Chapter Twenty-Five
Itachi watched in horror as Inika started to fall again. She started to spin as if she was trying to make herself into a tornado. Itachi wondered if she was really going to die.
Inika concentrated hard on getting the spin to start. She opened her eyes to see the ground rushing up to meet her. Uttering a word, Inika thought briefly if this was how she was going to die. For the first time in awhile Inika was scared, she closed her eyes tightly and waited for the painful death to come.
After a few moments and not hitting the ground. Inika opened one eye and then the other. Neji and Hinata were creating air currents strong enough to slow her descent. Inika took this opportunity to call forth her original idea. The earth grew two mighty hands that rose up to capture Inika. They scooped up Inika and covered her. Inika laid her head on the cool rock and breathed in the scent of wet earth. She was exhausted and had one of the biggest scares of her life. The other one was on its way.
"That ungrateful ninja, I taught her everything she knows. Come home from my nice little vacation home and what do I hear. I hear that the Princess and the Assassin have left Snow! The Princess was bound to leave at some point couldn't hold that little thing down, but the Assassin. I trained her to be a machine, a powerful, unstoppable machine! They let her just walk off into the world. Ugh, the Elders are a bunch of Baboons with brain's the size of rats!" said an old voice coming from an old woman. She had all her white hair tied up into a bun on the top of her head and she was short, no taller than 4'11". She sat on the back of a big brown animal with red eyes. The old woman said, "Come on Fluffy, Konoha has yet to meet the great Lania." The sound of evil laughter rang through the trees.
Inika took a couple deep breaths to calm herself and she could hear Itachi yelling words that mothers never wanted their children to hear. She grinned inwardly but she did not try to move from the earth. Voices echoed in the cave around her. Inika said loudly, "I'm fine. I just want to lay here a bit." Now she heard pounding on the walls of her cave, dirt fell on top of her like dust. Inika closed her eyes but opened them once the pounding became frantic almost as if someone was scared. She sat up on her knees and said quietly, "Down." The hands opened up and sunk themselves back down into the earth. Inika looked up at Hinata and continued, "What's wrong?" Hinata pointed behind Inika so she turned and looked her old sensei in the eyes. Inika barely breathed Lania when the old woman said, "You are coming back home this instant." Inika looked at her for a moment then stood up replying, "I am home Lania." Lania looked up at her and said, "You have dropped most of your training upon returning here. Go back to Snow where you belong among the elite forces." Inika looked at the old woman almost sorrowfully and replied, "I can not do that Lania. It was not my purpose in life to be a killing machine." Hinata stood behind Inika with confusion on her face. Lania looked at Hinata once and said, "Does this village know the full extent of your power? Do they know how many people you have killed? Do they know the extent you have taken to follow a command? Do they know that you even left your own comrade to die?!"
Inika looked behind her at Hinata and said, "Please leave Hinata." Lania continued louder, "They don't know do they! You killed mercilessly; you handled your missions without humanity." Hinata stood there stunned. Inika walked up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. Hinata uttered quickly yanking her arm away, "Don't touch me." Inika pulled her hand back sadly and turned back to face Lania. She looked at her without fear or anger and said, "You are the person who taught me everything. If I didn't listen, you would find some way to punish me. I had to leave Yuri there because you told me too and he was dying. What you didn't say was that I stayed with him until he died even though I myself was at risked of being killed. Lania, why must you twist everything to fit your own dark twistedness?" Lania looked at her and replied, "You wouldn't break no matter how hard I tried. You had kept something deep with in your heart." Itachi by this time had made it outside and said, "Inika are you alright?!" Inika looked at him and smiled. Inika replied, "I'm fine Itachi." Lania looked at Itachi and said, "Is he the one? The reason why you would not go for Yuri?" Inika turned sharply at Lania as she continued, "Is he the thing that you kept close to your heart? Is he your humanity?!" Lania pulled out a kunai and tossed it at Itachi. In his wounded state, he was unable to dodge. Inika lounged in front of the kunai as it pierced her in her left arm. She fell in front of Itachi. Inika looked up at Lania before grabbing the kunai and pulling it out. She began to stand up and Lania said, "Show them how much of a machine you are." Inika got up to her knees and slowly stood back up on her feet and replied, "I will never let you hurt anyone in this village Lania. If I can not stop your attack with your own I will use my body as a shield." Lania looked at her and shook her head saying, "No you won't Inika. You are a machine, you kill people you do not protect them." Lania threw another kunai but this one was aimed for a small child and Inika threw herself in front of the child bringing up her own kunai to block Lania's. Inika stood back up and looked at Lania. Lania said, "This could all stop if you go back to Snow quietly." Inika replied, "I will not go back Lania. I don't belong there. I have found where my heart rests and it rests here in Konoha." Lania said, "They do not respect your power, they do not treat you with the respect you deserve!" Inika replied looking into Lania's eyes, "They respect me more than they do at Snow and with out the fear. The people here know my name and some even come by looking for me. These people want to befriend me, not use me as a shield to hide behind. Snow did not respect me they feared me." Itachi looked at Inika for once understanding the pain that she went through while she lived at Snow.
Lania's face that was hardened by the brutal wind and snowstorms of Snow was unmoving. Inika's face had a sense of serenity and passion shone in her eyes. Tsunade came up and said, "Why did you come here anyways?" Lania turned to her and replied, "To return something that was lost to Snow, but maybe it never did belong to Snow in the first place." Inika looked at the old sensei and said, "I could never be what you tried to form me into." Lania looked at her and replied, "No, I see that now. Your heart was too pure to be shrouded in the darkness I tried to instill there. Even after I had, you touch the sense of bloodlust you never lost yourself to it. I tried so hard to make you heartless. I broke everything that meant something to you. I even made you resent me but you never could make yourself hate me. Why could I not make you fall?!" Inika said, "I remembered what life was here in Konoha and I held onto that love that my father gave me unconditionally. I thought of the happy times of when I was a child and I realized what was important in life. You were never happy because you lost the man you loved to someone else so you spent your days taking it out on your students. You thought that love was an unneeded emotion and worked to take it out of all your students. Lania, you could never break me not because my heart was pure but because I had already experienced being loved for who and what I was and loving someone else in the fullest. I had already been complete." Tsunade looked at Inika with a new sense of understanding and respect as she continued, "Lania I have already told you my decision. I'm going to stay here where my heart rests. These forests have watched over me and this ground has nurtured my spirit. This is where I will always belong and always return too." Lania nodded and replied, "There is nothing I can do to take you back to Snow. The Elders were stupid to let you leave Inika. I hope you can end up being happy unlike me."
Lania called Fluffy to her and Inika walked up to the old woman. Lania looked up at her and said, "Now what do you want?!" Inika bent down, embraced the old woman in a hug, and replied, "Stop being so vulgar and maybe you could be happy." Lania said, "Get off me you weirdo. I have never had a student embrace me and I never plan to again. Off with you now it's a long journey to Snow." Inika stood up and replied, "Bye Sensei." The old woman grunted and walked away on her massive beast. Inika watched her fade away into the distance and Itachi came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. She leaned her head back against him and felt at peace with the world.