ones. A single finger reaches under her chin and forces her to raise her head. Glistening obsidian orbs gaze up.
"Hound-taichō," glowing red eyes shine into hers.
Hound's body stills. Color…
Yes?
Gloved fingers wipe away her tears, "Do you still trust me?"
Why?
"It sounds as if I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, but I can help you. I have a forbidden power that can relieve the world of this murderer," he sucks in breath sharply, "Alone…I think you know that you'll die if you go after him now. In your current state, with something as devastating as this weighing on your mind, you'll die. I don't want that to happen. And, I don't want to go after you as your enemy."
"Why?" she demands.
"Why what?"
"Why help me?" she lunges at him and has a kunai at his throat, taken from his holster, "Tell me!" her eyes burn with fear and hate.
"Because I'm the only one that can," he says, "Without family or allies, you've got no chance alone. Danzo-sama and Hokage-sama are unlikely to allow you to move with much freedom. You haven't known anyone long enough to trust them. We were initiates in ANBU since induction, long before the War broke out, and remained in the same divisions, switching off on missions," he gasps as the blade presses harder on his throat, "During the War…I was the only fighter still alive to help you fight off all those enemies and kept you from being flat out annihilated."
"Give me a real reason," she hisses, "Not some fake flattery. Your life is in my hands."
"Because…" he sighs, "Shisui killed my sister and took away my father's ability to speak. He took away everything that was important to me. I can't stand by and watch as he goes unpunished for destroying the last of your family, too. Hatake Kakashi was a valuable asset to Konoha and Hokage-sama probably won't do anything more than increase patrols to look for them. Days, weeks, and months will pass and nothing will be done past that. What will be done if his patrols do find them? Nothing—Hokage-sama won't want to sacrifice anyone else. Shisui will just go free. That's an insult not only to Kakashi, but you, my father, my sister, me, and the Uchiha clan. In that way, Hokage-sama is Shisui's ally, keeping him safe from punishment. You can't trust the Hokage or anyone under him. The only people with the skills to take him down, right now, are you and I."
Hound's grip lessens just a bit before he turns the tables, taking advantage of her loosening grip, and his glowing red eyes stare down at her obsidian ones. "Will you trust me?"
She disappears from underneath him, gripping her upper arms with her hands. Slouching. She shuts her eyes as more tears threaten, and do, fall.
"After that bloody War…" she states, "I won't ever trust you."
'Suicide would be the last thing for Hiruzen to worry about' was it?
With a black zip-up jacket on to fend off the cold and warm gloves on, especially with the encroaching winter, along with thick, black, cotton pants on with deep pockets and kunai and shuriken holsters taped to her leg, she descends deeper into the Uchiha library.
It is restricted only to Uchiha members, but Kosari simply slipped in after finding the door open. She has her guard up; anyone could be lurking around and she certainly doesn't want to be caught for trespassing. Kagami would be lenient, maybe, but anyone else here because they want something—Itachi or Shisui. I don't sense them, but those two are good at extinguishing their chakra until it's almost nothing.
It's that and the fact that the threat of spies within the village, especially Orochimaru's spies looking for kekkei genkai (of which the sharingan would probably take the title of the strongest), combined with her trespassing and pilfering somewhat classified documents may label her as a spy, and by extension, a traitor.
Under the impression that only scrolls line the walls since the Uchiha decided to adopt putting their achievements to paper a long time ago, she carefully takes a few of the neatly stacked scrolls before sitting. It doesn't take long (well, she supposes, in the dark with just a flashlight, time could pass quite quickly) for the ground around her to become littered with scrolls.
With a sigh, she rolls most of them back up before replacing them exactly where they were. She looks down at the five in her hands, undecided. Can these really help?
Can they help me find a way to catch, and plunge into the depths of hell, the clan's most powerful Uchiha?
No, death—killing, that is—is too kind. If being in the Assassinations Division of ANBU Black Ops has taught her anything it is this: a swift death is cruel, but torture until they beg to die is justice in its purest form. A swift death for murderers would be painless, unlike the horror and fear and agony their victims were in during their final moments, and would only hasten their journey to the souls they killed. Torture, keeping a murderer's soul tethered to the earth and far from his victims, allows for every moment of terror and pain to be felt and understood before he dies full of regret.
With her flashlight between her teeth, she looks around to see where the next rows of scrolls are, but finds something better: a table and a chair. She walks over before setting her scrolls down, pulling out her own scroll to take down whatever may be helpful. She pulls out the smooth wooden chair and sits.
Her entire body freezes.
I-I can't move…!
In shock, she watches as black markings snake up her body and paralyze her. Fūinjutsu? I've never seen such complex markings with intricate patterns as this. I can't break this.
Her heart thuds in her ears before she realizes something terrifying.
I can't breathe.
I can't breathe!
"Can't move?" a voice asks calmly, "Can't breathe? Can't even blink?"
Not even the tiniest sound escapes her throat.
"Taichō, there's no way any of this could've been of any use to you, however," the voice says, unfurling the scrolls to reveal nothing but illegible scribble. "What you'd read earlier was nothing but bait for trespassers. This section is what I presume you're looking for: Uchiha history, but you'd need a sharingan to read this. There's a reason why only Uchiha are allowed. If anyone else snuck in and either sat where you sat or grabbed the thickest, heaviest scroll at the end of the shelf with the enticing label of 'Entire Uchiha History' in regular kanji and kana, they'd be paralyzed and die within around three minutes. I've read almost everything in here and believe me when I say that there's nothing of true use here. However, there's one thing that I can't read. But, I have a feeling that you may be able to."
Agonizing moments pass; an eternity.
My lungs…they're burning…
Kosari's vision starts to fade as her ears ring.
With a few one-handed signs, the seal is broken and Kosari collapses face-forward, gasping for air greedily like a fish out of water. She coughs before gasping again and clutches her chest tightly. Her entire body quickly is enveloped in a general pain and her hands shake.
Placed before her isn't a scroll.
It's a…book.
It's an old book. Very old. She turns and sees two glowing sharingan in the darkness and feels his entire presence pressing down on her, keeping her from escaping. "Monkey, I told you—"
"I can easily kill you in a heartbeat," he says quietly, "Neither of us can defeat them alone."
"I'm done listening to your ridiculous notions," she hisses, "Trusting you is something I can't do. Teaming—"
The markings clamp down on her legs and heat up, causing searing pain. Her affected skin quickly turns from a pale pink to a bright and agitated red. A bead of sweat runs down her face as she grips her legs in agony, "H-hey…"
"Listen to me," he orders.
Defiance shines in her eyes before the glint in her eyes fades into pain, "Just listen. That's all I ask, taichō."
"Fine," she manages to say as the pain intensifies.
With seconds, the pain recedes to a dull throbbing. He continues, "This is the only non-scroll I've found in the entire Uchiha library, not just this section. It has one line of Uchiha scribble, something only Uchiha can read, and something else. I'd never seen or heard of another language being used in the world, even after being in ANBU and going around the world. It seems to be composed of a string of foreign kana in varying lengths and a wide variety of combinations. I'd looked through everything to see if there was some sort of key between that and regular kana, but there's nothing. I'd thought that I was at a dead end, so close but yet so far, but I'd found something recently. I was helping Kagami-sama clean and I found old Academy notebooks Shisui used to use. Inside, in the back pages, were pages from someone else's notebook stapled in. He'd added his own little commentary underneath, basically saying how there was a cute transfer student and how he'd cut out parts of her notebook and added it to his, apparently fascinated, but utterly enveloped in a lack of understanding. Later on, he stapled in a photo of her with a young boy looking for certain kunai."
He pauses, examining her face for any reaction. As expected, he gets none.
"Where are you going with this?" she asks, "Besides going through a kid's notebook and explaining to me how you're nothing but a creep, you're not making any—"
"This transfer student was you, taichō," he says bluntly, "Your name was the same. The photo is obviously you. You wrote the pieces he took. Meaning, you knew the foreign kana. You can read what's in this book."
A wave of nausea prevents her from looking at the book. In a frustrated and cornered fit of annoyance, she sweeps her arm to knock the book away, but Monkey sees her arm tense before she can fragment the book and pins her wrist down.
"So I'm right, then," he decides, "If you read this for me, I'll leave you alone. You won't ever have to hear another word about Shisui from me again. If we end up on different sides if you abandon the village, I won't fight you. I'll let you go, even if it means I'll be branded as an accomplice or a traitor," he says, "How does that sound?"
I…I could avenge Kakashi with this. This could have what we're both looking for.
She opens the book and points accusingly at the Uchiha lettering, "Read that."
Monkey pulls an extra chair from another aisle and sits beside her, "It says: 'Follow in the footsteps of your ancestors. Find peace within the clan and die around only pure blood.'" He frowns, "I think it's referring to old clan laws. I'm not sure if this still holds, but long ago, the Uchiha clan promoted intermarriage if it meant keeping the clan lines pure. Any Uchiha caught with someone not of the clan would be killed, along with his or her lover. Any children conceived as a result of so-called 'impure union' would be brutally killed along with his parents. In short, marrying or eloping with someone outside the clan was strictly forbidden, punishable by death."
Kosari remains silent.
He turns the page and points to the foreign writing, "It's a little different from the next few pages with everything all weirdly connected but—"
"It says the same," Kosari mutters, "Don't waste my time."
Monkey blinks; surprised she'd read so quickly. And that she proved me right that she does understand. Now I'm more intrigued than ever… "Right…" he turns to the next page.
It's almost like the authors thought that every sentence deserved its own page. Kosari looks at the next page and scans it before frowning, "It's talking about various ways to punish traitorous men versus women. And…how burying the child alive would probably be best to show the blasphemous and true evil side of the child's existence to any other possible traitors."
He turns to the next page and Kosari is barely into the first half of the sentence before she hastily turns to the next page. He frowns, "What was written?"
"More of the same," she lies. Forced cannibalism…that's awful.
The next page and the next one after that further sicken the Jounin, "Monkey, please. I can't take this."
"Why?"
"It's all about killing and skinning and hanging and burning and murdering and…" Kosari sighs, exasperated, "After this last page I'm done."
He nods, keeping to his word. The last page of the book is neatly written with the entire page filled up with miniscule foreign kana. He watches as Kosari's face pales as she scans it. She unconsciously grips the edge of the table as her eyes go wide. After finishing it, she runs a hand through her hair and stares up at the ceiling. He hesitates to ask what was written, "Taichō—"
"I have a name," she says softly, "Use it."
"Hound," he says, "Was it…?"
"No," she grits her teeth, "It wasn't," she looks down at the book, "I'm afraid it's what we were looking for."
"What did it say?" Monkey asks eagerly.
"Before that," Kosari glances at him, "Tell me your name. Your given name."
"Monkey," he replies on command.
"The one your parents gave you," she corrects.
He rubs the back of his neck, "I've nearly forgotten it," he sighs, "It was Nagadachi."
"Nagadachi-san," she says, "I want this to not be repeated to anyone. Even if you're tortured, you will make sure no one hears this. And, I want you asking me no questions about the Hatake clan."
He frowns, but acquiesces, "Understood," he says formally.
She inhales deeply, "It explains how the children born from different combinations of increasingly stronger clans are much more dangerous. The only exception to this was the Senju, presumably because of the Senju's power and useful abilities, like controlling the Kyuubi. Yet, they mention an even more dangerous combination, one that even the Senju knew well enough not to try. It's an ancient clan, said here to find its roots from the first marriage of a princess to a nobleman of boundless wealth, superior intelligence, and exceptional fighting skill," she follows the lines of words as she says the translation and he watches as she seems to grow more and more weary as the words go on. She runs a hand through her silver hair and continues, "He himself had already sired children, of whom here are stated to become the ancestors of clans around the world, including the Kaguya clan. After his children with the princess were born, it was clear that something was different about his first child, a boy, and the second child, the princess's first-born, a girl. Only five years into her life and the princess's child had not only begun reciting passages from scrolls that took monks years to memorize, but had improved on an old weapon, deemed to be an invention without usefulness; the bow and arrow. With this, the girl quickly quelled various rebellions and helped to consolidate her mother's power. By the age of ten, the girl's power had come to rival that of her father's. She rose to the position of advisor, much higher than her father. Her father, having spent time and money into training and grooming his son for the throne, ordered her assassination after hearing that the girl was planning on becoming simply the 'Emperor', taking away the titles of king and queen. The assassination was successful for a mere four minutes before the girl rose from her pool of blood, harnessed the power of the heavens as rain and thunder and lightning pelted the earth, and killed not only her half-brother, but her father and all of the advisors and most of the noblemen as well. At the age of twenty, the girl was feared across the world to be the most powerful warrior, carrying out military campaigns on her mother's, the queen's, behalf singlehandedly. Not twelve, but thirteen full moons pass—"
"A year," Monkey says, "She was gone for a full year."
"I suppose," Kosari says, "Anyway, after nearly winning the entire world, the girl comes back home and is treated like an alien. Servants scurry away from her, even after she's changed into her regal clothes, and her own mother refuses to see her, remaining locked away in her room. After a week of close observation, the girl finds out that her mother has remarried once more and has birthed two children. She watches as her mother's love for her children grows and hears of a startling plan: her mother and her new husband plan to have the first born, Hagoromo, become king. Distraught, the girl hides in her room. Only two weeks pass before war and chaos break out around the world. Her mother orders her to regain peace in her name, but the girl refuses as tears fall from her for the first time. As the wars outside grow in increasing intensity and threaten the strength of the royal family, the mother decides to take matters in her own hands and defies the taboo to eat the fruit of the God Tree. Within a day, all of the world's wars end. Angry that her own daughter, who for so long had complied with her orders, had defied her, she banishes the girl. The girl leaves and becomes a wandering warrior. She ends up high in the snow-capped mountains where a group of highly skilled men capture her. Depressed, the girl doesn't put up a fight. She is presented to the men's leader as a gift for him to enjoy, but the leader simply turns to look at her before stabbing her until she couldn't move. The leader watches as lightning crackles around her before the girl rises to her feet and pulls the lightning back within her. Weak and tired, the girl begins to fall, but the leader catches her and asks if she remembered him. Shocked, she does. It is her half-brother, having somehow survived. He confesses that his mother, a lowly servant, had blamed him for killing his father and demanded he leave and never come back. The girl sympathizes and the two concoct a plan to reenter the imperial palace and regain their dignity. In the meantime, the mother had turned into a demon, feared by all, and wielded a terrifying power.
"After nearly fifteen years, the two return to find that the mother had become a tyrant and killed anyone who got in her way. The two children in the palace soon exhibit the same terrifying power and a crazed envy drives the mother to try to kill her children. The girl stops her mother along with her half-brother while the younger progeny seal the mother away in the moon. Her power, called 'chakra', is taken. The younger two, emboldened by their win, split the chakra amongst just the two of themselves. The girl and her older brother are left with mere residue from having taken the brunt of all the mother's fearsome and deadly attacks and having held her down. Hagoromo later on has two sons, the founders of the Uchiha and Senju, and is named Emperor. Infuriated that neither she nor her brother had been recognized for having stopped her deadly rampage, the girl and her brother stage a coup to overthrow Hagoromo's power, but without chakra Hagoromo and his younger twin brother Hamura easily defeat them and chase them out of the royal palace within an inch of their lives. Later, the brother becomes enchanted with a woman and marries her, eventually forming the Uzumaki clan after his descendants join with the descendants join with the ancestors of the Senju to create a powerful clan.
"Alone, the girl founds a clan of exceptional fighting skill, but keeps her and her clan's existence a secret; without chakra they can't possibly win against their chakra-wielding cousins. She remains in the snow-capped mountains where she'd found her brother, as her clan grows more and more skilled in chakra-less weaponry. Her clan, imbued with resent for the Senju, and particularly the Uchiha—the Uchiha often killed small children and used their hair as a replacement textile material when gold wasn't available to embroider their kimono with—and sorrow for their ancestor and Hagoromo's betrayal…"
Kosari takes in a shaky breath, "This clan, with unrivaled weaponry skill, superior intelligence, secret wealth, longevity, better records of the past and knowledge of hidden secrets that not even the Uchiha or Senju could comprehend, along with better taijutsu, powerful, pure blood, and perhaps even an ability to harness the skies, is the Hatake Clan," Kosari stands up suddenly, kicking Monkey away, reading the last parts incredulously, "Lies! There's no way…he couldn't have…" Kosari feels a wave of rage crash over her, "Sakumo! You knew about this! You should've told me! You should've told me to keep Kakashi away from him!" she beats the wall with a fist and a sizeable crack appears.
"Hound," Monkey grabs her, "What did the last part say?"
"Let go of me!" she shrieks, "Damn Uchiha! I should have never come to this damned village!"
Monkey wastes no time pinning her against the wall, "Hound, I don't want to force you to tell me."
"Then let go," she says frantically, "Let go!"
"Only if you tell me," he says, "Please."
"No!" she shuts her eyes, not letting him cast any genjutsu with his glowing red eyes, "Leave me alone. You Uchiha have done enough!"
"Kosari, be quiet," he says quietly. "Kagami-sama is coming. Technically, we're both trespassers. There's no way he'll let us go without having a Yamanaka wipe our minds. He'll reseal this place and we won't ever know how to—"
"'A Hatake and Uchiha, should their heirs join forces against their own clans, wield the strongest eyes and greatest power of the heavens before igniting the world's wars. Together, they are the strongest and can obliterate anything. Love must be forbidden; their combined power will destroy their clans and progeny between them will be the demise of their clans, their parents, and themselves. This forbidden child is a manifestation of a warning against diluting a clan's pure blood. In short, chaos and horror will be revived once more should any child's heart beat under both clans' crests," Kosari says in a rushed whisper. "Let me go…"
"Hound. Don't you remember the War? Don't you remember ANBU? It's no wonder you and I were the strongest and why we didn't die when we went up against all those Kiri shinobi and why we had new records for the most Assassination missions completed in ANBU in such a short period of time. We alone were able to keep Konoha safe," he says seriously, "But, I'll keep to my word. You read this for me. I'll leave you alone."
He lets go before flickering out. Kosari grabs her flashlight and balls her fists as she senses Kagami quickly closing in on the library.
Kakashi…
I…
She, too, flickers out and grabs Monkey's sleeve.
"Wait."
Nagadachi is quick to return to Kosari's apartment with several files that she'd asked for him to get. As the night sky fades into a reddish hue of morning, Nagadachi knocks on her door, "I'm back."
Kosari opens the door wearing a long-sleeve white shirt underneath a sleeve-less sky-blue jacket with the hood pulled over her silver hair. In one hand is a cup of steaming…hot water. In the other is a worn-looking book. She lets him in and closes the door behind. She studies him, finding his casual clothes consisting of a black shirt and grey running pants and sandals and lack of a mask to be startling. He stares back, "Is there something wrong?"
"No," she says and hands him a steaming cup of tea. "While you were gone, I found an old book that my grandfather gave me. It's not special, but after flipping through it, I found a little more on the girl, the founder of the Hatake clan. There's a drawing of her," she holds the book up open to the page with a colored picture is.
"She looks an awful lot like—"
"Me," Kosari mutters, "I know. She even has the same mark from her cheek to her neck that I have," she pulls her jacket and shirt back and exposes her skin to the light. "All Hatake had silver hair…which I suppose is why the Uchiha used to use it when gold wasn't available. I don't know why, but I find that little bit interesting."
Monkey plucks out a strand and she narrows her eyes, "Ow."
"It does look like a silver thread," he says, examining it with his red eyes.
"Nagadachi-san, deactivate your sharingan," Kosari says, "You're wasting your chakra."
"Can't," he says simply, "Been like this for a while now. I just use a mild genjutsu to cover this up when I'm on a mission or around Hawk."
"Why?" Kosari knits her brows.
Nagadachi purses his lips, "I was kicked out of the clan after I joined ANBU Black Ops; Fugaku-sama didn't know where my loyalty would lie, especially because Black Ops is much more demanding than regular ANBU, so I'd almost never be home. Angry that I'd apparently chosen ANBU over the clan, he threw me out and sealed my sharingan to make it harder for me to remain in ANBU. He expected me to be unable to take it and come crawling back. I don't have very large reserves and yes, it being activated does drain me considerably. But," he spreads his arms out wide, "I made it."
Kosari puts her cup down, "Earlier…you said that Shisui took away your father's ability to speak."
"Yes," he agrees, "I did say that," he runs a hand through his straight short but slightly curly and nods, "Kagami-sama is my father."
"You what?" Rin bolts up from her table. The table wobbles and her cup falls over and shatters on the ground. Her brown eyes are wide in disbelief. Her chair falls over and makes a startling sound. Tears slip out as she stands with her lips parted in horror.
"You idiot!" Rin grabs his collar, standing on her tiptoes, "Why did you do that?! Are you out of your mind!?"
"Hey," a fluffy woman behind the counter with a white apron on and her hands on her hips, "Take your fight outside."
Rin drags him out and with surprising strength; she thrusts him on the ground. Her eyes burn with anger, "Explain, Jiraiya-sama."
"Damn girl got me cornered," Jiraiya says gruffly, "What was I supposed to do, lie? ANBU Black Ops are trained for lie detection, Nohara. My being here without Kakashi was evidence enough. There wasn't much I could do."
"Don't give me that crap!" Rin argues.
Jiraiya stands, "What would you have done? You would've broken down into tears, profusely apologizing—"
"No—"
"Yes, you would've," Jiraiya says, "It was inevitable. Do me a favor, Rin."
"You're not in any position—"
"Make sure she doesn't kill herself," he mutters, "That kind of thing is pretty prevalent in the Elite Jounin Corps and Black Ops. That, and drugs. Wouldn't be surprised if you searched her apartment and found opium or something," he says darkly before walking away.
"Sorry, Rin."
Rin whirls around, "Jiraiya-sama…" but he's already gone. Rin takes a reflexive step towards him before dropping to her knees and bursting into sobs, "Kakashi!"
"I'm sorry, but," Hiruzen's face is ashen, "The date of the vigil hasn't been set yet."
Not…set yet? Why had they been planning without me? I, the last of kin, should be in charge of all of it. "I see," Kosari intones. There's only five more weeks until the Exams. What are they waiting for? His body? Good luck fucking find it. He probably destroyed his body to keep other countries from experimenting with it.
Hiruzen shifts a few papers on his desk before finding what he was looking for, "There's something I'd like for your team to do, Kosari," Hiruzen tosses her a scroll. The woman catches it and reads it. Without batting an eye, she looks up at him, "Hokage-sama, it's unsafe. Why not just send me?"
"I think you know the answer to that," Hiruzen says, "We've only five weeks as it is. The last list of Genin from Iwa—"
"Iwa is participating, sir?" Monkey blurts out.
Hiruzen smiles and looks over at Kosari, "I see your time out of ANBU has rubbed off extremely quickly on Monkey, Kosari."
"Not at all, sir," Kosari keeps her tone level despite the venom in her mouth at the jab. What's he implying?
"Yes, they are," Hiruzen looks back at the ANBU leaning against the door, "I was surprised too. The numbers are surprising as well; they're sending ten teams. Kumo is also participating, sending just two teams. Suna is sending just one and Kiri is sending one. There are a few more from smaller villages, but this year's team numbers are lower than I had expected: only around fifty teams. We may not even need the Second Round," Hiruzen takes a drag from his pipe.
"When should we depart?" Kosari refers to the mission as he blows out perfect rings.
"Today," Hiruzen says. Then he smiles again, "Bring Monkey along."
"Yes, sir," the two bow deeply before leaving his office.
"This is Monkey, an ANBU in Black Ops," Kosari jerks a thumb at him as the four walk away from Konoha. "I'm sure you three remember him."
"Yeah," Naruto crosses his arms, "He's that jerk that beat the crap out of us."
"Different ANBU," Kosari says.
"Why's he coming along? Our mission is just observation, right?" Sasuke narrows his eyes at the ANBU.
"More like infiltration and intelligence gathering," Kosari says, "And lethal self-defense if necessary."
The three pale slightly at that. "You mean…killing?" Hinata asks.
"Yes," Kosari says seriously, "The Exams will have Genin who kill easier than they breathe. Where you're going, it's eat or be eaten."
A long period of silence passes before Sasuke speaks up again, "What were your Exams like, sensei?"
Kosari gives him a sideways glance as the evening rays begin to die down, "Chuunin Exams, huh?" she goes forward and decides to tell him the truth, "It was terrifying. We were given three days to find an object hidden within the entire swamp. My teammates tired themselves out way too quickly, mainly because of their precious dojutsu scouring the area for enemies, and also because the temperature soared over a hundred degrees. By the second day, they were burned out. As I was setting up traps, they were taken from our campsite. I had much lower chakra capacities than they had and I spent a good portion of it on getting past the better traps my enemies had and trying to cool off without going to the lake; it would be a bloodbath since it was a small lake and the only water source. When I finally reached my teammates and their kidnappers, I was out of chakra. Around six or seven enemies surrounded me, separating me from my teammates. I held them back with taijutsu, but I was too tired and too slow. They managed to sink their kunai and senbon in my back and arms, and several senbon through my hands, making any last-ditch jutsu impossible. All I could think of was how much blood I was surrounded by. I could feel my strength and consciousness draining. I blacked out after that. I woke up being carried by one of my teammates, and the other carrying a broken gold dagger, supposedly the object we'd had to find. We made it in the nick of time and moved on to the Finals and…" Kosari shoves her hands in her pockets, "And the three of us became Chuunin. The end."
"What?" Naruto frowns, "Who'd you fight in the Finals?"
"I don't remember," Kosari says, not looking at him, "It doesn't matter."
"We can't take forever," Itachi warns, "Their ANBU are truly their Kage's senbon," the teen's somber black eyes almost bore into Shisui's glowing red ones. Shisui eyes the teen in the middle of a training ground, beating a wooden post to a pulp. After a rather large splinter embeds itself in his hand, he stops and examines the wound with a wince.
"I'm going," Shisui says.
Itachi nods, but his entire body goes rigid as soon as Shisui disappears. He can't sense anyone and his eyes glow red—I don't see anyone—after sweeping the jagged rocks surrounding them, yet he can't help but feel as if he's being watched. Then again, Pein was nowhere and Pein was everywhere and just being in the Akatsuki hideout made his skin crawl.
Shisui…hurry back.
Shisui wears just a navy blue shirt and black pants without any symbols or insignia. In less than a blink of an eye, he appears in front of the panting boy. The boy, on his hands and knees, at first doesn't notice the S-Rank criminal. He eventually stands and regains his bearings before flinching, "Sneaking up on—"
He stops midway in his sentence; his eyes going wide, his lips parting in shock, and disbelief in his eyes. Then, he smirks widely and his eyes turn a deep red, "Uchiha Shisui! Fight me!"
What? Shisui raises a brow, "No."
"What?" the boy utters, "If you won't make the first move, I will!" he lunges at him with a kunai.
Shisui disappears. The boy stops in his tracks, surprised. He whirls around, expecting Shisui to be behind him, but instead receives a mouthful of dirt. Sitting on top of him is Shisui. He traps the boy's arms underneath his slender frame and pulls out a needle and a vial with a thin tube running between them. As he tears open a small alcohol swab he says, "You don't bear the 'Uchiha' name. Yet, you have the sharingan. Were you adopted? Where are your birth parents?"
"None of your business!" the indignant boy says, his face colored in shame that he'd been downed so easily. With these eyes, I should've seen it coming!
"Cold!" the boy hisses as the seemingly icy swab runs along his skin.
"Well," Shisui says, "I could kill you if you don't talk."
The boy sweats a little at that, but pride overtakes his fear, "So what? I bet Raikage-sama is coming over here right now to kick your ass!"
Shisui simply leans over and looks him in the eye, "I do not fear the Raikage."
"Arrogance!" the boy shrieks, "You should! Raikage-sama can kill you in an instant!"
Shisui inserts the needle and the blood springs up through the tube and hastily deposits itself in the vial. The boy gasps as Shisui does this, "H-hey! What're you doing?!"
"'None of your business'," Shisui mocks, "Right?" there's a twinkle in Shisui's eyes: amusement.
"Don't patronize me!" the boy squawks. "Just tell me how these eyes work!"
This surprises Shisui, "You don't know? What of you parents? Didn't they explain this to you? Aren't they Uchiha?"
"No!" the boy blurts out, "I-I mean…" he trails off, glaring at the ground as his eyes return to a color of the deep forest leaves a night: a green almost black, only a deep, dark green when the light shone upon his eyes, and seemingly black at any other time. Shisui is mesmerized for a moment.
"I shouldn't be telling you this!" the boy clutches his arm and takes a few steps back, "You're a criminal! You killed your clan and, and, you're," his eyes widen to perfect saucers, "You're here to kill me!" he stumbles back and looks at Shisui in fear, "Help! Help! Uchiha Shisui is here! He's going to kill me! Someone he—"
Shisui's spinning sharingan catches his black forest green eyes and they roll in the back of his head. He slumps, unconscious in an instant. Shisui looks up and sees Itachi appear next to him, "We've got to go. We've been surrounded."
As soon as those words leave Itachi's mouth, bombs go off around the two Uchiha. Shisui shoves Itachi out of the way of the most violent blast and takes the brunt, not wanting to use his mangekyō to conserve chakra.
From the shadows emerges a figure, shirtless, and encased in menacing lightning armor. His beady black eyes burn holes in Shisui's, whose clothes are singed. He sheds his shirt, mere threads clinging by a few strands, revealing a fishnet undershirt. Itachi stands next to him and narrows his eyes slightly, "We did not come here to incite a war."
"It seems you scum have," the Raikage growls, "While that boy might be a living disgrace, I will not allow you worthless pieces of trash to get at him. He is a Kumogakure Genin; not some weak Konoha Genin you can sink your fangs into. He's my Genin. He's my sharingan—my tool to do something Konoha is too soft and feeble to do!" lightning shrieks around him as Shisui's skin crawls with the intensity of the Raikage's chakra. He lets his eyes fade into black, making the Raikage stop and analyze his action; he was about to attack but it seems as if Shisui had another trick up his sleeve. As plans to obliterate the Uchiha and their skillset whirl around in his head, Shisui is able to buy time. He looks the Kage in the eye, unafraid, "As Itachi said before, we did not come here to incite a war. Good night, Raikage," Shisui says as the two disappear in his teleportation jutsu.
The Raikage angrily races after them, vanishing from his waves of ANBU's eyes. The ANBU, like a crashing wave, hit the soil and advance on the heels of their Kage and his target.
The Raikage knows a very important difference between the Uchiha and the Kīroi Senkō: while Minato was able to teleport over long distances (up to about five miles) and proved tracking, tracing, and ambushing impossible, Shisui could teleport only up to about two miles away. While he too left no trace, he could not travel nearly as far as Minato could.
In other words…
You're not getting away!
"Just one room, miss?" the grey-haired wrinkly old woman looks at the young woman with curiosity. She leans in closer to Kosari, "Your strong friend there must be quite the looker. Are you sure you don't want to reserve two? I wouldn't want to ruin these children's minds if I were you."
What? Kosari's composure doesn't fall, "I'd like to reserve one room, please," her obsidian eyes bore into the woman's deep green ones.
"Very well," the woman sighs, handing her two room keys, "Just in case," she whispers.
Kosari grabs them from her and barely keeps venom from her, "Thank you," and starts up a flight of stairs. She angrily slams open the door and begins setting up traps. Kosari rapidly weaves the wire, "'Just in case'…what is that supposed to mean? I'm a paying customer; don't waste my time and argue with me," she mutters under her breath.
"Is something the matter, Kosari-san?" Monkey asks, his eyes glimmering with suppressed laughter.
A senbon barely nicks his neck, "Don't talk to me," Kosari warns, her eyes flashing.
"Sensei, just what will we be observing?" Hinata asks as she dumps her bag down and plops down on the tatami mat lined floor.
Kosari feels the scroll in her pocket grow a bit heavier, "We'll be infiltrating a high-profile party. Within the ranks of the elite is our target."
"And if we find him, what do we do with him?" Sasuke asks.
Kosari nicks her finger on a wire, "We probably won't be isolating the target. Simply finding out any and all details on the target will be sufficient."
"It sounds like even you don't know," Naruto notes, "Or, is this actually an assassination mission?" his blue eyes turn icy.
For a moment, Kosari wonders if that's what the Iwa shinobi last saw when Minato unleashed his prowess upon them during the War. She'd seen Minato angry and was always glad to never be on the receiving end of his anger. Yet, she can't help but wonder if those icy blue eyes were much more than just an orphan with talent.
Kosari looks at him seriously, "Uzumaki-san, this target, as I was told, is dangerous. Nothing more and nothing less. You can make up your own ideas regarding him or her or the mission. In fact, it's best if you think about all this through a lens like that; you don't, and I don't, know what will happen upon infiltration."
"If it's a party," Hinata begins slowly, "Don't we have to blend in?"
"Correct," Kosari says, "Which is why," she pulls out her scroll and presses a hand to a few of the matrixes, "I've brought these," the smoke dissipates to reveal three suits and two formal dresses, one a deep blue with a white bird at the shoulder to match Hinata's dark hair, and the other a white dress with an increasing pink gradient as it reaches the unpronounced ruffles at the bottom.
"…"
"They don't look exactly exhilarated, Kosari," Monkey whispers with a hand between the Genin's horrified eyes and his mask, "And neither am I. Won't it be easier just to have the two of us do this? Getting the target would take no time at all."
'This isn't a break for you,' Kosari reminds him, 'Just because you're being given time off from Assassination duty doesn't mean you can just sit back and relax. This is practice for them, Monkey,' she signs, "The party is tonight. Before that, you three must learn how to dance."
"No," Sasuke bristles, "No."
"Didn't they teach Uchiha kids to dance?" Kosari tilts her head slightly.
"Wha—I—" Sasuke sputters, "I'm not dancing," he says firmly.
"We have to blend in, or we'll be thrown out or worse, found out," Kosari replies, "Don't worry, Uchiha-san. It isn't hard."
"No," he grinds out with eyes blazing with dissident.
"Come on, Sasuke-chan," Naruto swings an arm around his shoulder, "It'll be fun!"
"I look ridiculous," Sasuke mutters, tugging at the ends of the suit. Monkey had shed his mask, uniform, and gloves for the suit and kept the henge. The man slightly adjusts Sasuke's collar, much to Sasuke's discomfort. He angrily pushes the ANBU away, glaring hatefully, "Don't touch me."
"Yes, yes," Monkey sighs, and turns to focus on helping Naruto redo his buttons, which were all in the wrong slit. Monkey ends up kneeling and redoing all of the buttons.
"Oh that's how you're supposed to do it?" Naruto asks.
"Yes, you start from the bottom and carefully work your way up," Monkey says, adjusting the boy's sleeves to rest without strain or wrinkle, "Be careful not to spill food on this, Uzumaki-san. This is rather expensive and I don't think it's beyond imagination to say that replacing this may come out of Kosari-san's pay."
"How much do you get paid?" Naruto asks.
"Enough," Monkey replies with a sly smile.
"I think that Kosari-sensei used to be in ANBU," Naruto says, "What kinds of things do you do in ANBU?"
"Mainly Assassinations and Recruit Training," Monkey says. "There's other Divisions, but I don't serve those often."
"How about Kosari-sensei?" Sasuke suddenly asks.
"More often than not, the former," Monkey says.
The silence doesn't stretch on for long as Sasuke quickly asks another question, "Who did she work with?"
Monkey tilts his head a bit, wondering where the boy's sudden keen interest in his friend's (so-called 'idiot') questions, "No…one. I think. She and I never talked about that sort of thing. She only talked to anyone if it was to teach him or her something or give him or her an order. I was always out of the village, as she was supposed to be, but she had a special arrangement with the Head of ANBU Corps and would have one day of rest within the village a month. She had much, much more assignments than I did, so I suppose that must've been why."
"It's quite simple," Kosari says, "All you have to do is just move forwards, right, back, and left. You're making a small square with your feet and end up where you started. For you two anyway," Kosari glances at Sasuke and Naruto, "You lead. The girls follow."
"That's not—"
"Life isn't fair," Kosari knows what Hinata was going to say. The girl had always been rather strong-willed; something she supposes must've been an inherent trait in her clan. Hinata backs down slightly, but still fumes under the surface.
"Also, Uchiha-san," Kosari gives him an eerie smile, "You want to be a Jounin, right?"
"Of course," Sasuke says, thoughts of killing Itachi with his Jounin strength coursing through his mind.
"Since Jounin are expected to perform on a higher level, it includes nearly all aspects of shinobi life. This includes assassinations, guarding, optional Genin training, and infiltration, among others. You must be able to adapt to any situation for infiltration and as a result, there is compulsory dance training for a month," Kosari says a little too cheerfully.
Sasuke pales and his mouth goes dry.
Monkey clears his throat, "Kosari-san and I will demonstrate."
Kosari grasps his left hand in her right as he places his hand on her back as she places her hand on his shoulder. He begins with a stride forward, to which she steps back with, before moving to the left, forward, and then right. She lets go and looks at them clad in their infiltration uniforms, and places her hands on her hips, "Easy."