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Second Chances
BattleStations
A Wish for Sickness
I left Kirigakure to face an impossible task that would free me from the cold hell hole where people are all bipolar and angry and have glaring problems. I couldn't stop thinking back to my talk with the Mizukage; was I high when we were talking? I'd felt high. Or is my apartment just so small that it makes the Mizukage confused as to how he usually acts? He didn't glare even once! And then he goes and offers me a loop hole. A very cruel false hope filled loop hole, but a loop hole none the less. Perhaps he was the one that was high.
I had seven days to get to Kusagakure….I could have really use Sasu-kun right about then. Had a little kid like Sasuke stolen my brother away to this world too? Had that been why father said I could never see him? My thoughts were very jumbled; I couldn't focus on one thing.
I kicked a rock and a far off splush sound echoed in the fog; puddles and lakes were everywhere in this country. Since when had world jumping and crazy ninjas become a common thought in my head? Was I really in a comma somewhere?
I kicked another rock harder and a loud thwack shuddered in the air. I hit a tree. This whole thing would have to have been the meanest, cruelest, most bastardly dream in the existence of human kind. My lungs burned with the intense cold as more and more snowflakes fluttered around me. The dry snow kicked up in billowing curls as I walked. Coupled with the fog, I could barely see my nose.
With an ache, I was reminded of my test with the Hokage. Walking blind through an unknown space, anything could have jumped out trying to sock me in the eye. My eyebrows furrowed as I thought back on the test the Hokage had issued. Why had all of that felt so suspicious back then? I barely breathed and the Hokage seemed to fully trust me almost instantly. Whenever I was around him, I always felt there was something he wanted to say, like it was on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't coax it out into the air.
Had everyone been keeping a secret? Even Kakashi?
My throat throbbed harder with the thought. Kakashi was the main reason I wanted to go back to Konoha so much, along with my boys. Oh I missed them so much…
I sniffled, drying my cheeks with the end of my scarf that was tightly wrapped around my mouth. I'd gone on long enough without asking any questions. My life before had sucked so much, I was afraid to ask questions because I thought I would ruin it for me somehow. I thought I would get sent back if I pried too much.
I tightened my thick coat again and walked on with a strong step.
If I wanted answers, I would have to ask questions.
--
There was a small boat I had to man myself to get to the mainland. Maps had been pretty much useless as a natural fog (woo natural fog) made its home between all of the islands I had to hop. Every other time I crossed the expanse of water between the Land of Water and the Land of Fire, I had a guide with me because some people just had the natural talent to navigate blindly. I was clearly not one of them.
I wasted three of my days lost in grey nothingness. And every time I brushed upon land, I was racked with the false hope that I'd finally shored the Land of Fire. But because it was me, I'd only shored one of the million islands between the Land of Fire and the Land of Water. Stupid islands.
I'd gotten lucky though (if a big man in a greasy shirt finds me after days of hopelessness is lucky), a man took pity on me and agreed to boat me into the mainland in exchange for the crappy boat I had. I was almost too happy to hand him over the paddles. I never wanted to step into a boat again.
"What does the land have for you?" he asked after completing a strong stroke that propelled us off another island; the damn things were everywhere. I stayed silent. I was giving him my boat, I never agreed to exchange in polite chit chat with him too. He didn't take it to heart, but he kept talking. "You're not a ninja," He gestured to my head while somehow avoiding a thousand jetting rocks in the water. "But'cha look like a fighter." He said pulling one paddle harder then the other and swinging our small boat away from a larger rock that popped up through the fog.
I had four more days and I wasn't even in the Land of Fire yet. If I was going to pull this off, and somehow get to Kusagakure in time, I was going to be so beat tired that I'll just die on the ground before the first ninja even notices me running after them. But I wanted my damn answers, and to get those I would have to return to Konohagakure. And I'll jump another dozen stupid boats before I miss my chance. Like hell I was waiting three more years.
I peered over the edge of the boat, hiding my eyes from the man. I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach despite my eagerness to get this over with. I didn't want to know what would happen to Kaimon if I didn't manage to complete my mission. Reaching the Kusa-nin on time or not, I had a feeling Kaimon was going to be pulled into something he really didn't want to get involved with. I silently moaned. What if Kaimon was in on the secret too? What if he was a part of whatever the Hokage had been keeping from me?
A pang of frustration rose in my chest (or was it sea sickness?). How could the Hokage know something about me that I didn't even know? Hadn't showing up in this world been an accident, a coincidence, not planned, unexpected? Why doesn't it feel that way anymore?
What if dumping me here hadn't been accidental? Did I really have some kind of tie to this world no one ever thought I would like to know about? Had Kaimon always been here? Was I the one that left and was now brought back? I shuddered; the thought made me physically sick. Why would someone hide something so huge from me? Even though I had nothing to prove it, something felt right about my suspicions.
I really wished my father was there right then. Even if my dad was in on it, I would have felt galaxies better with him there. I had never felt so lost. There was this enormous unknown right in the middle of my own life. I always thought I knew the majority of what went on in my own life.
For the first time, the comma theory was sounding good to me.
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Happy Holidays!
-BS