18 – A Departure
After explaining what had happened to Minato, Kakashi found himself back in his own small apartment, staring at the blank wall that had previously held all of Kiruma's drawings. She had left without a word when she decided to stop staying with him. He'd meant to ask why, but had forgotten in the turmoil of the mission where she lost her eye. He sat on his bed with a sigh, and the familiar throbbing in his shoulder started up again, the chronic ache serving as a constant reminder of an arm that was no more.
He wanted to find her, but knew looking for her would be to no avail. Only Salem had been able to find her on such occasions, and the Inuzuka was long dead. Most people that ever got close to Kiruma were. Kakashi happened to glance out the window and started in surprise when he recognized a young boy walking past. He exited the apartment and quickly jumped to the ground.
"You're my ANBU replacement, right?"
Uchiha Itachi turned, his eyes blank and wary as he appraised the silver haired Jounin.
"And if I am?" he returned evenly.
"I'm looking for your mentor—do you know where she is?"
Itachi was silent for a moment, before finally answering.
"Yes."
Kakashi exhaled slowly.
"So she's alright," he sighed, but Itachi's eyes darkened.
"I wouldn't know," the boy answered. "As far as I know, no one has ever survived attacking our leader."
Kakashi's eyes widened marginally as the implication struck him. Kiruma attacked Danzo? Why? The demon wasn't controlling her anymore, so what could have possibly caused her to do something so incredibly reckless?
Itachi began to walk away.
"But come to think of it, Kira-sama always did tend to defy common standards."
Kakashi didn't follow, instead just standing still as the first few flakes of snow began to drift lazily from the sky. There were too many mysteries that revolved around Kiruma. Just when he thought he was finally understanding her another event would make her a stranger all over again.
Jiraiya was at his tea shop, pouring through old scrolls to find some writings over a demon of red fire, and had promised to return as soon as Kiruma reappeared. Having taught the red haired girl himself, he knew better than to search for her now. Resigned to asking his own Sensei for advice, Kakashi began the slow walk toward Hokage tower.
"Where you got involved." Kiruma repeated the phrase with a hint of skepticism, but she didn't push it when Danzo's eyes flashed.
"The Elemental annihilated your father like he was made of tissue paper," Danzo informed her coolly, "…and that was when I arrived, having tracked that particular demon for months."
Kiruma could just imagine the avarice and victory in the man's eyes when he found the demon that day. She frowned slightly, knowing there very well might be more to the story than Danzo admitted.
"Your mother was trying to run with you, but obviously that effort was futile. Rather than target her, the demon chose you as its next target. It killed your father by possessing his body and burning him from the inside out, so you can imagine your mother's terror when an Elemental possessed her newborn daughter." Danzo offered her a mirthless smile and Kiruma's eyes narrowed.
She tried to imagine an infant wearing the sardonic smirk and the void like eyes of the demon and shuddered inwardly.
"But it didn't kill me."
"It very nearly did," Danzo assured her. "Your mother saw me and quite literally begged for help, to save her daughter, to kill the demon, all sorts of desperate pleas." He sighed as if the cries of her mother had been mere irritation.
Kiruma remained silent as he continued, but her cheeks heated slightly, the only sign of her anger.
"So I used the seal I had prepared for the Elemental Demon to seal it within you, rather than contain it as I originally intended. I'm surprised it was successful with a mere infant. Even then you had quite the irritatingly vibrant life force."
Kiruma's lips twitched at the half praise, but she didn't say anything, waiting for him to finish.
"The seal remains on the back of your neck to this day as proof."
"And?" she pressed.
Danzo stared down at her.
"And what, Kira? That brings us to present."
"What did you demand of my mother in exchange?" she asked quietly. If she knew anything about Danzo, it was that he didn't give out free favors.
"It is a moot point," the man dismissed with a wave of his hand. "I simply requested that if you should decide to become a ninja, I would have full jurisdiction over you. Since your mother was incapacitated by that time anyways, I took the necessary measures to have you transferred into ANBU."
Kiruma remembered her mother looming over her that one day so long ago, the first response she'd received in months since her stepfather's death.
"Not a ninja. You can't be one. Anything but a ninja." The frightening conviction in her mother's haunted voice sometimes still resurfaced in her nightmares.
She stood slowly, sensing the end of the conversation drawing near.
"You sealed this damn thing inside me then," she confirmed, running a hand through her hair. "Why are you collecting Elemental Demons?"
"What puts you under that impression?" Danzo's voice was suddenly low and full of tension.
"Three of them are in your faction, am I wrong?"
Danzo was silent for a long moment.
"You shouldn't delve into matters so deeply, Kira," he answered, his voice laced with warning. "It will get you killed someday."
"I'm not wrong, though," she pressed, wanting an answer. She had always thought it was odd how the earth simply bent to Dandelion's will without him forming a single seal and how during her hundreds of spars against Three, blind or not, his water attacks came automatically, without any jutsu performed. Rather than sensing chakra, she always had to open her eyes just for a moment to see his attack coming before moving in response. If they were Earth and Water Elementals, it had to be more than a coincidence. So why was Danzo collecting them?
"You should be able to answer that question yourself," he informed her, resting his hands on his cane. "Especially after the loss of your beloved Uzumaki-san."
She flinched.
"Konoha needs strength. You saw for yourself how three Elementals with limited control could hold back a tailed beast. Your demon alone would match the strength of a beast without your will to suppress it."
Yet if we lose control, that incredible power is turned against us.
Would he try to control their demons the way Obito did the Kyuubi? How would that make Konoha any better than its enemies? Especially if he cared nothing for the body of the host, namely her, that would surely be destroyed if she completely lost control.
Despicable.
Kiruma could see how this man saw Konoha. It was almost admirable, really. He saw the world as weakness and strength, opportunity and conquest, and a human was just a pawn in a game with the world. Leader of the darkness of Konoha indeed.
But in perspective, was she really any better?
She couldn't deny the fact that she felt slightly relieved. She was related to Yuuko by law, not by blood. Her mother was not his mother just as her father was not the man that gave her the scar etched into her neck.
"I have one more question."
Danzo didn't look surprised, though he did look somewhat annoyed as he merely waited expectantly.
"That mission. When I massacred those people. You told me I had to be disinterested from the mission, which was why you didn't give me the details about Yuuko. Of course I was supposed to be indifferent, but it wasn't because my brother was supposed to come. It was because those people were a part of my clan."
Danzo appraised her coolly.
"That's not a question."
"Why did you make me kill my own people?" her voice was shaking with barely concealed rage. "What purpose did it serve?"
There was a long silence.
"…you really do pry too much, child. I don't think you've gotten the idea into your head of how exceptionally rare you are. Throughout all of history, no one has ever, ever, survived being a host of the Elemental Demon of Fire. It is by far the most aggressive and malignant of the elements. Do you understand how frightening that power is?"
She pressed her lips together into a hard line.
"If, that ability is linked by genetic trait, it is much too dangerous to allow your people to go free. Anyone could kill you and use that power through another with the same blood as you running through their veins. It is a risk not worth taking. That power in the wrong hands could very well be catastrophic."
Kiruma's eyes shadowed. She remembered her words before.
I made the call that you were wrong.
Sasori had intended to use those people as his puppets. Was he going to do something with her demon as well until she foiled that plan? Yuuko and Obito had told her she would join them, that she would be a part of their revolution. So what did her Elemental have to do with it?
Now that she had killed most of them, Sasori couldn't use them, but even so, Danzo could use her. The seal on her tongue was the proof. She had no choice but to follow him. So which was worse? A revolution at the hands of her brother and Obito or the darkness led by a killing machine that she had no choice but to follow?
What was right and wrong? She wasn't sure anymore, but she had a feeling that her instinct in calling off that mission had been spot on. Danzo sighed, bringing her from her thoughts.
"Now, leave and go do something useful before I change my mind about killing you here," his voice was suddenly icy and brusque.
She almost smirked.
"Understood, Danzo-sama."
She could feel his glare burning into her back as she walked out, but she could care less. Using the honorific sounded patronizing in her voice, and he knew it, but what could he do about it?
She walked into the training room to meet the awed expressions of Sparrow, Ruby, Three, and Dandelion.
"Hah ha! Toldja she'd live! Yo, Fiyurrr!" Dandelion waved and bounded up to her. Ruby fell to her knees with an exaggerated sigh.
"Of course she lived," the girl moaned. "It's Kira-sama, so I shouldn't have worried."
"The hell, Kira? What got into you all of a sudden, storming in and attacking Danzo? You got a death wish?" Sparrow crossed his arms across his chest.
"Just had to complain to the boss for a bit," she answered easily. "Are all of you okay?"
Sparrow nodded. "My arms are gonna be sore for a month, but we'll live. You're a slave driver when you're serious, you know that?"
"Don't be so rude, Sparrow!" Ruby punched him in the arm. "She's the reason we're alive you know! She was the distraction for Kami's sake."
"Kyuubi's gonna remember you, at the very least," Sparrow confirmed with a wry grin. "Just wait till the village hears what you did. Kyuubi-killer Kira in the making, right? You'll be a hero."
She snorted.
"That's as lame as they come, Sparrow."
She sighed, rubbing a hand across the back of her neck, where the seal had been prickling for a while.
"Sorry for pushing you guys."
The Faction went silent for a moment, surprised by the apology. Kiruma had never apologized to them before.
"I have something to do," she said, somewhat reluctantly. "But… you all did well."
The silence stretched on, and even Three looked slightly surprised.
"O-oi, Kira, you feeling okay?" Sparrow asked. "You sound like you're going off into battle all over again or something."
"Fiyurrrr?" Something akin to sadness was laced in Dandelion's voice. She ruffled his hair and walked slowly towards the exit, lifting a hand over her shoulder in a wave as they stared after her, confused by the words that had sounded dangerously close to a farewell.
She went back to Salem's house. She couldn't say what exactly spurred her to go, but it had been her home, and it would remain her home. It was quiet when she arrived, and she assumed Iruka was with his family. He would return when he felt like it, or perhaps not, now that his favorite 'Salem-nii' was no more. More than likely he would come running in with a shovel or baseball bat raised over his head, claiming loudly that today would be the day he was strong enough to take her life, though the attacks had lessened as of late.
She found herself going to the room she stayed in and laying on the bed, staring at the ceiling. Her torso and arm ached from repeated abuse and her inattentiveness to their healing. Despite all she had to ponder over, she found her eyes getting heavy, and after a moment, allowed sleep to overtake her.
Her senses awoke her when another presence entered the house, and the instinct that told her danger was imminent was loud and clear, but for once, she didn't open her eyes. Not that she needed to when it came to Iruka. She often fought with her eyes closed anyways. But this time she hesitated because she wasn't sure why she kept dodging.
Slowly, her eyes opened, and she stared calmly at Iruka, standing next to her bed, a real kunai clenched in both hands. She recognized it as one from her own weapon's pouch, lying at the foot of the bed. His clasped hands were shaking, and she watched as a bead of sweat rolled down his temple. His jaw was clenched as he glared at her.
"Well?" she asked softly, daring him to do it. He blinked in surprise.
"Why…. W-why aren't… you d-dodging?"
She stared at him evenly, before returning her gaze to the ceiling.
"Why are you hesitating?"
She blinked in surprise when she heard the kunai clatter to the floor. She glanced at Iruka, and saw tears forming in the young boy's eyes.
"B-because!" he choked. "I-I don't want to be alone! And i-if I kill you… I won't have anyone left!"
She sat up slowly, allowing her feet to rest on the cool floor.
"Ryu, where are your parents?" her voice was unusually quiet. His breath hitched in his throat.
"They died in the attack," he managed to answer, looking at the floor between his feet with wide eyes, trying not to let the tears fall.
"I see."
"S-Salem-nii said… he said… that people are never alone!" Iruka's hands balled into fists as he met Kiruma's eyes. Fat tears rolled down his face. "But Salem-nii is gone and you've been alone, too, haven't you?! Everyone's scared of you! All you do is go on missions and sometimes you come back hurt but you're always alone! I know! I've seen you! I don't wanna be alone! I don't want to always be in pain like you are!"
Kiruma didn't answer for a long time.
"Don't be a crybaby, Ryu."
He blinked in surprise, and then his teeth clenched in frustration at the unsympathetic words.
"I hate y-!"
"But," she interrupted calmly, and crouched down so that she was eye level with him. "I'll let you in on a secret."
He scrubbed at his face furiously, wiping away the tears, and met her gaze head on.
"A secret?"
"Ah. Between the two of us, Salem and I got in a lot of arguments, and fought just as much as we got along together."
Her voice quieted, trying to mask the strain behind the words she was struggling to say calmly.
"But no matter how many times we fought, Salem was always right." Iruka's eyes widened.
"So," she placed a hand on top of his head. "If Salem says people are never alone, you should trust him."
He sniffed, and then coughed, trying to regain his normal attitude.
"I-It's Ru, not Ryu, you old hag," he mumbled, and her lips twitched.
She stood up and waved as she walked towards the door.
"Hai, hai—I got it, Ryu, but it'll still be a million years before you're strong enough to beat me."
She could just imagine his cheeks reddening as she walked out the door as the first few snowflakes began to fall.
"I will beat you! No matter what! Just you wait!" the muffled shout was lost as the door closed behind her.
When she exited the building, a familiar figure was waiting for her, and Kiruma felt her heart clench.
"Kiruma, I wanted to talk to you."
Kiruma for a moment considered bolting then and there. She was nervous. She had pulled a man out of death's way and because of that he was forced to watch his wife die. Would he despise her for that?
She swallowed.
"There're a few things I need to tell you, too," she answered quietly, her voice sounding strange even to her. For a moment she thought it was because she didn't know who she was anymore, or what she was for that matter; but then she realized it was because she knew exactly what she was, and despised it, that made her voice sound foreign to her own ears. "Let's take this elsewhere."
They walked towards Konoha's border, passing much wreckage as they went, and paused near a dilapidated building on the outskirts of the village. Kiruma faintly recalled smashing through it and landing outside of Konoha in the forest during the siege.
Minato's voice was heavy with loss, but he was cradling Naruto in his arms, and the child was working wonders for his soul, Kiruma could clearly see that for herself. The scar on the child's neck, from the Kyuubi's claw, had yet to fade.
"Kiruma, do you remember when we first met?" he asked quietly, and she nodded. How could she forget? Her rash decision to help Kurenai from a couple of bullies and eventually getting into a sticky situation herself, only to be saved by the fourth Hokage.
"You were very young then," he recalled with a small smile. "Very opinionated, and you struggled with reacting to kindness," he trailed off for a moment, before letting out a dry chuckle. "Quite a fiery one, you were, and still are to an extent."
A light blush dusted her cheeks, and she wondered where the Hokage was going with this as she chose to remain silent.
"That seal on your neck," he began quietly, and she stiffened slightly. "You know what it is?"
She nodded stiffly.
"I will confess, I am less familiar with it. I've never seen anything like it before except when sealing tailed beasts."
Both of them winced slightly at the end of his sentence at the reminder.
"I want you to know that I do not care. No matter what that seal entails, you have a strong spirit, and I know you will be fine. However, what concerns me is the fact that you said someone else had a similar seal, with a different shape. This member, is he a part of your division under Danzo?"
Kiruma nodded slowly, suddenly aware of the tingling of the seal on her tongue.
"Knowing that man, I doubt it is a coincidence."
Kiruma blinked as she realized Minato had come to the same conclusion she had.
"I know," she answered quietly. Minato didn't look surprised.
"So, despite whatever protests you may have, I have decided to remove you from ANBU."
There was a silence as the implication of that sentence struck her.
She pressed her lips together tightly.
"You will have to fight Danzo tooth and nail to win that one, Minato-san," she answered quietly, and he could tell from the exhaustion and resignation in her voice that it wasn't a matter of loyalty or what she wanted, but simply that Danzo would not be willing to relinquish his hold on the fire user so easily.
"Danzo overstepped his authority by releasing his special faction of mere teenagers to handle the Kyuubi. Elite though you may be, all children were meant to be evacuated. And yes, Kiruma, protest all you want, but you are still a child."
She frowned slightly at that, but made no comment. In terms of age, she would be turning sixteen in a few months, but in terms of mental maturity, she was pretty sure that she exceeded several civilian adults. Military life did that to a person.
"Regardless, Danzo's authority will not be superior or anywhere near equal to my own in the immediate future, so I will be removing you from that faction as of now."
"Minato-san," Kiruma shifted slightly uncomfortably, her eyes suddenly averted from his own. "I don't really… belong… in other places."
And it was true. Among normal shinobi ranks, she would be seen as cold blooded and nothing more than a ruthless killer. Among civilians, she would be considered nearly on par with a terrorist. She was a spy and an assassin, and the faction had accepted her as their second strongest, ever since she beat Sparrow after overcoming her impaired sight.
She didn't want to admit it, but even without Salem, she would miss her Faction. And if she wasn't a part of ANBU, it was likely she would never see them again. That was the thing about ANBU. If you weren't one of them, they didn't exist. You would never notice them.
Minato smiled slightly at her discomfort.
"I'm sure Kakashi would be more than happy to help you. You'd be surprised how accepting the other Chuunin and Jounin would be of someone who could hold their own against a demon."
She still looked uncomfortable, but didn't resist as Minato reached out and cupped a hand around her chin, his thumb pressed against her lip.
She felt a brief surge of chakra.
"Release!" he ordered, and she winced as the seal on her tongue flared up, resisting the intrusion, before quickly becoming overpowered and fading away. She blinked in surprise, wondering how intense chakra had to be to disrupt a seal cast by one of Danzo's sealers. Minato really did live up to his sealing genius.
Danzo would not be pleased, but that in and of itself nearly made her euphoric.
He released her and she visibly sighed in relief, feeling the chains of subordination fall away. She had never imagined how freeing it would feel to not have to follow him, though undoubtedly Danzo now sensed the breaking of the seal and had either sent someone or was on his way himself. Hopefully Minato would manage to handle it.
"Better?"
She nodded.
"Now, what is it you have to tell me?" he asked, shifting the sleeping bundle in his arms. Her eyes moved to the child, and then she glanced around, ensuring that they were alone.
"I know the identity of the masked man," she murmured almost too quietly.
To say Minato looked shocked would be an understatement. His entire body went rigid, and a fire of bloodlust flashed through his eyes. Kiruma knew he was remembering Kushina, and she felt her own hands clench at her sides.
"H-he was at Kannabi Bridge," she admitted, and Minato's eyes narrowed.
"Kannabi Bridge?" he repeated quietly. "Where you brought back Rin and Kakashi?"
She nodded.
"I- I didn't kill all of those people. See, when I use red fire, it burns me too, so I wasn't strong enough to protect them from all of those elites."
Minato blinked at the new information before he eyed the burns around her arms.
"Kiruma…"
"Someone else appeared, and just started killing people left and right, and almost killed me, but…" she chewed on her lip. "But he took off my mask and recognized me."
"Recognized?" Minato asked sharply.
She nodded. "The mask was different then, but it was similar, and he acknowledged me when I tried to save Ku…" she faltered, and then started again. "When I tried to hold back the Tailed Beast," she corrected herself.
"Who is it, Kiruma-chan?" Minato asked softly.
"It's your own student, Minato-san," she told him. "He got revenge for Rin, and tried to take Konoha down with him."
"Kakashi was with you-"
"Not Kakashi."
Silence.
Kiruma scanned Minato's face, but his features were unreadable. His hands tightened unconsciously around a sleeping Naruto, and Kiruma finally voiced the name she knew was nearly impossible to accept.
"Uchiha Obito."
Two strange sounds suddenly permeated the air, caused by neither Minato nor Kiruma. One was the fluttering of a cloak, and the other was the whistle of metal through the air.
Kiruma didn't even know what to process as one instant she was staring at Minato, trying to figure out a way to convince him she wasn't lying, and the next, her own katana was imbedded up to the hilt in his chest, and the masked man himself was standing next to the Hokage, his arms crossed tightly over his chest.
"Now, now, Kiruma, that wasn't our agreement, was it?"
Kiruma's eyes went wide and round, and her gaze snapped to Minato as the Hokage coughed, and blood spattered against the green grass.
"M-m-Minato… san?" she breathed, and her focus snapped to Obito, her expression murderous.
How had he gotten her sword off of her back without her noticing? Was that even possible?
Minato swayed, and she ran forward, catching him immediately and catching Naruto as the infant slid from the Hokage's grip.
"Haven't you… had enough already?!" she hissed at Obito, her eyes blazing. "He's your teacher!"
Yuuko suddenly stepped out from behind Obito, and Kiruma's eyes bulged.
"You," she hissed under her breath. The two people she hated most were now calmly staring at her as Minato bled in her arms.
"K-Kiruma-chan," Minato choked out, and she stiffened as he pushed the infant deeper into her arms.
"Minato-san, don't speak! Save your strength!"
"Protect… Naruto…" Minato grabbed her arm suddenly, eyes igniting. "At any cost!" he hissed. Kiruma knew normally that Minato would have little trouble fighting with a stab wound, severe though it was. But he had barely healed from the siege on Konoha, and his other wounds were still fresh. As if that weren't enough, Kiruma's own katana cut through stone like butter, and through organs like tissue paper. The situation of Minato's condition seemed more dire with every passing moment.
"Minato-san, hang in there," she tightened her hold on him. "We'll get a medic as soon as possible."
"You were warned," her brother told her simply, and Kiruma glared at him with a hatred that burned, but she wouldn't risk using fire now. Not with her demon so close to the surface and an innocent child in her arms.
"You said you would destroy me!" she growled at Obito. "There was nothing about anyone else!"
Obito regarded her coolly with one eye.
"Perhaps you misunderstood," he answered. "The idea is that my identity is not revealed. Logically, do you believe I would allow anyone who knew to survive?"
He turned to Yuuko.
"And luckily for you, your life has been bargained for."
"Bargained?" she snarled through her teeth.
"Your life needs to be spared for our plan, Kiruma-chan," Yuuko told her quietly. "You'll join us soon, remember? And he's going to help us." He gestured towards Obito.
"Like hell," she spat, but Yuuko raised his hands in a placating gesture.
"You'll join us for sure, Kiruma-chan. You're just saying that because you haven't seen the real corruption here. A new government is coming. A revolution is coming, and we will be the ones to bring it."
Kiruma looked down, and her hair fell over her eyes, casting them into shadow. She pushed Naruto into Minato's shaking hands, and the choking Hokage clung to his son like a lifeline.
She swallowed hard.
"I will protect him, Minato-san," she whispered. She stood slowly, and walked toward the two of them.
"We should leave," Obito suggested. "People will arrive soon."
"Yuuko."
Her brother paused, and she stopped a few inches away from him, leaning in to whisper in his ear.
Obito watched with mild interest and then concern as all of the blood drained from Yuuko's face.
Nothing Kiruma had ever said to Yuuko had seemed to make an impact before. No matter how much she tried to help him, he never even seemed fazed, going so far as to try and convince her that she was the one who needed to change the way she thought, something that frustrated and infuriated her. But now for the first time, a flicker of doubt crossed his eyes.
Her breath was hot against his ear.
"Do you remember how it felt to kill Father?"
Nine words made him stiffen, and two more made all the color drain from his features. He chanced a glance at her face, and though her eyes were shadowed, her lips parted and drew back into a wicked grin.
He looked extremely uneasy, and for once, could think of nothing to say.
Her eyes flickered black briefly.
"You're next."
He stumbled back like she'd shot him, and Obito kicked a building next to them, causing it to crumble and crash to the ground.
"I heard something collapse over there!"
"Let's go check it out! Someone might be hurt!"
"Hey, is everyone alright over there?"
Voices were coming closer, and Obito roughly grabbed Yuuko's arm.
"Time to leave," he hissed, before dragging a stunned Yuuko back into the trees and vanishing just as several people rounded the corner.
"What the-!"
"Yondaime!"
"Minato-san!"
"W-who did this?!"
Kiruma turned suddenly, her attention brought back to the present, as shinobi of Konoha came running, only to meet the horrifying sight of their Hokage clutching his son with Kiruma's sword impaled in his chest and a dark stain spreading across his shirt.
"T-that's Kira the Killer!"
"I recognize that katana!"
"O-oi, what's going on?"
"I thought she was on our side!"
"S-she's got blood on her face! It had to be her!"
Kiruma blinked, suddenly realizing the implication of Obito and Yuuko's actions. Kurenai suddenly pushed her way through the crowd, and her eyes widened at the sight.
"K-Kiruma-chan?" she asked in a small voice.
Kiruma took a hesitant step back, unable to speak as suddenly hostile faces began to surround her. She wasn't good at managing large crowds of people, and certainly not ones glaring down at her like these were.
What could she possibly say? Her own sword was stuck through their beloved Hokage, the one that none of them knew she had saved. They had just lost the third, and Kushina. There would be no rationalizing. Minato's eyes were closed, and with a heartbreaking realization, she could tell he was no longer breathing. Naruto had woken and was now crying loudly, only heightening the tension around her.
She took another stumbling step back as they advanced.
"What did you do to the Yondaime?!"
"Traitor!"
"Killer!"
"Oi, oi, oi, who are you calling a Traitor, now?" Sparrow's voice was laced with a hint of anger as he pushed through the crowd, followed quickly by Ruby, Three, and Dandelion.
"ANBU?"
"Oi, the ANBU are here!"
"Good, they can kill her for us!"
"Who's killing who now?" Ruby sounded enraged as she shoved her way to the front.
Kiruma was trying to make sense of all the foreign faces bearing down on her at once.
Suddenly her frantic eyes met one familiar gaze and she locked her focus there, as Kakashi stared straight back at her.
She waited.
His gaze lowered to the still form of his teacher, and she watched as his expression contorted with pain.
"Why is it…" his voice trembled as he spoke quietly, but it was the only voice that she heard around her as she tuned out the rest of the shinobi. He was all she had left. Kakashi was the only one left. "Why is it… that wherever you go, a trail of death follows you?"
His hand was clenched at his side, shaking, and Kiruma's own hands went limp, her retreat stopping dead in its tracks. Her eyes widened.
"Leave!" Kakashi spat, hurling the words at her like knives. "Wherever you are someone is dying!" His knees buckled and he broke eye contact with her, covering his face with his hand. "Just leave," he whispered, his voice breaking.
In any other situation, Kiruma might have been able to recognize that Kakashi was simply suffering of his own losses as well, and in the confusion, couldn't make sense of what he was seeing. She might have realized that he didn't fully mean what he said, or that he didn't expect her to actually do what he said. After all, throughout their relationship, she'd never been one to listen to a word of his. She'd never followed orders before.
But Kiruma was backed against a wall. She was hurt, she was exhausted, and she had just suffered three crippling losses consecutively and realized that she quite literally had been unable to save any one of them.
Yet despite her uselessness, Kakashi had saved her. He had given his arm for her life, and she had yet to thank him. She had been dispelled from ANBU, and he was all that was left. He was the only one that had any idea of the kind of life she lived. And he now was one line away from begging her to stay the hell away and allow people to die somewhere where it wouldn't hurt him anymore.
Kiruma jerked her head to the side as a kunai sliced across her cheek, impaling itself in a tree behind her.
"O-oi, guys, stop!" Kurenai's voice was lost in the crowd. "You don't know for sure what's going on!"
Minato's words echoed in her mind.
"Protect Naruto… at any cost!"
Her gaze darted down to the crying infant now resting in the grass, and back to the crowd of violent shinobi, now advancing with weapons. In a split second decision, Kiruma darted forward, surprising several of the shinobi, and scooped her arms around Naruto, clutching the boy almost desperately to her chest as she backed away.
"S-she's got the son of the Hokage!"
"Someone stop her!"
"Don't shoot! You might hit the baby!"
Kurenai's voice came up once again, almost lost in the crowd.
"K-Kiru-chan, what…?"
Kiruma didn't pause, turning on her heel and running away. For the first time, she finally decided to run away. She looked back once, and Kakashi's reddened eyes met hers, suddenly widening in shock. She grit her teeth and turned away, wishing she could stop the deep spike of betrayal from burning through her heart.
"She's kidnapped the son of the Hokage!"
"Go after her! Hurry!"
"K-Kira-sama?"
Kiruma's weights clattered to the ground and she vanished into the trees, Naruto pressed firmly against her steady heart. Unknown to the rest of the world, a tear slid down her cheek and was absorbed by the soft fabric that wrapped the infant in her arms. She plunged into the forest with several shinobi futilely attempting to give chase, leaving behind the village she had saved branded as a traitor.
Sayonara, Konoha.
Sayonara.
End of Part 2
A/N: Well, there's that. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope I solved some mysteries and left just enough unanswered for the big finale in Part 3.
Here's a set date so you aren't left completely hanging: I'll look forward to coming back to all of you on May 10. Part 3 Ch. 1 will be posted before midnight central time in the United States.
FAQs of the readers:
Will there be a time skip once part 2 ends?
Yes, the plot will progress to the time period 'Naruto' is broadcasted in.
Will Salem come back?
No. I'm not a manga writer where potentially dead characters unreasonably come back to life. Sorry to all you Salem lovers out there.
Will Kakashi and Kiruma ever really get together and be a couple?
I did warn that this story was a slow burner. But it is classified as romance. I do not intend to disappoint.
Will there be another AMV for Fireborn?
I have halfway completed an AMV specifically for Part 2, but I won't commit to it until it's been finalized because my video editor sporadically crashes and can't be trusted.
Will Fireborn go AU?
Absolutely.
To the people who asked personal question about me, the author, I am not disregarding you, but as a painfully shy and awkwardly introverted person in everyday life, my writing life is very separate from my personal life, and I don't believe my stories are good enough yet to combine the two.
Thank you all so much and until May, Happy Reading!