Chapter 12: Unknown Power
It had been a week since Ryuunosuke, Takahiro, and their new companion: Kimiko had left the Hidden Sand Village. As a temporary estate, the three of them traveled back to the Tani village in the River County which Ryuunosuke and Takahiro had already been before travelling the rest of the way to the Hidden Sand. Today, they had made plans to leave and begin traveling north toward the Hidden Rock Village in the Land of Earth.
For the time they spent here, they had decided to take it easy, none of them worried about fighting or anything like that. The time down was nice, especially for Kimiko, who had been unable to live a normal life in her own village because of her powers. But outside the Land of Wind, no one knew what she was capable of, so no one was afraid of her. For once in her life she could walk freely in a town, for once she could speak with someone and they would answer her. This feeling of happiness for her was something incomparable.
Right now even, she was speaking with a friend she had made since they had come here. Her name was Akemi, she had long black hair and wore a black dress and fish nets on her legs and arms. Akemi had learned how to use jutsu from her father, but was not an official ninja for the village; she wanted to avoid the fighting and wars that came with the title. "So you're really leaving today? Can't you stay any longer Kimiko?" Akemi asked.
"Sorry, I wish I could Akemi, but I've really got to get going soon." Kimiko said with a genuine smile. She had never made such a happy and friendly smile in her whole life, it had overwhelmed her doing so the first couple days. "Well, I'd better be going, I don't want to keep my friends waiting too/" Kimiko was saying, but then cut herself off as she saw Ryuunosuke approaching with a stern look on his face that made her worry.
"Kimiko, what's wrong?" Akemi asked.
"Kimiko, we need to leave, now!" Ryuunosuke said as he came up to her, grabbing her arm and pulling her away from Akemi.
"Wait, what's going on?" Kimiko whispered to Ryuunosuke as she began to walk away with him.
"I was using my Kekkai Genkai a couple hours ago and found something bad. I followed the chakra back to its source and it was a Sand Village Anbu." Ryuunosuke whispered back, and Kimiko's eyes went wide.
"Anbu, they found me?"
"I'm not sure, they might have still been looking, but chances are they were here for you. I didn't approach the Anbu so he isn't aware I've caught onto him, but in case he's already taken notice of you we need to get out of here now."
"Alright," Kimiko replied and the two of them picked up the pace.
When they reached the village boarders, Takahiro was waiting for them with some supplies and food to sustain them during their trip to the Hidden Rock Village. "Alright, time to leave." Takahiro said when the two of them arrived.
"Right, let's go." Ryuunosuke agreed and the three of them began to leave the village.
"Wait!" Someone suddenly shouted before the three could depart. When they turned to see who it was, they saw Akemi running up to them.
"Akemi, what are you doing here?" Kimiko asked her.
"Well you just left so suddenly, I didn't get a chance to say goodbye." Akemi answered. "Why was that anyway?"
"Something urgent just came up; you don't need to worry about it." Kimiko told her.
"Oh, well alright then, and hey if you're ever back in the village, make sure to drop by and visit."
"I will; bye." Kimiko said.
Akemi was about to speak but then a shadow was cast over her. She saw Kimiko's shocked expression and looked back to see an Anbu Black Op.
"I apologize in advance." The female Anbu said to Akemi and made a single hand-sign, putting her under a Genjutsu and rendering her unconscious, so she fell to the ground. "Now to take care of you," She said and pulled out her sword, pointing it at Kimiko and the others.
"Damn, they found us." Takahiro cursed.
"Make this easy on yourself and just let me kill you. It will be much easier that/" The Anbu was saying but then Ryuunosuke charged forward with his chakra blades and she reacted to block with her sword.
"Kimiko, Takahiro, get her out of here, I'll take care of the Anbu." Ryuunosuke told them, but in reality he had never taken an Anbu head on before.
There was the one time he and Takahiro had sneak attacked a pair, but that was a lucky shot. There was no way to be sure if he would be able to handle an Anbu Black Op all on his own.
The Anbu pushed Ryuunosuke away and slashed down on his shoulder before he even had a chance to activate his Kekkai Genkai and dodge. He jumped back after receiving the wound and activated Kashi-ka to even things up. "You'd willingly defend a traitor?" The Anbu questioned Ryuunosuke.
"It doesn't matter to me." Ryuunosuke answered.
Takahiro and Kimiko took Akemi and rested her against the side of a house. Takahiro put a finger on her forehead and made a hand sign with the other. "Release," He said, and Akemi woke up with a start.
"Kimiko, what's going on?" She asked, wondering why an Anbu would be after her.
"I can't explain, just stay here." Kimiko replied.
"I'll go help Ryuunosuke; you stay here and protect your friend." Takahiro told Kimiko and ran back to help fight the Anbu.
The Anbu swung her sword at Ryuunosuke from the side, but with the help of Kashi-ka he managed to pull off a dodge. Good, she's not too fast I can't keep up, now I just have to look for a chance to strike. Ryuunosuke thought and dodged the Anbu's next attack as well.
Suddenly though Ryuunosuke jumped to the side before the Anbu's next attack came. She turned to attack him again then noticed Takahiro throwing a punch at her from the corner of her eye. She jumped just barely out of the way and swung her sword down at his shoulder, but it skidded off his Rock Skin Jutsu.
"Earth Style huh," The Anbu noted to herself,
"Yeah, none of your weapons are going to hurt me." Takahiro told her, but the Anbu didn't seem worried.
"We'll see about that." The Anbu muttered and ran for Takahiro.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" Ryuunosuke called from the Anbu's left, and fired a large ball of flames at the Anbu.
The Fire Style seemed to have hit at first but when it past the Anbu was gone completely, so she must have had dodge. Hastily, Ryuunosuke activated Kashi-ka again and immediately found where she went. "Takahiro, behind you!" He shouted.
Takahiro looked behind him and found the Anbu crouched there, and her sword was now coated in lightning. No, she has lightning style. And with her already stabbing her lightning covered sword at his back, he didn't have enough time to weave hand signs for a wind style jutsu in order to protect himself and he didn't have any time to dodge it either. Ryuunosuke charged at the Anbu. If he could just reach out and touch her blade with Kyanseru, the jutsu would end and she wouldn't be able to harm Takahiro, but the distance was just too great, he'd never make it in time.
Kimiko watched and saw all of this, knowing neither of them would be able to do anything before the Anbu plunged her sword into Takahiro's back, she acted. Kimiko's blue eyes turned to a misty white and she used her Genjutsu's power.
Immediately, the Anbu's hand clutching the sword was cut off at the wrist and fell to the ground, the lightning style wearing off. Immediately at that time, everyone at the scene except Kimiko ceased movement. Ryuunosuke and Takahiro knew her jutsu was supposed to be a very dangerous thing, but they had no idea exactly what it did. The Anbu was just as shocked, she hadn't even felt her hand be cut off and even now she felt no pain from her blood oozing arm.
"I won't let you hurt my friends!" Kimiko said and took a step toward the Anbu who now looked at her. Although Kimiko couldn't see the Anbu's expression under her mask, she was sure it was one of complete and utter terror like she had seen on everyone's face back at the village. "Die," Kimiko yelled and only Ryuunosuke saw exactly what happened, as he never made the switch out of Kashi-ka, he saw Kimiko's chakra be sent out like a flare at the Anbu. And when that flare made contact with the Anbu, it more or less exploded from inside the Anbu's own Chakra system, ripping apart the Anbu's chest and even cutting up some of her internal organs. Blood splattered out from the Anbu's body and she fell backward, lifeless.
Ryuunosuke processed the effect like white blood cells attacking a virus carrying bacteria as a foreign material. The Anbu's own chakra system wanted to be rid of Kimiko's chakra that was blending with it. But Kimiko's chakra could not exit in the same way it had entered, in order to come out of the Anbu's body, it had to be done by forcing it outside in a more physical way, causing the Anbu's body to practically explode from the inside out like a balloon filled with too much air.
Even Ryuunosuke wasn't able to completely figure the workings of that kind of Jutsu from seeing it only once at such a fast pace, but that was what he got. Becoming terrified by the chakra Kimiko's body held, Ryuunosuke ended the use of his Kekkai Genkai and just stared at the dead Anbu.
The look on Ryuunosuke's face wasn't his alone. Even without seeing its cause, the event had still even frightened Takahiro and Akemi who was still sitting behind Kimiko. "That… What was that!" Akemi let out that shriek of terror. Hearing it, Kimiko's eyes turned from the misty white back to their natural blue and she turned to Akemi. "You… You told me you used Genjutsu! That was no Genjutsu!" Akemi screamed at Kimiko and she shook in fear. "I saw it with my own eyes, there's no way that was Genjutsu! You- You're a…" Hearing Akemi start this phrase, she closed her eyes not wanting to hear or believe what one of the first people she ever thought of as a friend was about to say. "… You're a monster!" Akemi screamed out at the top of her lungs and got quickly and shakily to her feet and ran away as fast as she could.
Kimiko had been hit too hard to even shout out and try to stop her. All she could do was cry because of what she had said and shake at the pain of losing her friend. She looked to Takahiro and Ryuunosuke, who she saw shaking in fear of her. For a moment she thought they were about to run out on her too, having actually seen what she was capable of.
But contrary to this thought, Ryuunosuke spoke, although shakily: "W-we should leave now, you two." Although it wasn't much, it was enough to tell Kimiko they hadn't lose trust in her. At least they were going to stay beside her.