Attn: Every time I see someone has liked/followed this story, it makes me so happy and encourages me to continue. Thanks, I'm so glad y'all are enjoying the story! I've actually written every chapter except for the very last one, so all I have to do is edit and publish them. I'm planning for this to end at twenty-one chapters so it's nearly there :) I don't own Naruto. All characters except for the OC's are not my own.
"I'll never be that me again."
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
When Nanami finally came to, she and Aozora were left where they had passed out. Save for a few fallen rocks, they were completely alone.
"Kiba?" Nanami ignored the headache forming in her temples and stood. She used her incredible night sight to peer into the dark tunnels of the cave but didn't see anyone around.
The silver-haired ninja looked around the general area, hunting for clues.
No sign of a struggle, she mused. No bloodstains...
Nanami heard the shuffle of stone and quickly unsheathed a kunai, whirling towards her enemy.
"Wait, Nanami, it's just me!" Kiba cried, throwing his hands up. He took another step towards her.
"Don't come any closer!" Nanami yelled back, crouched at the ready. It smelled like Kiba, but that strange feeling became stronger, refusing to subside. Aozora eyed him warily.
"But, Nanam-"
"What's my nickname?" she asked the familiar face.
Kiba's face softened. "Kitten," Kiba he said, smiling at her.
Nanami breathed a sigh of relief and placed the kunai back in her pouch. "Sorry," she said sheepishly. "Where's Akamaru?"
Kiba crossed the rest of the distance towards her as he replied, "I sent him back to the entrance while I waited for you to come to. I thought we could use the help."
"Right." She rubbed at her neck. "What do you think the explosion was?"
"I don't know, but we should probably head back for help too. Whatever it was, it can't be good."
"Yeah," Nanami agreed, nodding her head. "Come on, the entrance is back this way."
Kiba rushed towards Nanami as fast as his legs could take him. He hoped with everything he had inside of him that he wasn't too late. When he finally saw the three figures in the distance, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Until he saw the glint of a kunai from a too familiar face.
The Kiba look-alike trailed behind his silver-eyed beauty and Aozora towards the entrance of the cave. A wicked smile painted his lips as he pulled the kunai out of his pouch, pointing it at Nanami's back.
"KITTEN!" Kiba cried, knowing that he wouldn't be able to cross the rest of the distance fast enough.
Without missing a beat, Nanami ducked and swept her leg out, knocking the imposter off his feet. The kunai clattered to the ground and the look-alike exposed his true form as a White Zetsu. The assailant opened his body like a Venus flytrap, attempting to capture the mist ninja inside, but she and Aozora pounded back quickly, creating distance.
Blue flames sprinted from Nanami's fingertips creating a bow in her hands. "Raven Arrow Jutsu!" A blue raven screeched through the air and hit her assailant, sending the target up in flames.
Barely giving her a moment to celebrate her victory, a blur flashed in her vision and Nanami's brain quickly registered the threat of another attack. The blur knocked her cat to the side, sending Aozora flying into stone. Within the next second, Nanami was sent hurtling to the ground. She struggled with the heavy opponent, both rolling against the stone, attempting to gain leverage over the other.
With a vicious slam, her opponent grabbed her by the shoulders and pressed Nanami's body into the earth. It knocked the breath out of her and she opened her eyes, fury filled silver eyes meeting her own.
"Nanami!" Team 8 called out to her, Shino and Hinata also appearing on the scene.
Her father breathed heavy on top of her, sixteen years of disappointment unleashing on her at once.
"You really hate me that much," she confirmed, refusing to break his gaze in submission as she had so many times in the past.
"It seems you've gotten something right for once," he confirmed.
Her teammates and ninja cat made the move to approach her, but her father poured chakra into his claws and placed one razor-sharp nail against her throat.
"Don't even think about it," he hissed at them. "One slice and I'll have her bleeding out right here."
Nanami met Kiba's eyes and a look of understanding passed between them. She turned her head back to her father.
"So what now?" she asked him, voice leveling out into a tone of calm.
"Now?" he asked. Father brought his lips to her ear and whispered, "Now I do what I should have had Zabuza finish for me all those years ago."
Nanami let out a dark laugh. Father leaned back slightly so he could see her expression once more.
"Oh, Father." Nanami smiled at him. "You never did give me enough credit."
In a puff of smoke, Nanami was gone and a stone was left in her place.
Nanami's true form leaped from behind a boulder and she hurled her shuriken at him. Pouncing to his feet, he knocked the weapons away with his kunai.
"Fang Over Fang!" Kiba hurled himself at her father, spinning like a torpedo. Not having Akamaru with him to mark Ikari with his scent, her father was able to dodge the attack and Kiba roughly hit the stone behind him.
The stone rumbled from above and, acting quickly, Kiba stood and sprinted back toward their group. Nanami caught the sight of her father trying to sprint back towards safety as well. A large piece of stone fell from above and a cloud of dust filled the air. Nanami coughed, dirt catching in her lungs, and opened her eyes as the dust settled.
"Kiba?" she called, looking around. Her brown-haired mutt boy appeared next to her, touching her hand in reassurance. The sounds of cracking stone split the air.
"The cave is collapsing," he said and grasping her hand and turned to Hinata and Shino.
"We have to get out of here," Hinata confirmed.
Nanami turned to where her father had once been and saw him struggling under a large rock, his right leg crushed underneath. Father looked at her with pleading, fearful eyes. Nanami hesitated, struggling internally on whether she should save him.
He's your father, one voice said in her mind. Then the other: he killed your mother and tried to kill you.
"We have to go!" Kiba tugged on her hand. Nanami faintly registered Akamaru's bark in the distance, getting closer.
She couldn't describe why, even after all that he'd done to her. Maybe it was a misplaced sense of duty or the struggle of losing her last immediate family member, but Nanami's brain finally came to a decision.
"Father!" she dashed towards him, ripping the hold Kiba's hand had on her.
And, just as Aozora had done so many years ago, she grabbed her owner by the shirt with her teeth and pulled her back to safety. Another stone crashed from above, missing Nanami and crushing her father's skull into the dirt.
Aozora slung Nanami onto her back and Hinata joined them. Her ninja cat sprinted to the cave entrance. Akamaru had made it back to them and followed closely behind carrying Kiba and Shino.
When they made it out, the entrance collapsed behind them moments later. Nanami tumbled off Aozora's back and weakly shuffled to what had just been the entrance to the cave. Now, it was nothing but a pile of rubble. Tears welled up in her eyes for a man that had never shed his own for her. She collapsed to her knees, taking in the sight and struggling to absorb the battle of feelings inside of her.
"What the hell is going on here?!" Tsume yelled, demanding an answer. She stood near the entrance of the cave, where she'd been waiting for them to make it back to safety. A few other members of the Inuzuka clan that Nanami didn't recognize stood behind her, along with Hana. The red fang markings on their cheeks made their clan lineage easy to spot.
"I'd like to know the same," a woman stepped forward who had blue sideways fang marks on her cheeks, signally that she belonged to the Nekoyamas. Other clan members stood closely next to her.
Nanami wondered faintly what they were all doing there but she felt too numb to draw up any sense of worry. She recognized the woman to be her aunt, Shifuku, who her father rarely ever spoke of.
"Where is Ikari?!" she asked, demanding an answer after no one replied.
"He..." Kiba struggled to answer, eyes shifting to the cave.
"He died," Shino answered honestly.
"He-what? And you didn't try to save him?" Shifuku yelled, energy ramping up.
"He tried to kill us! He went after me and then his own daughter!" Kiba yelled back in defense.
"Ikari would never do something like that," another Nekoyama clan member screamed back. "This is the Inuzukas fault! Kemuri warned us about you when he came to get us!"
Nanami saw the feline slink between legs, approaching the front.
"That's right!" Kemuri yelled out, stopping before them and turning to face the Nekoyama clan. "He knew what the Inuzuka clan had been plotting this entire time and desperately tried to put a stop to it. Tsume's boy has been trying to infiltrate our clan, using Ikari's very own daughter as bait." Kemuri pointed his paw at Nanami and then slammed it on the ground in righteous anger. "And now they've completed their mission by killing him off."
"That's preposterous!" Tsume scoffed, clearly resisting every urge inside her to kick the feline.
Every member of each clan began yelling, voices drowning out one another in a sea of hate. Their anger continued to rise, threatening for war within a war. Nanami continued to stare at the rubble, letting her feelings settle. Sadness and anger shifted inside of her, making room for courage and strength. A strange sense of calm washed over her. It was the kind of calm she always tried to feign in front of her father for so many years, despite insecurity hiding beneath the surface. This was different. This was a true, honest sense of calm washing over her.
Nanami stood and slowly turned to face both clans. She called for them to quiet and, when no one heeded her demand, Aozora let out a large, throaty roar, bringing the arguing to a stop. All eyes settled on Nanami and she began.
"What Kiba said is true: my father did try to kill us. As he held his claw to my throat, he admitted to killing my mother. His very own wife."
"What a ridiculous stateme-" Kemuri started.
"As next in line as clan leader, I order you to hold your tongue while in my presence." Nanami's voice boomed, cutting off her father's ratty cat.
"Nanami," Shifuku began carefully, "do you realize what you're saying?"
"I do." Nanami nodded. "My father was so consumed by an age-old hatred that it prevented him from seeing clearly. He'd rather his daughter die by his own hand than for her to be happy when it wasn't under his circumstances." She paused, then continued. "Look around you." Nanami pleaded. "Are we really so different?"
The varying clan members looked around at one another, all gathered around for a common purpose. Nanami noticed Kiba's sister, Hana, smile at her, encouraging her to continue.
"Think about it, Auntie," Nanami continued, singling out Shifuku. "Father was consumed by a stubborn sense of pride that prevented him from seeing past hatred. What are we even fighting about anymore? We aren't every member of our clan. We shouldn't be held accountable for the mistakes and grudges of our ancestors."
Shifuku paused, letting Nanami's words settle in her mind.
"Nanami's right!" a young, feminine voice called out. Nanami's cousin Mirai, who was only a year younger than Nanami, stepped forward. Dark blue hair was wrapped in a braid that was draped over her shoulder. "Come on, mama," Mirai continued, pouting her lips. "Uncle Ikari never let us even have a relationship with them! You said so many times about how uptight and strict he was! Nothing was ever good enough for him. We've barely had contact with Nanami since she and I were little."
Shifuku studied her daughter and then shot Nanami a hesitant look. Finally, the older woman sighed.
"Ikari had always been consumed by a darkness that wouldn't subside. He had a specific vision for our clan that he thought needed to be fulfilled, regardless of how many lives it cost. On that issue, we always did differ in opinion. Your mother agreed too that things needed to change. Sometimes..." Shifuku trailed off like she was unsure but then continued, "sometimes I wondered if he married her for power."
"You'll make a much better leader, Nanami!" Mirai blurted. "You can lead us on the path that your mother wanted!"
Shifuku cast her daughter a warning look, one that told her now wasn't the time.
Hana nudged her mother, signaling that she should say something on behalf of the Inuzuka's. Tsume grumbled and stepped forward.
"I suppose," Tsume began begrudgingly, "that we had a small hand in this persistent feud. But Nanami has a point. What's past is past."
Kiba smiled at his mother's sentiment. It was a rare sight to see a side of her that was even remotely agreeable. Kiba decided to store the memory, as it likely wouldn't happen again for another 20 years.
Tsume extended her hand and Shifuku grasped it in her own.
"What's past is past," Shifuku agreed. "Now, we face a common enemy for the sake of the entire ninja word."
Kiba's fingers grazed Nanami's and he took her hand is his. "You did this," he said. "This is all thanks to you."
I can do this, Father. Nanami thought. No matter what you thought of me, I know what's right and I know now that I can do this. And even if I can't, I have to.