Chapter 21: Wise Woman
Holy shit.
Jesus Christ.
It was hot.
Smoldering hot.
Chinatsu was panting heavily, wrapped up in the ugly sweater Genma had gotten for her yesterday. She had tried relentlessly to remove it, but the rest of the crew was determined for her to keep it on. And she was. And because of that, she was suffering in the stifling heat. Chinatsu whined a couple of times, stealthily attempting to slid her arms out of the sleeves only to have Yamato popping the back of her head and adjusting the ugly sweater back.
"If you remove this, the sun will burn your skin," was all Yamato said when she tried to remove it again.
And she didn't understand a word he said.
Fucking assholes, she mentally cursed and glared at the back of Raidou and Kaakashi's head as she was smack dab in the middle of the group. The blond girl and the brunette boy were also leading up front. Chinatsu sighed, quickly glancing at the men before trying to remove the sweater again.
"Chinatsu, no," Yamato smacked the back of her head, bringing out a sharp yelp. "Stop acting like a child!"
Temari glanced over her shoulder with an expression of annoyance. "Let her remove it. She'll learn the hard way that burning skin from Sunagakure doesn't heal nicely."
Yusuke laughed wheezily. "I remember that one time I walked through the northern territory in shorts and a tank I use during the night! My mother swore I looked like a lobster! And there was that other time, where I did find a lobster in the dunes of Sunagakure, and it ended up to be Sasori's toy! Ah! I broke that toy into pieces. No wonder that wretched boy nearly took my life! And there was this other time…."
Genma, thoroughly irritated with the old man's stories grimaced. He said nothing though as they continued to walk through the desert. The Konoha group was quiet, contemplating over the recent message they had received from their village. The devastating news of their village in a current warfare while they were here trying to break the secret of the Senju clan took a toll upon them. Each shinobi had the ability and skills to protect their village, but they couldn't at the moment.
They prayed they'd be able to find the Wise Woman.
The shinobi continued to nibble upon his senbon, playing around with it with his tongue. It had already been a couple hours. Luckily, they were somewhat near their destination, which Genma was highly relieved considering the fact that the Wise Woman lived in the middle of nowhere.
He gazed at the back of his charge's head and smirked at the horrid sweater sewed by a blind man.
Not bad for a chastity belt.
Chinatsu felt her legs quivering as she was walking. Nothing, not even hiking, can be compared to this. She had gone hiking along with some friends in high school and woke up the next day with a body aching terribly. But right now, Chinatsu was more than positive that she was going to drop dead any minute now. She panted, feeling the sweat of her body soaking into the fabric of her clothes and matting her hair down to her skull as if she had just taken a shower. She swirled to Yamato, who looked fresh and clean, and whined, "I tired!"
Jesus, they must've been walking for three hours now!
Yamato frowned and merely continued to push her forward. "We still have to walk."
Chinatsu whined like a child and continued hobbling and walking like an old crone.
Kankuro looked over his shoulder to see the foreign woman walking awkwardly and couldn't help but smile deviously. "Looks like someone had a fun night," Kankuro said while wiggling his eyebrows.
Raidou glanced back to see Chinatsu walking as if she had something stuck up her ass. He frowned and nodded to Yamato. "Tell her to walk properly like a woman. She'll get hurt if she continues to walk like that."
"Hungry! Tired! Want water!" Chinatsu cried.
Yamato sighed, scratching his head irritatingly. "We've been spoiling her for far too long."
"We?" Genma snorted. "Tis you, Yamato."
Yamato's face reddened, but said nothing. He patted Chinatsu's back and had her walking normally for the first ten minutes before she returned to her awkward hobble. She continued muttering about her hunger and thirst, ignoring Yamato when he patted her head like a dog.
Then something happened.
Chinatsu froze, wiggling her toes and bounced on them to try and get blood circulating from her feet. Not that it wasn't but at the moment, she could believe that her feet were going to rot and fall off any minute now. She ignored Yamato's insistent pressing and turned her head to the east when she felt something in her chest tugging her towards that direction. Noise dissipated and everything disappeared. Nothing else mattered besides whatever was coming from the east.
"Chinatsu! Move!" Ebisu yelled.
A small click happened and there appeared her three beasts and a man.
"Stop yelling at her, you fuckin' mangy cur!" Killer B yelled, running up to the group and epically punching Ebisu in the face. Ebisu screamed and spun around three times before landing on the ground. The closet pervert whipped up and glared at the Kumogakure shinobi.
"What the hell are you doing here?" he snarled.
Killer B attempted to whip up Chinatsu in his arms but was blocked off by her guards. He sniffled and tilted his head off to the side. "I'm here to protect my girl, cause she is my world."
Genma growled lowly. "Pervert!"
Kankuro and Termari were off to the side, watching the exchange slowly, and were amazed to see a bijuu allowing the wayward girl to ride upon it. They frowned at each other and craned their heads to the side to see the other bijuus only to stiffen at recognition of one.
"FUJASIN NO JUTSU!"
Chinatsu brought up her arms to try and protect herself when her clothes whipped about violently. Kokuō neighed loudly and quickly darted to the side with his charge in order to dodge the bursts of dangerous winds heading towards their direction. Kokuō dashed to the one-eyed ninja and allowed the man to hold his charge and ran back to the mess his tailed brother was making.
Shukaku laughed maniacally. "You missed! You missed!" he chanted, bouncing around wildly and even going far enough to attack the Subaku siblings. He grew to his titanic form quickly and slapped them with the back of his hand. They went flying back twenty feet and landed with an audible thud. "Oh, I miss you, brats!" he giggled shamelessly.
Matatabi hissed and attacked Shubaku with equal size. "How dare you put our ward in danger!" He sunk his fangs into Shubaku's neck.
Shubaku cried out in rage and attempted to dislodge it only to have Kokuō headbutt his stomach hard. Both nibi and ichibi skidded through the sandy ground.
The humans scattered about, watching the battle amongst the demon.
"What do we do?" Genma asked.
Raidou shook his head. "Stay out of it. You'll die if you even dare interfere."
Yusuke nodded. "When I was a child, I saw Shukaku once! And that was when the third Kazekage…."
Kakashi, who had Chinatsu in his arms, walked to the group, keeping a steady eye upon the three rolling demons. He glared at Temari who as currently pinned down by her brother and cursing up a storm. As much as he wanted to go and give her a good lecture, he could feel Chinatsu's hands clutching at his shoulder's painfully with those nails. Placing a hand upon her head, which was currently buried into his chest, he smoothed back her hair to try and calm her quivering form.
This felt nice, Kakashi mused. A warm body and a willing woman in his arms. It didn't help that this woman was probably around Sakura's age, and he couldn't help but feel revolted about himself. Sixteen to his thirty was not exactly compatible. To those perverts who claimed age was just a number…well, jail was just a room, he supposed.
Hauling the terrified Chinatsu to Yamato, he gently placed her in his arms before turning to his squad leader. "What shall we do? Continue walking without the demons?" Standing here while the beasts were fighting wasn't exactly ideal, especially when they were needed home at the moment. Being a smooth talker, Kakashi could attempt to persuade the demons to stop, but he wasn't about to put his life on the line when there were other options.
Raidou sighed heavily, watching as Killer B joined the rumble. "I guess, we shall start walking."
And they did.
Soon after another two hours, the beasts joined the men.
The Subaku siblings were not joyful to find the demon who had possessed their younger brother traveling along with them, but had turned their attention away from him to prevent another collision of battle. It was not easy especially with the ichibi constantly harassing them to a point where Matatabi forced Chinatsu to seal the demon in a vase.
There was then, a small amount of peace.
Riding along Kokuō's back (which she was very grateful for), Chinatsu squinted and saw a small hill side that looked strange amongst the waves of sand dunes. Ignoring her starved stomach, which was twisting painfully, she smacked her dry, cracked lips and squinted at the distance. She glanced at a crowing Yusuke who pointed at the hill side and immediately started babbling about his youngster days. It took a few more handful minutes before the group stood before a cave.
Yusuke hobbled to the entrance and tapped his cane to the ground. Something flickered in the air before dying out. "Beware, she has two faces," Yusuke warned lightly with a cackle. "Let's hope you see the nice one!" And with that, he went in.
Kokuō attempted to walk in with his ward still upon his back but found that he was unable to. Something warded up was preventing him from entering. Carefully, he knelt down and allowed his charge to slide off his back. "I cannot enter. You must continue on. We shall stay here," he said, turning around and guarding the entrance of the cave with Matatabi and a bottled Shuaku.
Chinatsu hesitated, but was ushered in the cave.
The cave they entered brought immediate suspicion to Chinatsu. Despite the exhaustion eating her away, it didn't mean her natural instincts went deaf. She paused at midstride, narrowing her eyes as she took a look at the entrance of the cave, which could only mean danger lurked about due to Aladdin's movies.
"Come on, Chinatsu." Yamato placed a hand on her back and pushed her forward lightly.
Chinatsu immediately grabbed at his hand and held it. She ignored Yamato and pressed up against his side, unable to trust where the Yusuke and the siblings were leading them.
Temari turned to Raidou. "We need to walk just a bit further and then we'll be with the Wise Woman."
Raidou nodded. He turned to his team and assessed them. "As soon as we make introductions, we'll go straight to the point. Chinatsu," he said, leaning down so that they were eye to eye. "No talking, okay?"
Chinatsu nodded. "No talk."
"Good." Raidou turned and gestured for Kakashi and Genma to follow him up front while Yamato and Ebisu were at Chinatsu's side in case of an unsuspected invasion.
The group followed Sunagakure's most trusted soldiers into the depth of the cave. Light dimmed to a point where Kankuro was forced to make a torch from scrap.
Chinatsu gripped Yamato's arm with a fierce hold, ignoring the hisses between his teeth as her nails dug into the tender flesh of his skin. She couldn't help it. Fear coiled around her heart like a never ending rope. Not only were there low moaning sounds and dripping of liquids echoing throughout their dark walk, but there was also an eerie feeling creeping about; and it made the hair on her arms rise.
"Chinatsu!" Yamato hissed, pushing her hand away.
"No!" she yelled and latched herself like a snail.
A low whine of pain strung from his throat before he pushed her away. Yamato yanked up his sleeve and glared at the tiny deep grooves of nail markings upon his skin before glaring at her menacingly. "Stop acting like a child!"
"I scare!"
Yamato rolled his eyes and grasped her hand. "Hold my hand," he grumbled. "But if you sink your nails into my skin again, I'll leave you behind, got it?"
She nodded vigorously, but held his hand with a strength he questioned.
The group continued to walk forth, halting a couple of times as Temari and Yusuke disabled some chakra walls only to reapply them once they've crossed over. There wasn't any molting lava, booby traps, or hidden tunnels for anyone who dared walk through this path. It was just very difficult for a person to bring down the protection many strong shinobi's placed upon the Wise Woman's cave when it was strengthened by her power alone.
Temari hesitated at the last chakra wall. She turned to Kankuro who nodded at her before reluctantly releasing the last ward. The illusion of an endless tunnel slowly dissipated and was replaced by a flat faced wall.
"What is this?" Kakashi asked.
None answered.
Yusuke hobbled forward, mumbling beneath his breath before nodding in agreement. He placed his hand upon one side of the wall and murmured a couple words. The area around his hand glowed green and slowly a portion of the rocky wall disappeared. "Please, go through," he said, gesturing them inside.
Raidou was the first to do so. He walked ahead cautiously with his men following him from behind.
Chinatsu was holding Yamato's hand with steel as she passed by Yusuke and the opening. She blinked and squinted her eyes as light radiated from the inside of the place.
"What is this place?" Genma asked, covering his eyes from the bright light.
"My domain,"
There was an old woman sitting down upon the ground, wearing traditional flower-printed kimonos from back in time. Her white hair was wrapped up and placed neatly upon her head with a pair of chopsticks holding it all together in place. She was a small thing, really. Tiny and thin. The elderly female's posture was something that seemed like the elders from Konohagakure were influenced from. An arm, which was heavily clothed and hidden by the length of the cloth reached next to her to the small brown bag before flinging the contents of it into the water.
"I would say welcome, but I sure as hell didn't invite you." The Wise Woman didn't bother turning around to greet the men. She coughed deeply, her voice raspy and weary.
Yusuke closed the door as Temari and Kankuro followed in. He sealed it and turned to the old woman sitting upon the mat over the ground floor, looking out to the lake within the cave. There were torches spiked within the circular structure of the cave. But none of it compared to the glowing pearly orb levitating at the pinnacle of the cave.
Raidou frowned, turning to Temari and Kankuro to see that they were heading towards another direction. "Are…are you the Wise Woman?" he asked tentatively, clearing his throat when he realized how weak his voice was.
The woman didn't pause from feeding the koi fishes in her miniature lake. "Just because I'm an old wrinkly hag, you think I'm the Wise Woman?"
Raidou's face burned with embarrassment. "I-I'm sorry!" he said before bowing low. Genma nudged him in the shoulder. "We are a specialized team from—"
"Yes, yes, I am damn well aware of where you're from," she replied in that raspy voice of hers. The old woman continued to feed her fish. "There was word out for many days that someone was coming. What for? I don't know, and nobody knew either." Her head tilted to the side to look at Yusuke who smiled warily. "Fucking moron," she cursed. "I am the Wise Woman."
"Koi, don't be that way," Yusuke said, wobbling towards her.
"Take one more step and I'll slice those balls off of you, Yusuke."
While the others feared the woman threatening Yusuke, the man merely cackled and walked towards her. He held out his hand. "Come. Stand up and give them your attention. Your children have traveled many miles for your wisdom."
Muttering beneath her breath, she obliged. A small knobby hand was revealed from the long streams of her clothes and reached out for Yusuke. It took a while for the two elders to support one another until she stood, hunched over from years of gravity pushing down against her. "Speak and I will listen." The Wise Woman said. Her hands were clasped behind her back as she gazed into the water. She didn't bother turning around to acknowledge them.
Ignoring the rather noticeable irritated aura coming from the old woman, Raidou spoke; his head was bowed and he was kneeling on the ground before the woman who made all things happen.
"More than eight months, something unusual happened in Konohagakure," Raidou recited from how exactly his Hokage wanted him to converse with the Wise Woman. "A woman fell from the sky and into our hands. We know not where she is from or who she is. She is utmost human and had not shown any promise for power and destruction until recently." Raidou lifted his head and stared at the Wise Woman's back. "She has been linked with three bijuus so far. It is unexplainable."
The Wise Woman cackled humorlessly. "There has already been a man who contained the ability to control the beasts. What makes you think there can't be another?"
"The demons have claimed she is the reincarnation of Senju Hashirama. And therefore, she is of Senju blood."
Silence filled the area for a moment, and a moment too long.
Yamato glanced at Ebisu over Chinatsu's head and frowned. It was then he was ripped away from attempting to speak to Chinatsu (trying to get her to stop fiddling with her the disgusting sweater and moving about, really) when the Wise Woman started howling like a dog on its high.
She laughed hard and deep, even coming to a point of slapping her hand upon her thigh. The Wise Woman wheezed, coughing a bit before starting up the storm again. Yusuke merely stood there next to the woman watching as she continued her laugh attack with a small smile on his face. It had been a long time before the Wise Woman had come to a stop, but even then she was still snickering and chuckling as if she had been told the joke of the millennium.
"Ahh, I hadn't laughed like that in decades," she commented, straightening herself as she once again became of decorum and wisdom. "That was a fucking long time, and from Hashirama, too!"
Raidou glanced over his shoulder, standing from his kneeling position at Chinatsu who looked just as bewildered and confused as the others surrounding her. "We—"
"You have wasted your time here, men of Konohagakure." The Wise Woman cleared her throat and clasped her hands behind her back once more. "I have not only birthed the lineage of the Senju clan, but I have also kept records of every single legitimate and illegitimate birth of my many daughters and sons. I know their whereabouts, their ambitions, and their families. And I know that no daughter of mine has ventured with Konohagakure men for a simple question such as this."
"But, she controls the demons—" Yamato started.
"It means not a goddamn thing. They've probably chosen their whore," she said before dismissing them callously. "You are permitted to leave."
"There must be a mistake!" Genma yelled.
"Do you challenge my words, Shiranui-san?" Her voice was soft and light, almost as if she was laughing at the moment. "Do you doubt my very knowledge?" When no one spoke, as they were stunned by the news and outburst of the Wise Woman, she snorted unladylike. "Leave now."
They didn't move.
"Leave!"
Chinatsu didn't know what was going on, but she knew from whatever they were talking about (it had been too fast for her to understand) it hadn't come to an agreement. Chinatsu was exhausted. Throughout the whole time they were talking amongst one another, she was either fiddling with the horrendous coat Genma had given her or shifting from leg to leg. The travel was getting to her and making her weary. She can feel her bones aching and muscles screaming for relief. Chinatsu was almost tempted to sit where she stood, but when she tried Yamato yanked her up immediately.
They had promised her rest and drinks at their destination, but from what she could see, it wasn't going to happen.
"Yamato," she said, as the men started turning back to the entrance. "I tired. Hungry."
His steely face refused to acknowledge her as he walked forward, dragging her behind him with an iron-like grasp she had never felt from him before. She could feel the tension in the air between him and the others that spoke of rage, confusion, and anger. Chinatsu turned to the others and repeated her words only to see that they were ignoring her, and trading off glares of suspicion at her.
Snarling in fury, she yanked her arm out of his grip and pointed up at his agitated expression.
"Look, I'm fucking tired! You said we were going to rest and eat somewhere, Yamato! We traveled over god knows how many fucking miles, but I'm exhausted! I know you guys want to go do your little adventure time and crap, asking questions about who knows what, but I'm tired. Please, let's rest for a while and eat!"
In the midst of her monologue, she failed to recognize the widening of Yamato's eyes as he gazed past her shoulder.
"Chinatsu—!"
The men took a step to try and intervene before they were blown away like leaves. Chinatsu jumped at the sudden attack and tried to whirl around to see the danger, but someone had already gripped her hard by the shoulder and twisted her around fiercely.
"Who are you?" the Wise Woman growled, squinting at Chinatsu as if her vision was badly impaired. "How are you speaking in that language?"
Holy fucking shit.
For the first time of her life, Chinatsu was stunned, speechless. She gaped, blinking dramatically as she stared at the old woman, whose face resembled a bat's, in pure disbelief as she heard pure English, albeit choppy and heavily accented, coming from her mouth. "Y-you speak English?" Chinatsu squawked.
The Wise Woman wasn't pleased. Her lips thinned as she threw Chinatsu back. "Yusuke!" she bellowed.
Chinatsu scrabbled up to her feet, mindless of her injuries, as she quickly glanced back at her group to see them fighting against some invisible wall. Temari and Kankuro were standing off to the side, just as dumbfounded as Chinatsu, as they had never seen the Wise Woman act out in violence. Chinatsu turned around to see the Wise Woman hobbling towards her, and she started to skitter away. "Yamato! Kakashi!"
"Make sure she doesn't escape," the Wise Woman commanded of Yusuke.
"What the hell are you doing, you crazy bat?" Chinatsu yelled, her hand flying to her weapons pouch to pull out a kunai. "I have a weapon and I'm not afraid to—" She yelped as the kunai went flying out of her hand.
"English is a dead language," the Wise Woman stated in her hard steel voice. "Nobody knows of it besides Yusuke and I…."
"Well, you're sadly mistaken." Chinatsu snorted.
"And Orochimaru." The Wise Woman finished.
Chinatsu frowned. "Look, I don't know who Oro-hoo-hoo is, but you need to calm down. I don't know what's going on and why you're attacking me."
"Because you could possibly be the enemy of humanity," Yusuke said, joining the Wise Woman's side. "It's unnatural for others to know of English."
"But I'm not!"
Yusuke ignored her and turned to the Wise Woman. "Turn into your other form. It'll be much easier to fight." The man who led them to the Wise Woman had his hands flying in a flurry of movements, too long and complicated for any other shinobi or kunoichi to understand as a complex, string of words were murmured out of his mouth. The Wise Woman followed.
Bright light hit every angle of the domain, blinding everyone for a long moment before it began to dim down. Where Yusuke stood was a young man (not past the age of twenty) with suspicious eyes, glaring at Chinatsu as his muscles bulked and sheened from the sweat of the very complicated transformation. His baggy clothes that had embraced the fat, jolly man, shrunk to his perfection. But now there was a weapon adorning his hand, just as sharp and dangerous as his glare.
Besides him, the light was dimming.
And the young woman, who stood there, swept Chinatsu's breath away.
The young teenager, who had replaced the Wise Woman, blinked rapidly as if she was trying to focus her eyes. "Fuck," she cursed in Japanese. "My eyes are still fucking retarded."
Chinatsu shuddered as she stared at the young teenager. Not even the sound of Kakashi and the others voice of desperation and urgency deterred her staring.
The pixie-like teenager turned to the voice.
Where Akane, her sister, had shoulder-length hair in the past, this Akane lookalike had her hair well groomed cut just above her ears. Her mouth was slightly pouted as if maturity had gained upon the eighteen-year-old. Where the nerd of the family had only seen the light of the night with endless amounts of studying, this young woman here had blossomed during the midnight of all eves. But her personality had not changed at all whatsoever.
"Akane…" she said softly. Chinatsu ran towards her younger sister with a huge smile growing on her face until Yusuke had interfered and slammed her away. Chinatsu yelped as she was thrown away by a powerful gust of wind, landing on her back dumbfounded. At first, Chinatsu had taken this newfound glory of discovering her sister to be nothing compared to her awards in swim competition, but then she realized that this was not her world.
This was not her sister.
"Chinatsu!" Yamato yelled. Wood burst from his palms but was not strong enough to penetrate the barrier. "Dammit!" he cursed, throwing himself at it before he was stopped by an observing Ebisu.
"We can't break it." Ebisu shook his head.
All were riled up except for one. Kakashi stood there impassive, watching with one wide eye at the transformation of the Wise Woman. "I…I've seen her before…."
Raidou cursed. "It's too hard to break. This barrier's too strong!"
"We have too! She's defenseless there! She doesn't know how to protect herself!" Yamato cried out, desperate to protect the small woman. He turned to Temari and Kankuro, surprising them as he growled at them dangerously. "I thought no harm would befall on her!"
"As did we, but something happened." Kankuro said. "Look!"
Yusuke stepped away from the Wise Woman when she shoved him off to the side. The Wise Woman's face twisted with something of sadness, anger, and downright fury. She took a step forward, her traditional ancestry robes billowing about her in ire. "Who do you think you are copying the very image of my sister, you sick fuck of a demon?"
Chinatsu glared at the Wise Woman. "Me? You're blaming me? Who do you think you are? I don't know who the hell you are and why you look like myyyy," she emphasized. "…sister, but I'm not a demon! I'm human!"
"Bullshit!" And with that, the Wise Woman, in her small, young, petite form, had her hands flying in a quick flurry of movements. "Mizu: Tora no ninjutsu!"
The lake, which had been peaceful and tranquil, was now swirling in discontent. As if it had sense its mistress's anger, the water was pulsing with equal rage. Chinatsu watched in horror as the water took shape of a fierce tiger. The tiger roared and moved quickly through the air towards Chinatsu. Manifested by shock and stupor (despite her being here for quite a while), she barely dodged the water Bengal.
Chinatsu cursed as her whole side burned from the reckless dive. She stumbled to her feet, grabbing the fallen kunai and faced the magical water being.
She knew there was nothing she could do against it with simply a knife and did the best of dodging its swipes and tackles.
"Stop!" Chinatsu barely yelled as the tiger mangled her arm. She cried out and clutched her arm in pain.
Suddenly, the water menagerie dispersed. Just as Chinatsu all was good the Wise Woman was in her face with a katana that rivaled her mothers.
As a matter of fact, it looked exactly like her mother's.
What the hell was going on?
Was this world sucking on her memories?
Yusuke quickly decorated the Wise Woman's side with a second katana similar to her mother's. The two were circling around Chinatsu with deadly intent, keeping their heads low and body sharply on mission as the poor woman in the middle fumbled with her balance.
"Who are you, demon?" Yusuke questioned.
Chinatsu shook her head. "I am no demon—"
"Liar!" the Wise Woman hissed with malice. She then let out a yell of pure torture and rushed towards the foreign demon woman.
Chinatsu barely had time to deflect the katana with her own measly kunai, forcing her body to recognize its adept training from the past few weeks. "I am no enemy," Chinatsu said through gritted teeth, barely dodging another swing from the katana behind her. "I come in peace with the men standing behind me. I don't know what we are doing as I have no idea how to speak the language."
"You are here because they assume you are from the Senju clan."
"I am from no clan. I am not from this world."
"Liar!" the Wise Woman shrieked as swung her katana.
Chinatsu gasped and her hand whipped to her side at the stinging pain. She didn't look down, holding her kunai up high as she knew she was bleeding profusely. "I don't know why you're angry or what's going on. I don't know what the hell you're talking about—"
"I'm talking about why you look like my beloved sister, demon." The Wise Woman forced Chinatsu back with a push of her katana, sending the woman sprawling to the muddied ground from her water tigers. "Now, you will be punished eternally for your fucking sickness, demon, and I shall hold the glory of putting you back into damnation." The Wise Woman held up her katana in execution, glaring down at Chinatsu with a face of twisted revulsion and fury.
In the duration of that second, Chinatsu was sure she was going to die. The steel hovering over her neck came to a pause when Chinatsu yelled.
The Wise Woman stood there silently with the tip of the katana nudging against Chinatsu's vulnerable throat. The steel of the katana gently pricked her skin. Blood oozed from the wound. "W…what did you say?" she asked softly.
Chinatsu breathed in and out deep, panting and staring into the eyes of confusion. "…Akane."
The katana was lowered and the Wise Woman staggered back. "Yusuke, she knows my name," she said in Japanese, her arm flailing behind him for stability as weakness gnawed at her joints like termites to a strong tree. Nobody should know her name with the exception of Yusuke. She was simply known as the Wise Woman to the generation as her name dwindled away. Her lover grasped her by the arm and held her steady. "What is she?"
"I don't know, koi," Yusuke answered honestly.
The Wise Woman frowned and held up her katana at the beaten woman. "Did you look into my memories, demon?"
Chinatsu shook her head. "I am no demon!"
"If you were my truly my sister, who died over three centuries ago, for your fucking information, you would know how to play the violin and how to engineer a rocketship!"
"I am not your sister," Chinatsu scoffed. She laid there on the cold, dirty ground of the cave, holding her wound tightly as she panted heavily. "And as a matter of fact, I don't play an instrument. I'm a nurse, not an engineer. I…I…oh god…" She felt her vision blurring slightly. "I'm from…I'm from earth…."
A flicker of confusion went through the Wise Woman's young, beautiful eyes. "Who are you? Where did you come from, youngling?" she asked softly, almost motherly.
Chinatsu shook her head from the darkness and scrabbled back, pushing away the katana from her throat as a growing anger started flowering from deep inside. Gee, why didn't they start with the questions first and fight later? If anything, Chinatsu was too tired to be interrogated. It was a blessing it wasn't from Ibiki, but this was getting ridiculous. "My...my name is Chinatsu, and I am not part of this world. I am from another world, from a planet called Earth."
Yusuke and the Wise Woman traded glances.
"What is your American name?" The Wise Woman snarled, shoving the katana in her face again.
She merely swatted it away with her small kunai that fumbled from her grasp and dropped to the floor. "Chloe…or Connie, which ever the fuck."
The katana dropped.
The Wise Woman dropped to her knees and looked at Chinatsu with such heartbroken eyes the woman almost, almost, felt a bit of pity for the insane elder. She reached out her arm to Chinatsu's face and barely skimmed her fingertips to her sweaty and bruised cheek. "Chinatsu," the Wise Woman whispered ever so softly.
Chinatsu smacked her hand away. "No touch," she hissed in her broken language.
"Akane, your sister's dead. She's not Chinatsu," Yusuke admonished, trying to pull the Wise Woman from her knees but was merely pushed away aggressively.
"She is my sister, Yusuke! Look at her! Look at her!" the Wise Woman snapped, glaring at the man standing above her as she gestured to the confused young woman who was slowly losing her strength. "I haven't seen my sister in over three centuries. Three centuries, Yusuke. My memory does not easily disappear; you, out of all the others, should know that."
"Maybe she's a reincarnation, Akane."
"Yusuke! She looks exactly like her and acts like her! She remembers things!"
"That's what reincarnations do! They are replicas of their former life! Remember Hashirama? Remember how you were so attached to him because he had your sister's soul? It's the same thing!"
"No, no, no, this is her! This is really her!"
"Akane—"
"Shut the fuck up, Yusuke!" Akane screeched, glaring at her soul mate with the glare of a thousand suns. She pointed to the corner of the cave and snarled, "Go over there until I fix this mess! I don't want to fucking look at you!" And with that, she turned away, knowing well enough that he wouldn't move, but keep his mouth shut. "Now, Chinatsu,"
"No." Chinatsu said.
The sound of her sister's foreign and heavily accented words made the Wise Woman smile wistfully. Her Japanese was just as horrid as she previously remembered. "You're my sister, my sister Chinatsu."
"No, I'm not. I'm not of this world." Chinatsu lowered herself to the ground, panting heavily.
She frowned and glanced over her shoulder to Yusuke, who snorted, before giving Chinatsu her full attention. "Chinatsu, this is your world. Jesus Christ, I haven't seen you in over three hundred years! I thought you were dead!"
"Hardy har har, I know your kicks and frankly, humans don't live for that long."
"The last time I saw you, I was studying for SAT finals."
"…you could've read myyyyy," she emphasized strongly. "memories."
"I went to the bug farm with Yusuke."
"…Kakashi knows that too."
Akane wanted to rip her hair out and punch Chinatsu in the face. "How about the fact that you used to believe there was a ghost in the house and you literally went crazy from it?"
"Memories, duhhh."
"Oh my god, Chinatsu stop being such a dumbfuck," Akane snarled, kicking out at Chinatsu and making the young woman yelp as she fell over onto her back. "Jeez, Chinatsu, I know we just got reacquainted and shit, but you're really starting to piss me the fuck off." She crossed her arms childishly over her chest and glared at the people who were still blocked off by her barrier. Akane sighed and peeked up at Yusuke who was studying Chinatsu who an intense gaze. "What do we do now?"
Yusuke merely sighed.
Woooohoooo! New exciting and action-filled chapter! :D Hope you guys enjoyed it.
This chapter is dedicated to PhoenixRain26 who predicted and guessed if the Wise Woman would be Akane. She is correct! I have pinned down the Wise Woman to be Akane for a long, long time! And doesn't it just make this story just as exciting? :DDDD
Someone also mentioned something that I find very important to share with others. The question was:
If Chinatsu lived with her mother (who only speaks Japanese) how does she not understand Japanese when her mother has been speaking to her since infancy?
Okay, so basically the history of the Senju (modern) family is that Chinatsu's mother married, moved to America, and had two kids. Next thing she knows, her husband leaves her and returns to Japan without her, leaving the family "poor, hungry, and homeless" while he went off to marry another woman. A child can reject their ethnic background should the memory be too severe and painful for them; psychologically. Chinatsu ignores everything Japanese and does as much as she can to become 'American', trying to avoid every single memory of her father. Therefore, she has English names: Connie/Chloe. This includes constantly depending on Akane for translation during her upbringing. Also, as a single mother, I can imagine her mother hiring a nanny or some neighbor to look after her kid, thus rendering them unable to fully be knowledgeable about their roots, especially to a child who wants nothing to do with it.
The brain is a powerful thing. People can forget things willingly if it brings painful memories.
Thank you for the reviews! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.
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