After my team, our clients and I got some rest, we started our journey again to the land of Rice Patties, but at a faster pace. I wanted Tsuyo and Hitari out of the line of fire as quickly as possible. I was still able to protect the boy with a number of possible Earth Jutsu, but that only goes so far.
"Ayame-chan, are you okay?" Tsuyo asked as we walked. We left very early in the morning and it was midday by the time Tsuyo spoke, so I knew we were very near.
"Yes. I'm fine." I said, looking ahead. "Don't you worry, okay? Promise me." Tsuyo squeezed my hand.
"I promise." He said and I smiled weakly.
"That's my boy." I said to myself.
If Akio showed his face to me again, I knew I wouldn't be able to defeat him. Not on my own. And I wasn't going to let any of then help me. Not Kakashi. Not Sakura or Naruto. Not even Sasuke. I had to do this on my own. This was my brother, so it was my burden.
I thought about what Akio meant by what he said. The monster his father created. So it was my father's idea to put the wolf's spirit and chakra inside of me. So, when Kitai supposedly left to protect me after my father wanted to kill me, she had to have been against the whole wolf idea. She left Akio to protect me from my murderous father. One fact down.
Another fact: both of my parents were dead. Akio said that I killed them. What did that mean? I couldn't have directly killed someone when I was five, so what did it in? What was the cause? I narrowed my eyes as I thought, when suddenly, the burning of the curse mark made itself apparent. My muscles tensed.
"Ayame-chan? What's wrong?" Tsuyo asked. I struggled to form words with the pain I was enduring.
"I-I'm...fine." I choked out. With my tender wound and burning curse mark all on one side, it was almost overwhelming.
"No you're not!" Tsuyo accused.
"A-Am too." I begged to differ.
"Are not!
"Do n-not argue with me."
"You're a big, fat liar, Ayame-chan and you know it!" I stopped walking and knelt down so I was at eye level with Tsuyo.
"You made a promise to me, Tsuyo." I said with a solemn, yet weak voice. "You said you wouldn't worry about me and I expect you not to, do you understand me?" Tsuyo looked scared of my authority, but he nodded anyway.
I stood up and saw that my team had stopped as I did. I panted once and continued walking with Tsuyo's hand in mine. I felt the eyes of the people around me as I led the group. I realized that I made none of them promise not to worry and there was no point in attempting to.
We kept on walking until there was a structure on the horizon. I was fairly surprised that Akio didn't make his move yet. I guess he was waiting until I was alone. Like that's going to happen anytime soon. Anyway, we walked up the hill, which led to Hitari's Apothecary Shop.
"Home sweet home." Hitari sighed. "Now then, if you'll all just help me set my spices and tonics inside, please." She requested and my three ninja friends went inside along with Kakashi and Tsuyo. I remained outdoors, on the small porch.
"Akio." I said to myself. "Come out, come out. Wherever you are." I beckoned, knowing that no one else heard me.
I went inside the shop as all the items we helped deliver were brought out and put on nearly empty shelves. I watched as Tsuyo sat on my lap. My mind was still racing and I was still in pain, but I figured it would benefit Tsuyo if I toughened up. Teach him what his name means. Strength.
I rested my eyes for a brief moment of meditation. I saw something terrifying as soon as I shut my eyes and I couldn't open them until the vision completed. It was my mother and a strange man. I assumed he was my father because Akio shared some of his facial features. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but all I saw was my father grab my mother's arm and using his free hand to plunge through her throat with a kunai. Blood spewed the scene. Why had he done that? Why did my father kill my mother?
My vision rewound, going back in time to the beginning. The man was telling Kitai that he was going to kill the monster he created. Me. Kitai wouldn't let him and, as I tried to run away, Kitai died in the process. I assume she fatally struck him too, because Akio made it seem as if tey had died at the same time.
"Ayame-chan?" Sakura's voice made me open my eyes. "Do you need me to check your bandages?" I looked around me. I was still in the apothecary.
"Uh, sure. Thanks, Sakura-chan." I stood up and raised my arms up so Sakura could lift up my shirt as far as she needed. She stroked the more tender part of the wound and I flinched.
"Sorry."
"It's fine. Keep going if you need to." Sakura continued to poke and prod and I sighed in relief as it ended.
"You seem to be fine." Sakura said with a small smile. I lowered my arms and nodded at her. "Ayame-chan, your hair is messed up." She said. She reached for my hair and showed the shorter part of my hair to me. "Would you like me to fix it?" I shrugged and Sakura held my hand to guide me out of the shop.
We went a fairly decent distance, about sixty feet, away from the shop so my hair wouldn't blow near the store. Sakura got a kunai and starting fixing my hair. I didn't know what she was doing exactly, but I trusted her to do a good job. After a bit, she stood back to admire her work.
"I am good." She said.
I rolled my eyes, but heard running footsteps to the right of us. I saw him jump into the air and I made my move. I grabbed Sakura's shoulders and threw her back to the shop and I jumped out of the way just before Akio came crashing into the earth.
"Well, well. I like the new look, baby sister." Akio called. I gripped my side as I stood back up. "I sure hope you can handle me on your own this time. Hopefully your won't need to rely on your little fr-"
"Leave then out of this." I cut him off. "This has nothing to do with them, so just deal with me!" I made hand signs and looked at Akio. "Earth Style: Barrier no Jutsu!" I called and there was a massive dome that encased my entire team in earth and dirt, protecting them from the battle.
"Ayame-chan!" Sakura called. "Let us out!"
I ignored their cries as I looked at Akio.
"Well, I can't say I'm not impressed, Ayame." Akio said. "It's too bad you have to die!"
"It doesn't have to be like this!" I said. "If you would listen to-"
"Time for talk is over, little sister!" Akio sprinted at me with such speed, I almost wasn't able to dodge him.
I flipped out of the way, but gripped my side as I felt my wound tear. I only have one shot at my plan. It had to work. Akio kept coming at me, but I only kept moving out of the way.
"Oh, what's the matter!?" Akio screamed at me. "You talk big, Ayame! But we all know you're just a COWARD!"
I refused to let his words effect me. I just kept moving until I hit a patch of soft dirt. The perfect spot to execute my trap. I quickly made the hand signs I had memorized from a book about Earth Style imprisonment jutsu. I waited until just before Akio touched the ground to release the chakra I implanted in the dirt.
"Earth Style: Cocoon no Jutsu!" I called out and Akio's body was immediately incased in dirt. The dirt was infused with my chakra, so he couldn't get out and his hands were where they couldn't make signs.
"How did you-"
"When you were attacking me and I stayed on the ground, that was merely so I could infuse my chakra in the dirt around me." I explained. "But the softer kind of dirt is the easiest for me to manipulate and the hardest for my captive to escape from." Akio glared at me.
"Then what are you waiting for!?" He yelled. "Kill me, you beast!"
"Akio. Listen to me." I said."The night our parents died...you weren't there. I was. I saw what our father did to our mother. He killed her for trying to protect me. I had never harmed anyone prior to that, and you know that to be-"
"Stop, STOP!" Akio yelled at me. "I don't want to hear you smear my father's memory with your lies!" I moved my chakra in the cocoon Akio was in so he was at eye level with me.
"Look into my eyes." I said calmly. "And tell me if I'm lying." Akio's hard expression gradually softened until he looked away from me.
A released the jutsu on him and my team, so Akio was out of the cocoon and the others were out of their dome. I turned my back on Akio as I looked ay the horizon.
"You know." Akio said. "You should never turn your back on the enemy!" Akio said and attempted to stab me in the back, only to succeed in stabbing a log. "What!?" I came up behind him and stabbed him in the back instead. But I wasn't using a kunai. Instead, I was using a needle that had mental and physical paralysis toxin. Akio frll to the ground, landing on his back. He was unable to move.
"You could have listened and this wouldn't have happened." I made it sound like he was dying and for all he knew, he just might have been.
"What...did you do to me?" Akio whispered. I knelt next to him as he began to slip out of consciousness.
"You might hate me." I said. "But I've come to a realization. I don't need to kill you. I don't need to exterminate you because you've been brainwashed to believe in the lies that were fed to you. Basically, you don't get to leave me again and I won't leave you. Even if you are a giant ass."
He was out. Gone. No longer lucid. The paralysis would work for, potentially, days. I sighed. I tried to stand up, but I fell to my knees again. My wound was definitely torn. I inhaled deeply as I rose to my feet and stayed there. I looked at my brother. I left him unharmed and I hope that wasn't a mistake.
"Ayame." Kakashi called to me and appeared at my side. "What do you want to do?" I looked ahead at a random point in the sky.
"I want to take him into the Village." I said and continued before my sensei could protest. "He knows things about me that remain mysteries. I am determined to find out what they are. And...and I know what really happened. Akio does not. I need to do this."
"You know you're crazy." Kakashi sighed, but picked up Akio's body and slung him over his shoulder. "But if you have to do this." I smiled.
"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei." I said gratefully. "So, let's head home then."
I looked up the hill and saw Tsuyo on the porch. He looked concerned, but I only smiled and waved at him. He waved back and I looked at my team. Sasuke was the first to walk up to me and give me a gentle hug. He kissed the top of my head and I sighed.
"We should go." Kakashi said.
"Hai." My team agreed. I couldn't use my ninja speed, so Sasuke insisted I hold onto his back as we went home. I couldn't refuse because I would lose the argument. I just gave in and we all headed home. The only home I had. The only one I wanted.