Chapter 25:
She wasn't sure who screamed, just that it was going to make things harder. The Konoha shinobi tensed up and each of them had a hand drift to their nearest weapon pouch while their eyes quickly and efficiently scanned the area. She wasn't sure that she would be able to grab the girl and get out of the village successfully. Even having back-up in the form of one of the Sound's more accomplished shinobi wasn't reassuring in that many shinobi of Konoha knew both his face and many of his jutsu. They may not have known all of the techniques that he used during his experiments, but he wouldn't have as much of an edge in battle as he would have before the war started.
She didn't bother to share a glance at Kabuto as he moved away from her as if he were just an old man startled by the sudden scream. She had already floated away from him earlier as if she were looking more closely at some cloth while he'd moved on to look at something else in the market. She moved towards her goal as she girl flinched further behind the young woman she was already hiding behind. The girl wasn't looking at her, but at her team leader, Kabuto.
She looked absolutely terrified.
If she could feel anything at all, the Oto Youkai would feel regret for what she was going to do.
In almost less than a blink of an eye, she had the girl in her arms and was racing towards the gates as her team leader attacked the ANBU that had come down to see what the disturbance was. It was the perfect distraction, and she didn't think that many had seen her grab the child.
The child who was too frightened to make any more noise than a small sub-vocal squeak as her eyes immediately centered on her captor. Her eyes widened, but not in recognition as she had feared. It would seem that being kept away from her master's other experiments (he'd feared at one point that she'd find some way of instilling her attitude towards breeding in them) had paid off for him after all. (She'd privately thought that she'd never be able to instill such feelings in another as she wasn't entirely certain what feelings she'd inspired in herself to go against one of his most important edicts. If an experiment isn't able to be replicated, than it is a failed experiment.)
She was not so lucky that others didn't notice her with a child tucked under her arm. A familiar young man in a bright green jumpsuit was soon running along with her. He held out his arms.
"I can take my Tomiko-chan now." His voice was stern, but not quite demanding.
It was obvious that he was giving her a chance to hand the child over before he got violent. The child reached out towards him as well and she had to slow just enough to tighten her arms as the child was no longer clinging to her.
She didn't need to recognize the young man's companions to know that they or at least the pale youth in black recognized her. His eyes narrowed and she had to dodge as one of his ink creatures appeared out of nowhere and took a swipe at her head at the same time the man in green lunged for the girl in her arms. She barely managed to avoid getting hit from him and keep her hands on the child who was now trying to escape by clawing and biting her.
She didn't take any notice of it and tightened her arms enough to make the girl gasp for breath for a moment and stop her struggles but not damage her. Unfortunately, this just made her opponents fight all the more to reclaim the child. She tried to continue moving towards the gate or the wall in any direction, but with three of them fighting against her and the child randomly trying to wriggle out of her arms, she was having a hard time doing so. She couldn't risk damaging the child and she'd have to tie the child to her if she knocked her out. The three young men weren't letting her get anywhere far enough away to do all of that.
If they had been anyone else, she might have been able to do it, but between the green jumpsuit wearing one's speed, the artist's ink creatures and the jinchuriki she wasn't able to put any kind of distance between them. It was all a flurry of swipes and dodges that she was able to keep at a stalemate only because of the enhancements she'd been born and trained into. The blonde only seemed to use what she'd heard referred to as 'Academy jutsus' as he was obviously unwilling to risk injury to her cargo. The artist also seemed to pick up on this, but his ink techniques continued to swipe at her as he had also noticed that she did what she could to protect her burden.
That child was important to her master and her mission and she could not disobey in this matter. She would not allow the child to be hurt even if it was the only way to leave this village. She had pushed too many orders to the edge recently and had no leeway in her mind about this.
She was tired as well, even with all her enhancements. The jinchuriki and his companions were strong opponents and she was handicapped with holing the child. She couldn't attack, couldn't even defend really, only dodge and try to reach the walls.
Kabuto was nowhere near enough to give her aid and the other team wasn't nearby either apparently. She was on her own in this.
"Just give us the child and I will let you go." The green-wearing young man said earnestly. "I will not pursue you."
She didn't have to glance at his companions to know that they were not being included in this bargain. If she somehow managed to get away without the child, she wouldn't have to worry about his speed and it was something to worry about.
One of his strikes made contact with her arm and she felt the bones in her arm creak under the force. The child must have felt it too, because she renewed her attempts to free herself. Her opponents noticed as well even though her expression remained blank. It did not help that they were joined by a young woman with long brown hair and pale eyes with veins in sharp relief against her temples. A young woman that was familiar enough that she knew the battle was lost.
-Scene Change—
Kabuto didn't bother trying to go after the child once he saw that his companion had a hold of her. He made it his business to create as much panic and disturbance as possible without drawing attention to himself. He knew that it would likely be a lost cause in that regard anyway, but if he wasn't identified until he was a lot closer to the Wall, then he would have a greater chance at escaping. He was certain that his companion would at least be able to get outside of the Wall with their objective and he could always find her once they left the village and take the girl then.
They would have pursuers, of that he was certain, but he could leave behind the failed experiment and return the child to Orochimaru-sama while his temporary teammate kept the Konoha shinobi from following them.
It was too bad that he hadn't taken into account that the failed experiment would be detained inside the Wall. If he had, he might have gone after her and been able to at least take the child and get out of Konohagakure.
-Scene Change—
The rest of the fight went quickly and soon after the Hyuuga had appeared, she had lost hold of the child and been forced to defend herself from the Gentle Fist Style. Her chakra points were closed off one by one and it hampered her regenerative abilities so that she wasn't healing as quickly as before. Before this war, she had never gone up against a Hyuuga and so had still not learned how to force her regenerative abilities to focus on the closed off chakra points in a way that would help her the most. Her master hadn't considered it either, a mistake on his part that would cost him not only his Oto Youkai, but the mission objective he had sent her after.
She continued to fight even after she was no longer able to heal as quickly. She was repeatedly told to stand down or surrender and that she would receive a merciful trial and execution. She had been ordered to never be captured by her master's old village. He hadn't wanted them to see just how she had been created and find some way to use it against him.
The final blow was dealt from a combined attack. The Hyuuga aimed for her head while the artist's ink creatures held her stuck to the ground and the jinchuriki used his upgraded rasengan attack on her heart. She was dead before her body hit the ground.
Later, during their debriefing, her opponents would remark that she had a beautiful smile cross her face moments before their attacks connected.
Her body was taken to the Torture and Interrogation Department and studied to see how Orochimaru had created her. Her brain was still largely intact and was also studied by the Yamanaka within that department to see if they would be able to recover any of her memories. They recovered several locations of bases that Orochimaru had. At least one of them had been abandoned by the time they got there, but the others were systematically wiped out after being plundered for any information and captives.
-Scene Change—
"There must be something done."
"We already have a guardian for the child; there is no need to move her once again."
"She is far too important to leave her with a shinobi that, while his career is very distinguished, has no abilities with chakra whatsoever."
"Need remind you that she still refuses to be with anyone long term that is not Rock Lee? We cannot risk alienating this child from Konoha. Rock-san's devotion to Konoha is only outstripped by Uzumaki Naruto's devotion and with him rearing the child, with aid from his teammates then it is possible that, for the first time in decades, we will have an Uchiha Clan that is 100 percent devoted to this village."
"What of the other Uchiha?"
"Uchiha Sasuke should be released from the Recovery Ward in the hospital by the end of the week. He has regained enough mental acuity to take charge of his own life, but his chakra pathways will never recover. It is just as well as he would never become a shinobi of Konoha ever again."
"Will he remain in the care of the Hyuuga?"
"He will until we have finished this war with Sound, though he will remain being watched by the ANBU until the day he dies."
Tsunade nodded in agreement with the council and soon left the meeting room and returned to her office. They still had her old teammate to flush out of hiding.
She picked up a piece of paper that had appeared on her desk the moment she sat down. A smirk spread across her face.
Yakushi Kabuto had been captured.
-Scene Change—
Orochimaru ran from outpost to outpost, but wherever he tried to go Konoha seemed to be there first. He gnashed his teeth together as he tried to return to the largest of his bases: Otogakure. His people were no longer as loyal as they had been before and he was angry enough that he was losing control of who took the brunt of his temper. The people on the streets cleared out of his way as fast as possible, but there were those that still littered the ground once he had passed.
He knew that it was only a matter of time before this last installation of his was taken by his enemies and he'd have nowhere else to turn to.
He had no allies and no friends and certainly no most loyal subjects. His greatest experiment, his hidden shinobi village, was falling apart around him and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
-Scene Change—
The Third Great Shinobi War ended with the capitulation of the people of Otogakure. They were far more afraid of their leader than any enemies he had made. Their leader was found within the bowels of his last fortress attempting to escape through the tunnels he'd prepared there for such an eventuality. He was unaware that soon after the capture of his second in command that one of the higher ranking shinobi in his village had agreed to meet with his enemy and help them to end the war. He was cut off and stuck in the tunnel that was reinforced against using earth elemental jutsus to escape.
He was taken deep into Konohagakure's Torture and Interrogation Department and never heard from again. His old teammates had made sure of that with sealing techniques to keep him in his cell. Tsunade oversaw some parts of his interrogation and his execution was done quietly with only those who needed to be there.
Danzo and Jiraiya were not invited, but that was mostly because they had been placed in charge of overseeing to Konoha's newest satellite installation: the last base of Orochimaru, Otogakure. They had several other shinobi with them, but had been placed jointly in charge of the former hidden village. Tsunade had sent Maito Gai along with them to make sure that both of them stayed where they were supposed to be and to keep them on their toes.
No one really expected Gai to be crafty enough to do this job well, but he did so admirably.
Uchiha Sasuke was released to his former teammates care once the war was officially over and he moved in with them. He was never the same as he had been before and sometimes would get lost within the small house that the four of them resided in. Sai was the best at dealing with the former Uchiha heir as he was better able to control his emotions when Sasuke would have some of his 'episodes' and act much more like a small child of five than the person that his teammates knew. He continued to see Hyuuga Hanabi for check-ups on his chakra system every week.
Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura held joint custody of their former teammate and made sure that he always had someone nearby. They noticed that he enjoyed time spent reading and made sure that they had a small library's worth of books and scrolls available that didn't include any jutsu. Neither of them wanted a closer relationship than simple friendship with one another, but neither really spent time looking for someone to settle down with.
Sai lived with them as well and continued his art work on the side. He even got the others to work more on their penmanship for their kanji so Naruto's reports were never returned with a note from the Hokage demanding that he explain things in person because she couldn't read his chicken scratch and didn't Jiraiya ever teach him how to write legibly? He remained impressed with the devotion his new teammates showed for the damaged Uchiha Saskue.
Rock Lee was able to formally adopt the little Tomiko and he made sure that she knew he would always love her even if she could use chakra and he couldn't. She was very sensitive about that issue up until she started at the Academy. He continued to try and woo the Lovely Sakura-chan until she agreed to a date. His teammates eventually moved out of their shared quarters soon after Tomiko started at the Academy. Lee made sure that Tomiko knew she didn't have to become a shinobi, but that he wanted her to be able to fight off any attackers and use the basic jutsus taught at the Academy so that she would have more to work with other than the taijutsu that he taught her.
Tomiko was formally granted the title of Uchiha Heir when her sharingan was activated after the attempted kidnapping, but she wasn't removed from her home and received any training on the use of her bloodline from Hatake Kakashi. She would not be eligible to take the Head of Clanship until she was at least sixteen years of age. She did not have many meetings with the only other Uchiha in the village unless Lee had taken her to visit when he was also visiting. She would not learn the bloody history of her clan until she was at least twelve years of age.
Uchiha Tomiko would eventually become the first Uchiha to become Hokage when she turned twenty-five, but that is another story.
This was the story of a young woman who wanted freedom more than anything else in the world. She finally achieved that freedom though it was only through death.
The end
Author's Note: I apologize for how fast this seems to be for the end. I needed to end the story for a time limit I'd given myself for this month. I will be rewriting this story, but I needed to finish the first draft before doing that. It will be at least 6 months before I start working on the rewrite for this story, but I hope that it will be better for the time to cool off on it. I will also go over the reviews left by all you lovely readers and correct any mistakes I have made on the way. Thank you for reading.