He stood still. The new dawn played softly in the sky above, stretching out into the twisting crimson clouds. Wind tugged gently at his dark red hair as he kept his bare arms folded tightly over his flak jacket, his demeanour entirely impassive.
"This is about the Hime, isn't it?" he murmured, staring at the Rowna's teenage leader. She moved until she stood mere feet away from him, the same breeze that pulled at him catching the folds of her dress around her knees and the loose ends of her headscarf. "Ren's sister? She seems to be focus of most of the hostility around here."
Shadows still clung to the Rowna camp, turning over their jagged tents and teeming in the trampled grass and upturned soil. Kakashi stood next to Gaara, regarding the teenager with something of his usual apathy. To Naruto's more experienced eyes though, he looked a little stiff. His hand was twitching faintly towards his weapon's pouch.
Naruto glared at the teenager's back as she ignored him, or rather stood as still a performer waiting for the theatre lights, letting Sakura, Temari and Kai emerge from the tent behind him. Kankurou appeared several seconds later, pulling on his shirt.
Kakashi sighed softly beneath his mask. He and the two boys had gone ahead, Ren claiming that he needed to look after his sister, who had fallen unconscious with exhaustion not long after her return to the shore. At the moment, Kakashi was feeling more and more justified in his assumption that the Seishin shinobi was stalling; seemingly afraid of the reaction he and his sister might get if they appeared near the Rowna camp.
"The Hime?" the teenage priestess repeated, folding her arms as she turned her head slightly to make eye contact with everyone in the clumsy circle, "Yes, I suppose you could call her that. The daimyo's chosen successor. We tend to prefer the term 'the Bakemono' around here."
Kakashi raised an eyebrow, speaking before the others could react. "Hardly appropriate for a member of the daimyo's family."
The teenager laughed, smothering her giggles with a wave of her hands. "Oh, she's not his family," she smirked, shaking her head, "The position of Seishin's daimyo was taken over by the ninja clans here long ago – and they chose their head the same way you do." She paused, looking around. Her eyes caught Naruto's. Involunatrily, he found himself flinching. "The strongest, most powerful, most suitable ninja is chosen as daimyo and stays as such for the rest of his life. The remainder then compete on the same terms to become the heir apparent, his second-in-command, such as the current Hime. It's not a guaranteed station by any means. If another proves more suitable, the title will be given to them. That said," she shook her head, "The Bakemono has occupied that position for many years. So it should. It may not be of the Daimyo's blood, but it was once of ours."
"Was once?" Gaara growled, his eyes narrowing. Kakashi moved forward, placing himself just a little between the two oft them. Naruto twitched visibly, his fists clenching and re-clenching.
The teenager returned the Kazekage's gaze unabashed. "We disowned it," she told him, "As soon as we realised what it was: a soulless, inhuman monster – nothing more." Gaara's eyes darkened dangerously, but she barely even moved, "You seem to dislike the terms I'm using? It doesn't matter. I'd just suggest you reconsider your association with it as soon as possible. I'm sure the daimyo has others that can assist you."
"What the hell gives you the right to call her that?" Naruto screamed, charging forward and forcing her to turn around and face him, "How can you say she has no soul?" His fist were shaking so hard they nearly blurred and his face looked angry. Temari's fan was shaking. Kankurou glanced from her to their younger brother, his face torn with a mixture of unidentifiable emotions.
"I know she does not." The teenage girl never raised her voice. She did not even seem intimidated. Her voice remained calm, even as Sakura took a hesitant step towards Naruto. Her eyes were wavering as she saw her friend's back shaking. "We know she does not," the girl continued, "She could not exist if she did."
"What do you mean 'could not exist'?" Temari whispered.
The girl closed her eyes, raising a hand. "Allow me to demonstrate." She turned to Kai. He looked guiltily at the floor.
"It's alright," she smiled coldly, stretching out a hand, "Do you have a weapon?"
Kai looked away and then, with a visible effort, reached into one of his weapons pouches for a kunai. "Look," he burst out suddenly, staring up at her, "I'm not a huge fan of the Bakemono or anything, but I like Ren-sensei. He's a good man… and as for the Bakemono… Well, I mean, she is his sister…" Nevertheless he kept the blade in his hand.
The girl nodded. "I bear Ren-san no ill will," she assured him, her hand still outstretched, "But I must ask, would you scratch the skin on your arm for me?" He gaped at her. It was nothing compared the expression of everyone else. "Just enough to make a mark," she repeated, as Temari did a visible double-take, "Please." He swallowed hard, looking around as if for confirmation.
"This is ridiculous!" Sakura snapped, trying to get between them. "I don't know what you're trying to prove, but…"
"Please," the girl repeated, arresting her without movement. Sakura stared at her. She paused, looking at Naruto who was almost as confused as she was.
It was Kai who recovered first. Taking a deep breath, he nodded slowly at the Rowna girl. Then raising the tip of his kunai against his wrist, he cut upwards in one swift movement, leaving a thin trail of blood.
The teenager gasped, drawing back her own arm and grasping at it. Almost simultaneously there was a yell from inside the tent. Kakurou and Temari were pushed hurriedly aside as the tent flap burst open and one of the old women appeared carrying the little girl.
"I don't know what happened," she cried, "We were just finishing up the jutsu, like you said, when suddenly… Look!" She grabbed the child's arm, holding up the wrist. There was a thin cut, identical to Kai's, running along the lower arm.
The little girl snapped her arm away irritably. "I'm fine," she shrieked, "Fine. Anyway, it's Freya's fault! She made him do it." The girl rubbed the cut with her free hand, kicking at the old woman to be let down again.
"Freya?" The old woman asked in bewilderment, absently setting the child on the floor.
"It's alright, Nan," the teenage girl replied, still holding her own arm, "Take her back inside. She's got a jutsu to finish."
"Wait," Sakura turned, kneeling beside the girl she took her little arm in her hand, pressing a ball of blue chakra into her skin. After a few moments she paused puzzled.
"It doesn't heal as easily as a normal wound, does it?" the teenager laughed mirthlessly, "It's because she's an empath like me, like the Bakemono when it was born." She released her arm, turning so she could show it to all the assembled shinobi. Dried blood marked her skin, where she too had a cut.
"It isn't just feelings, you see," the girl explained, moving back towards Kai and taking his arm. She pressed a small blue ball of chakra against his skin. Within seconds the wound had closed and disappeared. "Like mine, Marina's body senses the pain of others around her and takes it in, feeling it as if it was its own. It even creates a wound on her as if she had been the one hurt. The same on me," she paused, releasing Kai and rubbing her brow with her uninjured arm, "I honestly forgot Marina was within range or I would have avoided hurting her. Shows you how used I am to her presence. A Rowna Empath does not easily forget these things." Her eyes met the little girl's as the child drew her now fully healed limb back from Sakura and disappeared into the tent. Something unspeakable passed between the two of them and the teenager looked away. Temari frowned at her.
"What on earth are you talking about?" Kankurou demanded, folding his arms and leaning back against one of the tent's support poles, "Why tell us all this?"
"Yeah!" Naruto burst out enthusiastically, "And what does any of this have to do with Nee-san?" He glared at the strange teenager from a few footsteps away, his fists still clenched.
"He actually has a point, you know," Sakura put in carefully, coming to stand next to Naruto, "So you're saying Ren's sister is like you because she had a Rowna Clan member as a mother and can feel other people's feelings – so what? It doesn't really explain why you think you can say all those things about her." Gaara merely continued to stare impassively at the teenage Rowna. Kakashi said nothing, but he was beginning to frown worriedly.
The Rowna girl sighed deeply. "We feel the pain of others as if it was our own, because we feel the emotions of others as if they were our own," she reiterated, "Pain is on many levels just another feeling. As such we could never become shinobi. We probably wouldn't even survive the training. If an opponent were injured, so would we be. If an opponent were killed – if anyone dies in front of us – we die with them. Our abilities cannot be switched on and off. They are constant. We are born that way. We live that way. We die that way." Her face grew more serious as she turned around again, her eyes locking with each member of her audience. Temari's glared at her.
"The only way we could stop it," the teenager regarded Naruto and Gaara carefully as she spoke, "Is to stop feeling altogether. Destroy our ability to have any kind of emotion, any kind of feeling: no pain, no joy, no sadness, no despair, no love… just nothing. A soulless, inhuman being. This is what was done to the Bakemono. That is what it has become."
"You're wrong, dattebayo!" Naruto roared, his fists shaking, "Nee-san can feel. She's a nice person! She…"
"She killed my brother!" another voice interrupted him. It was Momoka. She stood several feet away from the group, her eyes half-wild and her hair streaming. It seemed as if she had been crying. Naruto turned to her in surprise, unable to tell how of the conversation she had overheard, but the Rowna telepath merely nodded cordially at her. Apparently she was content to let her take over the conversation.
"You don't understand, do you?" Momoka continued, rounding on Naruto. Even Sakura backed away, "She killed my O'Nii-san and a load of fellow shinobi. She's a heartless evil being who murdered her own comrades. Don't trust her. It would have been better if she was never born." Her hands were shaking and there were sobs in her words.
Naruto shook his head. "That's not…"
"She's a murderer!" Momoka screamed, grabbing his arms and shaking him.
"Yes, I am." The voice was quiet and came from the opposite direction from the one Momka had appeared in. Kakashi looked around in surprise. Kai panicked and jumped to attention. Sakura's eyes went wide. Temari and Kankurou merely frowned. Momoka shook all over at what she saw over Naruto's shoulder. Tears were now openly streaming down her face and she seemed about ready to fly into a hysterical rage. There in the gathering dawn stood Ren and his sister.
I don't normally interrupt at this point, but my mother insisted – and I mean 'insisted' – on saying a few words. Here they are:
Blobby eughhh dribbe spondalicious sclurggyboo Mokey Fleebleo
I'm sorry if you expected sanity.