"Beyond Hearts and Minds"
I do not own Naruto. I do not own Potamos. I do not own any great quantity of money or property. I'm a STUDENT; that's why I'm poor, okay?
Oh, boy. Talk about procrastination. You'd think that swim season finishing would give me time, but no.
By the way, the seiyuu (voice actress) of Potamos in the anime series of "Wedding Peach" (I don't own that, either) is Mitsuishi Kotono. She also was the voice for Usagi in "Sailor Moon", Kagura Souma in "Fruits Basket", Excel in "Excel Saga". Anyway, one has to imagine Potamos' voice as very, very cute when one reads about her.
"Quotations"
'Thoughts'
(( Flashback ))
Chapter 38: Growing Storm
Natsumi yawned. The pharmacist was tired, after nursing her husband back to health all night. She twisted her hair into a neat bun as she walked the narrow hallway.
The old woman stopped. There was some kind of lump on the floor, blocking her path. To her bafflement, it was Hinata sitting upon the wooden floor.
"Hinata!" Natsumi rushed over, taking Hinata's hand to help pull her up. "What are you doing here? You look like you've seen a ghost!"
At the sound of Natsumi's voice, Hinata snapped out of her nervous guard. "O... Obaa-sama!" She pointed at the door behind her. "There's a BOY there! I couldn't —"
Natsumi sighed. "I had been hoping the meeting would turn out nicer." She slid open the door. "Tetsu."
A dumbfounded Hinata peeked over Natsumi's shoulder. The silver-haired boy sat in the exact same spot as last night, cool as a cucumber while the old pharmacist made giant strides towards him.
"You didn't even set out the futon for yourself?" Natsumi asked. The tired resignation in her voice indicated that she had encountered this problem before. "If you have insomnia, at least keep yourself warm for the night. No wonder you're always ill!"
"Sorry, Kaa-san," Tetsu muttered.
Hinata bit her lip. This boy was Natsumi's son? Now she felt like an idiot for staying out in the hallway all night, as if Tetsu were a ferocious animal ready to shred apart the pharmacy. The blue eyes that Hinata had seen on-and-off the previous day turned out to be his.
"And what about our new apprentice?" Natsumi gestured to Hinata, who only shrank inside herself as Tetsu gave a subtle glare. "You could have come to the dinner table last night; that would have been a perfect time to introduce yourself to her!"
Tetsu looked away. A stubborn frown marred his face, which caused Hinata to take another look. It was a perfect replica of Naruto's own expression of annoyance. She had memorized it perfectly in the days of Ninja Academy, whenever Iruka would scold Naruto for yet another disobedience.
Something of harshness finally crossed Natsumi's face. "Tetsu! Aren't you at least going to say hello to Hinata?"
He did not answer.
Hinata studied Tetsu's unmoving form, from his platinum crown all the way to his bare feet. His face was still partially turned away, as if Hinata's gaze were a contagious disease. As the silent seconds ticked by, the blue-haired girl slowly felt her own body freeze up. Had she made him angry? He was, after all, the only child of the Taketori couple, and thus the inheritor of the pharmacy. Maybe he thought of her as competition for his parents' affections. Or...
'He probably thinks me a bother,' Hinata realized. Blood slowly rushed up her cheeks — and certainly not for a pleasant reason. Even though she barely knew Tetsu, she felt obliged to get along with him. She already felt bad for thinking he was a burglar. Natsumi wanted them to be on good terms, at least have mutual respect with each other.
But what mainly made Hinata feel awful, had to be Tetsu's glare. His angry silence reminded Hinata of the cold, and even at one time brutal, treatment that Neji used to bestow on her for her less-than-adequate abilities as an heiress. Only, all of that burning hatred was translated through the face of Naruto. Naruto. Hating her.
"I-I'll go make breakfast!"
Her outburst shattered the awkward silence. Before the tears could fall out and be seen, Hinata fled the hallway like a bat out of hell. Even though logic pounded into her that Tetsu was not Naruto, she could not hold long in the presence of someone with a face like that.
Natsumi blinked at Hinata's behavior, and then turned her eyes towards her son. Tetsu showed not the least bit of regret. "That is not how you should act toward a guest, Tetsu," Natsumi chided in a low voice. "Especially a young lady like her."
"Young lady?" Tetsu scoffed, pulling his yukata tighter to his skin. "There is no young lady around here. There are not even young women around." He looked through an open window, and onto the street. Several men were pulling a crate, full of wooden logs and clean slabs of stone. Another was setting up his stall for okonomiyaki.
Natsumi's voice took an almost pleading tone. "Try to get along with Hinata."
"I doubt it." Tetsu finally pulled his eyes away from the morning street business, and turned to his mother. "Can I eat my food here again, Kaa-san?"
A black hammer gleamed as it was swung down onto a red, glowing strip of metal. The quick, high-pitched sounds of forging echoed off the ominous cave walls. The only lighting was the heath, and the torches decorating the walls. The flames wavered and danced, as if trying to syncopate with the sounds of the hammer.
An even layer of sweat covered the forger's skin, glistening in the room's heat. The thick strikes mellowed down as time passed. Gradually, they turned to monotonous taps.
The blacksmith raised the glowing blade, giving it a final balance by his eyes. He smiled in satisfaction. He stabbed it into a large bucket of water. A hiss of steam escaped. He raised the cooled sword out, and examined it. To his pleasure, the metal had turned a beautiful sky-blue as it came dripping out of the water.
"For whom is that?" a voice from the entrance asked. "The Lady of the Lake?"
The blacksmith looked up, and saw a man with long, silver hair standing at the door. "Master, those jokes you get abroad won't faze me. I'm a local sort of guy." His thumb slightly lifted the collar of his drenched kimono shirt.
"Were you as 'local' as you claim, you would not so quickly label it 'from abroad'," the other pointed out. "You would have assumed it was yet another female demon changing her name in hope of inciting awe."
The blacksmith laughed. "You got me there."
The silver-haired man walked over, and leaned his back against the rocky wall. He watched his blacksmith-slash-carpenter ogle over his latest creation. "I presume you are up to date with what is happening with the heavens."
"...Heavens?" Catching the frown from his master, the dark-haired man quickly got his brain away from the sword. "Oh, yes! Division 34 recently discovered that the Hidden Leaf Village has turned clean."
There was now a deep wrinkle beside the frown. "Clean?"
"As in, completely sterile of freed souls and demons. Well, there're probably one or two demons still around — tight and protected into seals, of course — and probably a few dead people who're new to being hungry ghosts." The blacksmith said all this casually, not noticing the cold irritation of his master. "But yes! It is confirmed that the Hidden Leaf Village is definitely where the Priestess resides." The blacksmith focused part of his concentration back onto the sword again. He rolled the dull handle in his palm. "The only problem we have is getting a demon troop to willingly go against a village that sealed away the Kyuubi."
The silver-haired man paused. "But the Priestess of Souls does not reside in that village," his low voice intoned. "At least, not anymore."
The blacksmith put down the sword. He looked at his master. "Not anymore?"
"The ancient spiriting away spell... Kamikakushi."
Absentmindedly, the silver-haired man fingered a loose piece of his hair that had stuck onto his black coat. He held it up to the dim light of the fire. Even though hair was technically dead material, like nails, he still could sense a faint glow of his own chakra pulsing through.
"It is a long-lost tradition, for a shaman to leave her own village, in order that she seek the otherworldly." He dropped the hair into the fire. The flames burst blue for a split-second, before crackling down to an orange again. "But I recognized it. I felt it. It came from the middle of the Fire Country."
"Where the Hidden Leaf Village exists," the blacksmith murmured. There was a pause. "...But, where did it go? The spiriting-away spell, I mean?"
The silver-haired man stared at the fire. "The Stone Country."
The blacksmith stared at his master. "You're... not joking." Stillness. "You're not joking."
Something of glee then flashed through his dark eyes.
"Yoh-kay!" he exclaimed. "Great timing that you promoted me only a few weeks ago, huh?" He began to rummage through an iron basket near the heath, which was jammed with various smith-tools. "Rock and metal are my elements! And there are LOTS of rocks in that country! Hence, Stone Country!"
The silver-haired master rolled his eyes. He was somewhat bemused by the fact that his own blacksmith and carpenter was acting like a carefree, prancing child. High on sugar. The guy was almost bipolar, juggling his attention between kissing up to power and his devoted craftsmanship. "Now remember what I told you: observe the Priestess first. Then see what you can do."
"Yes, sir!" the blacksmith almost barked out.
Leaving the man happily to his own plans, the silver-haired being swept out of the room. 'He did not even realize that he missed two weekly meetings.' A small smile tugged at his mouth as he watched the blacksmith work away. 'Then again, he is a spirit of the forge.'
A petite, beautiful girl twisted and moved in the light of the bonfires, in rhythm with the drums and flutes. The water-demon named Potamos wore nothing but a metallic golden top to cover her upper body, and a red sarong curtaining her hips.
Her curly purple hair was down, moving around the skin of her neck like ocean waves crashing on a bluff. She danced barefoot on the petal-flecked grass. The motion of her arms and hips mimicked the increasing turbulence of a river. Her almost-closed eyes maintained a seductive control within her performance.
The group of Sakura, Minoru, and Potamos had stopped by at a small village, in order to earn some money at the annual viewing of the cherry blossoms. Technically, it went on for the two weeks in which the trees were in bloom. The people came on in clusters to picnic under the trees, contemplate the whitish-pink flowers, and chat while feasting upon sauce-soaked dango and cups of sake.
During this night, however, special lights were brought into the cherry blossom grove, along with dancers and entertainers. The more 'sophisticated' people turned their nose in distaste to the perverting of their natural, contemplative holiday. (The disapproving parties usually were housewives, whose husbands attended the night festivity regardless.)
But Potamos was determined to show that something as exotic as belly dancing was more than the sex appeal. Although luring men to her bed would be a nice bonus, the scant dressing the water-demon had on was to exposed the detailed muscles of her body, to reveal that dancing required dedicated training and athleticism. It was an art.
During the long winter, the group had lived off the money that Sakura and Minoru earned as healers on the road. Even this was difficult for Sakura; she had to take care that her true hair color was rarely seen. It had not made much difference during snowstorms, when most of the cases were hypothermia. Any vision a freezing man had of a young woman with pastel hair and emerald eyes, could be dismissed by Minoru next morning as a dream. Which partially was true, because Minoru tweaked their dreams just enough while they were asleep.
Not all of their patients had been willing to pay. In fact, some had no ability to pay at all. The number of homeless people, and people who had homes but could not afford medical treatment, was astounding to Sakura. She often expressed anger towards the villages that treated regular doctors like crap — but what could they do? Only heal.
While Potamos was dedicating her soul to dancing, Sakura was piqued. Unlike the water-demon, Sakura could not slip into the public, close to people as was necessary for healing. Healing was not necessary here.
Instead, she was part of Detox.
Yes. In order for Sakura to earn money in this celebrating village, she had to take care of drunks.
Sakura sat in her tent, wishing to scream. The worst kinds of idiots were coming to HER. She was in charge of healing not the sick impoverished child, not the battered wife who could not find herself to leave her husband, not even the soldier near death on the battlefield. No, she had to take care of morons who voluntarily got themselves so drunk, they couldn't tell whether she was one person or a set of twins.
"Sir... Wake UP!" Sakura shook the shoulder of a man barely sitting in his chair. His blood-alcohol content was high enough that were he allowed to sleep, he could fall into a coma. He did not respond to Sakura's shaking. The medic-nin gave a huff. "This is for your own good." She gave his cheek a series of light slaps. "Hey. C'mon!"
That woke him up. His voice was slurred, and his blood-shot eyes showed confusion as he looked up. "W-What the hell—"
"Yeah, what the hell," Sakura muttered. Her green eyes showed annoyance as she glared at her patient. "You are going to stay awake, all right?"
"Nice outfit," the man murmured, his eyelids drooping. His upper body began to fall forward. Sakura, panicking, instinctively caught him by the shoulders. The brief flicker of sympathy in her dissipated when she felt his hands trail up her torso. His fingers reached the boundary of her under-bust. "Nurse uniform? Kinky."
Sakura bestowed him a chakra-infused punch. He flew, and finally rolled weakly across the tarp floor.
The kunoichi stared at the man. She then cried out in frustration. He was unconscious again! As much as Sakura had detested that perverted and unwelcome move, the medic-nin was not keen to have one of her patients die because of her losing her temper. What was the point of saving an intoxicated man from a coma, only to smack him out and start the whole death cycle all over again?
Besides, it was her own fault for choosing to disguise herself as a nurse. 'Most of the drunks that come into the detoxification tent are male,' Sakura remembered too late. 'DUH.'
"Sacchan!"
Sakura looked up. A purple-haired head poked through the tent's opening, checking out what was going on. "Already done with your dancing, Potamos?" Sakura asked.
The water-demon nodded, and slipped the rest of her body the tent. She studied Sakura's getup. "Woaw, nurse uniform?" Potamos wetted her lips. "Kinky."
Sakura groaned. "Not you, too." She indicated the man next to her. "Help me wake him up, would you please?"
"Sure!"
The humidity plummeted. A ball of water collected between Potamos' hands. The purple-haired girl kept her mental control over the sphere, floating it over the unconscious drunk — and dropped it.
The man gasped awake, soaked in cold water. Blurred before him was the frowning, pink-haired nurse. But this time she had company: a dancer in a glitzy bra top and red skirt. The lavender-haired newcomer embraced the nurse in an almost suggestive manner.
"Was that okay?" Potamos cooed to Sakura, nuzzling against her. She glanced a little at the confused drunkard. "He's getting turned on," the demon whispered in the ear of the medic-nin. A golden, lustful gleam flashed in Potamos' eyes. "Wanna share him?"
"No thanks." Sakura's voice was quick and even. "Take him to an inn, the middle of the forest, I don't care. Just make sure he stays awake until the alcohol is out of his system." To Sakura, it was just one less idiot she had to tolerate until morning.
A squealing Potamos pulled up the human, who was so baffled at his luck that he let her lead without a word of complaint. The two slipped out of the tent, leaving Sakura with several other patients.
Sakura sat down on her folding chair. She only sighed as one patient threw up the contents of his stomach into a ready bucket. 'That was his second round,' Sakura remembered. After he was done and looking better, she handed him a pill and a cup of water. "Take this. You can go home now."
Several hours passed. The loud music from the outside turned soft, slowly... and then disappeared. The yelling and laughing died out as people left, replaced by the calm mumblings of long conversationalists.
By some miracle, all the men and women who had come to the detox tent, were all out by three o'clock in the morning. Apparently, the village was close-knit enough that everyone at the night festival, even those under alcohol's influence, felt obliged to go back home by morning so as to not worry their relations. If they did not care, their family made sure to fetch for them. Sakura saw off the last person, a grown man in his thirties, as he was pulled out by his own mother.
When all was done, Sakura loosened the neck of the nurse uniform. She eyed the envelope on the table, full of the pay that the village elder gave for her medical services. She opened it, and raised an eyebrow. It was enough money to treat her group to a week at an inn. Not bad at all. Although Sakura had never received the chuunin vest (she still did not know whether she had earned one), it was a good thing that she got a civilian's certificate of medicine while still under Tsunade's care, making her eligible to almost any village as a qualified nurse.
While staring at the cash inside the envelope, Sakura's aura senses tingled. She rested the thin package on the table under her palm, and slowly turned around. A black, threatening shadow appeared on the canvas walls. It thinned down as the figure walked closer at the tent.
"Minoru-san," Sakura identified, before he even came through the door.
The elf walked in. "Your intuition is swift as the wind." His robes were clean as the time they had entered the village, showing that he had successfully evaded drunken brawls and spews alike. "Perhaps my aura was a bit too dazzling?"
"No, it was your height," Sakura said. "The shadow gave it away."
"Of course." From the sleeves of his Shinto robes, Minoru pulled out several purses, and set them on the table. "Behold: the first harvest of the year."
Sakura leaned back in her chair, frowning at the stolen money. "You make more money by picking pockets than what I get for healing."
"Thus is the way of the world." Minoru began opening the purses, proceeding to count and organize the various bills and coins.
Sakura watched Minoru. "You know, seeing an elf steal and count money is so wrong."
"Maybe if I were a normal elf," Minoru admitted. "But it's the fault of humans to depend on abstract concepts like money. We are forced to adapt..." When he was interrupted by sounds of rummaging, he looked up briefly from his counting. Sakura cleaned out a portable medicinal cabinet of its leftover supplies, and stuffed them into her travel bag. "Above all, you do the same thing."
Sakura gave a sheepish smile. She sealed her medical pouch, which now had a bulge. "It's things like gauze and antibiotic I take, not money. Money is so dirty; it's been touched so many times..." She made a face at the thought of how many germs were on bills and coins through manhandling. No wonder it was custom for employers to hand out salaries within envelopes. "Oh, yeah, before I forget!"
Sakura pushed the envelope of money towards Minoru.
Minoru raised an eyebrow. He observed at her smiling face: she was obviously proud of her hard work, and trusted him to use the earnings wisely. After a heavy sigh, the blond elf put a finger on his temple. "Sakura-san, you ought keep that. You earned it on your own."
"But I don't need it!" Sakura said. "You buy all my stuff anyway."
Minoru pushed the envelope back to her. "Then considered it an allowance," the blond said. "You may spend it how you want, as long as what you purchase does not hinder our travels." He smirked a little at Sakura's annoyed face: she was like a little sister who tried to get praise from an older brother for her selflessness, only to be shot down. "You should learn how to manage your own finances, Sakura-san."
Sakura picked up the envelope. "Whatever. I decided yesterday that I don't want anymore stuff to carry."
Minoru looked at her. "But you just raided the medicine cabinet."
"It's good to be in stock!" Sakura retorted.
The two paused in their verbal exchange. At first, Sakura glared back at Minoru because she thought he was challenging her to a staring contest. But then she felt an unfamiliar chill seep into the tent, from the west.
The elf turned around, readying his bow. "Prepare yourself, Sakura-san."
Sakura knew what was coming. Demons. "NOW?" As if asking so would change anything.
Minoru swept out of the tent. "You have thirty seconds."
Sakura looked down at her nurse uniform. Well, she certainly could not fight in such an outfit. She zipped it off, and threw on her black kendô robes, which were lengthier but allowed more freedom of movement.
Just as she picked up her sheathed sword, Tennyo, Sakura felt a terrible pulse of dark aura from above. Not even bothering to look up at the tarp ceiling, she put chakra in her legs and jumped through the flaps of the entrance.
Sakura sprinted towards the village, going as fast as she could away from the tent. She felt the push of air on her back: the tent exploded, leaving nothing but cinders.
"There goes my paycheck." Sakura removed her hands from her ears, the minimal protection she had against explosion-induced deafness. She readied her sword, knowing that her current cranky mood could help her battle spirit.
Minoru drew an arrow, and whispered a strange chant. It awakened the deepest elfin magic in him; it made no difference that he was dressed in foreign robes. A mellow, golden aura transferred from his fingers into the feathers of the drawn arrow. As he powered the weapon, a circle of dust began to levitate around his feet.
Sakura noticed that three black shadows flew towards the most holy thing they could identify. Minoru.
The kunoichi was already twisting out the hand-seals. 'Why the hell is he standing like that? He'll be torn apart!'
Finally, Minoru released the string. The chakra-powered arrow shot through all three shadows. He had been waiting for the split-second they were aligned. Minoru watched in satisfaction as the resulting beam of yellow light dissolved the screaming pieces.
"Why do you always SCARE me like that?" Sakura yelled behind Minoru, her fingers throbbing with built-up chakra.
"Perfect aim requires patience," Minoru said. "I need not your protection, nor do you need mine. Go. Fight."
Another pulse of threatening chakra came from the right of Sakura. She turned around, and slid out Tennyo.
The line of steel made a green glint in the face of incoming wraiths. The shadows were violently pushed back by the unseen force. Their wispy forms tumbled into the thicker area of the grove. They were shook up, but unhurt.
Sakura's eyebrows furrowed. 'It didn't split them? But last time, with the tree-youkai...'
She felt a sharp, burning sensation run through her veins. Her eyes saw flashes of dark-green.
Minoru let loose another arrow, taking care of another cluster of wraiths. In the corner of his eye, he saw Sakura collapse to the ground.
Sakura lay, slightly shaking. Her green eyes were wide open as she saw wraiths descend upon the center of the village. Try as she might, she could not find the strength to lift her limbs. 'Move!' she ordered. 'Move! Damn it, Sakura, MOVE!'
She looked at Tennyo next to her. She tried to reach the weapon. Her arm finally somehow moved, but Sakura saw that her fingers were barely twitching.
Minoru ignored the screams of humans in the village. He appeared before Sakura in a flash, and immediately saw what was wrong. He put holy, yellow chakra into his right hand, and placed it on Sakura's temple.
As the elf did this, Sakura felt the tight net of pain slide off her head. The kunoichi immediately sat up, relieved, but also angry at herself for collapsing at this time of crisis. "Shit! Now those things are—"
"You are not to use any wind-techniques until I deem you fit to do so, Sakura-san." It was an order from Minoru, not a statement.
The kunoichi was taken aback. "What!" Sakura's voice was tinged with disbelief as she turned to Minoru. "But those are my most destructive—"
"Sorry, not anymore." The elf only drew another arrow across his bow. "The most destructive technique in your repertoire now is actually your simplest."
Sakura paused for thought. "My taijutsu?"
Minoru let loose another arrow. "Yes, yes, the strength that the human unicorn taught you."
"My shishou has a name," Sakura hissed, before running towards the center of the village. She was suddenly turned off by Minoru's attitude again. Not only was the elf bossing her around, as if he knew everything about her strengths and weaknesses, but he was also cleaning the surrounding forest of wraiths before aiming towards the wraiths storming the village. As if he did not particularly care for human life.
'Well, Minoru-san just trusts me enough to handle the job on my own,' some part of her reasoned. She pulled the black gloves over her hands.
Sakura looked ahead as she sped through the streets. A wraith flew snarling towards her face.
"To quote Naruto," Sakura muttered, the chakra filling her arms and fists, "EAT SHIT!"
The shadow-demon crashed against a wall. It twisted on the ground, ignorant how to deal with the pain: the punch from Sakura had cracked several bones. Its faint skeleton began to heal, but that process stopped when the girl's heel mercilessly nailed it into ground. While the shrunken wraith barely twitched, Sakura folded her hands through a sequence of In. Her gloves began to leak a glow of pink light. She slammed her palm down.
The wraith's remains began to shrink. When Sakura lifted her fist slowly, the youkai was already gone.
Sakura mentally digested the nothingness she saw in the crater. These wraiths looked big, due to the clouds they produced around themselves. But once it got through their minds that they were the ones getting hurt, they were already shrinking like worms stranded on dry concrete.
The only problem was, a number of wraiths still afloat in the air. Almost like a swarm of bats. Except bats were nicer. At least bats ate mosquitoes.
Sakura saw several thin objects fly upwards from the central district. They sparkled as they dispersed the army of shadows. A tiny figure jumped up from a hotel window, and ran vertically up the building towards the demons.
Potamos leapt head-on into the swarm of wraiths. Her hand snatched one wraith, and willed coldness into it. Within two seconds, it looked like it had been dipped in liquid nitrogen. She swung the corpse around like a club, while jumping on the heads of other wraiths.
Sakura made several In as she watched. As good as Potamos was, some of the wraiths were bypassing the cute water-demon to get towards the village. And a few villagers were coming out of their houses to see the source of all the noise.
"Look out!" Sakura slammed her body against a door, which had been creaked open by a confused housewife. The kunoichi heard a scream of surprise from inside, which followed with a doubly loud scream when a wraith flew flat into a window — it could not go through glass, but it was still visible. 'These creatures aren't very intelligent, are they?' Sakura thought, before slugging the youkai half the street's length with a leather-gloved fist.
Sakura made the effort to carefully pull off wraiths that were collecting at people's doors. She found one demon whose spine was flexible and thin enough, that it was trying to squirm through the lower gap of a closed door. It had nearly succeeded, before Sakura pulled out her katana and stabbed it through the stomach. A pool of gray blood resulted, only to evaporate five seconds later.
After ten minutes, Sakura threw her last necessary punch for the night. The swarm had been obliterated, thanks to the archery skills of the elf, and Potamos' charging-in attacks.
Sakura was frustrated. Even though Minoru and Potamos were helping her, this incident was one of a new wave of demon attacks. Sure, she had seen stronger, bigger youkai before. But they had only appeared one at a time. That was manageable for Sakura, once she read the reports in Tsunade's office of mysterious attacks and tracked the monsters down. But how could such a large number of small, rather weak wraiths have managed to enter the human realm?
While these questions spun in her brain, Sakura pulled her body out the village. She hid herself in the buildings' shadows at specific points, skirting around lamps while still using them as guides. The authorities of village security obviously wished the find suspects for the damage.
She made it to the cherry blossom grove. A few lanterns from the party remained. The kunoichi sensed a few villagers possibly following her from behind, so she cloaked herself with a simple genjutsu of petals. The grove was a shortcut to the main traveling road.
Minoru and Potamos were already waiting for her there.
"Hiya," Sakura greeted. Weariness laced her voice. She had been bright awake during the battle, but now it was over. It was four in the morning and still pitch-black outside; her body cried for sleep. She wanted desperately to get a room at the inn of the village, and sleep the battle off.
But the detox tent had been burned to a crisp. Questions might be raised of why the foreign nurse escaped the attack completely unharmed. No, it was better to leave now.
Potamos lightly stretched. After that workout of a battle, her face seemed to shimmer in refreshed glee. "That was so fun!" she quietly commented as they walked. "Although they were still babies, their agility wasn't bad!" The water-demon played with the bra straps of her dancer outfit, which she had not changed out of after her escapade with the drunken human. "Shooting ice again felt kewl, especially after a good —"
"No more, Devil-child," Minoru said.
"That was the biggest horde of youkai-demons," Sakura muttered, "that I've seen so far."
Minoru studied the exhausted, but also concerned expression of the pink-haired kunoichi. "It means the barriers in this world, between the youkai realm and the human realm, are cracking. Some sort of intense... charm must have triggered it."
He bit his lip. The blond elf had known the possibility of this happening. What upset him was that it occurred too soon. The image of dark-blue hair and opaque eyes flashed in his mind. 'That poor child.' Minoru was aggravated with the forces aimed at the Priestess. 'These events are occurring too fast, even for a human of her caliber.'
His concerned face melted away. "Sakura-san. What would you say, about looking for the Three Sacred Treasures?"
One of her eyebrows lifted in skepticism. "A quest for an artifact," Sakura stated. "Okay... Except, instead of one holy cup, like in your world — we'd have to find three total objects." With a snort, she turned her head back on the road. "I believe in magic and jutsu, Minoru-san, but there is a limit."
"I know the keeper of one." Minoru smiled. "The Priestess of Souls."
"Ooh, ooh!" Potamos bounced up and down on her heels, lifting the ends of her sarong by her fingers. "I heard from a few other spirits in this world that she's super sweet and nice! It'll be cool to develop relations with her!"
"You are forbidden to rape the Priestess, Devil-child," Minoru said in sternness.
"I had no idea that it was an option, Mino-chan," Potamos answered in a put-out tone, while Sakura reacted to the elf's comment with a surprised hack. The water-demon walked far ahead of Minoru, her sarong-wrapped hips swishing in an overdone staccato.
Five days had passed since Hinata found herself lying in a grove in the Stone Country.
Hinata covered her sneeze with a lightly curled fist. It was very quiet and breathy, but it caught Natsumi's attention. It was almost like a kitten sneezing.
"Are you catching a cold, Hinata?" Natsumi asked.
The blue-haired girl sniffed up clean air, held it, and breathed calmly out. "No, just a sniffle." For the sake of cleanliness and courtesy, however, Hinata took out a clean facemask from her apron, and fastened it over her mouth and nose. After washing her hands, Hinata quickly resumed her work of grinding herbs for medicine.
Hinata closed her eyes for a brief moment. One reason was for resting her arms. But another was using her Byakugan to check her surroundings. Using the bloodline limit at regular intervals, Hinata kept track of customers entering the store, the traffic and business in the village streets, and also the inner workings of the pharmacy.
Murashi and Natsumi, although very old when first seen, worked with the vitality of twenty-year-olds in their pharmacy. The Taketori Apothecary was the only pharmacy in the small village: thus, both the pride and the responsibility of preparing medicine were laid heavily upon the couple's shoulders.
Natsumi currently sat in the chemistry room with Hinata, judging the girl's handling of botanicals. Some herbs, one could simply dry and grind — but there were many plants that had to be fresh, or at a modified state, before getting mixed with others substances to make an effective medicine.
"Stop, stop." Natsumi pulled her shawl closer as her head neared the mortar. Hinata stopped, and tentatively held up the pestle with her fingers. The old woman critically eyed the ground-up material. "You've got the elbow-grease; good for you. But see the smudges that are happening to the sides of the mortar?" Her aged hand pointed to the areas of darkening mush. "Grinding it for too long of a time, can allow the enzymes to start working, and break down the base. We want that to happen later, but not now..."
Natsumi put a heavy emphasis on biochemistry in her explanations. Because it was something that Hinata was new to, the lessons went on a bit longer than Natsumi had originally planned. But Natsumi was a patient woman.
For that, Hinata was personally grateful. The kunoichi had learned the basic, practical techniques of making medicine in record speed under Tsunade, but at the cost of not actually understanding the reasons behind such techniques. Some part of the new curriculum terrified Hinata. Amino acids, proteins, enzymes, lipids... all new words to her. But she had all the time in the world to figure them out.
They would be easier to figure out than a certain someone in the house, anyway.
With her Byakugan, Hinata spotted Tetsu reading in his room. Again.
The relationship between her and Tetsu, mildly put, had not changed one bit. He ate meals in his room, separate from his parents and Hinata. The platinum-haired teenager left his room for two reasons only, and those were to use the toilet, and to take a bath. If in the brief incidents he met Hinata in the hallway, he'd step around her with careful haste, as if the slightest touch would soil his sleeves.
Hinata deactivated her Byakugan, before turning to see the back of Natsumi. "Obaa-sama."
"Yes, Hinata-chan?"
"Did I seriously offend Tetsu-san?" Hinata asked. "In any way?"
Natsumi stopped stroking the coals in the fire. After a pause, she resumed working at them. "Tetsu is a strange child, even in this village," Natsumi answered quietly. "He had always been shy, and bright, observing everything... Tetsu insisted that he learn at home. But later we found out that..." She fumbled with her words, as she tried to formulate the sentences without offending Hinata. "You see... Tetsu is not very fond of people. It's not you, Hinata."
The old woman picked up the heated mortar with tongs, and poured the mixture into a small, hand-sized container. She then took a metal cap from a pool of hot water. "This is just like making fruit preserves. You have to have both container and cap sterilized with boiling water early on. Then you make a vacuum." She twisted the warm cap on tight. She waited about ten seconds, before pushing down on the cap. "See, no springing up! No air going through this puppy." Natsumi handed over the warm medicine to Hinata. "I think it's about time you toured the village. Can you take this to Mikagami-san? She lives two blocks to the south. Her stock is just about to run out."
Hinata blinked. "Huh? Oh, yes, Obaa-sama!" She took the jar, and stepped out of the room.
A pair of blue eyes, veiled with silver hair, barely flashed after Hinata as she walked the hallways.
"Don't get fucked," Tetsu's voice mumbled.
Hinata tightened her lips. She strode away, her back upright like how her father had taught her. 'This is just the stress of dealing with a new environment,' her serene side chanted forcefully. 'Don't take his... words to heart.' This with renewed calmness, Hinata stepped out in the streets to deliver the medicine.
As she trod the streets, Hinata felt the stares come at her from every direction. Being a foreigner to a small, isolated town, Hinata had been instructed by her hosts to stay in the house. Until now, that is. Her first few days of stay had been wracked with villagers coming into the pharmacy, not to buy medicine, but to check out the girl who came to this back-of-the-woods area on her own. Hinata had shown her face two days ago from now, but that had been while she was still inside the pharmacy.
The streets now were quite safe, though. It was bright daylight, with the noon sun gleaming down warmth. People walked the streets quite normally, save their brief glances. Hinata still had her Jyuuken for times of crisis.
Around the second corner, she read the front stone of the nearest house: -Mikagami- Hinata walked to the door, and knocked.
A tired-looking woman slid open the door. Her eyes bugged out at the sight of the young girl.
"From the Taketori Pharmacy," Hinata said, holding the jar out to her. "Your pre-ordered medicine. I hope it will ease your ailment." When the medicine was received, she gave a low bow. "Thank you for your patronage!"
"You are their new assistant?" The woman's voice was croaky.
Hinata lifted up her head. "Why, yes—"
The kunoichi blinked. Behind the woman, within the hallways of the Mikagami house, stood four boys. There were all staring at her, peeking from behind other doors. Their ages varied, but the youngest looked no older than fourteen. In all eyes glowed a hint of a fearful, but almost feral, curiosity.
'Xenophobia.' Lips tightened, Hinata bowed once again to the mistress of the house, and turned to go back home. She lifted her toes a bit higher than usual in her gait, slightly increasing the pace of her walk.
"H-Hinata-san!" Mikagami's voice called out. "Send Natsumi-san my regards!"
Hinata nodded back with a smile. She was a bit relieved. 'That went well for my first delivery...' She made her way through the few streets, towards the fence caging in the pharmacy. Just behind it would be the rock garden.
The blue-haired girl then realized something. All of the people staring at her — correction, everybody walking in the streets — were male. Which was very unusual, even for the most traditional societies. Would not more women be around collecting foodstuffs from market, rather then men who were obliged to go out and do physical labor such as crops or hunting?
Hinata had no problem with a different culture that perhaps made men more... domestic than the average village. But from the repeated observations from her Byakugan, Hinata realized that this village was an entirely different case. There were not that many women in the village at all, not even in the houses. The only ones she had identified of the female sex so far of this village were her hostess Natsumi, and her first customer Mikagami.
Hinata walked towards the pharmacy, her head down. This allowed her indigo hair to cover the veins protruding from her Byakugan. The villagers seemed unaware of her observations, but her bloodline limit showed a great deal. Their stares were haggard, almost disdainful — but also a hungry, painful sort of curiosity lurked in them.
As Hinata felt the stares chisel into her, an unknown dread crept in her soul. 'What's wrong with this place?'
A pair was walking towards her from behind. Hinata did not change her pace, hoping that they were just equally using the same road for travel as she did.
Her hopes went down the drain when one man reached towards her shoulder.
Instinctively, Hinata turned around, her fingers straightening like a dagger. She stabbed a pressure point. She did not know which one it was, but it was the first one that her eyes caught.
One of the men collapsed to the ground, howling in pain as he clutched his arm. Hinata's bloodline limit vanished as soon as she looked up. Her lavender eyes widened in horror at the realization of what she just did: she attacked a civilian of her host village with a Jyuuken technique!
"What did you do, you freak?" his partner demanded the foreign girl.
To Hinata's dismay, there was a third man in the group: he had been walking in her Byakugan's blind angle. She paled at the sight of the group glaring at her. Her old stutter began to pour back into her tongue. "I— uh... I mean... That is... I'M SORRY!" The last words ended in a shriek.
The three villagers stared, this time in bewilderment at Hinata's upset state.
The blue-haired kunoichi then performed one of the most commonsense techniques that a ninja possessed. It required the utmost stealth, speed, and strength, and furthermore incorporated one of the most basic human instincts in the face of imminent danger.
Hinata ran away.
From the second-floor window of the Taketori house, Tetsu laughed.
Notes:
"tetsu" - means 'steel'.
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please tell me! If I suck, by all means tell me. In an intelligent manner.