Grainy, stiff mountain air berated my lungs, which were used to more clear, soft forest breezes. A harsh gust of wind pushed against my body and whipped my hair about my face. I reached a hand out and grasped Rin's arm at the same time she grasped mine, using each other for support.
As my team and I stood atop the crest of a rocky, jutting hill, we surveyed the expanse of the village before us: the Village Hidden in the Clouds.
Indeed, it was a fitting name. We were so high up in the mountains that we had climbed above the billowing tops of the clouds hours ago. Vaguely, I remembered the days we'd had to stop just to allow our bodies to adjust to the impossible altitude and thinning air. Those days had been agonizing, for my teammates as well as myself, and I knew that I was not alone when my legs cried out to carry me onward towards our destination.
But now that we'd reached it, I was unsure whether or not I wanted to remain here.
Little was known of the Cloud Village, I knew this. Ninja of this place remained as mysterious as their origin, speaking rarely and never of themselves nor their village. Cloud ninja in general were few and far between; at least, we never saw them, and if we did we couldn't tell them from everyday townspeople. Once, someone had mentioned the possibility of Cloud ninja being regularly assigned to undercover missions, which I supposed was plausible, perhaps even likely, but somehow just didn't seem to sit right with my mind.
No, there was something secretive about the Cloud Village, and I was possibly about to uncover it.
"I don't like this place. It gives me the creeps," Obito muttered, sending suspicious glares at every occasional person we passed as we made our way slowly through the village towards the Raikage's tower.
"For once, I agree with Obito. Minato-sensei, there's no people..." Rin said fearfully, eyes darting around the nearly deserted streets in search of any sign of life.
The streets of Kumogakure were indeed very barren of activity. We were nearly halfway through the village and had seen seventeen people total, counting the four women who had barely been shadows out of the corners of our eyes, somehow remaining unseen as they darted their arms out of their windows quickly to pull closed their shutters.
"Something isn't right here..." Minato muttered darkly.
Unknowingly, I drifted closer to Kakashi, finding comfort in the fact that he didn't seem bothered by the absence of life in this place. His fingers reached out and tapped the back of my hand once, and I looked up at him in surprise. He raised an eyebrows and leaned in to whisper something in my ear.
"We're gonna be fine."
I smiled uneasily at him, willing myself to believe what he said. We were here for a mission, right? We just had to get the mission done and get out of here. It would be that easy. I would be back home, warm and safe, in no time.
And then something occurred to me.
"Sensei..." I began tentatively. "What exactly are we doing on this mission?"
Rin glanced at me, eyes widening in surprise as she realized that Minato had not told us what we would actually be doing here—and we'd been so wrapped up in getting prepared and working on our jutsu that we hadn't thought anything of it. But now that we were here, I was concerned that it would be something dangerous... and that we wouldn't be ready.
Don't get me wrong, we were a great team. We were all pretty powerful in our own ways and could handle most of what was thrown at us strength-wise, but we still weren't very coordinated in the teamwork department. We couldn't "read each other's minds," couldn't pay enough attention to the others to "save them in the nick of time." We were all too focused on ourselves in battle to have time to worry about our teammates, and in an ambush or team-against-team fight, we would lose because of it.
And it was too much.
I felt the all-too-familiar sensation of uneasy tension wash over my body, squeezing my chest and tying knots in my stomach. My breathing came in fast, shallow pants, and my muscles felt as though they'd liquified and barely had the strength to allow me to go onward.
I knew this feeling. It was an old friend, the same feeling I got every time I made a kill back when I was a murderer. Part of me flinched at the memory, and part of me wanted to smile and laugh hysterically. Yes, I knew this feeling.
Adrenaline.
It must have been the thoughts of our lack of teamwork, paired with the stress that one could practically breathe from the air, that brought on this sudden fit of panic. I honestly didn't know what to make of it.
"Hey, hey," Minato muttered, snapping his fingers in my face. I realized that he was standing in front of me, stooping so his blue eyes and my green ones were level.
It was at this moment that I noticed that I was standing stock-still, back straight as though someone had jammed a rod up my backside. Every muscle in my body cramped with tension; my shoulders were rigid, my jaw clamped tightly shut as I fought back either hysterical laughter or bone-chilling screams. My breath was coming in panicked gasps, not allowing my lungs time to take in the oxygen before the air was expelled. I was becoming light-headed.
"What's wrong with her?" Obito asked, voice laced with curious, innocent concern.
"She's freaking out, idiot," Rin snapped in return, sounding distressed at my sudden show of fear. "I don't blame her, either. This place is getting to me, too."
Minato sighed, appearing resigned to what he was about to do. I flinched as he moved, clamping a hand tightly over my mouth and nose. My eyes widened.
I can't breathe.
My hands shot up, trying desperately to pull his arm away, but he held on tightly as I began to weaken from lack of oxygen. As my lungs began to burn, clarity began to seep into my mind, reminding me that I wasn't helping anybody by breaking down like this. The panic and fear slowly leaked away, but with them drained my energy. My limbs felt heavy and my eyelids drooped low.
I nodded once, twice, and was out.
I woke several minutes later, the rocking sensation that came when one was being carried causing my head to ache. I never had been fond of movement lacking control on my part.
Struggling to announce that I was awake, the person carrying me set me down, and after one last throb of my head, I felt better. Looking up, I glanced into the familiar iron gaze of Kakashi Hatake, my previous mode of transportation.
He smirked. "Feeling better, Blue Fox?"
Wow, he hadn't called me that in a long while.
I nodded stiffly, rubbing the side of my neck to try and work out a kink. Without waiting for my teammate to catch up, I followed the rest of Team Minato to the doors of the Raikage's building. It seems I had awakened just in time.
I decided not to point out that Minato-sensei had never answered my question as to what we were doing here, presuming that I would find out when we met the Raikage. I hoped idly in the back of my mind that Minato himself knew what exactly our mission was; there were some missions that had to be signed up for before you were allowed to know what it was you would be doing, and part of me knew that Minato was the kind of ninja that would do exactly that.
But it can't be that bad, right? I mean, it's a B-rank. Tracking, escort... We can do this.
I think.
"Come inside, quickly, quickly," the Raikage whispered at light-speed, tugging Minato-sensei inside the room, followed easily by Obito, who pulled in Rin, who pulled in me. I snagged Kakashi's leather strap at the last moment and pulled him inside with me. We all stumbled about, bumping into each other, inside the small, cluttered room.
"I don't like this," Obito muttered under his breath; he was silenced by a harsh glare from the Raikage, who was now leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.
Tired of the nonsense, I copied the Raikage's pose and raised an eyebrow. "Enough of this," I said gravely. "Explain why we're here."
Lord Raikage and the rest of my team stared at me as though I had just insulted some sort of god.
The Raikage pushed off the wall, standing evenly at his full-height. "Do you know who you're speaking to, girl?" he said lowly, voice thunderous in potential anger.
Mimicking his posture, I stood with my feet placed shoulder-width apart, braced confidently on the hard, cold floor. "I think I'm speaking to someone who doesn't have the guts to defend his own village against whatever has the civilians cowering in their homes," I replied evenly, glaring defiantly up at the tall man.
"Shut up, Aoi!" Rin hissed, and Obito mouthed, Are you trying to get yourself killed?
I ignored them and gave the Raikage a hard glare. His brow furrowed in return before he broke out with a small grin.
"I like you, kid. You've got guts," he laughed.
I sneered. "Get on with it, old man. I didn't come all the way here for you to play games."
The Raikage chuckled darkly. "Ah, kid. That's where it gets complicated, see." He turned to Minato-sensei, a grim smile stretched tightly over his features. "I want you to find a kunoichi by the name of Fuyumi Foru."
I watched curiously as Minato's eyes widened. When he spoke, his voice was breathy. "You can't be serious. Lord Raikage, I haven't seen her in years, I wouldn't know where to start. And besides, this should be a level-A mission. I won't bring my team into this."
"Wait, wait, hold on a second. What's going on? Who's Fuyumi Foru?" Obito demanded in a rush. He looked as confused as I felt.
But I had heard that name somewhere before...
"Minato-sensei, we're not ready for an A-rank mission yet..." Rin said uneasily. Kakashi shifted his weight, eyes flicking boredly between the Raikage and our sensei, but otherwise showed no concern.
The two adults ignored us.
"Minato, please, I need you for this. She'll come back if you ask her. She's just upset with the village right now. That's why everybody's in hiding... without her, we're so vulnerable, Minato. It's only a matter of time until we're attacked," Lord Raikage pleaded. His deep bass voice, to my suprise, sounded desperate... and afraid.
This woman... whoever she is, she's important.
"Team Seven, out in the hallway, please," Minato said lowly, a fierce glare crawling over his face in a way I'd never seen before. Minato had always been playful and happy; something definitely wasn't right.
My teammates and I shuffled into the hallway; Rin's head was lowered in thought while Obito's tilted back, his hands in his pockets as he stared up at the ceiling with brooding black eyes. Kakashi's slate stare bore into the wall opposite the one he settled against, and my own emerald gaze darkened while I was consumed within my own thoughts.
"What do you guys think is going on?" Rin asked after several thick, stretching minutes of silent tension.
Kakashi shrugged and Obito bit the inside of his cheek, shaking his head as if to say he didn't know. I sighed and slid down the wall next to Kakashi, resting my head on my arms across my knees, which were pulled up to my chest. Several more long seconds of silence consumed us until I allowed my whispered answer to permeate the air.
"I don't know."