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Dark Waters
Chapter 21 - Konoha
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- Day 1 aboard the Red Jackal -
"I never knew you're afraid of ships," Kisame mused at her side.
Kurai, who had grabbed the ship's rail in a death grip as soon as she entered the deck, glared at him, careful not to look down.
There was nothing to look at anyway. Only water.
Only death, Elyse somberly whispered in her mind before falling silent. For once, both girls were in complete agreement. It was the third time Kurai entered a ship, but she suspected that she would never get used to it. She wanted out of this floating death trap just waiting to happen.
"It's not the ship that I'm afraid of." Is what waits us below when it sinks.
If. If it sunk. She had to remember that if, otherwise she would start screaming her head off.
"Did you know about that?" Kisame asked Akihiro, raising an eyebrow. The latter simply smiled and choose not to comment.
"Here, you might need this," Ao, who had appeared behind his students, handed her an empty bucket.
"Thanks," Kurai was ready to let go of the rail and clutch at the bucket instead, only to stop as a heavy hand fell on her shoulder.
"And what do we have here? Mizukage-sama's little daughter, ain't ya, lass?"
Turning to look behind her shoulder, she saw a bald and stout man on his sixties, with sparkling blue eyes and a white beard reaching mid-chest that completely covered the lower half of his face. He wore a fraying red shirt with black pants, covered by a long patched blue coat that smelled of fish and sake.
"Ah, Captain Hige," Ao said, sounding less than pleased. "A pleasure to see you again. But if you will excuse us, I'm afraid Kurai-sama isn't accustomed to spending time inside ships, so it would be better for her to go to the girl's quarters," wait, wait. What was with the 'Kurai-sama'? Since when had Ao ever called her that?
Captain Hige smiled. Or at least Kurai thought he did. It was difficult to tell with the beard.
"Oh, is the little lass' first time in a ship? Well, ye couldn't have chosen a better one to sail across the waters of Mizu no Kuni! My baby here, The Red Jackal, has never disappointed, I tell ya! I'm sure the little lass will enjoy the voyage."
He slapped her on the back, and Kurai had a split second to think If he doesn't remove that hand from my back, I'm going to relieve him from it, before a barking, reddish blur ran straight at her and began licking her face.
Behind her, the captain laughed loudly. "Ah, I see Jakkaru liked you!"
The puppy, Jakkaru, yipped and his large brown eyes looked up at her, begging to be petted. Kurai resisted bravely for 3.5 seconds before giving in. Dropping to her knees, she gatheres the squirming puppy in her arms, petting and fondling his pointy ears, cooing "Aren't you the cutest thing in this ship? You are, aren't you? Oh, yes, yes, the cutest puppy ever!"
On the side lines, Kisame and Akihiro's mouths dropped open in unison. Ao only sighed.
"Women," he said to the stupefied boys, was if that one word explained everything.
Jakkaru, seeming to have reached his day's cota of allowing humans to marvel at his cuteness, gave Kurai's cheek a last lick before scurrying away between the crew's feet.
With no puppy to distract her anymore, Kurai remembered that she was still on a ship. A ship that was already sailing away from the safety of Kiri's docks, heading to the open sea.
She was going to spend days surrounded by water on all sides.
Oh, shit.
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While Kisame explored the deck, firing question after question to an amused Captain Hige, Kurai followed Ao's directions and ended up in the small room that was supposed to house her and Mei's team for the duration of the journey. Takara and her team, as well and their sensei, had to be placed in another ship for lack of enough rooms in the Red Jackal.
Inside, Mei and her female teammate were already choosing their beds. Gladly, Kurai took the one closest to the door, uncaring to the dangers it could cause if someone ever broke in trying to kill them. She wanted to stay as far away from the circular window to the sea as possible.
"My name's Hada Reiko," Mei's new teammate and according to Kisame, Akihiro's love interest, offered her hand. Straight chestnut hair hung awkwardly over the round and cheerful face, and her watery blue eyes darted from Kurai to Mei to the window and back again. She exuded barely restrained energy and Kurai tried to image how her calm, collected teammate could be smitten with such a vibrant girl.
"Izumi Kurai,"
They shook hands and Reiko immediately launches on a tale about her second cousin's marriage that has her and Mei holding on each other to avoid falling to the ground in a fit of giggles.
It almost made Kurai forget she was in a ship. Almost.
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- Day 3 aboard the Red Jackal -
Captain Hige is a kind-hearted, funny man, who liked to spend time with his crew, sharing stories and sake, always inviting any passerby to sit down and have fun with him and his men.
Kurai quickly discovers that he is also utterly and completely irresponsible.
"What do you mean there is no one piloting this ship?" she asks, face pale.
Captain Hige squinted his eyes at her, absentmindedly scratching a spot behind Jakkaru's ear. The puppy barked, his fluffy tail swinging.
"I left my first mate on the wheel."
"Your first mate, Matsuda-san?"
From the captain's other side, a brown haired man looked up from his sake cup. "Yes?"
Startled, Hige turned to look at his first mate. "You! What are you doin' here? You were supposed to be on the wheel!"
"I was? I thought you had told that boy, Wazashi-kun, to be on the wheel."
"Akihiro is piloting this ship?" did her teammate even know how to control a ship?
Matsuda looked at her. "Yeah. Me and cap' gave him a lesson or two."
A lesson or two.
We are so going to die, Elyse whimpered pitifully.
No, Kurai tried to comfort herself. This is Akihiro. Calm, collected, reliable Akihiro. Surely he could be counted on not letting the Red Jackal sink for half a hour.
As it turned out, he could not.
She stared at the two kissing teenagers with something akin to horror on her face. Since Akihiro was busy practically devouring Hada Reiko's mouth, that meant that the boat's steering wheel wasn't being manned. There was no one controlling this ship.
"CAPTAIN HIGE!"
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"You've got a hell of a pair of lungs, lassie."
"Thank you."
"That wasn't a compliment, Sukoshi"
"I know."
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- Day 5 aboard the Red Jackal -
The Red Jackal was a big ship. Unfortunately, not big enough to avoid every person in it, and no matter how much she wished otherwise, Kurai couldn't spend the whole trip holed up inside the girls' room.
And that's how she found herself crouching down behind a barrel as her Father walked by.
I'm truly pathetic, she thought miserably, watching Yagura disappear down the staircase that led to the ship's deeper levels.
"What are you doing Sukoshi?"
Looking up, Kurai came face to face with Kisame, who was grinning down at her, dark eyes shining with mirth as he took in her crouched figure. Quickly standing up and brushing away any dust, she cooly ignored his offered hand, choosing instead to glare at him.
"Mind your own business Kisame," she snapped, instantly regretting it as she saw the hurt look on his face before he crossed his arms and turned his head away.
"Hey, I'm sorry, okay?" Kurai hesitantly touched his arm. "It's just..." she waved with her free hand in the general direction her Father had taken. Kisame nodded, uncrossing his arms.
"I would be avoiding the bastard too if he was my dad."
Kurai stopped herself from disagreeing. She was not avoiding her Father. Even though she was. Maybe. Just a little.
Kurai's head and shoulders dropped. She was avoiding her Father, something she had never done before, not voluntarily at least. She didn't like it. It felt like she was betraying Yagura.
Kurai wanted her Father, goddamnit, no matter how childish it made her sound.
But did he want her?
"Hey, Sukoshi," Kisame called to her gently. "Don't worry about Yagura-teme alright? He will come around after he gets that stick out of his ass."
Kurai coughed, torn between feeling outraged (it was her Father he was talking about!), mortified (it was her Father) or scared someone else had heard (he's just disrespected their Mizukage!).
Kisame smiled at her. "Come on Sukoshi. I wanna show you something."
He guided her to the mast of the ship and made her look up. First Kurai thought he wanted her to see the masthead, but then realised it was the crow's nest he was pointing at. Confused, she turned a raised eyebrow to him, asking without words.
He gave her his shark smile. It dawned on her then.
"You've got to be joking. No," Kurai said, already backing away, hands raised as if to stop the boy. "Kisame, no."
"Now, now Sukoshi, where's your adventurous spirit? Or your sense of curiosity, for that matter."
"Curiosity killed the cat," Kurai pointed out.
Kisame's grin only widened. "And satisfaction brought it back."
"I don't know Kisame. Are we even allowed up there?" she asked, furrowing her brow as she looked up at the crow's nest.
The teen waved her concerns away. "I've already spoke with Hige-san. He gave his all-clear."
"But..." Kurai faltered for a moment, trying to come up with an acceptable excuse, not even understanding why she didn't want to be alone in a secluded place with Kisame, only that the mere thought of it made her face feel uncomfortably warm.
"Kurai, do you trust me?"
She let out a shocked breath through her mouth, staring at the blue hand that was being offered to her for the second time this evening. Closing her eyes, she allowed a tiny half-smile to appear on her face.
"The things that come out of your mouth, Kisame," she chided him softly, almost tender. "Sometimes I wonder if you think at all before speaking."
Honestly, who in their right mind would ask that sort of question to a person born and raised in the Bloody Mist? One had to be crazy.
Fortunately for Kisame, Kurai had come to the conclusion that she was insane a long time ago.
Slowly, she reached out to take his hand.
"Kurai! Kisame! Dinner's ready!"
Both of them jumped at the sound of Mangetsu's voice, Kurai looking away with a red face.
"A-alright! We're coming, Mangetsu!" to Kisame, she said "Am=nother day then, Kisame."
She didn't wait around for his answer, though she distinctly heard a growl that sounded suspiciously like, "I'm gonna kill that boy..."
She walked faster.
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- Day 6 aboard the Red Jackal -
She was going to do it. Right now, before they arrived in Fire Country tomorrow, she was going to stop avoiding her Father and apologize.
Apologize? For what, exactly? and because Elyse sounded truly perplexed, Kurai was benign enough to enlighten her.
I spent weeks avoiding him instead of facing the problem head on. That's not how Father raised me. My feelings regarding his new station in life and it's negative effects on our relationship are insignificant in the grand scheme of things. I'm dishonoring him by acting this way.
There's silence in her head for a few seconds before Elyse's wary and slightly horrified voice drifted back to her.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, he really totally brainwashed you, didn't he? I'm almost glad that it was you in control at the time and not me. Is that a Japanese thing or just a Kurai thing?
I have no idea what you're talking about.
Yeah, whatever. I still say that he's the one who should be on their knees begging for forgiveness.
Kurai stopped mid-stride, one foot still raised out of the floor, blinking as she imagined her Father on his knees in front of someone, begging for fogiveness.
That thought was so fundamentally wrong, that Kurai was almost physically sick.
Shaking her head at Elyse's disgraceful words, a bewildered Kurai knocked on the Mizukage's door.
"Come in," came her Father's melodic voice. Gulping, Kurai entered.
The cabin was bigger than the one she shared with the girls, possibly bigger than even the Captain's own lodgings, but then that was no surprise. Her Father was the Mizukage, he deserved the best from everyone. The only thing Kurai could not understand was why no one else saw that before. He deserved better before ever becoming the Yondaime.
"Father," she greeted, bowing low. "I've come to apologize and beg your pardon."
Yagura, who had been sitting at the desk, froze. Delicately, he put down his brush, turning to look at her.
"Apologize?" he repeated, face blank.
Determined, Kurai nodded. "I've been avoiding you since leaving the hospital. It wasn't your fault that you were needed to clean up the messes of your predecessor, but a part of me... granted, it was a small part, but nevertheless... resented you for not sparing time to check on me."
She looked down in shame, now fully realizing just how selfish and childish she had been acting for the past weeks. Unable to meet her Father's probing gaze, she continued.
"I've since learned my error, and now humbly ask for your forgiveness."
The silence was suffocating. You could have heard a pin drop.
Please say something. Please. I'm sorry. Forgive me? Please...
With her head bowed, Kurai didn't see when her Father stood up, though she could feel he moving around the cabin. When his hand came into view, catching her chin and lifting her face to meet his eyes, Kurai almost sobbed at the soft look he was giving her. She could count on one hand the number of times she had seen that look on his face, and still have plenty of fingers to spare.
"There's nothing to forgive, daughter. If someone should be sorry in here it is me. I should have at least sent a letter, or someone in my stead to check on you."
Well, Elyse drawled inside her mind. At least he admits when he's wrong. Most of the time.
Kurai gasped and couldn't control herself anymore. She jumped on her Father, throwing her arms around his middle and burrowing her face on his green shirt, nose catching the faint smells that her mind associated with Yagura.
Kurai couldn't remember the last time she hugged her Father. She had been a child then (still was a child now, just older beyond her years), not even a genin yet. She hoped that he wouldn't push her away too soon. She needed this, needed to disperse that desperate feeling she had been carrying inside her heart for more than a month. Her Father could have died fighting against Hiyasu. She almost did. If she had died then who would be her Father's weapon? Who would give their life to protect his?
Hesitantly, a hand rested lightly on top of her curls, and Kurai's grip on her Yagura's shirt tightened instinctively. He hushed her softly, slowly guiding her towards the room's bed, humming a familiar tune under his breath that made Kurai remember tiring nights being carried to bed in her Father's arms.
When he had made her lay against the soft pillows, he sat on a nearby chair, studying her for a few minutes.
"Do you want to know why I nominated your team to participate in Konoha's Chunin Exam?"
Kurai honestly never even thought to ask him about it, but she nodded anyway, just so that she could keep listening to his soothing voice.
"There are three reasons. The first was that it would seems strange for the Mizukage be attending the Exams when his own daughter would not, especially considered that Team Thirteen has the higher number of completed missions of their entire graduation class. The second was that I thought you deserved a chance to see your mother's home village. Had things gone differently, you could have been a Konoha-nin," Kurai wrinkled her nose at that thought. Living a life without her Father? Preposterous. Unthinkable.
"And the third reason?" she asked when Yagura stopped.
"The third reason... well," he gave her one of his half-smiles, the ones she treasured so much. "I was hoping that something like this would happen, and you and I could spend some quality time together."
Kurai blinked. Then, before she could stop herself, she blurted out, "Seriously?"
Yagura's smile widened by a fraction of an inch. "Seriously," he repeated, amused.
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She was almost sad when the ship reached land and they had to leave.
Walking side by side with Kisame as they passed through the gates of Konohagakure no Sato, she said to him with a smile, "Things are finally looking up, Kisame."
The young swordsman looked down at her bemusedly. "And what makes you say that, Sukoshi?"
The pink-eyed girl turned to look at her Father, who was surrounded by the Kiri jounins and talking with an older man who could only be the Sandaime Hokage.
"Ah," Kisame said flatly. "I see you and your dad made up, uh?"
"You could say that," she said cheerfully, practically skipping ahead to join Mei, Takara and Reiko, leaving Kisame behind with the boys.
The moment Mei saw Konoha in all it's glory, she turned up her nose.
"This place is disgustingly bright. Ouch!" her hands flew to protect her head when Takara twacked her.
"Be polite!" the older girl hissed. "We are guests here, or have you forgotten?!"
"Alright, alright, damn. Can't say anything anymore..." Mei sulked.
And Kurai laughed, startling all of her friends, who turned to look at her, and he didn't care because she just felt so damn happy right now.
She should have known that it was too good to be true.
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Their hotel's name was The Turned Leaf, the best in all of Konoha. Each team was given a spacious room on the nineteenth floor while the jounins and the Mizukage took the twentieth and last floor. The Chunin Exams wouldn't begin for another three days, giving the genins of Kiri plenty of time to prepare themselves and explore this strange new land they found themselves in.
This was especially true for Kurai, who wanted to know all about this village that could have been her home in a what-if world. So, while her Father was busy having a meeting with the jounins and Mangetsu challenged a bored Kisame to a sword fight (that poor child. He was going to have his ass kicked. She almost felt sorry for him), and everyone gathered around them to watch said ass-kicking, Kurai slipped past them and walked alone for the first time in the streets of Konoha.
The first thing she noticed was the atmosphere. It was light, sunny. Happy. So different from the usual heavy silence that hung in the air around Kirigakure, always so cold, dark and oppressive. The second thing was the people. They all looked so... safe. Kiri natives never looked this comfortable, this carefree, while walking their village's streets. There was always a line of tension on their movements and furtive glances thrown behind their shoulders to check if they were being followed. The third difference was the colors. Everything in Kiri was grey or blue, and all the shades in-between. Konoha appeared to have been painted by an errant rainbow. There was orange, red, yellow, blue, brown, green... And it was all so crowded! The only time one could find so many people in one place back in Kiri was either during a festival or when it was Feed the Poor Day.
Seeking to avoid the masses, Kurai ducked into the most empty street she could find, before resuming her aimless walk. She was admiring some Sakura tress (there were so few of them in Kiri, and almost all looked sick) when she realises she was close to a park.
It's a relatively big area, with flowering green grass and an area where someone had put up toys for the children. There were slides and swings, as well as a sand box. Kurai could see a few children mingling about, already tired from spending the day running around playing with each other. That was another difference. In Kiri, few people used the parks, thus leading them to be left to nature's whims. Kurai could see that this park was used regularly, if not daily, and was well cared for.
She stopped for a moment, seeing a blue-eyed man pick up a dark haired little girl and sit her on his shoulders. The girl laughed, a happy sound that seemed to surprise even herself, before wrapping her thin arms over the blond man, who proceeded to laugh and let the girl guide his steps. For a moment, Kurai replaced the blond man with a gray haired one and imagined that the little girl had pink eyes.
Then she shook her head out of the daydream. Mei was right, this village is disgustingly bright. It was doing things to her head.
She would have kept walking if someone hadn't bumped into her.
"Oof!"
Kurai looked down at the child that had ran into her. The kid was young, in that age when they all looked a little androgynous, so she wasn't sure if they were a boy or a girl. The child certainly looked feminine enough to pass as a member of the fairer sex, with their soft and delicate features, silky-looking black locks of hair framing a pale face and large, doe-like coal eyes that peered up at her curiously.
Something nagged at the back of her mind when she looked at the child. The kid seemed so... familiar, somehow.
Oh well, not her business.
Swiftly sidestepping the child -it was probably a boy, judging by the clothes-, Kurai continued on her way, wanting to see a bit more of Konoha before retreating back to the Turned Leaf.
Or she would have, had the boy from before not grabbed the hem of her grayish blue mesh t-shirt. Annoyed, Kurai glared at the child, wanting to rip his hand off of her clothes but unwilling to do it; who knows, the little brat might be from some clan (Konoha seemed to be overflowing with them) and go whining to their daddy bout 'that mean mist kunoichi', botching up any sort of peace between Kiri and Konoha.
It was better for all parts involved that she avoided touching the kid at all, even if he was a little brat who had no sense of personal space.
"What do you want kid?" she asked instead, hand twitching with the urge to shove him away.
The boy looked up at her with a mixed expression on his face. He opened his mouth hesitantly. What came out of it almost made her knees give out.
"... Kaa-san?"
"... What?" she croaked. What the hell?! Mother?! Kurai began inching away from the child that was still clutching her shirt in a tight grip. "Look kid, I don't know where your mother is, but I certainly am not her."
The boy frowned at her. He still refused to let go.
"But you look like her," he insisted stubbornly.
"I look like a lot of people. Everyone always says that to me," no one ever said that to her. If anything, they said how unique she looked. There weren't many people in the world with pink pupilless eyes.
"No, you look like mommy!" that must have been a good thing (for the boy anyway), because then he not only clutched the hem of her shirt but hugged her whole leg, looking up at her with wonderment.
Kurai's hair on the back of her neck stood up when she felt the sudden wheight of several pair of eyes glaring at her. She looked around, noticing that they had attracted the attention of most of the adults that lingered around the park. All of them were glaring at her Kiri headband with a particulary alarming intensity.
Gulping, Kurai crouched down until she was eye-level with the kid, placing her hands on his shoulders to keep some distance between them.
"Listen. I don't know your mother, but you should go find her, okay? Don't go around clinging to strangers, alright kid?"
The five years old boy pouted at her, a sullen expression on his face.
"Kaa-chan was supposed to meet me here but she didn't and Tou-chan is busy at work and I don't wanne be alone-"
"Kid," Kurai interrupted him, her eyes worriedly flickering to the by standers. Was that old woman going to the police station?!
Hastily, she let go of the boy, turning and walking away, hoping against hope that he wouldn't follow her.
It wasn't meant to be, apparently.
She managed to ignore her small shadow for five minutes before her patience vanished.
"Stop following me around, brat!" she snapped over her shoulder, hurrying her pace.
The boy scowled at her, almost running to keep up with her longer strides.
"I have a name you know! It's Shisui!"
Kurai stopped dead. The child -Shisui- almost crashed into her legs. Her Father's voice came back to her mind.
"The name she gave me was Yukimura. Yukimura Shisui."
No, Kurai thought to herself. It's a coincidence. Just a coincidence.
"Ne, nee-san? Why did you stop?"
Shisui's voice snapped her out of her thoughts and Kurai turned to look at him.
"Don't call me sister when you don't even know my name, brat," her voice sounded strange to her own ears.
Shisui glared at her with all the intensity a five year old boy could muster.
"Then tell me your name!"
She sighed, sounding more tired than she felt and growing restless with the boy. "If I tell you my name, will you go away?"
Shisui nodded enthusiastically, brushing his locks of hair away from his black eyes.
"Kurai. My name is Izumi Kurai."
The dark-eyed child grinned at her, sticking out his small hand to shake hers.
"It's good to meet you, Kurai-neesan!"
A sharp jolt of something went through her heart as she, with great reluctance, grasped Shisui's hand in hers.
"Likewise... Shisui."
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AN: I've just realised that a lot of you people really don't like Elyse. I am rather fond of her myself actually. I mean, she's a fighter through and through, refusing to stay down no matter how many times she's knocked out. You've got to admire that tenacity if nothing else. I have big plans for Elyse and Kurai's relationship and how they will shape and change each another, so no, I'm afraid that she's here to stay. I will try to make her a more likeable character for my readers though.
In the next chapter of Dark Waters:
"My name is Uchiha Obito, and don't you forget it!"
"The first part of the Chunin Exams begins now!"
Thank you all who reviewed, followed and favorited! You're all awesome.