THREE
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Disembowelments

I HAD TO BE KIDNAPPED AT ELEVEN JUST TO GAIN THE RIGHT TO LEARN martial arts. Even then, I had to threat and barter and, my mother's favorite word, compromise to get my way.

It had been in the fall, only a month after Azura's eleventh birthday, that her ship had been attacked on her way to Nagi island for her aunt's fourth wedding. Azura had been staring into the ocean, hearing a sailor from below deck complain that her aunt Zhang Niyeifei was on her way to yet another husband who would die and leave her widowed.

Azura liked sailors for their loose lips and gossip that held no political agenda. Even at eleven, she was smart enough to realize that the ladies at the estates always had an purpose for their gossip. "I hear that Tao Fei is expecting," one such lady had whispered last week, but Azura knew such slander had arisen due to the competition of marriage for Tao Fei's betrothed, Kobayashi Daichi. Kobayashi currently controlled the shipping industry, so a marriage into this family would bring prosperity that would last a generation.

At least, that was what everyone at the time believed. Her grandfather in particular was livid when Azura had decline this match, only saying, "His father had borrowed too much money to support his business and finance his investors. He will tarnish the Shao family name."

Her grandfather had relented to this, not that he'd ever give the young girl credit for the tip on the Kobayashi wealth. Instead, Shao Junimiro had ended up going under Kobayashi's eyes and paying off the investors and purchasing the eastern docks on Azura's recommendation. Since then, men had been more mindful about what they said when she was in earshot range. They would later realize that while the small girl's hands were preoccupied with a brush and a ink, her ears were intent on listening for any edge.

Now, she was stuck on a ship with Mist village Jounin and her sister, Shao Junko, who was below deck sick from the sea. In contrast, Azura loved the sea. She loved the fog, the ocean breeze, the salty wind, and the fact that when at sea, she had far more freedom than ever had at the estate. The gods forbid free range be given in spitting distance of a Daimyō.

"Not too close to the edge, Azura-sama," the Jounin said, his Mist village headband glinting in her eye. Azura was nearly tempted to drown herself just to gain a bit of freedom from the eyes of the many Jounin who guarded her.

What I wouldn't do for Junko's laughter, Azura thought in lament, missing her sister's sense of humor. This was due to the fact that she was four and had yet to be properly trained on what she could and could not say. Azura had taken full advantage of that, teaching the girl swear words that would make even the sailors blush. It was all in good fun that was worth her mother's backhand.

Still, her sister was sick and Azura was in such heavy robes that she was certain would make drowning much easier. She had only met her aunt twice, and was already dreading the wedding. A Shao wedding was a long, tedious affair that lasted a week of celebrations. Niyeifei would know well of that, considering this was a fourth one. The first husband had died of measles, the second of a duel that left him with a dagger in his back and an infection that rendered him dead, and finally the third had been poisoned. Many currently theorized that Niyeifei had done that one herself.

At least, that was what Azura had told Junko. Oh how she cried, Azura thought with a smile.

"Worry not for me leaning too close to the edge and more for those rain clouds," Azura said flatly at the Jounin.

"Fear not, Shao-sama," the sailor down below assured. If such a man had talked to her in front of her grandfather or her mother, he would have been flogged. Still, the leniency at sea made Azura nearly feel equal, hence why she liked it. "This ship has never lost its way in a storm."

Azura knew that much. With the amount of water ninja aboard, despite the storm, they could control the very ocean. How embarrassing would it be otherwise to drown at sea for a man or woman of Kirigakure.

"I fear nothing but your bad breath, Tegumi-san," Azura said in return, and the burst of laughter was cut off from the sound of gurgling. From behind her, the Jounin who had been nipping at her heels if she so much as breathed funny was now on the ground, his guts a few paces ahead of him.

Azura's breath had left her, and very nearly had she tripped and fallen over the edge of the boat when she caught sight of a man who towered over her thrice her height. His face was covered in a white mask that, when she looked closely, resembled bandages. She couldn't breathe and when he looked upon her, his eyes full of malice fit for the pictures she had studied of him in bingo books and capture scrolls, she really did fall over the side of the ledge. Not into the ocean, but instead below deck.

Being eleven, falling such a feat was beyond excruciating, and Azura's vision went black as her head slammed against the wood. She wasn't certain how much time had passed, but she was aware that someone was helping her up, her arm around his neck and his hand at her waist as he tried to drag her away from the fighting.

"You must stay awake, Azura," Tegumi said, his voice coming out in a pant and his exhaustion quite visible judging by the lack of formality he used in saying her name. She would never be the type of person who really reacted negatively when her name was so casually used. Still, had her father witnessed it, Tegumi's head would be in the ocean.

"What's...happening?" Azura tried to think logically, to remember, but the world was spinning. When she moved her palm to touch her face, she pulled it away to blood. She dragged her hand over the back of her head, wincing when she felt more blood in between her fingers.

"Stay awake," he whispered, and she heard him open a cabin door, dragging her inside the next moment as she tried to force her eyes open. "You must hide." He ordered this with urgency, his eyes casting shadows as he grabbed a musty blanket and placed it over her head. In between barrels of fish and bottles of wine, he forced her to sit. "Stay quiet. I will come back for you."

"Wait!" Azura must not have been as loud as she thought she was, for her own voice had hurt her head and Tegumi had left anyway. The door closed behind him, and she lost track of how long she sat there, curled into herself, and staring at it through small openings of her blanket. The fighting rang on, but the clash of steel and crashing of broken wood was not what stuck in her mind. Instead it was the screaming, the harrowing, piercing screaming that kept her eyes wide even when all she wanted to do was sleep off the pain in her skull.

Her vision cut off, and the fact that the cabin was dark, wet, and cold was hardly any help to her as she felt her body tremble as she tried to remember to be silent. "Breathe Azura," she whispered to herself, as if she could ever forget how to do that. Still, she felt she must remind herself because seconds later she was choking on the aura of malice that surrounded the ship that was apparently unsinkable. The smell of fish was unrelenting, filling the room and reminding her that she, for the first time, might actually need to vomit up everything she ever ate on this voyage.

Breathe Azura, she reminded herself again as she tried to say quiet when all she wanted to do was cry. Her head hurt far too much to cry, and she was afraid to close her eyes and visualize that Jounin's guts coating the salty wood. Breathe out.

The screaming continued, and when the cabin doors opened to a boy wearing a Kirigakure hunter mask, she let out a silent breath of relief. "Please. Is my sister alright?" Azura asked when the blanket was yanked off of her. The boy didn't say anything, and he instead knelt in front of her and offered his hand. She stared at him, the Oinin Butai, with a trickle of apprehension in her gut. It wasn't unusual for a hunter ninja to be right behind a missing ninja, and Azura knew what Zabuza was, but still, she felt something was wrong.

"I am Shao Azura. I demand you back up," she said, hoping her voice didn't tremble even if her stomach was doing flips. The hunter ninja tilted his masked head, and his two tails of hair moved with him. He did not move. "I said." Azura had never been forced to repeat herself to a lowly ninja before, and she felt humiliation spread over her face. "Back away from me."

"It is in your best interests, Shao Azura," the ninja finally said, and his kind voice actually managed to relax her. The muscles that were tense in her shoulders had slowed, only a fraction, and her heart ceased the excessive pounding. "That you take my hand so that I can protect you."

She glanced back at his hand for a moment before looking up at him. She knew, logically speaking, that he had to be right. She didn't know how to punch, let alone defend herself. She raised a trembling hand, and allowed him to help her stand. "What about my sister? What of my mother?"

He glanced towards her, but she couldn't actually tell where he was looking due to the mask. "Where are your sister and mother located, Shao-sama?"

She felt it again. It was anxiety, a deeply rooted instinct that something was not right. As he led her from the cabin, and she stared at his stiff back, she said nothing on her family's whereabouts. "I am uncertain. Please tell me they are safe."

He did not answer, and when the light of the outside world hit her in the face, even though the fog that had only gotten thicker, she winced at the slight lighting change. The rocking of the boat, the screams, and the blood that had splattered everywhere she stepped was all too much. She was going to vomit and it would be very unbecoming and humiliating.

"Follow me, Shao-sama," the hunter ninja ordered, and she nodded her head, her body moving numb against the hardwood floor. He lead her past a body that she recognized as Tegumi and she stopped walking, her eyes now stinging as the vomit finally escaped her lips. Next to his broke body, neck bent, tongue out, throat slit, Azura coughed up acid and everything she ate that morning and night. The hunter ninja, seemingly out of patience, finally grabbed her more firmly, dragging her towards the indent where the ship had a space to unload passengers and supplies.

Down below was a smaller boat, and Azura heard her name shouted somewhere behind her.

"If you want to live," the hunter told her. Her eyes widened at him, her brows knitted, and her heart coursing with fear. "You have to move."

Azura climbed, even when the rocking of the ship made her want to lose her grip on the rope and her head was pounding at her to rest, she climbed. She did want to live. She needed to live. She glanced up at the hunter, who was just watching her climb down the rope latter and into the boat. Finally, she shouted at him, "I want to live." She squeezed her eyes shut, and fell into the small boat. If she thought the ship had been rocking, the small boat, tied to the ship, was quaking. The water was hitting it so hard that every time it rocked Azura was nearly thrown off.

This forced her to hold on, her body shivering as the sea water had soaked through her robes. She was trembling, her teeth chattering, and her hands clenched so tight the skin had turned white as she held onto the sides of the boat. When the hunter ninja jumped down into the boat next to her, not bothering with the latter, he wasted no time to propel them forward. It was a Jutsu of which she of course was unfamiliar, as she knew none. As the ship got further and further away, she felt her vision grow dim.

Her head was splitting when she spoke again. "I want to live."

"What for?" The hunter ninja wasn't asking maliciously, and his voice was kind as she forced her eyes awake.

It was, as she realized later, a helping hand of his. It was as if he were testing her resolve, making her remember to open her eyes. She felt no ounce of embarrassment, even if her grandfather had humiliated her about her dream not long prior, when she spoke again. "I want to be Daimyō. I will be Daimyō."

"Is that right?" The hunter ninja went silent, as if contemplating her dream.

She stayed awake as they got away, praying that her family was safe. Still, she didn't ask until the boat docked and he dragged her out. "Were you the only ninja? Is my family going to be alright."

"The enemy wasn't looking to kill a Shao," the hunter said, grabbing her, none too gently, and forcing her to walk. Where they were, she was uncertain. The islands surrounding the Mist village were numerous, all she did know was that they had been traveling west. That meant that she wasn't near Nagi island. She must have been on one of the five islands west of where they left port at Kirigakure, but she knew not where that could be and she was exhausted enough to allow her mind rest.

"How could you know that?" Azura asked, trying to keep up with him, but height was not her specialty and her legs were too short. Even at peak health, he walked too fast as if he were weary to get away.

"I know," he said, and that same rush of anxiety filtered back into her heart.

"What is the island we are on?" Azura asked, wishing to know how far the boat had taken them.

"Conserve your energy," he ordered instead, and his tone was clipped, yet still gentle somehow. She knew that was what she should have done, but her eyes were wandering the wet surroundings. The beach was far behind her now, but even if she was on the edge of the sand, she would not be able to see the ship through the fog.

The trees had already begun to make a canopy from where they walked, the crunching of leaves and wet dirt beginning to ruin her shoes. The ones she wore were not meant for the cold and wet climate. She felt herself trip, but the hunter ninja was quick to catch her fall.

"It's alright. We are almost there," he told her, and she blinked her foggy eyes that had once again began to fail her. The black spots had already seeped in to blind her.

"Where?" She had grown nervous, and had she been more awake, she might have been far more suspicious. At least, that was what she would tell herself later when she chided herself for being a fool.

In the midst of her walking, she hadn't realized that she was practically being carried. The hunter ninja had taken most of her weight by now, and she was going in and out of consciousness. It was disorienting, and the experience had caused her to lose sight on direction and made her unable to focus if she was going north or west any longer. Still, she squeezed her eyes open and closed when the boy finally set her down to rest upon a bed of fallen leaves.

"Thank you," she whispered, and he knelt down, glancing around for a moment before reaching over to inspect her head.

"I am going to check your injury," he warned, his voice still flat but she did appreciate how he asked before he touched her. She might have nodded her head in agreement, but she feared even moving would make her vomit once again. This time, she might actually throw up on him, which would disintegrate the very last of her pride and dignity.

As he began to treat her head, however, she saw his hands move, through the blur of her vision, and a block of ice appeared from the air. He wrapped it in a portion of her robe that he cut off. Her mother would have screamed had she seen someone defile her clothes, but Azura only stared at the odd technique he performed. Before she could ask about it, he pressed the ice, covered by the cloth, against her head and she flinched.

"I am Shao Azura," she whispered, and he glanced at her from through his mask.

"I know," he said slowly, causing her to smile.

"I know you know," she said, blinking back the pain. "Still, it is polite to introduce oneself to their savior."

It might have been in her head, but at that moment, she saw him flinch. More than that, since his hand was holding up the ice, she felt the the block tremble against her very sensitive scalp. She tried to see his eyes through the shadow of the mask, but with the weakening of her vision, she could only see black.

"Are you unable to tell me your name?" Azura asked next, unsure of whether or not he was even looking at her now. "That is a shame. However will I send your reward for my rescue?"

He still didn't speak, causing her to sigh in disappointment. "Haku." He said this slowly, and now she could see he was looking at her. "And I didn't rescue you."

"What?" Azura knew something was off, but she didn't know for certain until after she saw Momochi Zabuza stroll through the trees with blood upon his sword and laughter in his voice. She tried to back away, but 'Haku' was holding her steady with his free hand. "Y-You let me go this instant."

"Demanding little noble bitch this one," Zabuza said, shoving his sword into the mud in front of her. The blood now even closer and her eyes watered at the thought that upon that blade, her sister or mother's blood mixed and mingled.

"Did you kill my mother and sister?" Azura asked, her voice coming out braver than she felt. "Did you?"

She wasn't certain, but she thought she saw Zabuza grin. "You been spreading rumors about me, Haku?"

"Not at all," Haku said, his voice light, polite, yet monotone.

"Not in the business of killing relatives of the Daimyō, bitch," Zabuza finally said with a deep sigh. "No. We were after you."

"You're to ransom me then?" Azura smacked away Haku's hand, even if the motion of her own arm was much too quick for her eyesight to follow. "How dare you? My grandfather would see you in the ground."

Zabuza snorted. "Alright, spitfuck. We are gonna need to make some ground rules. Starting off, you are to shut you mouth or your granddaddy is gonna have one less relative."

Still, Azura stood, brushing off Haku's hand once again. "I will stand with the dignity of my house."

"Man this bitch is annoying," Zabuza said with a groan, running a slightly blood palm over his face. She felt her eyes drawn to it, and despite all her talk, she vomited once again. "Dignity huh?"