Crimson Stained

Chapter 28

The Liar


A loud clang resonated around them as Tatakau and Shogai stared in shock. Nikushimi had been fast, faster than usual. However, Moyasu had managed to catch Nikushimi's kunai an inch from Saki, who looked like she was going to faint.

"Nikushimi, I am your sensei. I told you that you will not kill her." growled Moyasu pushing Nikushimi back. Nikushimi glared up at him.

"She might betray us!" Nikushimi snapped, turning around and stomping over to a tree. Moyasu stood in front of Saki, making sure Nikushimi wasn't going to try that again. When Nikushimi showed no signs of moving, Moyasu sat down with a sigh. And after that was a tense silence.

They sat like that for some time. The silence only ended when four chakras suddenly were heading towards them. They had been ready to fight, until Moyasu recognized the chakra signatures.

"Minato?" Moyasu called, before there was a yellow flash and said man was there. His team followed behind him quickly.

"Nikushimi, did you receive the scroll?" Minato questioned Nikushimi. Nikushimi nodded sharply before glaring at her team and looking away.

"Nikushimi!" Obito exclaimed as he ran over to her, "You're covered in blood!"

"Not mine." she replied shortly.

"Are any of you hurt?" Rin inquired, looking between everyone only to receive no replies. Kakashi just took a seat across from the small fire.

"What happened?" Minato asked Moyasu in a hushed tone after making sure this really was Moyasu.

"Nikushimi accused Saki of being a spy, and tried to kill her. But I stopped her, and she's pissed off about it." Moyasu explained. Minato's eyes narrowed.

"Saki? Who's Saki?" he questioned.

"Kesfu's assistant." he answered. Minato eyed Saki, who was laughing with Rin.

"She looks rather, young to be his assistant." Minato muttered.

"Nikushimi was rather sure that she was a spy, what do you think?" Moyasu asked before explaining Nikushimi's argument and what she had concluded and pointed out.

"Her reasoning is good, but we don't know for sure if she was the one who poisoned Obito. For all we know, she could really be a civilian just caught up in this." Minato muttered.

"What do we know about this so far?" Moyasu inquired.

"The spies were the ones who took the airship, they wanted the supplies for themselves and they don't want Konoha getting Yuki as an ally. They will most likely be using the airship to enter Yuki and sabotage Konoha's relations with Yuki. We need to stop the airship. With all of us I think we can do it." Minato explained.

"We have hoverships, three of them. Three people can fit on them. Saki, Shogai and I know how to use them, but I'm sure Kakashi and Rin could learn fast." Moyasu commented.

"Right, I think Shogai, Rin and I will take one, and you can take Tatakau and Kakashi. Saki, Obito and Nikushimi will take the last." Minato decided.

"Eh, I don't think Nikushimi and Saki are a good idea, Nikushimi might kill her." Moyasu protested.

"I'm putting them together for a reason. Obito will watch out for Nikushimi and he won't let her do anything like that, he wouldn't want a civilian killed. Also, if Saki is a spy she would try to sabotage Nikushimi for suspecting her. We need to watch carefully." Minato explained.

"So, we're sacrificing my student?" Moyasu asked, sighing.

"No, Nikushimi is suspicious and will watch Saki carefully. If there are any ill intentions, Saki will be dead before she can do anything. Also, Nikushimi is very good at surviving through bad situations." Minato added, laughing slightly to brighten the mood. As he and Moyasu continued to speak to each other, Nikushimi found herself somewhat mad at Obito.

'How dare he take their side?' she thought to herself, grumpily sitting next to Kakashi who was silently ignoring her. She eyed Saki discreetly. She was still talking to Rin, and now Obito. After Nikushimi had explained what had happened, Obito had been somewhat uncertain and had pointed out that Uragiri and Saki looked somewhat similar from their hair and eyes. He told her she was being paranoid. She told him to screw off after her bad mood worsened.

"You're pissed." Kakashi commented suddenly, eyeing Nikushimi with his dark eyes.

"I am." affirmed Nikushimi, "I keep saying Saki is a spy. But no one believes me." Kakashi was silent for a few moments as he watched Saki.

"I believe you." he finally stated.

"You do?" Nikushimi asked, surprised.

"She smells like poison." Kakashi muttered.

"I tried to kill her, but Moyasu-sensei was against it and stopped me. I almost succeeded." Nikushimi admitted.

"She'll slip up eventually. She'll probably try to take you out." Kakashi told her, looking back to Nikushimi from Saki.

"Me? Why would she target me?" Nikushimi questioned, before realization hit her, "Because I'm the one who wants to kill her. I'm the one blowing her cover." Kakashi nodded.

"You'll be our bait." he decided, "She'll try and kill you. But I'll be watching her, so when she tries, she'll be dead before you know what was going on." Nikushimi nodded slowly.

"I get it… alright; guess we're actually agreeing for once." Nikushimi commented.

"It's for the mission." Kakashi stated before looking back to the fire, signaling the end of their conversation.

There were a few minutes of silence before Minato and Moyasu announced they would be traveling on the hoverships. When they announced the pairs, Saki had protested fearfully, giving Nikushimi a few scared looks.

"Nikushimi won't do anything," Moyasu assured her, "She needs you to fly the hovership, and Obito will stop her if she tries." After they all got onto the hoverships, they all began to fly towards Yuki.

It was halfway to Yuki, when it happened.

"I'm telling you, that cloud is shaped like a kunai." huffed Nikushimi, pointing at a cloud while looking to Obito. In their boredom, Nikushimi had stopped being angry with Obito and had started pointing out cloud shapes. Obito, being just as bored, had eagerly pointed out what he saw them as. It was also a good way to keep themselves from thinking about the fact they were extremely cold` in the below freezing weather.

"It's totally a tree. I mean, look at the ones down there. It's the same." Obito argued, pointing down at the trees they were passing over. Nikushimi snorted and leaned over the edge to peer down at them.

"I wouldn't hang over the edge if I were you." Saki commented, stepping back and turning around. Her foot hit Nikushimi's feet, knocking her off the edge of the hovership.

"Oh shit!" screamed Nikushimi, her eyes widening. She flipped in midair, reaching up to grab something. Obito reached down and hung onto the hovership using his chakra as he reached for her hand. Their hands connected and grabbed each other.

"I got you, don't let go!" Obito yelled, pulling up on Nikushimi, "Saki, come help me pull her up." Saki nodded and left the controls, reaching over and reaching for Nikushimi. Suddenly, Nikushimi's hand slipped from Obito's grip.

"Nikushimi!" Obito cried. Nikushimi quickly grabbed Saki's arm with her other hand, however Saki wasn't prepared and was pulled over. She screamed as they both fell through the air, crashing through branches of the trees. Finally, they hit the ground. Luckily, there was a good two feet of snow to land in to break their fall.

"Ugh..." Nikushimi groaned and slowly sat up, glaring at the cold white snow that was now making her even colder than she had been before. She stood up after a moment and looked around, only to find Saki was doing the same as her. Their eyes connected.

Saki scuttled back through the snow, her eyes narrowed in on Nikushimi. Nikushimi stood, pulling a kunai from her bag.

"It could be coincidence, it might not be. I'm not willing to take the chance though." Nikushimi muttered.

"I'm not a spy!" Saki cried, moving back through the snow as Nikushimi slowly advanced on her.

"There was a spy in our village. She had been exactly like you, she seemed like a civilian. She seemed like she was my friend. She seemed like she wasn't anything special. She almost murdered my best friend. I'm not going to let there be a moment like that again. I was a second away from losing my best friend. Like hell I'm letting that happen again." Nikushimi snarled. Saki looked into Nikushimi's eyes. Gone was her usual mirth and cheerfulness. Now all that shone was determination and anger.

"No… NO!" Saki screamed, jumping back and pulling out a knife from her bag. She pointed it, hands shaking at Nikushimi.

"Drop the act, Kakashi knows that you are a spy too." Nikushimi said, getting into a fighting stance. Saki's eyes flitted around nervously, before she gave a shriek of anger and launched herself at Nikushimi. Nikushimi merely sidestepped the clumsy move and pushed her down.

"I'll let you live if you tell me everything." Nikushimi offered, digging her knee into Saki's back and pulling her arms together. When Saki was silent, Nikushimi dug her knee in more. Tears began to spill down Saki's face. When Saki opened her mouth to speak, Nikushimi put a hand to where her pulse was on her neck.

"They told me that if I pretended to be Kesfu's assistant, took down at least one member of the other team, killed your team, and helped them take over the airship and kidnap Kesfu that they would pay me!" wailed Saki. Nikushimi paused, feeling for her pulse. When she felt it, it was normal.

"Why Kesfu?" she asked.

"Kesfu, despite looking like a sweet, fat and happy man is actually one of the highest advisors to the Daimyo. They needed to get him because he is actually really smart and he was going to advise the Daimyo to ally with the Leaf village!" Saki explained, spitting snow from her mouth as Nikushimi pushed her face into the snow, her pulse quickened.

"You pushed me out of the hovership, didn't you?" Nikushimi added.

"I-I, I actually didn't mean to do that. I hit your foot on accident. I… I didn't want to kill any of you. You all seemed like decent people… S-sure, you scared me. You tried to kill me… but you did it to protect those that you care for." Saki admitted, her pulse going back to normal.

"… How did you poison Obito?" Nikushimi questioned. Saki sighed.

"My family needs money to get medical supplies, they run a clinic. I know a lot about herbs, and I was able to make a poison using herbs. The woman at the Inn owed me a favor, so I had her slip it in telling her it was something that they asked me to be put in. I put it in his cup because I couldn't tell who would notice and he seemed like he was a joker…" trailed Saki, her pulse quickened. Nikushimi stood up and allowed Saki to get to her knees. Then, in one fluid motion she ran her kunai through Saki's neck. As blood gurgled from her wound and dribbled from the corners of her mouth, her green eyes turned to Nikushimi.

"You poisoned my best friend under his sensei's watchful eye and his teammate's sharp nose. You've got more training than that, and I could tell you lied when you got to the bullshit about your family. I could be wrong. But I'm not going to take that chance." Nikushimi stated, wiping her kunai in the snow to remove the scarlet liquid. Saki fell forwards, and in moments blood stained the snow around her. Nikushimi watched for a moment, before she lessened the weight in her ankle weights. She jumped up into a tree, scaling the branches while feeling light as a feather.

Tamashi had taught her this trick. Tamashi explained it as a way of tricking the body. As soon as you took the weights off, you felt light as a feather because you could move with less energy, yet you still used a ton of energy making you move extremely fast. But that was only good for short bursts. The long term training was you gradually got faster from building muscle with the weights. The weights were very useful, Nikushimi decided.

Nikushimi reached the top of the tree and looked around. Her heart dropped when she couldn't see the hoverships anywhere.

"They didn't just leave me here… did they?" Nikushimi whispered, before she made her way down the tree to where Saki's body was. Nikushimi rifled through Saki's bags and pockets. Nikushimi grabbed a few useful things, including a canteen, some scrolls, and a strange object.

"Hm? What is this?" Nikushimi wondered, picking the object up and holding it in her palm. It wasn't very big, and resembled a crystal. The object was somewhat translucent and was a green-silver color. Shrugging, Nikushimi placed the object in her senbon pouch before she scaled the tree. Taking another look around she saw no sign of where they had gone. Sighing, Nikushimi sat on her tree and quickly sifted through the scrolls she found on Saki.

"Mission debrief?" wondered Nikushimi, pulling that scroll open. She quickly read it open, before her face paled.

"It's a trap. They're going to bait Team Minato and my team with the cargo ship; they already have a division here!" Nikushimi gasped, before she jumped up. Wildly looking around, she determined which way they had been heading originally and took off in that direction, hoping that she wouldn't be too late.

As she ran, she kept watch for anything. She needed to find them before she was found. Nikushimi was lucky that she was nearly impossible to be detected from someone less than a trained sensory type. With an entire division here already, ninja would be crawling the area. Team Minato and her team stood no chance unless Nikushimi could warn them in time.

Nikushimi had never felt as tired as she did when she arrived at Yuki. Nikushimi's lungs burned and her legs felt as if they were going to burst. She had started losing her speed, getting used to running like she had been. Nikushimi fixed her weights to having weight again before she entered Yuki, pulling her cloak's hood up.

'Why are there no guards?' Nikushimi wondered, suspicious. She quickly slinked into an alley, and stuck to alleys as she slinked through the village. There weren't many civilians out, and the entire place felt foreboding and eerie to Nikushimi.

Nikushimi then took to the roofs when the streets felt too confining. The atmosphere got heavier and heavier the longer she stayed in the village. Nikushimi was started to get extremely anxious from the strange and creepy surroundings.

Then she came upon the clearing that was the villages center festival grounds and market place. It took all the will power she had to not run out. Team Minato and her team had no chance, just as she suspected. Rin was being held with a knife to her neck, which was causing Minato to stand there, contemplating what to do against the enemy. Moyasu was on the floor most likely unconscious. Nikushimi could see his chest rising and falling, so he was alive.

'For now', she heard in her head but she ignored it. Kakashi was unable to fight any longer. Ropes that glowed slightly bound his arms and legs. The glowing showed that they were made specifically to stop chakra flows. Obito was in a similar predicament, but a gag had been thrown into his mouth. Tatakau and Shogai were back to back, however in seconds they were brought down and bound with more chakra rope.

Nikushimi forced herself to stay there as Minato was overwhelmed and bound with chakra rope, followed by Rin.

"Shouldn't there be one more?" a man asked. A few others had looks of realization when he said this.

"She's dead." Minato told them solemnly, "She fell out of our hovership, along with the blue haired girl."

"There's a few feet of snow and trees to break their falls." a woman's voice said, "They're alive. Well, I'm sure one of them is." The crowd of Kiri ninja turned and Nikushimi felt another flashback come by.

The woman was stunning, with light blue hair pulled into a long flowing ponytail and sharp green eyes. A silver green crystal was embedded in her forehead, glinting in the light. She walked with an air of arrogance and confidence around her. She seemed to see all the other ninja as below her.

'That crystal…' Nikushimi thought curiously, 'It resembles the one I found on Saki…'

Nikushimi also was reminded of Uragiri by this woman. The two were different in personality; Uragiri had been insane in the end. This woman was calm and collected with an air of confidence and arrogance, but their looks were so similar… Nikushimi cursed blue hair and green eyes.

"Sayuri-sama, Saki isn't trained in combat like these ninja. She would lose if she had to fight." one of the Kiri ninja spoke up.

"Saki is alive." Sayuri insisted, before abruptly ending the conversation and turning to Minato.

"Now, you all are going to tell me about Konoha's war plans. We'll start with torturing one of these little brats." Sayuri laughed, grabbing Kakashi and pulling a kunai out of her pouch.

'What do I do?' Nikushimi thought, trembling slightly. Her mind was whirling; she didn't know what to do. She was outnumbered, and all these ninja most likely had Jutsu and chakra to use. Nikushimi was worn from her run there and she held little chakra that wouldn't help.

Nikushimi clenched her fists, when she felt something. Looking down at her bandages she saw the slight unnoticeable bump that showed the new senbon holsters Obito had gotten her were there.

'Senbon!' Nikushimi realized. Senbon was her specialty. Training since she was small, able to hit almost any mark with them, she could do this. She knew vitals, she knew stealth, and she knew senbon. She now had a plan.

Nikushimi quickly counted her senbon in her bag with her hands as she watched the clearing. Kakashi, she realized, was strong. Sayuri was most likely an interrogation specialist; she looked as if she knew what she was doing. Kakashi though, held strong. Despite all the small, painful incisions that were carefully being sliced into him he hadn't changed from his stony, blank expression.

Nikushimi then sat in wait, waiting for her opportunity to strike. It felt like hours before Sayuri was finished torturing Kakashi. Small incisions covered his person, deep enough to hurt but not deep enough to scar or kill.

"We'll have to head back to the base, my good tools are there." Sayuri drawled, dropping the bloody kunai she held to the dirt. She turned her back and started towards a few hoverships.

'Go for the leader.' Nikushimi thought before she launched senbon. Four senbon in one hand, two hands. Nikushimi could throw eight every two seconds because of the new holsters. And it came in handy. The senbon hit their marks easily; men began dropping to the ground easily.

But the senbon Nikushimi had aimed for Sayuri missed, as the woman merely sidestepped. The woman turned and looked up to the roof Nikushimi was now standing in view on. Nikushimi's senbon had taken out over half the ninjas.

"Nikushimi, run!" Minato yelled, "She's-" Minato was cut off as a ninja placed a gag in his mouth.

"You! Where is Saki?!" Sayuri screeched as her calm, stoic look turned angry and deadly within seconds.

"Dead, and you and your men will be joining her soon. I won't let you hurt my comrades." Nikushimi growled. Sayuri screamed in rage.

Nikushimi and Sayuri's eyes connected, and suddenly the world around Nikushimi was gone. In its place, was a black void. And standing across from her, was Sayuri.

"What the hell?!" Nikushimi exclaimed, looking around.

"Welcome, to my ability. I'm the head of interrogation in Kiri because of this. Despite your lack of chakra, you still have eyes and a mind. My crystal just helps this." Sayuri laughed, the crystal embedded in her forehead glinted before shining.

"I'm going to show you your worst hell, and when we get out of this, which will only be a second from when we came in, your mind will be broken."


AN

Schools. Just…. no. And my laptop? It's barely working. I feel horrible about missing a lot of updates. AP classes are killing me, and I get done with my homework late. But, I'll be getting a new laptop specifically for gaming and stuff around Christmas, and I'll also be working on time management too. So, updates I'll try and get at least once every two weeks if I can't keep my one every weekend policy.

Fun Fact- Sayuri's ability works on Nikushimi because it doesn't require chakra systems. The gem on her forehead pulls nature chakra in and she channels her own chakra to guide that chakra and use it to pull into the conscious of the victim.