Enjoy!
"Kakashi."
Shisui waits for the young boy to respond. Kakashi turns partially, looking slightly unalarmed. "Shisui-san."
The Uchiha falls into step with him and they walk in rhythm. The streets of Konoha are nothing short of deserted and a thick gloom hangs in the air.
"Did you talk to him?" Shisui asks finally, squinting through the dark at the partially destroyed shops of the village's centre.
"I did." Kakashi glances away from Shisui, watching someone emerge from the dark, "Here he is. Tenzo." He waves him over and as the newly arrived Tenzo joins the two, Shisui peers at him curiously from behind Kakashi.
"Oh, hello." He smiles politely and extends a hand, "I'm Shisui."
Tenzo stares at the hand, remembers what handshakes are and carefully takes his hand in a single firm shake. The Uchiha smiles as he lets go.
"Taichou briefed me a bit about what you've been thinking." Tenzo trails off, eyeing Kakashi who is quiet. "I think we can do some investigating, but…" He scratches the back of his head and Kakashi easily guesses what he is about to say.
"I just think it would be stupid for us to do all of this without informing Sandaime-sama, or at least Danzo-sama."
Kakashi exhales as he considers the options. Shisui too, glances down disappointedly at his sandaled-feet as he considers Tenzo's suggestion.
Neither Kakashi nor Shisui trust Danzo.
'Telling them means possibly foiling our own plan.' Shisui frowns, uncertain. Kakashi volunteers to fill in the silence, "We should do some more thinking before we do anything."
He trails off, switching between Shisui and Tenzo as he is between the two. "Let's mull over the plan a little longer. I have a feeling that Michiko is okay, wherever she is. We'll find her."
Shisui's grit comes in handy, he nods quietly. Tenzo however, picks up on Kakashi's tone, he does sound like he is trying to convince himself.
'Maybe we should leave Tenzo out of it.' Shisui considers. Kakashi is mirroring his thoughts.
"Oh…" Shisui is startled, his eyes begin to gleam. A bit like a puppy, Kakashi's head shoots up and he glances around, trying to locate the source of Shisui's joy.
"Ichiraku-san is open!" The Uchiha pumps a fist in the air, "Time for dinner." He sing-songs, pulling Kakashi and Tenzo along with him. In earnest, he is trying his best not to think about Michiko. His heart threatens to burst out of his chest each time he does. He can only hope and pray that wherever she is, she is alive.
Everything is damp. The air feels like it is made of a million, tiny, floating drops of water.
Obito has brought Michiko to the very heart of her mother's land.
There are ruins of homes, some collapsed into themselves, some covered in overgrown creepers, while others look as though someone swatted off the tops with their palms while dismissing some bugs. The buildings are hollow, even the trees are sallow. The earth is dark and damp, a strange purple-brown that smells rotten and sweet.
It's nauseating.
Obito has let Michiko wander around.
Curiously, fearfully, she progresses further away from him as she explores. Rendered mute by the scene around her, she absorbs the stone and ruin around her. Like the blind, she runs her hands along everything she can touch; the branches, the dust, the broken window panes and doorways.
"What is this place?" She asks, her voice echoing through the empty house as she prods her face through the doorway. Her question is punctuated by a soft, scraping sound as she drags her left foot to go inside.
"This is the Kaguya compound." Obito replies easily, scoping out some of the ruins as he follows her in, "Or at least, what's left of it."
Michiko doesn't reply, but he can hear her limping around. Regrettably, he has hurt her some more- not because he wants to, but because he has to stop her from running away. He estimates that with the little chakra she has, she won't be able to do much.
Smartly, she has decided to not let her bones heal themselves so quickly. She must reserve her chakra until she sees an opening to escape.
"Your mother was the youngest of her family." He starts, "After her brothers died, she was the remaining matriarch, but by then she had left this place far behind her. When she did come back here, the entire clan eventually…died."
He runs a single, long finger along the wall, drawing a line in the dust. Michiko is standing at the base of a staircase, watching him.
She didn't leave me on purpose. The thought hits her like the first time her mother raised a hand. It's strong and heavy, and it makes tears brim her eyes.
"How did they…die?"
She glances up the steps as a bird flutters somewhere above them, flustered by the arrival of human voices. There is a big hole in the ceiling, and a thick smattering of dark clouds hides the sky behind them.
She wipes her eyes quickly.
"They fought to the death, quiet literally." Obito's voice is dancing with amusement. "The entire clan, in one night. Your mother died somewhere here too." He bends down to pick up a ruined photo frame, dusting the glass to squint at the blotted picture.
Michiko's heart feels like it weighs 20 kilos. She moves to glance out the broken window, catching her reflection in the glass.
Her face is speckled with dark blots, her left eye is so bruised that her scar is almost invisible.
She feels sick.
"She died here?"
"Mhm." Obito is now watching her with his full attention, hands clasped behind his back. He looks eerie in the shadows of the dark afternoon.
"The Kaguya Clan threatened to overthrow Kirigakure's government. They were given the opportunity to surrender but chose to fight to the death."
"That's…That's so stupid." Michiko blurts, glancing around the house with horror, "What sort of people were they?"
She has blurry memories of her mother disciplining her harshly; the violence of her childhood is thrown into a new light.
"They were…" Obito pretends to ponder, having revised his script a million times, "Excessively arrogant in their abilities and fighting prowess. They were powerful. But Kiri was stronger."
Intentionally, Obito leaves out some finer details: a small group of the Kaguya chose to take on Kirigakure and as punishment, the women, children and remaining men were all killed. Others of the clan were hunted down from every nook and corner and their severed heads were displayed around the compound for days after the clan was killed.
Sobered from the horror, Michiko limps to what looks like a back door, and toes it open with her foot to discover that it is a destroyed room. The flooring is cracked, and large patches of wild grass are littered across it. The walls have been torn through, and the wall opposite is gone. Michiko stares at the green and grey horizon and the glimmer of the ocean far, far away.
"And…you know that my mother took part in this?"
Obito shrugged, "I don't know if she was complicit in their plans, but she was called back by her clan. And she died in the battle."
Huh, Michiko thinks, it was only a few years ago wasn't it?
She remembers her mother leaving before her 10th birthday. The memory is cold, like most of her memories. Cold like a corpse. Michiko shudders.
"An entire clan gone just like that…" The thought is horrifying. She questions why her uncle never once mentioned this to her.
"Let's go see the other buildings." Obito says sharply. His black cloak billows as he strides out. Michiko follows after him, ignoring the sharp pain in her leg as she drags it.
Obito winds his way through some narrow passages between the homes, until they reach an open courtyard, Michiko lagging behind him.
Across from them are the ruins of a temple, and in between, there is the stump of a wide, ancient tree. The wood is grey, nearly white.
"The Kaguya clan is another descendant of Otsotsuki Kaguya, the first shinobi." Obito explains. Michiko stands a little behind him, in awe of the ruined temple and his voice reverberates through the sparse distance between them.
The dilapidated state of the shrine makes her shudder and she is reminded of the soothing air of the Nakana Shrine.
Unlike the Uchiha's temple, this place has an air of rancour, it carries the chaos of a tragedy.
"Who are her other descendants?" She asks with a shaky breath.
"Hmm. The Hyuuga, Uchiha and Senju are some. Do you want to go inside?"
He gestures at the shrine, and Michiko glances from him to the building and back, looking weary.
"Not alone."
"Of course." Obito strides away and she follows. He stops at the remains of the steps where the concrete is chipped and stained. Michiko recalls that concrete is porous, and as she looks around, she realizes the entire courtyard is patched with brown stains.
Most likely, it is blood.
Pushing the thought to the back of her mind, she hobbles up the uneven staircase with Obito close behind her and abruptly stops between two jade pillars. She runs a hand along the cool stone. It is also cracked in places, but it throbs with an energy much like chakra.
Behind her, Obito halts abruptly. He wants to keep his distance from her as he watches her with piqued interest. This visit's ulterior motive is on the forefront of his mind.
A trade-off.
"Wow…" Michiko murmurs, "It's like it's alive…Can you feel that?"
Obito realises she is speaking to him when she glances over at him.
"Yes, this place is full of very ancient chakra."
Michiko notes that he doesn't sound very excited. Curious, she probes further into the temple. Nearly missing the flooring in all the intricate carvings of the temple, she only glances down when an orange glow lights up beneath her.
Looking down, she is alarmed to find a large red circle glowing like a blood-moon. The light lasts a few moments and dies down.
"So, you are a Kaguya." Obito muses over her shoulder, Michiko nearly flinches and looks at him from over her shoulder. He is still at the entrance and in her trepidation, she has nearly forgotten he is with her.
"This stone only responds to clan members." He tilts his head, "When the clan was still alive, it was constantly glowing."
Michiko glances down at the stone again and then up at the carved tiles of the roof. They are a yellowed-white, and it takes her a significant amount of time to piece together why their colour is such.
"Is this…bone?" She asks incredulously, running a finger along one of the more elaborate carvings of a tree in the wall.
"Yes." He replies, entering at last and walking around the red circle. Michiko pretends not to notice.
"How do you know all this?" She glances at him, watching him for a reaction. He simply shrugs.
She proceeds to limp around the shrine, noting that the creepers have grown into the temple too. Thick cord-like branches wrapped tightly around pillars and through gaps in the carvings.
The air is cold and damp, but most of the temple feels dry.
At the end, it is too dark for her to see. Obito conveniently lights a forgotten candle in one of the conches in the wall. The bone around the candle is so finely polished, it glitters.
"Whoa…" Michiko peers and squints until her eyes adjust to the dim light. Before her is a huge statue, much larger than a person, of a goddess.
The statue is quiet obviously a woman, sitting cross legged on a massive, ornate stool.
Michiko gapes at it as Obito watches from the side.
The statue is pale and veined; the stone itself having little cracks running through it. Smooth, blank eyes frozen in time stare back at her. Adorning her head is an elaborate crown and in one hand she holds a long staff that sits on the ground. Michiko runs her hand along it curiously. Then she turns her attention to the statue's tails.
"Is this woman like…one of the tailed beasts?" She asks, counting the tails.
10.
There is a small in the centre of her forehead and Michiko absentmindedly reaches up and sticks her finger in it and immediately retracts her hand as she feels how smooth it is.
Weird. She thinks, but she is in awe of the being and the temple.
Backing up, she turns to look for her companion, to find him staring up through one of the skylights. Noticing that he doesn't seem to be paying attention, she runs a hand along the staff again, wondering if it is real or part of the statue.
It seems loose.
"Hey Michiko."
She whips away from the staff, eyes widening in alarm. The movement stretches her skin and her eyebrow stings where a cut is still healing.
"Look," Obito is perched by a dip in the floor beneath the skylight he has been gazing out of, "There's a stone here."
Michiko limps over to him and peers over his head.
The pond is full of clear water that bobs and ripples of its own accord. It is clear and the tiles glimmer the same pale white of the temple.
"What is that?" Michiko is peering intently at a little red stone in the centre.
"It's the stone that belongs on the statue's forehead. There's a legend that if you take out this stone, you can unlock an ancient ability…" He trails off and Michiko gives him a suspicious look.
"I ain't fishing that out for you."
Not expecting such a response, Obito laughs boyishly and scratches his mask. "I wasn't asking you to, look." He points beyond the pond at a pile of bones, femurs and skulls all heaped.
"It's probably just legend and nonsense, anyway." He stands up abruptly, and nearly smacks Michiko with his head. She backs away, stumbling.
"You sound disappointed." She muses, eyeing him. Her leg hurts a little less and a part of her suspects it is because her body is healing because of the shrine.
"Maybe I am." He retorts, turning his head to stare at her with his single eye. She is reminded of Kakashi, twisting her mouth as she chews the inside of her lip.
"There was one survivor from your clan, but I don't know where he went, or what happened to him."
He is walking away from her and his voice is faint. Michiko remains rooted in place, spots dancing behind her eyes.
Maybe I moved too quickly. She feels like blood is rushing to her head, and for a second her vision fades.
The sounds of screams echo faintly through the shrine, and she whips her head to stare at the entrance.
What was that?
She waits to hear something again, and when silence remains, she dismisses it as a figment of her overactive imagination.
Outside, her captor has walked past the tree stump, and he turns to look back at her and waves. From afar, all Obito can see is the outline of her form. She waves back, a slender long arm waving gently at him.
Michiko turns to look around the temple a final time, meaning to follow the Uchiha. She notices that it is suddenly misty. She frowns, glancing around.
What the hell? Maybe it's the weather. Sharply, she turns on her heel and faces the entrance.
She sees the ghostly forms of men and women charging out of the shrine.
One of them seems to pause to regard her, bright green eyes piercing into her tired ones, from behind the veil of death. Two bright-red dots decorate the ghostly man's forehead and his eyes are rimmed with the same colour, stark against his pale skin. His short-cropped hair is dark and there are many scars on his face.
With one blink, the people vanish, and the man dissipates like an apparition.
Frozen in place, fear and pain grip her spine.
She sees visions of the courtyards, of people fighting to the death, running blindly, baring their weapons and their bones. Blood is spilling into the air, there is a haze of red mist.
In the centre, before the stump of the tree, a woman pulls a blade from an enemy's neck. Her hair is long and silvery, tied up in a ponytail on top of her head. She is wearing a white haori that is embroidered with red and is finely flecked with browning scarlet. Part of the loose haori has slipped off her shoulder, revealing her muscled arms and the dark green tank-top underneath.
She is holding two katanas, and the hilts of both swords are made of bone. Her palms and wrists are wrapped in bandages. The woman appears so bold and challenging, that Michiko doesn't recognize her until-
Until she turns.
Her sharp green eyes cut right through Michiko. The red dots on her forehead whirl into one big crest. It's like she is looking down at her.
Michiko is a child again.
Around her, people are impaling themselves and others on bone, but the woman moves as if to walk towards her, her dark lips parted in shock.
"Ma…ma…?...Mama?" Michiko moves too, towards her mother.
Her foot slips on the tile and she begins to fall backwards into the pond.
In her vision, she is running towards her mother.
"Michiko?" Her mother's face is stained with blood and other red marks, and from this close, the skin of her arms and her chest is scarred with thick, folded lines.
Confusion is followed by terror as the sharp tip of a dagger emerges through her mother's chest. She spits hot blood onto Michiko's face.
"My sweet…" She murmurs, collapsing in front of the tree-stump.
NO! DON'T GO! DON'T GO MAMA! Michiko hears her own voice, hysterically screaming for her mother to turn back around, to not leave through the gates of the Hidden Leaf.
Dark liquid pools around their feet.
The 'splash' as Michiko falls into the pond is unheard outside.
While time flows normally outside the shrine, inside it Michiko is still falling into the shallow pond.
Her arms are in the air trying to grasp something so that she can save herself, and the scream that leaves her throat is slow and sluggish.
She can feel a palm on her forehead and a thousand whispering voices. Their weight is pushing her under water, and she is gasping for breath.
Thrashing in slow motion, Michiko can feel the water pool in her lungs.
Someone is pushing something into the skin of her forehead.
She forgets that she is drowning, instead writhing from the pain- a bullet piercing her skull in slow motion. Her body shivers and thrashes until the pond is empty and Michiko is lying at the bottom, staring up at the cloudy sky.
A gentle drizzle patters onto her face as she groans.
WILL MICHIKO EVER MAKE IT BACK TO KONOHA?!
(I don't know why I'm so excited.)