Chapter Eleven: Chew Me Up and Spit Me Out

"Extraordinary things are always hiding in places people never think to look."
― Jodi Picoult

. . .

The world came into focus in an explosion of raw lightning, zipping around my form and tearing it to shreds. Oddly enough, I felt no pain. I only saw, as if I was watching someone else rather than myself.

It was undeniable, though, that this body belonged to me. This form was just the same as my own, long-legged and petite, covered in tiny bruises and so pale that I could see my own chakra network swirling beneath my skin as it attempted to recover the chakra I had lost. I looked frail- everyone thought so- but I was stronger than anyone would have ever expected.

They will regret underestimating me.

My hands disappeared first, slipping into the dark, swirling vortex of nothingness without a trace. My forearms came next, and then my shoulders. My legs disappeared one by one, and eventually my abdomen, leaving me bodiless and empty in the darkness. Lightning flashed behind me, crackling with electric green sparks.

And then I was in the water.

I crashed through the waves, struggling against an incredibly strong current in an effort to keep myself from getting too far off course. I had no idea where I was, or which way was up or down. All I saw was blue.

A sharp pain erupted from my core, and I looked down and realized that the sea was flooding with a distinctive coppery crimson- blood. A quick feel to my abdomen confirmed that it was my own. I had somehow managed to land on top of a long, iron spike, the latter of which had pierced the flesh around my diaphragm and had managed to lodge itself in my abdomen. It stung, but I was strangely numb to the pain, as if my mind and my body were still two separate entities, yet I could still manipulate both.

With my free hand, I grasped what I could reach of the rod and pushed off as hard as I could. My forearms shook with strain, but little happened. The rod didn't budge. Instead, it seamed to almost liquify, congealing like slime within my intestines. It seemed to harden seconds later, like cement. Frantically, I pushed harder. Nothing.

Is this... glue? I wondered. The strange, soft-yet-rigid rods were slick with sticky slime, which was likely what was trapping me in place. I scratched at it with the tip of my fingers, digging into the strange substance with all of my strength. I wound up with broken fingernails and no progress. No matter how hard I clawed, kicked or pulled at the substance, nothing changed. The flesh on my palms and fingertips was beginning to be soaked with blood. The roughened texture of the rod was shredding through my flesh like a knife through butter, further adding to the blood in the water. Silently, I hoped their were no sharks in the surrounding area. Even I could smell it, the heavy essence of wounded weakling. If there were any sharks to be found, they'd appear soon enough.

I scratched at the ooze again, more out of frustration than anything else.

What is this?! I had never seen rods made of liquid material, or rods that were able to move themselves in such a way before... Did that mean that it was alive?!

As if on cue, the rod shifted. The murky water cleared, allowing faint rays of light to illuminate the previously dark area. Thousands of other rods suddenly appeared, and I realized that what I was currently on top of was not some sort of ship wreckage or other man-made material, but a giant sea urchin. A stream of bubbles flew from my mouth as I gasped in shock, accidentally inhaling a little too much water.

I covered my mouth with one hand, gnawing on the flesh on my palms while I tried to think of a way out of this. I was at a disadvantage in this position, and the liquification wouldn't do much to a creature that could do the same. Seeing as this was a sea urchin, I didn't doubt that this creature and its spikes were laced with deadly poison. I had stepped on many of these creatures before when I was out on the shoreline or swimming near the reefs. They were poisonous and vile little creatures, and some of them were venomous enough to kill. I'd lost a cousin, a frail girl with minuscule chakra reserves, to one before. There was no telling what would happen if I didn't move now.

Poison was something I had never been able to handle.

I braced my legs on the closest spike, and turned as far over as I could, rolling and writhing until I finally managed to free myself from the sticky, hooked spike that had previously held me in place. Silently, I thanked whatever luck I had for finally releasing me, and swam away from the enormous creature as quickly as I could. As I fled, the creature shifted in place, and began to roll after me.

What?! The sea urchins I know have never done something like this!

And then I understood.

He was a gate keeper, this creature. Behind him was a strange reef made of what looked like broken, jagged bones of various sizes. The reef curved inwards near the center, leaving open a gaping hole that lead to something beyond my range of vision. The sea urchin was obviously some sort of guard, and my destined summon was behind him.

This was a test.

Without thinking, I liquified my form, loosing all feelings of pain and muscle soreness as I became one with the water. I knew the urchin could act similarly, but he seemed to excrete more of a glue than water. I would have to avoid him at all costs if I ever wanted to get anywhere near my summon.

Now... How to get around it without getting stabbed...?

Sea urchins didn't have eyes- or at least, not that I knew of anyway. I had never bothered to learn much about them, and I was once again left without any information when I needed it most. I could only assume, but even that left me on shaky ground.

I reverted back to my normal form, hissing in pain as the nerve endings beneath my skin began to reconnect, knitting together with every individual fiber of my being until I was once again whole.. The wound in my abdomen was suddenly a thousand times more painful than it had been before, as if I was just now consciously within my own form. The bizarre, hollow feeling from before still lingered, but I didn't think much of it at the time.

The urchin sped towards me at an impossible speed, and I just barely managed to duck out of the way. I slipped behind a coral rock formation, cursing under my breath as I realized that my wound was still bleeding- and in fact, it was bleeding more. The wound hadn't closed up like it should have, which was worrying. Had the poison already begun to take affect?!

I didn't have time to think. The urchin discovered my hiding place and slammed into me while my guard was down. The blow was so great that I went flying forewords and crashed into the reef. The bones dug into my flesh, tearing through the fabric of my clothing and shredding my skin. My vision blurred with vertigo, darkening and blurring around the edges until all I could see were tiny white dots- like stars, I suppose.

There was so much blood.

Behind me, a giant clam opened its jaw, revealing its smooth, alabaster innards. The sea urchin charged, sending me flying one last time. I slammed into the shell of the clam, screaming in pain as the blow jarred my very core. The pain spread from the tip of my head to each of my toes and everywhere in between, exploding within me like a fire cracker, only without the pleasantries.

The clam closed its jaws, enveloping me in an unbreakable barrier that could only lead to hell.

And then there was nothing.


"I told you we should have just sent her directly to us-" An unfamiliar voice argued, sounding too high pitched to pass for either of my parents.

The voice was ambiguous, and of an unreadable gender. It seemed to be coming from my left, but I couldn't be sure. My skull felt heavy with fluid, and my hearing was oddly muffled, as if someone had stuffed cotton balls into my ears while I was unconscious. Forcing my eyes open, I searched for the speaker.

The voice silenced as soon as I so much as shifted in place. Obviously, this was a conversation I was not meant to overhear.

I scowled, gnawing on my lower lip as I tried to figure out what I should do next. The room was dark and dimly lit. Only a small oil lamp in the corner provided any traces of human life, for the rest of the room was bare. I had been laid on the floor and hidden beneath a thin grey sheet. The sheet was dotted with oddly suspicious dark brown stains, and offered little protection from the moist chill that seemed to have fallen over the room when I awoke. When I exhaled, I could see smoke.

With a shiver, I pushed myself up off the ground, wrapping the sheet around my form in an effort to ward off the cold. My back and shoulders ached with each move I made, but my legs seemed to be working well enough, if not a little sore. My hands appeared to have taken the worst of it. The flesh there was stained red with blood and rough with cuts and bruises, and I was missing several fingernails. Someone had wrapped both of my hands in the thick, black gauze that had previously bound my elbows, clearly in an effort to quell some of the bleeding before it had the chance to grow any worse. As I moved, tiny drops of blood escaped from the wrappings and splashed onto the floor, leaving a tiny, crimson trail behind me.

Squinting, I clawed at the walls with broken fingernails, frantically searching for an exit. The walls were slick and slimy with moisture, and seemed to secrete a disgusting black goop. When I pushed against the walls, I discovered that the walls were oddly permeable and felt almost squishy- like a giant sponge. The harder I pushed, the more of my arm I could fit through the wall.

I braced my legs against the curvature where the floor met the wall, centering all my weight in my core to aid in keeping myself upright. I then gather what little strength I had into my right fist, and slammed into the wall as hard as I could. My fist bounced back into my chest, knocking the breath from my longs. I coughed loudly, spitting out a disgusting chunk of an unknown, pinkish-substance as I did. Blood dripped onto the frigid stone floor beside my left foot. Only when I touched my lips did I realize where it was coming from...

Me.

I slumped against the wall, curling up into a ball on the floor. My back twinged as I did, as if to remind me that I was horribly injured and I probably shouldn't have even been moving. I couldn't bring myself to care.

All I could think about was the blood that had dripped from my fingertips and fingernails, blanketing the floor in tiny crimson droplets. I was a Hozuki, and I wasn't supposed to bleed- yet I had. It was just like Yagura had said.

I wasn't normal.

Well, I suppose I was, but not normal for a Hozuki. Injuries were trivial in the mind's of my clan members, little things that didn't matter nor effect them in the slightest. But I had always been different. I had always been smaller and more delicate than any of my relatives had ever been, with tooth-pick thin thighs and tiny wrists. Most of my cousins were lithe and toned, lanky with rippling muscles covering every inch of their forms. For some reason, I had never looked that way. I had always been delicate- weak - in both body and constitution. As a child, I had grown sick often, and both my parents were convinced that I had inherited my mother's sickle cell anemia because of it. No matter what I had done to stay healthy, I would eventually succumb to whatever illness was currently in the area at the time. In fact, I had spent most of my childhood confined to my room in an effort to keep myself from contracting any deadly diseases. Kirigakure had a history of disease-oriented epidemics, and a particularly strong one would come around every few years and wipe out half of our population. As a result, almost every couple was required to have at least two children. My parents were the exception to that rule.

I had paid their price.

I had been the one who bled because of their mistakes. I had been the one forced to schlep through life as the "failure" of our clan. I had been the one to bandage my cuts and tend to my bruises. It had always been me. My parents had never been able to help me through the pain and the suffering I had been forced to endure. They did not understand pain. They only caused it.

And I was simply a thorn in their sides.

If what Yagura had said was anything to go by, then my grandmother had been the exact same way. She had been described as weak and sickly as a child, but a hearty and courageous adult- that is, until she betrayed the village. As disgusting her treachery was, I couldn't deny that she had been a powerful kunoichi. I had once admired her, but I now saw the truth. She had been a liar and a thief, feeding on the power of others in an effort to further her own. Yagura had taken interest in me simply because of what she had done, and what he assumed I would be capable of if he left me on my own for too long. Like a jinchūriki, I was to be chained to the very foundation of this village in an effort to keep me from ever seeking refuge anywhere else. My body was not my own.

I belonged to Kirigakure.

I sniffed, wiping at my eyes with the edge of my shredded sleeve. I wasn't crying, I thought, despite knowing good and well that I was. Tiny, barely visible teardrops dripped onto the sheet wrapped around me, spreading out across the fabric like blood.

Worthless!

No one ever wanted me. Anyone that had ever shown interest in me was only interested because of what someone else had done, whether it was Mangetsu, my grandmother, or my mother, but never in me. I was simply the gateway to their desires.

But not this time. This time, no matter where I was or what I was doing, I was going to do it my own way. I wouldn't use the power Yagura was after- in fact, I'd avoid it to the best of my ability. I wouldn't give them anything that wasn't mine.

False victories were worthless to me. Anything that was not my own was worthless. I had lived my entire life in a sheltered world, hidden within the walls of the Hozuki compound like some sort of shinobi Rapunzel, and now I was finally going to be able to prove my worth. I clearly wasn't in Kirigakure anymore, and I was likely in the land of my destined summon. I crossed my fingers, silently praying for something unique. I didn't want a shark or a toad, or anything like that. I wanted something no one else had.

Light flooded the room, slicing through the ominous darkness like a well-sharpened blade. As if by magic, a door appeared on the far wall. A silhouette of what I could only assume was a teenage girl stood on the other side, arms crossed in what I could only assume was an act of intimidation. Her posture was rigid and forced, as if someone had rammed a steel cable down her spine. For several moments, she did not move. I didn't either. I held my breath despite knowing that the girl could clearly see me from where she stood.

But sometimes even I like to play pretend.

Moments later, the girl finally decided to move. She stalked towards me, still nothing but a dark shadow in an even darker room. She had an advantage already, I could tell. She could see who I was and how injured I was, whereas I couldn't see anything besides the faintest outline of her form. If she lunged at me, I would hardly be able to defend myself.

I felt around for my pouch, silently thanking my mother for finally getting something right, and pulled out a kunai. I had been stupid enough to run off before I had the chance to pull my naginata from its resting place beneath the floorboards- in fact, almost all of my shinobi equipment was still at home, secured beneath a loosely-nailed floorboard for safe keeping.

At least it's something, I thought, gazing at the kunai in my palm.

The woman came closer.

I saw her feet first. They were bare and calloused, muddied with dirt and grime like that of a shinobi. My gaze traveled upwards, flickering over her toned calves and muscular thighs and stopping briefly at her hips. The woman had tied a forehead protector around her waist, but that was not was caught my attention. It was the insignia on the forehead protector that had me worried.

When I studied the inscription on her forehead protector, I realized that what was inscribed on the impeccably polished metal was a single palm tree.

Not even a real shinobi village, then?

Inwardly, I named all the villages in our world- Kirigakure, Kumogakure, Sunagakure, Konohagakure, Yukigakure, Hoshigakure, Yugakure... I knew them all, forehead protector insignias included. Never once had I seen or heard of a shinobi village relating to the palm tree. Sunagakure, I supposed, could pull it off, but they chose not to and had instead gone with a different insignia.

Clearly, I was not dealing with a normal enemy. This person could be anyone, and I would have no idea. The forehead protector was a vital part of shinobi identification. Even missing nin did not discard their headbands. Wearing a shinobi forehead protector was an honor, and not even the most grisly of individuals dared to part with their own. Modification and falsely wearing a forehead protector was almost as bad as throwing it away in distaste. You could wear the forehead protector however you wanted, wherever you wanted, but you were not supposed to tamper with its insignia as long as you were a member of your respective shinobi village.

My enemy was a rogue.

I braced my free hand on the floor, ignoring the disgusting slickness I felt against my palms in favor of gripping my kunai with my left hand. I pointed it upwards, aiming as best as I could in the direction of the woman's face. Without giving her a chance to react, I released the kunai.

It hit nothing but air.

The woman moved faster than I had expected. She caught my elbow with one hand, and gripped my remaining arm in the other. Before I had the chance to struggle, she had already transferred both of my bony arms to her right hand, where she tightly gripped my wrists. I swallowed hard, feeling totally defenseless. This woman was clearly strong enough to restrain me with one hand, so what chance did I have against her without my chakra?

Without thinking, I spat in her face.

The woman's form wavered, briefly breaking apart and then reforming into the same, shadowy shape that I had seen before. The woman did not react. Instead, she simply picked me up off of the floor and threw me over her shoulder. She had long, dirty blonde hair, and when she began to move, said hair managed to get in both my eyes and my mouth. I shrieked, kicking at her with what little strength I had left, but nothing happened. The woman simply readjusted her grip, further locking me in place.

I screamed yet again and raised my fist, punching her as hard as I could.

"LET GO!" I shrieked.

Seconds later, she did.

I hit the floor with a thump, landing on my stomach like a turtle. I rolled over, flipping onto my back and then pushing myself up off the ground in defiance. I was about to make a run for it, but I stopped when I realized where I stood.

We were in a large, open-roofed room. The entirety of its area was filling with crystalline, sparkling water that was so clear that it was almost transparent. Almost instantly, some of the soreness in my muscles began to lessen, and I looked down to see the wound in my chest beginning to close up. I placed a hand over the tear in my top, tightly gripping the torn curvature between my hip and my thigh where blood had once flowed freely from my injuries. The tissue reconnected before my eyes, as if I was being stitched back together by some sort of invisible thread. I released my grip on my top and instead flexed my fingers, watching in a mixture of amazement and horror as the cuts on my skin began to disappear.

The blood remained in its original position, forming dark brown stains on my skin and rippling, now sopping-wet clothing and hair. There would be no hiding it, I realized as I clutched at the fragments that remained of my top. Everyone would be able to plainly see that I had been hurt and defeated by something that wasn't even human. My failure would be painfully obvious when I returned to the Academy.

...That is, if I ever escaped this place.

I straightened up, popping my back with a loud and deeply satisfying crack. I then turned towards the woman, looking to her expectantly. I blanched when she stepped foreword, finally coming into the light. Her face was nonexistent, more of a shadowy smear than anything else. Her hair looked more like ancient seaweed, I realized, and her skin was like driftwood, smooth and gritty, and as pale as birch bark. She didn't look human, but more like a headless body that had attempted to compensate for her lack of a head by distorting the world around her.

And it was then that I knew where I was.

I was in the Land of Mirages, hidden deep within the same heavily guarded realm as the more well-known Mount Myōboku, home of the giant toads. Unlike the other land, however, the Land of Mirages was one place that had never been truly seen. The terrain surrounding the area was supposedly untravelable, filled with water and dangerous beasts on all sides, with a shore that only lead to a desert of bones. I could name only a few animals associated with this supposedly untouched land- the clam, crab, and conch king. I knew of little else hearty enough to survive such rugged terrain, and I could only assume that I was within one of their three respective homes at that very moment.

I searched the room's walls and floors for something recognizable- perhaps a statue, or an enormous kanji baring the name of its respective animal- that would hopefully tell me where I was. I found nothing but cold, white sand. The room and its contents were bizarrely clean and almost chilly in atmosphere, as if someone had cleaned the area to the point of excessiveness and had somehow succeeded in wiping away all signs of life. I saw no plant life or other vegetation, or anything alive, really,

Frantically, I dropped to my knees, digging through the sand and silently praying that I had not been summoned to the home of the sea slugs. They were known to live exceptionally clean lifestyles, eating away at whatever grime they found in their home of choice until there was nothing left. If I was anywhere at all, it made sense that I would be there, with them. The sea slugs were a lesser known, less powerful version of the traditional slug summon that lived only in the sea. They were about as useful in a battle as a potato, and they were by far one of the worst summons I could have received. If I had them for a summon, I'd never be able to live it down. As Yagura's disciple, I had a certain reputation to uphold and I couldn't be seen with such lowly creatures.

The sand shifted beneath me, revealing a tiny mollusk with a slanted oval shell. I sighed with relief, thanking my good fortune. I picked it up, blowing the remains of the sand off of its shell in order to get a better look at the creature. When I did, the creature emitted a strange squealing sound and attempted to jump out of my hands. Thankfully, I managed to catch it before it could fly out of my grasp.

"What are you, anyway?" I asked quietly.

I received no response, but then again, I hadn't expected one. Only certain animals could speak, and it seemed that this one couldn't do anything aside from squeal when I lifted it. Useless, I decided.

The creature proceeded to spit boiling water in my face.

I gasped, reflexively hurling the small animal across the room, where it hit the wall and shattered into far too many pieces to be repaired. A hush fell over the already quiet room, as if the other mollusks were needlessly mourning the loss of a comrade. I scowled, rubbing at my throbbing cheek with the edge of my shredded shirt sleeve. My flesh stung with pain but I couldn't bring myself to care. I was far too disappointed in myself to even think of feeling any remorse for what I had done, much less baby myself over something as trivial as a burn.

This time, the water did not heal me. It was as if an invisible force was somehow punishing me for my wrong-doings and forcing me to endure the pain it deemed me deserving of. Instead, the water healed the mollusk.

The creature pieced itself back together, its internal organs reforming and knitting together beneath tissue and a shell until it was once again complete. I approached it, pulling it from the dent it had made in the wall before it had shattered and cupping it in my hands. I stared at it, searching for something, anything, that told me I was supposed to be here. The creature stayed silent, as if it was waiting for something.

There's no way it expects me to-

"I'm... I'm... I'm sorry, okay?! Isn't that enough for you, hearing me grovel like this? Show yourself, you bastard!" I shrieked.

Oddly enough, my words rang out cleanly through the water rather than sounding like garbled choking like I had expected them to. Clearly, there was more to this room than meets the eye... A space-time ninjutsu, perhaps? As far as I knew, sound waves did not travel through water like they did on land. If anything, my words should have been nothing but bubbles.

But they were not.

"You're a brat, a thief, and a danger to us all, but I'll welcome you here, Hozuki Chinatsu. After all, one cannot control another's destiny." A low, raspy voice hissed from somewhere behind me.

I jumped at the sound of the unfamiliar voice, dropping the small mollusk in my haste. I turned towards the strange woman from before, and realized that she was not who or what I thought she was. The strange woman had been replaced by a clam so large that it was unable to fit the entirety of its form within the room itself and was instead hovering above it. It's shadow was large enough to cover the entire room, leaving me completely in the dark.

Holy shit, I gasped, sounding far too much like my mother for my liking.

"I am the Clam King, the father of all mirages and poisonous darkness. I see all, know all, and I know you, Hozuki Chinatsu. Do not think that you can slip past me yet again."

"What do you mean 'again'?! I'VE NEVER BEEN HERE BEFORE!" I screamed, throwing my arms into the air in order to better illustrate my rage.

"You have indeed walked this land, child. Perhaps not in this life, but in a previous one. You birthed the closest thing we've ever had to a clam sage some seventy years ago... the Nidaime Mizukage, I believe?" The clam murmured, sounding almost jovial at the sound of my irritation.

I snorted. "Birthed my ass. I'm seven, you imbecile!"

Outwardly, I was mouthing off, but inwardly, I was jumping for joy. The clam summon and the conch summon were both extremely powerful- if not rarely used- summons, and the clam in particular had been utilized by at least two of our previous mizukage. I was lucky to be blessed with the natural affinity for such a strong summon.

But I couldn't tell them that.

"You don't speak like a child your age should. Show some respect for your elders, littleneck.*" The giant clam chastised.

When the clam spoke, his jaws opened and shut with every word, resembling a book being slammed closed and then reopened, repeatedly. It was almost comical, and I couldn't take him seriously because of it. I was sure he meant to be intimidating, but no one -aside from Yagura and my mother, that is- scared me. I definitely wasn't afraid of some self-important, know-it-all clam.

"I give respect when it's earned, but never before that. So suck it up and deal with it, old man."

I imagine that if clams had eyes, the creature would have rolled his own at that very moment.

"Are we going to do this or not?" The clam groused, sounding thoroughly offended.

He muttered something about "kids these days" under his breath when he thought I couldn't hear him, and I couldn't help but laugh at his plight. For someone supposedly so "powerful," he was certainly easily annoyed.

I smirked in response to his question, grinning cruelly. "Damn straight. Let's get this over with, already. I don't want to be an old woman by the time we're finished here!"

The clam muttered something else, but I could hardly hear him this time. It seemed he was learning, after all.

Anything and everything he said could be used against him.

The woman from before appeared out of nowhere, looking just as she had moments ago. Her face was nothing but an inky smear, but her posture was significantly more defensive than it had been before. She stalked towards me like a robot, and it was only then that I realized she was some sort of genjutsu-powered puppet. If I looked hard enough, I could see thin, black chakra strings that extended from her spine and backs of her thighs, and I could only assume someone was controlling them from the shadows. I had no idea who but I knew it had to be someone human. The puppetry techniques required the usage of hands and fingers, whereas clams didn't have any additional appendages to speak of, therefor rendering them unable to control puppets.

What could they do, then? Don't you need hands for almost everything?

I remembered the clam from before spitting water in my face, and that had hurt, but it was hardly a weapon. They couldn't seem to produce jutsu or do much of anything at all, yet they were still written off as a "highly powerful yet rare" summon. Why was that?

What were they hiding?

I found out soon enough.


*Littleneck is the term for a baby clam ;)

Sorry for the slow updates. I have exams next week, so I'm cramming. Plus, I continued to have persistent writers block and rewrote this chapter an obscene amount of times. Sorry, guys!

Also, I did some research on Chinatsu's personality type for a class and found that she falls into a very specific category of asshole. I've written a brief description of her "type" down in an effort to debunk some of the questions circulating about her... And extra information is always good, no? Anyway, said information can be found in a Google document that I have linked in my profile. (FF won't allow these sorts of posts in a story format)

According to my psychology professor, Chinatsu's type of character is one that suffers from "narcissistic personality disorder." She's really... strange, I think, and looking at the bio might be helpful.

Also: To clarify, she can use the Hydrification Technique, but only when in absolutely dire need. Her ability to use it sort of fluctuates, as seen when she was able to survive the Kaguya blade going completely through her with no complications, but wound up getting totally destroyed against the giant sea urchin. As to why that is will be explained eventually... ;)

-MSM-