Everyone, before you read this new chapter, I have a few things I want to say. First, thanks go to who encouraged me to keep going when I felt overworked and so tired.
Second, The Blind and the Unseeing has been plagiarized on Wattpad under a new name, The Blind Blossom, and with a new synopsys, by someone named Otaku3kp. I am extremely mad that someone would take credit for my story without even asking my permission to reproduce it on another site. As many of you know, it has been translated into Spanish with my permission, and I don't mind when people get inspired by my stories, but to outright rip it off?! It's extremely disrespectful and the equivalent to a slap in the face. Spitting at me would be less hurtful. As far as I know, Otalu3kp has now credited me for the story, but I still object strongly to it being published on his or her account. Pissed off doesn't begin to cover how I feel at that emotional raping. It's part of the reason why it took me so long to post this. I was not in any mood to write, under the circumstances, which I hope you can understand.
While this story is not dead by any means, I can't guarantee I'll update again as long as Otaku3kp doesn't erase my story from their account. I might update if I'm feeling in a supremely joyful mood, or I might not if I continue to be pissed at this breach of respect, but this is my stand on things.
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She lay on the ground, trembling, for what seemed like an eternity, still in shock from the recent events. Her breaths came out in sharp pantsas her body cooled down, beads of water from the mist slowly coalescing on her exposed skin. She was shaken down to her core, mind numb as she replayed her complete lack of control.
There was no other word for it. She had just had a complete meltdown once her own blood had pooled in her throat and its pungeant smell had assaulted her nostrils. Suddenly, she had been back in that cave, back with Madara as he tortured and nearly killed her, back in her nightmare, and reality had taken a step back as the memories overwhelmed her completely.
Again and again, Madara amputated her painfully, and her mind was so in shock her voice remained trapped within her chest as she relived the moment repeatedly. He raped her mind thoroughly, left her no room to breathe, to think, stole away her senses...
And then suddenly, through the haze of pain (Was it real? Was it just her trapped imagination? She couldn't tell, couldn't think, could only react in response to the memories), something warm pressed against her side, rooting her with its familiarity. She latched onto it reflexively, her body reacting instinctively to heal itself.
When the warmth left her, she remained still as she slowly regained her senses feeling sluggish at best and so tired she could have slept for a century. Her body was still shaking with fine tremors, but the coldness of the stone under her was grounding. Her head was heavy, there was pounding in her temples and the sounds around her felt like she was standing under water.
Feeling nauseous, she rolled to her side head swimming, and remained still for a moment to wait out her nausea and hope she wouldn't lose the contents of her stomach.
She urged her chakra to speed up the process while Kisame (yes, that was him, that had been his hand, hadn't it?) and a woman talked above her.
They would turn to her soon. She had to get up, get away, had to move, now!
Heart in her throat, she grabbed her shakujou, fingers whitening around the smooth metal. One deep breath, two, then she was on the move, arm circling in a wide arc to catch both ninja in the shins with enough force behind it to break bones. She scrambled to her feet as they fell with hoarse shouts of pain and surprise.
-:-
Kisame fell flat on his back at the blow, cursing himself for being caught by surprise and only slightly mollified by the fact that Ameyuri had been caught just as unawares as him.
The woman's strength was a surprise, unwelcome as it was. Was it simply adrenaline-fuelled strength? He wasn't sure, but he had seen impressive feats from people on the brink of death, so he wouldn't rule it out just yet.
He wasn't overly worried for himself, strange though it was, as the woman had had ample opportunity to kill him previously and done nothing, and he was proved right as she lurched forward, stumbling and catching herself with her shakujou. With a gasp, she shuddered, righted herself and ran off.
He was left behind with two broken legs. All in all, it could have been worse. Ameyuri seemed mighty pissed. Probably at having been bested, if only temporarily.
"Come on, we have to follow her!" she hissed at him, hurling a kunai in direction of the escaping woman.
"Give me a minute, woman, I've got two broken legs!" he grouched at her with a glare, rummaging in his pack or a pill to numb the pain. He tossed one at her and quickly swallowed his, grimly satisfied when he began to lose all feeling in his body. He hated those pills,felt even less like a human when he used them, but they did the job and allowed him to get to his feet without flinching. He'd curse later when the medics reset his bones at the hospital.
Both of them got to their feet, and he felt obligesd to point out to his comrade, "Be careful, if we get injured we won't feel a thing."
"I know," she replied with a dark grin.
He took a long, assessing look at her and knew that even if she could feel any injuries, she would not let them stop her from catching her prey. However, he also knew that cornered prey could fight viciously when their life was in danger. She ought to be doubly careful lest the fleeing woman turned the tables on her.
For his part, he intended to be less reckless and, rather than go at the woman with single-minded determination, followed his comrade's lead into the mist.
His legs didn't ache and he wasn't limping, as he had been lucky enough for injuries to be a clean break, but he knew reasonably that if the fight took a nasty turn, or even if it dragged on too long, the broken bones would be jarred and that could complicate things.
He had no inention of crippling himself. Let Ameyuri do that if she wanted, she was already sick anyway. He would hang back and make sure the "monster" didn't escape.
-:-
Sharks exploded from the ground in front of her, clearly destined to make her skid to a halt and turn back; clenching her teeth, she plowed through them as they snapped at her ankles, propelling herself on the back of one of them to escape a severe bite from another as she hurled a handful of shuriken at them to get rid of the beasts.
Her breaths burned in her chest, sharp and unforgiving, but she set a faster pace. They were not far behind.
A whiz warned her to throw herself to the side and roll away from a second blow. She tightened her grasp on her shakujou as Ameyuri rounded on her with a sharp grin.
Lightning met with the brass staff as Sakura parried the blow; the clash sent her careening backward as the lightning ran down the length of her weapon and into her arm, heading straight for her heart.
She had just enough time to force her chakra to erect a barrier around it before the lighning crashed into itand out of her body, leaving a torn and singed hole in her clothing, a dark and bleeding scorch mark on her skin, and an unconscious woman behind.
"Ha!" crowed the Kiri-nin to her accolyte. "Knew that'd get her!"
"You fried her heart," replied Kisame flatly, frowning at the smell of charred flesh. "I'm not sure Mizukage-sama will appreciate that."
"Oh, shut up, you-"
Whatever she might have said was lost as Sakura gasped and rolled to the side, clasping her useless arm.
Both ninja stared in amazement as she crouched, bending forward to grasp her shakujou. She slowly took a fighting position, hunching slightly forward, rings clinking against one another at the end of her weapon.
Her useless arm hung at her side, but she didn't seem to take that as a handicap as the corners of her mouth tugged down and she spat a mouthful of blood to the ground.
Alright. Let's do this again.
Ameyuri's blood-thirsty grin widened at the challenge.
"Stay back," she ordered her companion who was happy enough to oblige. Their prey's disposition had changed. No longer was she submissive and waiting passively for them to make the first move. This would be her on the offensive, a woman on a mission.
He wanted to see it.
And she didn't disappoint. Her lips parted in a growl; her stance widened; her hand glowed brightly around the shakujou, her chakra running down its length in an equally bright glow. And then she leapt.
She was lithe and agile as she slammed the shakujou down; she was destructive as it landed and made its way past Ameyuri's guard.
She was glorious as she twirled and, feet glowing, sent the Mist kunoichi careening from the force of the blow.
She was exhilarating as she pressed her advantage ruthlessly, parrying Ameyuri's retaliating swipe, lightning disintegrating once it came into contact with the glowing staff.
He was mesmerized, blood pounding loudly in his ears as she handed her ass to his partner. He felt warm despite the chill of the mist around them.
This was a glorious, glorious battle. He wanted to memorize every bit of it, engrave every moment into his brain and tattoo it on his soul.
Lightning ran down Ameyuri's swords; the other woman sidestepped the first one and parried the second one, managing somehow to cancel the element's effect as it fizzled out at the contact of the shakujou. The woman's mane of feathers whipped around as she followed the parrade with a decisive kick that made Ameyuri bend in two, breath whooshing out of her loudly. She retaliated quickly, but by then the other woman had leapt nimbly away, fingers twisting into handsigns that blurred together until earth exploded around them in jagged spikes.
Ameyuri hastily jumped away from the skewering spikes, eyes widening as the other woman rode them easily to shorten the distance between them once more. Twin blades crossed to parry the next blow, and with a deft twist of the wrist, one of them slipped to rip into the woman's hip, lightning blazing to life once again.
With hoarse yell, their prey managed to stumble back, limping heavily, but it didn't seem to deter her much. She snarled, showing bloody teeth, and her hand began to glow green.
Ameyuri, knowing that she was about to heal herself, pressed her advantage. Darting forward, she sliced at the other woman once more.
With seeming ease, the woman jumped high, made a backflip and landed further away, leg buckling under her weight. It lasted for but a moment before she regained her balance, but Ameyuri was there already, taking the opportunity to slash at her once more and keep her from healing the handicapping injury.
Indeed, Kisame knew that with an arm out of order and an injury in the hip joint that worsened with every movement, the woman was in a precarious position against an opponent as experienced as Ameyuri.
As Ameyuri twirled once again, swords in hand, the woman darted forward, propulsed by her good leg, and slashed across the Kiri kunoichi's left arm as she darted by.
As she crash-landed and rolled on her shoulder to limit the amount of injuries garnered by her sliding on the uneven ground, not even a cry of pain left her at the trail of blood she left behind. Rather, she smirked as she heard the metallic clang of one of the swords hitting the ground.
Now, she healed roughly her hip injury and gingerly regained her footing, trying to locate her shakujou as she panted.
Kisame, observing the two, analyzed slowly the scene. Ameyuri's arm was bleeding and hanging uselessly at her side. Whatever the other woman had done, she had sliced cleanly through her muscles. Even if she couldn't feel the pain, she couldn't force her arm to move, much less make her fingers grasp her sword again.
And then, as if it wasn't bad enough, a cough rattled her chest.
As though this was a cue she had been waiting for, rather than a fortuitous symptom of Ameyuri's illness, the stranger darted forward, a snarl on her lips. She forwent her straight approach as Ameyuri recovered enough to lash out, earth spitting out stone spikes in an arc around her, and twisted out of the way to protect her exposed middle, that so crucial weakness of hers given the precious cargo she carried. She slammed sideways into Ameyuri, elbow catching the woman he knew at the back of her head, so very close to her spine, and sending her into oblivion.
However, in true hard-headed fashion, Ameyuri had one last trick in her bag of deviousness. Even as the blow hit her hard, she whirled around in a bid to avoid it and managed to land a blow of her own on their prey.
-:-
Ears ringing, Sakura stumbled across Ameyuri, got up before sprawling completely on her, took a shaking step forward. Her head felt fuzzy, her mind unclear. Thoughts came and went as she struggled to keep ahold of her stomach contents.
A deeply-ingrained motivation was the only thing that kept her going, something buried so profoundly it was instinct at that point.
I have to get out of here fast.
She leant to the side as she took another stumbling step, fell on her knees. The world slanted.
But she was not alone, there was still a predator out there, someone out for her blood.
"Don't move!"
She scrambled back, heart in her throat, fear a visceral part of her, overwhelming everything else that was her.
"Don't be stupid, you're on a cliff!"
The words didn't register. What did, however, was the overbearing amount of chakra pressing at her. Straight at her.
She lashed out, stomping her foot in a childish but effective move. The chakra-enhanced blow fractured the ground, weakened as it was already from Ameyuri's jutsu, making the threat stumble with a yell.
The cracks webbed out with a rumble, the ground groaned as though in protest, and then the world really slanted sideways for everyone.
-:-
A large pan of the cliff separated from the rest of it, slowly starting to tilt, prompting Kisame into action. Within moments, that pan of rock would accelerate its descent and the woman would be lost to the raging seas beyond it.
He had to retrieve her begore that happened.
And then, lying between the two of them like a particularly inconvenient distraction was Ameyuri. By all means, he should let her be. She was a competent ninja, but all of them were expendable assets in the eyes of their Kage. If the mission called for it, they had to give their life without a second thought.
And here and now, the mission called for it. If he stopped to pull her put of harm's way, he could lose their target forever.
All of that passed through his mind in less than a second, in the minute moment it took his muscles to propel him forward.
And yet, he...appreciated Ameyuri and her loss would be a blow to Kirigakure, even with her illness manifesting itself more and more frequently.
And so he made the best he could with a bum poker hand.
On his way to his prey, he wrenched Ameyuri from the ground with a grunt and threw her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. A wet one at that, thanks to the rain that drizzled over the area as though trying to get rid of the fog.
It slowed him down, but his eyes never left the struggling woman. And then his heart stopped as she stopped fighting to get up, let her grip on the ground slacken, and went limp.
The ground tipped over, and so did she.
Adrenalin burst through him; a cry. Then his hand clasped around her small, dainty wrist as he anchored himself to the falling rock.
Gotcha!
She didn't react, listless or unconscious, but he had more pressing matters to attend to, such as get them all out of there.
By now, the ground was fracturing even more, and he jumped away, latching onto another part of the cliff that seemed more stable if a lot more vertical, and stopped for a moment to evaluate the situation.
Rocks fell into the dark sea with splashes that drenched them all and forced him to relocate further away from the epicenter of the fractures.
As he jumped to another more stable part of the cliffside, Ameyuri started to slip. His jostle to readjust her on his shoulder made him make such a rookie mistake that he wanted to kick himself.
His grip on the other woman's wrist slackened momentarily and upon readjusting it to make sure he didn't lose her, his hand grabbed her bracelet. The beads, slick with blood and water, slipped under his grip. Despite trying to stop them from rolling out from under his fingers, they slipped like lively fish, and suddenly his hand was closing around thin air, eyes dilated in horror as he watched the woman plummet into the cold waters of the roiling sea.
Something had to be said for the woman: she made him do stupid things. And she would probably be the death of him, too, he thought as he let himself fall into the ocean to follow her.
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I want to thank everyone who's been reviewing, you guys are the reason I've even updated at all. I'm trying to decide whether to continue updating or not, given that the prequel is being published on Wattpad without my autorisation and this one will probably be, too, at some point. It's very toxic to me, and I don't know if it's worth it to continue publishing if someone else gets the credit for the hours I put into this.