The ever-present rain pattered down on the soil of the village hidden in the rain. The sky was murky and the land was dim. The cool water along with the light breezes of wind sent chills through a certain blonde leaf shinobi. Minato Namikaze trotted through the dampened soil as he scouted the area that was war-torn by the shinobi of the great nations in the previous world war. Old buildings were now laid waste, many civilians were starving and struggling to get by, at least from what he observed. Accompanying the yellow flash on his recon mission was none other than the red hot habanero herself: Kushina Uzumaki. The pair were close friends and worked well as a team on their duties, which is why lord third sent them to scout out the Hidden Rain together. They jumped around the dark, dingy, metallic towers that clustered the village, and explored each one to see if anything of value was inside. Kushina looked around until something off in the distance caught her eye. There was a bright light shining from within one of the buildings. She raised a finger to it and turned to her teammate.
"Minato, look, there's light coming from over there, there must be someone in that tower." He looked over.
"That's odd, I was almost sure that this area was abandoned. Let's check it out." Kushina nodded and joined Minato on the slippery balcony that was slick with perspiration. The two shinobi withdrew their kunais to prepare themselves for a struggle as they trekked through the hall and into the room where the ambient light seemed to be radiating from. They slowly inched closer to the doorway before Minato poked his head in through the opening to snatch a peek at the scene. What he found surprised him. There in the room lay a lamp beside an injured red-headed boy lying on the bed with a purple-haired girl sitting on a chair beside him. Minato snuck back to his teammate after taking this glance and whispered, "One of them looks weakened, but they have rain headbands on them, so we can assume they're shinobi."
"Do you think they're dangerous?"
"I don't think so, if we approach them carefully and make our intentions known to them, maybe they won't react as much." Minato said, Kushina nodded and retracted her blade to look less hostile. Minato lowered his hand and knocked
Ightly on the wood.
"Who's there?" The girl questioned demandingly as she sprung from her seat. Minato stepped into the opening so that she could see him, Kushina followed behind him.
"Listen, we don't want any trouble. My name is Minato, and this is Kushina. We're just shinobi sent from the hidden leaf to do recon in this area. We saw your lamp light through your window and thought we'd investigate." Minato explained.
"We saw you shinobi here and thought you could use our help." Kushina added, approaching the pair. The girl looked at her questioningly.
"What can you do for us?"
"Your comrade there, he looks hurt, maybe we can help." Konan stepped aside, and allowed the leaf shinobi to get closer.
"Okay, but don't try anything."
"What's your name?" Kushina inquired as she approached the bed.
"Nagato, and she is Konan." Kushina knelt down by his side.
"Nice to meet your acquaintance. Where does it hurt?"
"My legs, the skin was peeled off of them from a bunch of paper bombs. That, and I put a lot of strain on my body using my rinnegan. My body aches all over." Kushina lifted the towels on his legs to find the exposed flesh on his legs bleeding. She gasped and backed away.
Turning to the others, she concluded, "His legs look terrible, he'll need medication or else the wounds will become badly infected."
"I can leave and search for some." Volunteered Minato.
"Good idea, I'll stay here with these guys." Kushina replied.
"There's a destroyed pharmacy just a few miles west of here. There just might be something there." Nagato informed him.
Konan interrupted, "Wait, I'll go with you and help you find it. I've been there before, and you might run into trouble, there are still enemy ninja lurking around these parts." Minato nodded before he leaped out of the balcony and hit the streets with Konan following after him. He journeyed through the streets with the girl next to him, instructing him at each twist and turn until they eventually came across a dingy-looking, wooden shop. Konan pushed open the door and the pair stepped inside.
"Many of these buildings were looted during the Great War, mainly by shinobi looking for more supplies and provisions. So I don't know how much luck we will have." They looked around on the shelves and rummaged through boxes until Minato spotted a package of antibiotics on the top shelf he jumped up and snatched it off, saying, "got it." "
Great, now lets get out of here." She said as she stepped outside. Her and Minato journeyed just a few blocks past the shop until a kunai with a burning piece of paper attached to it landed on the ground light in front of them.
"Oh shit!" Yelled Konan as an explosion blew them away. They both fell several feet backwards and struggled to stand up as they coughed and choked on the smoke. A few figures appeared around them in a circle, with one of them wearing a gas mask.
"Hanzo." Konan growled and narrowed her eyes upon recognizing the shinobi.
"Greetings. Where is the red-head? Hope I didn't play too rough the last time we met."
"You bastard! You aren't going to get away with this! You're going to pay for him and for taking our Yahiko away from us!" She roared as paper started lifting up from the ground. Minato had no idea who this man was or what was going on, but all he knew was that he was trouble. He withdrew his shuriken and sent them flying in the man's direction.
Hanzo easily dodged them and replied, "Oh, but I will. And more importantly, I'm going to put an end to your little resistance once and for all. Because you, girl, are coming with me, and you're going to tell me everything about the Akatsuki." He said as he withdrew his kunai.
"Like hell I will!" Konan shaped and hardened the paper to form shurikens and kunais which she sent sailing in Hanzo's direction. A rain shinobi attempted to stop her, but Minato maneuvered behind him and grabbed the ninja by the arm before he could do anything and threw him into his comrade. Hanzo flipped backward and dodged Konan's attack as he began to spin the kusarigama and sent the sickle flying towards her.
"Konan! Look out!" Minato yelled. Konan leaped away from the area of attack and shifted around to make a hand sign. Many clones of her appeared and floated over towards the salamander, exploding as they approached him. Hanzo stepped and dodged each one, thinking he was winning, when Minato, jumped to where Hanzo was approaching and kicked him towards one of the paper clones, causing him to fly into it.
"What the fuck?" Hanzo cursed as he looked back to see the one who had pushed him only to be suddenly hit with the massive explosion. He was sent skyrocketing several feet away with his body rolling on the ground. Konan watched the smoke clear only to see a defeated Hanzo lying in the rubble. Seconds passed, and no movement was detected. She reluctantly turned away to continue on her journey with Minato, when suddenly, the rain shinobi's eyes snapped open. He sprang up and threw his sickle once more with lightning speed for and executing attack.
"Konan! Watch out!" Minato yelled. Konan glanced back to see the inescapable blade darting in her direction. Her eyes widened in shock, when suddenly, the yellow flash appeared in front of her. The next second she saw crimson liquid splash out from infront of her, sprinkling her clothes and the surrounding area. Minato was grabbing the bottom side of the blade in an attempt to push it back and stop it from going any deeper into his shoulder. The two shinobi pushed against each other, wrestling for control until Konan recollected her thoughts and sailed straight into the salamander and jabbed him in his temple, causing him to loose his focus. Minato managed to dislodge the blade from his shoulder and moved away from the attacker. He summoned energy into his palm, and soon a rotating ball of chakra was created. Konan was relentlessly attacking Hanzo, floating around with her kunai flailing in a desperate attempt to gauge him as beads of sweat began to roll from her brow. Fists were flung, kicks being thrown as blades were swung and clashing against one another. This seemingly endless trance of a battle was suddenly interrupted when Minato raced towards them.
"Konan! Get out of the way!" The girl glanced over to see her deeply injured, new companion racing in her direction with a massive concentration of chakra in his palm ready to give off at any minute. Heeding his warning, she backed away from their opponent and watched as Minato sent his hand careening into Hanzo's face. He sent out a howl as the spinning chakra blasted into him. His eyes widened as his body was thrown several yards away. The dust cleared and he opened his eyes to find Konan coming closer to him. A hissing sound started going off in the salamander's ears when the figure latched itself around him and said, "this is forYahiko!" An explosion suddenly went off and the last thing that Hanzo witnessed was the fire and extreme heat engulfing him as his body was obliterated. Konan watched in comfort as the man who had once kidnapped her and caused the death of her best friend was finally destroyed. Minato started walking towards her only to start feeling chills. He started shaking and sweating. He tried to step closer to the girl with his sight growing blurry. The last thing he saw was Konan running towards him to help. Then blackness.
'Dammit! The blade must have been tipped with his poison' Konan thought to herself. Then she remembered Hanzo's dead body off in the distance.
'Maybe there's a cure on him.' She thought to herself as she started hurriedly rummaging through every pocket until she felt a small object in his jacket. She opened it and inside the small compartment found a vile.
"So, Nagato, how did you end up like this?" Kushina asked as she gently dabbed at his wounds.
"Well, Konan and I were once part of an organization called the Akatsuki. There was another man with us named Yahiko. It all started when we were kids. I was taken in by him and Konan shortly after my parents were killed in front of me by leaf shinobi."
"Oh my god, what happened with the leaf shinobi? How did you escape?"
"Well as you can see, I possess a certain optical jutsu known as the rinnegan. The second I saw my parents drop to the floor, I...lost control and killed them..." Nagato explained slowly as he shifted his eyes over random areas of the room. He hesitantly glanced back over to Kushina to see her reaction, only to find her face saddened.
"I'm sorry, you were very brave. I can't believe our comrades from the leaf would harm innocent civilians like that."
"Well...they thought we were enemy shinobi, it was dark and they couldn't see us well. It was an accident of sorts...and so I left my home in search of food and shelter, when I collapsed from starvation and woke up to my new friends. We wanted more than our own survival, you see. This war torn world was the cause of all of our struggles. My friend Yahiko wanted to become powerful, like a god, so that he can make it stop and create peace, and so did we. But, we needed to get stronger. It wasn't long until after much searching, we found the legendary Sannin. Jiraiya trained us for a long time, so that we would be able to defend ourselves." Kushina's eyes lit up after he said the last part.
"Jiraiya? The legendary Sannin? I know them! Minato trained under Jiraiya too! So he took the time to stay and help you guys when you were kids?"
"That's right. Out of the goodness of his heart. And using the strength and wisdom he gave us, we formed a group dedicated to bringing about peace in this world without violent methods. We eventually received a message from a leaf shinobi who told us that the ruler of the village hidden in the rain, Hanzo the Salamander, wanted to support us and meet with us. But it all turned out to be a trap. When we got there, he had take Konan hostage and said if I didn't kill Yahiko, he would kill her." Nagato explained with a more pained expression on his face.
"And how did you escape?"
"By the blood of Yahiko...He...took his own life with the blade to save Konan. And then a fight broke out, I went over to free our friend when Hanzo smothered my legs with paper bombs. I fought him, he retreated using his teleportation jutsu and that was the end of it."
"Wow...you are very brave. And I'm very sorry for your losses. Your friend sounds like a great man." Kushina said as she began tearing up.
"He was. He was our leader, a hero to us. We looked up to him." He agreed as he closed his eyes and fought hard to hold back tears only for them to open upon the sound of pitter-pattering in the hallway.
"Konan?" Nagato called out only for his question to go unanswered as the kunoichi raced down the corridor and burst open the door to the other room. Throwing Minato onto the bed, she frantically started rummaging through her pockets. Kushina made her way to where she was to gasp at the sight of an unconscious Minato.
"Minato! What happened?"
"We were ambushed by Hanzo, and he received some of his poison."
"Oh Kami! What are we gonna do?"
Pulling the vile out of her pocket, she replied, "We can get this antidote in him as soon as possible."
"Where did you get that?"
"Picked it off of Hanzo." She explained. She approached Minato's mouth and Kushina took the initiative and pried his mouth open. Konan wasted no time in dumping the liquid into his mouth and shaking off the last few drops as she rubbed his throat. Kushina let go of his mouth and said, "Did you find the ointment?"
"Yes, and there's bandages too." Konan said, taking them from her pocket and tearing a piece off of the bandage before proceeding to wrap it tightly around the shinobi's shoulder.
She stood up and said, "Alright, that's all we can do. I'm going to get the rest of these to Nagato." Kushina nodded as Konan left the room. She knelt down by her comrade's side as Konan had made her way to hers.
"Is he going to be alright?"
"I think so."
"What happened to Hanzo?"
"We defeated him." She said while taking the cloth and opening the ointment.
"I see. At least that's good."
"Yes...Now, this may sting a bit." She said as she poured over the wounds and held the cloth close to them to capture the excess liquid. Nagato hissed in response to the medicine making contact with his exposed flesh. The girl gazed over the area she was working on blankly.
"He got that injury protecting me in battle." She mused openly.
"What? You're serious?" Nagato asked, the information snapping him out of his trance of pain. Konan closed her eyes and nodded. Nagato glanced downward as his thoughts were now occupied by this act of selflessness that the leaf shinobi displayed for the two strangers. Konan continued her work until she had treated every area of open flesh and started rotating the bandages around the limb. The room was silent as she wrapped up the other and tied a knot to fasten it.
"There, that ought to do it."
"Thank you, Konan" Nagato said as his eyes wandered towards the window to find an even darker sky. Konan stood up and exited the room.
"I'm going to start making dinner."