II
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Arc II Chapter III
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Asami opened her heavy eye lids. Unfortunately, she had the misfortune to stare right into to a very bright object commonly called the "sun" and she averted therefore her head as fast as possible. Stupid sun. Asami had finally woke up after what felt like a small eternity and found herself encircled by an arrangement of beeping machines and monitors. Lying in her bed that was hard as stone, Asami rolled her eyes as the sound of the nearby cardiogram increasingly annoyed her. Because she was largely fine aside from her eyes that were itching for some mysterious reasons. Asami rubbed her eyes, but the uncomfortable itching just didn't disappear no matter what.
Ignoring her eyes for the time being, the girl scanned her surroundings.
Based on the white interior and the pleasant odour of alcohol, she was obviously in some kind of hospital, or rather some kind of medical facility at least. Which was no wonder, however, considering her condition and what happened …
Asami tilted her head in confusion and murmured," Happened, happened."
There was something important about that word. Something that was related to her present condition and the reason why she was here, but she couldn't remember what despite having the feeling of knowing it just a few seconds ago. Mysterious, truly mysterious.
Trapped in a state of helplessness and disorientation, Asami scratched her head and was wondering where she exactly was? The Kunoichi looked around and searched for any useful clues. Was this a hospital, or what? Based on the equipment in the room and the fragrant smell of alcohol, most likely yes. But why was she in a hospital? Was she ill? Was it something serious? What had happened?
Asami didn't know and her memory didn't give her any satisfying answer, or rather no answer at all. At the moment, everything in her mind was nebulous, misty, spotty and her head felt dizzy. And Asami wasn't too sure if something was wrong with her. After all, she was perfectly fine, right, wasn't she? However, why was she here then? And where was "here" again? She looked around once further and didn't find anything helpful. Was this perhaps a hospital?
Clueless as before, the girl turned towards the window, and the primary reason for her awakening, the sun. It was clearly early in the morning and the playful rays of twilight were still shimmering on the horizon. Dawn greeted her and a cheerful Asami returned the favour in her own special way. Acting on an inner impulse, the girl greeted the sun and waved back. She kept waving, and waving, and waving, and waving, and waving.
Eventually, Asami realised that there was something seriously wrong with her. Sure, sure, she was a bit of a natural airhead from time to time, but never to this degree. This led her to inevitable conclusion that she was suffering from some kind of shock? Because that would explain the dizziness, her blurry vision, her headache, her lack of concentration, and her periodic memory losses …
Asami tipped her lips and mused pensively. Hmm, what did she want to say again? Because she had forgotten it. Although, it couldn't be that important. These were problems for the future her. Weakened by her Chakra exhaustion, the confused girl yawned and grabbed a nearby pillow, her pillow. Slumber came easy to a tired and only semi-conscious Asami and she buried herself under the still warm blanket.
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One hour? Two hours? Three hours? Whatever, a few hours later a sleepy Asami awoke once again and slowly the thick fog covering her mind was clearing up. Her memory returned and reminded a saddened Asami of what had occurred that fateful night. She had lost her, she had lost her forever.
Supressing the stream of tears rolling down her face, Asami felt the sadness inside her heart, the pain, the desperation. Nevertheless, she endured. Asami endured and kept up her perfect façade because had had no other choice.
Feeling her numb limbs soured by her extensive use of Chakra, the discouraged girl directed her main attention at something else. Something she considered more important at the moment, albeit she didn't believe herself in the slightest.
Nevertheless, Asami started with her initial damage assessment report. Relying on her memories, Asami replayed the fight in her mind and analysed her own performance, her mistakes, her defects, her weaknesses. In short, everything she had done wrong and went wrong. Because there was always room for improvement and nobody was perfect, even her. And her conclusion was relatively simple, she was weak, this body was weak, disappointingly weak. Ultimately, she had failed because she lacked power. She lacked the power to protect her, to save her. She lacked the power to destroy them, to kill them. And she had paid a very biter price for her mistake, for her own weakness.
Asami closed her eyes and inspected her body.
As expected, she couldn't move. Her limbs limps were heavy and stiff. Hopefully she hadn't completely shredded all of her muscles in that fight, albeit that might be possible considering all the Chakra she had used. Fortunately, her stamina proved to be superior and in the end she outlasted them physically before breaking down.
Because moving at such high speeds took a toll on her very limited Chakra reserves, and not forgetting using any kind of improvised teleportation repeatedly was exceptionally demanding. Especially, if you consider that she had created the Jutsu just a few months ago by heavily modifying the Kawarimi.
The problem was, she couldn't fully satisfy the massive Chakra requirements of neither Jutsu nor her movements with her limited natural Chakra alone. No matter what, her body simply refused to produce the necessary quantity of Yang to create Chakra. Instead, her Yin kept growing, and growing, and growing at such an astonishing speed that this unbalanced state slowly started to bother her.
If this trend continued, then she would solely consist of Yin in a few years and become some kind of immaterial ghost, which less funny than it sounded and likelier than you thought.
No, if she had just relied on her natural Chakra, then she would have dried up after a few minutes. thanks to her Ninjutsu and got her ass kicked. Because she had to admit that these assholes weren't exactly bad, not to say quite strong. They had excellent reflexes and reaction times, they were skilled, and not forgetting their teamwork was annoyingly good. In summary, these guys forced her to go all out against them, and Asami didn't like that.
Fortunately, she didn't get her ass kicked because she could always rely on her own little pseudo Ckakra. After all, she had plenty of Yin, didn't she?
Not only did her lovely purple Chakra pass its first field test with bravura, but it also showed a few very interesting and promising properties. Her purple Yin Chakra was strong, in fact unnaturally strong, and she couldn't explain why. While her Yang didn't listen to her at all, using and moulding her Yin came just naturally to her as if it was a part of her.
Normally, she never used this Chakra to fuel her Jutsu as it was relatively difficult to control and had the uncanny tendency to turn everything she touched purple. You got purple Chakra, purple fire, purple lighting, purple everything. While she loved her beautiful amethyst-like purple and the colour made her always feel a little bit proud and special deep down in her heart, turning anything purple was nevertheless a bit too much. Too much unwanted publicity, too much unnecessary attention.
But now that she had observed what this Chakra could really do, she might reconsider and use it as her primary source of Chakra in the future. Especially, when she was about to get serious. After all, it was always advisable to have still a few aces up your sleeve when it was necessary to corriger la fortune.
Compared to her normal Chakra, her own version was way more potent, albeit the enhanced potency came with a price, a natural instability. Her purple Chakra was uncontrollable, rampant and difficult to handle. Moreover, using it had always an "exhilarating" effect on her, not to say feeling this wonderful and powerful Chakra flowing through her veins was simply addicting.
Nevertheless, the main crux of her purple Chakra was the fact that her body could hardly process the necessary amounts of Chakra she desired, nor access the full power of Chakra. The problem was the natural Chakra conducting system, the Chakra pathways, the Chakra network or whatever it was called, was flawed, deeply flawed.
The natural system was way too inefficient, scaled horribly with higher concentrations of Chakra, and in fact strongly limited your access to your Chakra, which was most likely the reason that Chakra tended to manifest itself outside of your body at a certain point.
The system restricted the circulation of your entire Chakra because the pathways were only able to take in a small amount of your full potential while the majority of Chakra was practically sealed by a troublesome formation called the eight gates.
In summary, the pathway system was in her eyes nothing that had to be cherished. No, it was nothing but a restriction, a limitation, an obstacle, an obstacle that had to be destroyed by her hands at all costs. Asami wanted her Chakra to be unshackled, to be free, to be completely hers and not bound by some stupid Chakra points.
And that was moment the final decision was made to undertake in the foreseeable future a little personal project, to turn her current body artificially into a more suitable vessel for her Yin based Chakra by using her excellent Chakra control to the fullest.
Asami would collapse the hated pathway system within, and nothing would stop her, even if it was the last thing she did. Because these were just a few Chakra points and if they could be broken, then they could be reconstructed too through sheer force alone. Yes, her plan was to create her own Chakra network, a better Chakra network, a perfect Chakra network.
What she was about to do may sound crazy, which it surely was to a certain degree, and it would significantly weaken her physically and her capabilities in the next years, but she was certain that she would succeed. Asami wouldn't fail and ultimately she would get what she desired, even when she had to pay a little insignificant price in exchange.
After all, everything had a seen or unseen price and nothing was for free. Someone always paid the bill, and that was her body in this case. But considering that her the lost time mainly consisted of useless academy years, there was no real damage done.
Sure, sure, she would lose the 99% of her power because ruining your Chakra network was obviously not the brightest idea and participating in the daily Taijutsu sparrings would be in the future a no-go, but if she had to play for the time being a second Hinata, so be it.
Asami rubbed her eyes, but not because she was tired or something similar. No, she had almost forgotten these fucking annoying itching eyes she now had. For some stupid reason, her eyes had gone crazy that night and had nearly blinded her in the middle of the fight. Because suddenly, her entire vision and perception changed drastically and that threw off her aim, all of her movements, and her timing. Thank to her magical eyes intervening without a warning and turning everything into slow motion, she got nearly bisected a few times. Nevertheless, she had to find out quickly what was wrong with her eyes and what had caused this phenomenon. A mirror would be useful in that regard
Asami noticed that a hand mirror was just lying next to her placed on a commode. The girl blinked and grabbed the mirror," Speak of the devil, that … was … unexpected."
Asami inspected the mirror and stared concentratedly at the polished glass to activate her magical eyes. The girl waited, and waited, and waited, but she had no success. Nothing happened and Asami scratched her head. Had she forgotten something important that was necessary for the activation? An activation sequence? An ancient spell? Her blood? A few human sacrifices …
Asami stopped her thoughts the moment she saw her eyes, or rather three black tomoe surrounded by a luminescent red that were staring right back at her. This was …, this was … There was no doubt, she was an ...
Asami placed the mirror back on the commode and began to laugh manically unseen by anyone. Seriously, she couldn't believe it, she was one last living Uchiha on this world, wasn't this funny? The girl fell peacefully asleep with a satisfied smile on her face because she knew now for sure that she was indeed special.
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The days went by and Asami was slowly recuperating. Because being shackled to a hospital bed wasn't exactly a pleasant experience, not to say monotonic experience.
Every second she spent in this bed was unused time, wasted time. Especially, when she had better things to do, namely setting a plan in motion. And not forgetting, it was ultimately boring here, extremely boring. Aside from a few doctors and nurses visiting her, she was currently alone, completely alone and nobody took notice of her existence. Asami missed her, she really missed her, and she felt the hole in her heart growing.
Furthermore, Asami was running dangerously low on suitable reading material despite the fact that she had repeatedly threatened the hospital staff with personally igniting this damned children's books and using them as a bonfire if they didn't bring her finally something that didn't insult her sense of literacy. No picture books, no life of the little princess whoever, no tale of an utterly gutsy shinobi.
As a consequence, the girl was currently curiously reading a newspaper in her hands, the Daily Konoha Mail, and she didn't particularly like what she saw.
Asami meticulously scanned the pages searching for useful information. Clearly, no state secrets, but let's say what was the general public opinion on certain matters. A little a voice in her mind , however, warned her that the journalistic style used reminded her strongly of the typical tabloid press.
After a few pages, a slightly furious Asami furrowed her eyebrow as she spotted a very, very, very interesting article if you only read bold letters.
"Mass murderer roaming free?
Current investigations related to the brutal slaughter of the rich Minami family last week haven't brought forward any new information and the competent Konoha authorities haven't given an official statement yet. In summary, the Hokage and his administration remain silent concerning this utter failure in inner security.
Can we, the non-shinobi population, still feel safe in Konohagakure?
However, do not worry, we from the Daily Konoha Mail have perhaps found potential clues and evidence to solve this mysterious murder case.
According to certain reliable, but sadly confidential, sources among the investigation team, the dispatched ANBU squad was able to find only a single survivor in the ruins of the mansion. The girl and the last remaining member of her family, Minami Asami, was brought exhausted and blood soaked into the nearest hospital.
The problem is, however, that aside from the surviving girl absolutely nothing was found despite clear signs of heavy fighting between professional shinobi in the area. No bodies, no traces, no clues, nothing.
Consequently, we can rightly ask ourselves how could an eight-year-old girl survive such a battle largely unharmed? The answer appears to be relatively simple.
Unconfirmed and mostly baseless rumours exist that the girl could be the potential culprit behind this massacre and could have plotted the death of her family. The reason behind her actions might be currently unknown, but doesn't a similar case too? Didn't the prodigious Uchiha Itachi suddenly murder his entire clan for inexplicable reasons too?
Although unlikely, could the innocent girl be in reality a cold blooded murderer?"
Asami stared at the pages and had to chuckle slightly.
Considering that Konoha an authoritarian military dictatorship run by so called shinobi, Konoha had a pretty awful media censorship. Because she didn't think that a newspaper was allowed to criticize the glorious leadership of the infallible Hokage openly and even call him indirectly incompetent. Apparently, Konoha had still about information control, propaganda, and the benefits of manipulating public opinion.
Moreover, she didn't appreciate at all that she had become a victim of the famous rumour mill and journalistic sensationalism, albeit the impact should be negligible. After all, she wasn't right on the front page and which idiot would take this kind of stories seriously? The majority of articles were obviously fabricated with a few half-truths mixed in and titles like "The sexiest shinobi alive ranking", "Secret Hyuga love affair", and "Which Hokage are you quiz?" surely didn't promote an image of being a reliable source of information."
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The moment Asami was seriously contemplating about testing the combustible qualities of the Daily Konoha Mail and if she should pay these assholes a friendly visit and raze all of theirs offices to the ground and sow the smouldering ruin with salt, two men opened the door and entered.
Asami looked up from this incredible quality newspaper and eyed the newcomers with a suspicious eyebrow. Who were these people? And why were they here?
One of them was an old man clothed in red robes with a characteristic red hat, and the other was a sliver haired ANBU without his mask. The duo approached her bed and an immensely irritated Asami crumpled up the paper and threw it out of the window.
Afterwards, the girl dedicated her full attention to the two men that had quickly gained her interest.
After all, being visited by the Hokage in person as well as an ANBU was a rare commodity. Especially, if you were just a little girl. So, what did they want from her? What was the reason for their visit?
The Hokage spoke in a gentle and grandfatherly tone," How are you, Asami? Do they treat you well and give you something half-way edible? Because I can still remember the food back during the war was atrocious and how I thought that the Iryo-nin were secretly trying to poison me, ahahaha."
The Hokage was laughing, but Asami remained visibly sceptical. So, he knew her name. Not a good sign, absolutely not a good sign. It was painfully obvious that the Hokage wanted something specific, otherwise he wouldn't be here.
"Rather well considering the overall circumstances. However, to what can the humble me owe the honour of this unannounced visit, Hokage-sama?" Asami replied with a healthy dose of suspicion in her black eyes.
Hiruzen didn't show any reaction and regarded the girl with benevolence. The girl was extremely well guarded for such a young age, that was sure. Her expression and body language betrayed nothing. Was she trying to hide something?
He personally oversaw the investigation of this special incident due its relative prominence, which was by no means small. A large area in the middle of Konha had been destroyed in a single night by heavy fighting, one of Konoha richest non-clan families had been completely wiped out, and only a little girl had miraculously survived that was apparently capable of summoning giant purple lightning at her own discretion. There were a lot of questions that had to be answered.
"Can't an old man look for the younger generations in times of need? In the end, isn't the Hokage the father of the entire villager, and isn't everyone a small part of his big family", Hiruzen's sagely voice explained, but he didn't particularly impress the girl.
Asami rolled visibly her annoyed eyes. Took them bloody long enough, but her unofficial interrogation squad had finally arrived. She didnt expect, however, that they would send the Hokage himself. Had he really nothing better to do than personally bothering little children?
The girl sighed, "Sure, sure, your notion to console me is noted and appreciated, Hokage-sama. But I don't understand why the Hokage seems to beat strongly around the bush instead of telling me what he truly desires."
"So, what do you really want from me and how can I assist you, Hokage-sama?" Asami giggled sweetly armed with a polite fake smile, "Don't forget, honesty is sometimes the best policy, but not always. Don't you think so too, Hokage-sama?"
Hiruzen was a bit perplexed to say the least and Kakashi too, because you didn't see every day someone with the courage to talk back to the Hokage in such a frivolous manner. Nevertheless, he had seen worse over the years and he maintained his outward façade.
Hiruzen took a long breath on his wooden pipe and expelled the smoke from his mouth. A nebulous cloud filled the air and slowly drifted away through an opened window.
"This slightly accelerates the entire procedure. Then let's get straight to the point, do you know what exactly happened that night, Asami?" the Hokage asked.
Asami analysed the Hokage's seemingly innocent question, a classical open-ended question. Unfortunately for him, she could play this game too.
Asami smiled and assured, "I know as much as you do, Hokaga-sama."
"And that would be?"
"Nothing relevant."
"Nothing relevant? So, you know something. What do you consider in your opinion then as not relevant?" the Hokage wasn't convinced and spotted her obvious omission.
"I mean what I say, really, I know absolutely nothing relevant aside from what should be plainly obvious. And the same applies to you, otherwise you wouldn't be here to interrogate an injured child who has lost her entire family a few days ago."
"And now you are standing right in front of me, the only surviving eye witness, and are trying to get a satisfying answer, but I have to disappoint you. You have no idea who the attackers are, and I have no idea too", Asami explained bored.
The Hokage fell silent and gave up for the time being. Because it didn't seem like she was lying.
"And why did you hold a sword in your hand then and why was your Chakra completely exhausted? You were involved in the fighting, weren't you?" standing non-committedly in the dark corner, Kakshi cut in and observed the mysterious girl.
Good observation, my friend. Asami exchanged looks with the unknown silver haired shinobi and gambled," I assume that he is the one who has found me, isn't he?"
Hiruzen nodded and introduced the man, "Yes, you are right, Asami. This is Hatake Kakashi, the Captain of the ANBU squad that has found you. And he has a point, did you fight against them that night, or not?"
The Hokage narrowed his eyes and the mildly demanding tone in his voice didn't escape her.
Asami waited until her rhetorical pause took full effect," Then I will tell you a nice little story. Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there was a princess that met three men that night.
The men claimed to be part of the ANBU and investigate strange occurrences in the vicinity. The ignorant girl believed their tale and dutifully followed the three men. But in an unexpected turn of events, the trio betrayed her trust, the trust the princess has placed in them. The three shinobi killed the princess's mother before her very eyes and in her rage the little princess decided to kill them no matter the cost, no matter the price. And in the end, our little princess succeeded. The trio wasn't anymore, vanquished by her purple lightning of divine judgement."
No words were spoken and the silent tick tack of a hospital clock could be heard in the background.
Asami smiled suavely, "So, how do you like my personal fairy tale, Hokage-sama and Kakashi. Do you have anything else to ask? Because I would like to rest now."
The Hokage accepted and his voice grew soft, "I think that should suffice. After all, we have used up already enough of your time, Asami. We will leave then."
Both were leaving the room slightly, but the girl interrupted them," Wait a moment, I have forgotten to ask something important, Hokage-sama."
"Yes, and that would be?" Hiruzen turned around and stared at the girl.
"Thank you, Kakashi, for saving me and securing my swords, because they are all very precious to me as they are largely birthday presents that Oka-san gave me. And I would be really sad, if I lost them. So, could I please get my swords back?" Asami begged trying to get the last potential clue to the identity of the attackers back into her hands. And not forgetting, she really wanted her swords back.
"That should be no issue, I can personally guarantee you will get them all back", the Hokage assured the girl with a gentle smile.
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"What do you think, Kakashi, is she telling the truth?" Hiruzen walked down a corridor and requested a second opinion.
Kakashi reacted atomically as ever, "Difficult to say, but the probability is high that at least some parts of her version are true. The only question is how much and what. After all, the damage is real and an entire street got nearly razed to the ground that night. In summary, the girl is most likely the culprit we are searching for. And if she is indeed the user of this Raiton Jutsu, then it isn't exactly impossible that that any physical evidence of the attackers was destroyed like she said. The most important question is, however, why was the girl even targeted to begin with? The girl doesn't seem to possess anything valuable aside from being exceptionally strong for her age, and I strongly doubt that our mysterious attackers knew about her strength. So, why did they attack her? What makes her so interesting in their eyes?"
Kakashi was right. Hiuzen stroked his chin and reflected, "That is indeed a good question, Kakashi. Unfortunately, I don't have an answer the and we will probably never get any. The ways of the shinobi are sometimes strange and filled with mysteries. At the moment, we can only rely on her version of the events and assume that told us the truth. However, do you also realize, Kakashi, what it means if her story is even only partially true?"
Kakashi continued walking and summarized succinctly, "You mean that we have currently a non-graduated and non-promoted at least Jonin level Kunoichi hanging around at the academy based on her destructive potential. A Kunoichi with either plenty of combat experience or a truly prodigious situational awareness judging by her way of describing every minuscule detail of the battle."
"And on top of that, a little girl with absolute no hesitation in eliminating her opponents by every means necessary. In short, we have found an ideal future ANBU candidate hiding in plain sight and able to fool the entire academy staff for years about the true extent of her capabilities."
Hiruzen nodded and agreed, "Yes, I thought the same, albeit we should still wait a few years. After all, the ANBU aren't a place suited for children. Nevertheless, it is quite concerning that nobody within the academy had noticed her enormous potential. So much talent, and no one had even the slightest idea."
Kakshi remained silent and followed the Hokage," That is true."
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