Chapter 52 | The Nameless One
Kuronuma Nishiki sat in front of a long table toppled with scrolls, small wooden chests, and blank sheets. He kept the Fate Sphere unfurled upon the sleek surface of his desk and the Universe Sphere at arm's length, never far from him—not again.
Ayuka watched him tap the surface of the mirror with a languid drum with the points of his fingers. He had plucked the Reflective Sphere from Kuronuma Takuto's hands after throwing him into the dungeons with Yayoi and the Senju boy they had captured. He had taken it to observe the others and had sought each guardian through unearthing their spheres. He had seen the famed Senju Hashirama standing before the storm barrier cast by the Climate Sphere's new guardian, a woman with short red hair, Uchiha Taiga traveling through the Frost Country, silent as the traitorous snake he had proven himself to be. He had followed a girl in the Waterfall Country with brown hair accompanied by Uchiha Madara's precious little brother, Izuna. And when he had searched for their Time Sphere guardians, he had found them together.
Nothing could have been done about that as he had wanted things to run their course and she had not argued against it.
Nishiki continued to drum his fingers along the mirror. He had taken it to search for Madara and Mio and he had found them surrounded by darkness until the image of the two faded into the reflection of his face. He had not spoken since.
Ayuka felt the deep-rooted connection between her and her Fate Sphere gut out like a candle at the end of its life. She did not have words to express her astonishment, only that her husband described it perfectly in his silence.
Nishiki laughed. "That little witch," he spoke. "She's smarter than she was in your vision. Weak, but she's smart."
"Did the Universe Sphere not work on her?" asked Ayuka, though what occurred had no other explanation.
"Have her summoned here," he ordered. "Unharmed. Nobody touches a hair on her head."
"I thought you wanted to let things run their course," Ayuka argued. She did not have the patience to come face to face with Mio after several days of peace within their new world. "The guardians will be at war and the artifacts will come back to us. Mio was not supposed to come here until we needed her."
"We can have her see a physician here," said Nishiki. "She could be carrying our grandchild. She should be taken care of." He stopped tapping the mirror's surface. "And if she is conscious in this world, you can ask her about Gouki's death."
Ayuka shut her eyes, taking a deep breath. She did not like to speak of Gouki, not after she learned of his death. She had not been right since then.
"Ayuka?"
"I'll have someone sent."
The Lightning Country was brimming with shinobi patrolling the streets in full armor, prepared to fight off any threats, when they arrived to the first town along the border. Mio observed the way they moved, always surveying their surroundings, and determined they were searching for someone. She and Madara slipped under their radar, falling in with the traveling merchants that arrived to set up for market. She caught the eye of a farmer's son down the road and managed to get into the good graces of his father to the point the man offered to take them the rest of the way in the back of his cargo wagon. He asked them to help him set up his stand, she did not mind the temporary job as it would give them a cover while they went searching for Taiga.
Madara walked up to her as she helped carry a crate full of merchandise up the small road to the market entrance. The farmer's son was waiting there to direct her towards their area among the other traveling merchants.
"Will you be okay here?" he asked, glancing up the road to the jubilant, brown-eyed man staring at her expectantly. He did not like wandering in the company of strangers, though he accepted it was a good way to blend in and that she had a knack for it.
She nodded. "Search the taverns and the expensive inns," she advised. "I will keep an eye out for him here. He frequents markets."
Madara started to turn, but she stopped him. "Check the brothels."
He inclined his head and went.
Mio walked up the rest of the path where the farmer's son quickly took the crate off her hands, though he seemed to be struggling with its weight more than she had. She did not protest, nor try to take it from him. She thanked him and followed his lead to where his gray-haired father was opening crates behind a large table.
"Where'd that brother of yours wander off to?" the farmer asked.
She offered to help open the remaining crates and he handed her a long metal tool to see it done. "He went to find an inn," she answered. The story with this farmer was different. They were going to the Lightning Country to see the sights and because they were searching for the jewelry sellers it was famous for as her companion would be buying something for his wife back home. For the sake of not being questioned too much over the fact that he was traveling alone with a woman, she told the farmer that he was her brother.
"Might be a good idea," the farmer said, then ordered his son to do the same. The young man was reluctant at first, but he went.
Once alone with the farmer, Mio knew there wouldn't be as many questions being asked. She stayed at the man's side for as long as it took to set up his stand and wandered off with the pretense of finding food. She knew exactly how to find Taiga in the Lightning Country. She understood how he moved from place to place in search of information and was certain she could track him to one of the adjacent towns. He returned to a site twice to pick up on anything he missed the first time and to cover his tracks. Madara thought it strange that she specified this particular town instead of where she had last sensed the pulse of his artifact, but she lied about wanting to go through the market to find a gaffer (knowing that was a useless idea). She swore to apologize to him later.
Mio took every busy venue out of town, not bothering to evade the heavily armed shinobi patrolling the streets. She was stopped twice by two different groups and was questioned about whether or not she had encountered any suspicious characters.
"Should I watch out for anyone in particular?" she had asked the second time she had been forced to step under the shade of a canopy. She had been standing in the center of a half circle of four shinobi that looked to be from one of the more dangerous clans in the Lightning Country. She had no interest in fighting them, so she had threaded carefully.
"Only suspicious shinobi," the older shinobi had told her.
"You should not be walking around alone. These are very dangerous shinobi," another had warned.
She had smiled. "That is not a problem. I am meeting with my elder sister and her husband. They're nearby."
They had sent her on her way, but had lingered and watched her every move until she had thought it prudent to walk into the first restaurant she encountered down the road.
After she had left the establishment through a back entrance and taken the alley into the street on the other side of the road, she hurried through the rest of her trip.
Mio arrived in town by late afternoon. She went straight to the shopping district and followed a drunkard with a gambling addiction to a brothel in the outskirts of town, though one needed to look twice to see the business for what it was. Taiga always said women were better at wringing out a man's secrets, especially drunken and satisfied men. When he had divulged that tidbit of information to her on the road, she had made the mistake of asking if he had loosened his tongue often with that kind of woman. She had not meant anything by it and he was probably aware, but he had cornered her that day when her grandfather was nowhere in sight and had said, "Would you like to try it?"
She sat down at a soba cart across the street and ordered food to fill her empty stomach. She spoke casually to the cart owner's wife, who did not ask too many questions. She stayed as long as it took for her to be noticed before paying her bill and walking to the nearest inn.
She was aware she was being followed the instant she walked inside. Despite it, she rented a room and went to it, down a long hall connecting the main building to the second one behind it. She entered, but when she attempted to close the door behind her, someone pushed it open.
Mio turned around quickly as the door closed shut and lifted her eyes to meet Taiga's. He looked weary despite having shaven the scruff from his face and cut several inches off his messy brown hair. He wore the clothes one saw on any commoner of the Lightning Country only with a bag slung across his torso.
"I heard there was someone being blatantly suspicious," he started, reaching back to turn the lock. "I should have known it was you." He gave her a lopsided smile. "Been a while, hasn't it, princess?"
She prepared herself to deal with him for how many hours it took to convince him to join her and Madara on their journey to gather the rest of her guardians. "We need to talk."
"Oh? Should we have a seat?" he asked, then gestured to the bed off in the corner. "On the bed, perhaps?"
"If you need to sit, sit, but I am perfectly fine standing," she said.
Taiga sank into a seat on the bed. "Well, what's this talk about?"
"Madara and I need your help."
"Ah? Madara is here, too?" he questioned, looking around as if he would find him hidden somewhere in the room. He smiled at her. "Let me guess, you have him running around taverns and brothels in the next town over?"
"Why do you ask if you are already aware?"
"Are you trying to keep me a secret?" he asked with a playful smile.
"Madara and I need your help," she repeated, ignoring his comment. "We cannot stay here—"
"No."
"As much as I dislike it, you are a guardian to my spheres and you have a responsibility—"
"Yes, so tell me, who do you plan to marry to solve this problem?" he interrupted.
Mio bristled. "I am not here to be mocked. I am here asking for your help."
"And I am refusing your request."
"What do you want?" she asked exasperatedly. "What can I do to make you agree to help us?"
"You can do many things, but none Madara would approve of."
She did not even bat an eyelash. "Tell me."
"When I think of something suitable, I will tell you."
"Then you will come with us."
"Perhaps, you haven't bothered to tell me what responsibilities I have to an artifact that does not even work."
Mio dragged a chair to the front of the bed and sat. She explained everything he needed to know about her having to cut off the Time Sphere's power to stop Nishiki and Ayuka from using their own artifacts against them. She proceeded to inform him that she and Madara meant to gather their guardians, though when he asked what she planned to do after she had accomplished that, she had promptly responded that she had not considered further than that.
"Do you know where these other guardians of yours are?" asked Taiga.
"Three are in Earth Country," she answered.
"Who?"
"Takuto, Tobirama, and Yayoi."
Taiga made a face at the sound of Tobirama's name. "And you are certain?"
"Of their location, yes, once we have the others, I can navigate us straight to them."
"And how do you suppose we find the others?"
"I will leave that to you," she told him.
"Okay," he said simply.
She was taken aback. "Okay?"
"I'll do it."
Mio did not drop her guard. "Thank you."
Taiga stood and headed for the door. "I'll ask my men to return to the Fire Country. I'll find you when I'm done here."
She turned away from him, feeling in part relieved that he had agreed to go, but she was not fully trusting of his actions (or the fact that he even said yes). She refused to be as she heard the door creak open, but shut just as quickly. She whirled around as Taiga wound an arm around her waist and pulled her body to his. She put her hands to his chest reflexively and looked at him crossly.
"You owe me a reward," he said, touching her face with his free hand.
Mio recoiled. "For what?"
"Listening to you," he told her with a strange smile. "There's a price for everything."
She reached for his arm and pried it off, slipping from his grasp. She would not let him toy with her this way. "Enough."
Taiga shifted his weight and stared upon her curiously. "If I remember correctly, something like this did not bother you before," he pointed out. "Back then, you would have let me do as I wanted." The smile that spread across his lips was full of amusement. "Oh? Does this have anything to do with Madara?"
"There is nothing between us," she lied.
"Then, you shouldn't mind if I took my reward," he said. "I did go off to rescue you without being asked to do so, though it's a shame I did not make it to you."
He reached for her again, grabbing her by the face and drawing her to him harshly. She saw him leaning in to kiss her and she responded by pressing both her hands over his mouth. Her heart thumped nervously as she stared at him and he looked back because there was a glint in his eyes that told her she had made a mistake. She should have gone through with it and regretted it later, but she couldn't do it. She didn't think she could ever allow another to make such an advance with her.
Taiga took her hands and drew them from his mouth, laughing. "Admit it," he said mockingly. "You are his."
"Why are you doing this to me?" she asked, tugging her hands from his hold. "I don't understand. Why are you doing this to me?"
The humor left his gaunt face and his eyes darkened. "Why?"
"Just stop with this," she said, her voice strained with emotion. "You don't mean it. You don't want me. You are playing with me and I've had enough. What do you want from me?"
Taiga pushed her hair behind her ears and stepped closer, holding her face in his hands. "I thought you were like me," he said, observing her reaction, which was immediate skepticism. "I wanted you to be like me." He shrugged and let her go with something of a disappointed sigh to follow. "You're not. I see that."
Mio followed him quietly as he stepped further from her. Her stomach felt empty and full of air. "How?"
He shocked her by answering her question in a voice that rang with honesty foreign to a man like him. "I did not have anyone."
"You have Minako—"
"I am incapable of keeping anyone," he clarified.
"You had Eijiro-san and Sako. You have Jouji that believes in you. You have Kana."
"I was surrounded by people that never trusted me enough to leave me on my own," he replied bitterly. "And Kana, ha. She hates me. She would faster see me dead than accept I am her brother."
"Minako loves you," Mio told him. When Mio had gone to the Waterfall Country and met Sako and Minako, the small girl waited for the right moment to ask her if she knew anything about her father. "You can't assume she will turn her back on you. You were never unkind with her. You were—" He might have been absent because of his duties, but she remembered he always took care of his daughter.
He shook his head. "I am fine with it. Sako has done a good job with her and she will continue to do so. But I—"
"What about Yayoi?" she asked suddenly. "She doesn't care."
The mention of her name made him laugh. "There's Yayoi."
Mio took a seat beside him, drawn by his honesty. Anything could force him to clamp up again, but it seemed neither Minako nor Yayoi would, which she found curious.
"I want to know," she said, for the first time reaching out to touch the top of his hand. She recalled what his grandfather had said about his parents. She remembered what her own grandfather had said about them. She thought about what Taiga said of wanting her to be like him and she imagined that all the people standing outside his world had their backs turned to him and gathered from what he said, that those that weren't, would one day. He was alone and surrounded by mistrust. "But you should know that if you were less likely to betray the people around you, we would feel more inclined to stand by you."
Taiga glowered.
"Madara trusts you," she continued. "He gave you one of my artifacts."
"Madara has an ulterior motive," he replied. "He wants the Uchiha tablet. He wants my secrets."
"Yes," she admitted. "So what do you gain from allowing Madara to lead the clan? You have ulterior motives too."
"If you have not noticed, I like being alive and I will continue doing everything in my power to stay that way whether that means using or betraying you or whoever I see fit."
She exhaled deeply. "Taiga," she began, meeting his eyes. "Madara gave you one of my spheres and made you guardian. I think he made a stupid decision and I know you do too."
At that, he nodded. "He gave me a pretty good artifact, though," he remarked. "It appeals to my sadistic side."
"Yes, and we will speak of that later," she continued. "But you are a guardian now. I am willing to trust you completely for the duration of this journey. Whether you have ulterior motives or not, I will stand beside you because I am a guardian, too, and when I was Shugosha I promised to protect every one of my guardians. I won't set you apart from the others for the things you have done in the past. I will not care for them. All will be forgotten. I just want your word."
"My word?"
"Yes, your word that you will not betray me."
"And that is all you'll need?"
She nodded resolutely.
"Fine," he told her. "You have my word. But only you."
She would take what he could offer. "Okay."
Taiga left his seat. "I will find you when I am done with my business."
Mio stood. "Why did you come to this country? What are you looking for?"
He took the doorknob. "Who?" he corrected.
Taken aback, Mio asked, "Who are you looking for?"
"The priestess," he said, though it wasn't spoken as a joke.
"Yayoi?"
"Odd, isn't it?" he told her, looking at her over his shoulder. "She's remarkably persistent and very honest."
She nodded, shell-shocked. "Indeed," she said. "She will be ecstatic."
He raised a finger to his lips. "She's not allowed to know."
Mio could keep a secret. "And she will not."
He opened the door and took his first step out when she had spoken up a second time, her voice reaching him as soft as she had uttered the inquiry. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Depends," he answered, turning around fully behind the door's threshold. "Is it a stupid question or a good one?"
Something about his attitude compelled her to question him further because she felt he would be honest and because he, himself, made her think of all the days she believed she would be alone. It was not that she was never curious, rather afraid of speaking the words because he would likely mock her, but she had the courage now. Perhaps, she was overstepping her boundaries, but she wanted to know. "Why were you not given a name?"
Taiga's face lightened with surprise, but he recovered quickly. "I had three elder brothers," he said. "Shuuji. Jirou. Tomoo. They all died before I was born. When I was born, I was expected to follow in their footsteps. Grow old enough to wield a kunai, go out into battle, and die young. What reason did anyone have to give me a name? I was born to serve the effort. Sad to say, I'm the only one that survived it. The one without a name. The Nameless One."
He laughed and he went, saying enough to pique her interest further but too little to make much out of it.
Mio left the inn an hour after Taiga had gone feeling as though she had taken a piece of him with her, a very secret part of him. She went to search for Madara but ended up being found herself and he seemed angry.
"Where have you been?"
"I found Taiga," she confessed.
"Where?"
"That's not important, I found him and he is going to meet us."
"Was that your intention all along? You wanted to find him so you sent me to look somewhere else?" he demanded.
"Yes," she admitted. "But I had my reasons."
"What reasons?"
She averted her eyes. "I'd rather not say."
Madara grabbed her by the arms and shook her. "What stupid thing have you done?"
"I have done nothing," she remarked, wriggling free from his grasp.
He waited for her to say more, so she did. "I never said my reasons to finding him myself were all that remarkable. I only needed to speak to him."
"About?"
"About his becoming a guardian not being a choice I would have made."
Madara released her. "Do not think you can lie to me, I know how you lie."
She opened her mouth to speak, but the sound of a kunai slashing through the air kept her silent. Madara's reflexes were quicker than her own and by the time she whirled around to see the group of shinobi standing on the rooftop across the street, Madara's own kunai had struck down those aimed at her and managed to hit one of their enemies between the eyes. The man's reaction came belatedly as he fell from his perch to the dirt road.
"The fool," one shinobi cursed. "He was told not to aim at the girl and he did."
Another, presumably the leader, walked to the forefront. "Princess, we have been asked to escort you to the palace," he said. "Now, you can come quietly or we can—"
Mio stepped forward, planning to see through this without a struggle. "I'll go."
She could accomplish plenty under Nishiki and Ayuka's nose and she trusted Madara could carry out what needed to be done with Taiga at his side.
"What?" Madara snapped, grabbing her by the arm and jerking her back. "You will not!"
She pulled her arm away, gesturing for the shinobi on the rooftop to wait. She turned to Madara. "Taiga will find you and you will find the rest," she whispered, then reached for her bag where she carried the Time Sphere and handed it to him. "Go to the Waterfall Country. Find Saori. Then go to the Uzumaki. She will take you to the Senju. And please try not to kill each—"
"This is reckless!" He took her roughly by the arm. "I will take you from this place by force if I must, but you are not going to go back to Nishiki."
"Why don't I help with that?" Taiga dropped in from the roof above them and the shinobi became alert, whispering to one another words that did not carry onto her. "You take her. I'll distract them."
"That's not necessary, I will go," she stated, prepared to pry Madara's hand from her if it meant breaking it. "I have a plan!"
"Sad to say, but your plans are stupid," Taiga said behind her. "So, let me enlighten you with a better plan."
There was a sharp pain in the back of her neck and instant darkness.
xl: If things work out the way I want them creatively, we will see more action in the chapters to come. So, let's all cross our fingers and hope that everything works out! On a different note, I'm feeling better so to everyone that wished me well, thank you so much! The cough is still here, but it'll go away in a week or two or more (you know, eventually). Because of that this chapter is a week early, or rather five days early?
Chapters from now on will be a little sporadic. I usually update on Fridays, like 12AM (Thursday), but like I mentioned in my LJ, my aunt came to visit from out of the country and I've given up my room to accommodate her. I'm living out of my living room, atm, which is fun 'cause I get to make use of the pullout couch. XD The problem is I can't write with anyone around and well, everyone is usually in the living room. D: I usually try to get some writing in at night, but I can't stay up late (and this is terrible because I enjoy doing all my writing overnight). LOL
So, in short, you may see the next chapter to this series later this week (like over the weekend) or see it early next week. In other writing news, I'll try to put out chapters for All I Wanted and Winter, though those won't make an appearance before the 30th.
I'll see you then~
Preview will be up in a couple minutes!
Thank you to these lovely people for reviewing: Loteva, Kettobase, crazyuser, HushedFable, and TheNinjaOfEpic because you've all helped bring this story to 260+ reviews! And it continues to amaze me how far I've gotten. I did not expect to break 100, nor 50. Actually, my expectations were low. Very low. So I keep getting surprised by every new favorite and alert and review I get. So, everyone that's helped me get this far (considering we're getting to the end...closer and closer these days), continue being amazing. My only hope is to keep entertaining you! :)
Thank you for reading!
