Chapter Twenty-Six
Over the next three years the state of the shinobi world grew dramatically different. A coup had been staged in Kiri, every member of the village council assassinated, and Terumi Mei currently unaccounted for. Everyone who dared oppose Shiraishi Rikichi, who had taken control of the village in the midst of the chaos, had been slaughtered or driven into exile.
An alliance between Rikichi, Aki, and Orochimaru had been brought to light, when several Sound shinobi participated in the assault on Kiri, bringing concerns to the rest of the Kage.
Only Konoha actively opposed the new threat, every available shinobi either fighting on the frontlines in the war that had broken out at the Land of Fire's northern border and other places scattered across the five nations, or defending the village itself from vicious attacks. It was a losing battle.
All throughout those three years, there hadn't been a single trace of Jin. Not a whisper of him escaped Rikichi's ranks, nor was his body ever found. Although it was a bleak hope, Tsunade and the rest of the village had no choice but to believe that Jin had not yet served his purpose, and as such, was still alive.
Despite Konoha's tenacity and absolute refusal to give in against the overwhelming forces against them, if they didn't turn the tides soon, they would fall the same way as Kiri had.
Jin leaned back against the cold stone wall, eyes shut tight as he rested uneasily. A soft sigh escaped his chapped lips, but he didn't even dare to lick his lips.
Over the last three years, Jin hadn't put up a fight, playing the model prisoner in order to lull his captors into a false sense of security. Though he was in terrible condition, he was hoarding chakra.
His hair had grown much longer, and he'd developed dark circles under his eyes that rivalled the current Kazekage's. Admittedly, he was weaker than he would have liked to admit, but it was a small price to pay if he could manage to escape.
The horrors he'd witnessed, and had been put through himself, were beginning to weigh on him, but his brittle grip on reality was held in place as he clung to Kita Kaze's facade. It was easier to handle if he assumed a different identity.
Jin pulled his knees to his chest as he tried to stay warm with only a thin layer of clothing. He'd figured out where he was almost immediately when he'd been placed in his cell, and judging by the activity he often heard above his head, it had become Rikichi's base of operations.
It was a very familiar place to him. He'd given Kakashi and several of the genin he'd grown so fond of a tour of the palace when he'd brought them to his hometown. The Yuki clan's palace had been repurposed once more, and Jin couldn't help but loathe what it had become.
The iron door that barred Jin's tiny prison slowly creaked open, and Jin could not help but tense up, vaguely realizing who had come to visit him in the middle of the night.
He stayed silent as Koichi approached him, feigning sleep. He wasn't meaning to break out so early, but...he couldn't stand one more minute of this hell.
Jin waited until Koichi was close, waited until he felt his breath on his neck. He waited until he was so close that there was hardly any space between them. And then he struck like a cobra.
He grabbed Koichi's shoulders, holding him in place, and sank his teeth into the soft part of his throat, much in the same way that a cornered animal would. It was a desperate, wild attack, and he was not proud of it, but it was what he had to work with at the moment.
Koichi let out a gargled cry, startled by the animalistic attack. He clawed at Jin, not quite sure how to combat such a savage attack.
Jin let go after a moment and quickly shifted, wrapping the chains that tethered him to the wall around Koichi's neck. He pulled them tight, making sure that he could not utter a sound, and then snapped his neck with a quick twist of his arms.
Rikichi's biggest mistake was not using chakra-sealing cuffs on Jin, instead of the heavy shroud of alarm and barrier jutsus that Jin would have no problem breaking his way through, if he wanted to.
Why would he need to anyway, if one of his captors was going to be deactivating them and sneaking into his cell? It was no great stain on his conscience to end Koichi's miserable life, and it gave him the opportunity to move around the palace unnoticed for a time.
Jin let go of Koichi, standing up slowly. He glanced at the spot where his chains connected to the wall. He'd been working at loosening the bolts for several weeks now, and he determined that he could tear them from the wall now without any trouble.
He yanked hard on the chains, relieved when they came loose. Then he reached down and gathered up the excess chains and wrapped them around each arm so that they wouldn't jangle or drag along the floor.
Peeking outside the door, Jin glanced in both directions before stepping out and shutting the door behind him. He was worried that any flare of chakra from him would attract attention, and so he did nothing more than lock the door, nervously making his way through the labyrinthine dungeons below the palace.
It wasn't hard for him to find the path that would lead him back into the main palace, as it was the only one that had lanterns lit throughout. He tiptoed his way through, wary of alerting anyone to his escape.
Jin didn't make it very far, however, before he had to duck down one of the unlit paths, nearly frightened out of his skin at the sound of voices. Both were women and both were familiar; Aiko and someone he was sure he knew, but strangely could not put a name or face to.
"Move your ass, you dumb bitch. I don't have the time to drag you the whole fucking way." Aiko snarled, and Jin heard a heavy thump, as if someone had hit the wall or had been hit hard.
"Make me!" The other woman snarled, a surprising amount of venom in her voice.
The other woman let out a grunt of pain and crashed into the ground in front of the passage that Jin had hidden himself in. She raised her head slowly, pink hair obscuring her face as she wiped the blood from her nose.
Jin recognized her instantly, his violet eyes widening just slightly. For a moment, he thought he was hallucinating. He had been sure that she, along with the rest of Team Seven, was dead. Their corpses had been dropped right in front of him, hauntingly familiar.
But when Sakura looked up, glancing back at her captor with defiant green eyes, he realized that it really was her, and she had definitely changed since the last time he had seen her.
Jin waited silently, watching as Sakura picked herself up off the ground, stumbling forward as Aiko shoved her again. He waited until Aiko passed in front of the passage, and then he struck, clamping one hand over her mouth as he dragged her back into the darkness.
It took a massive amount of effort to restrain her in the condition he was in, but the moment that Sakura realized what had happened, she leapt in to help, grabbing Aiko's flailing arms while Jin put her in a chokehold.
Aiko struggled like a wild animal at first, but slowly succumbed to unconsciousness, completely unable to breathe with Jin's tight grip around her throat and hand over her mouth.
Once she was unconscious, Jin let her body fall to the ground, and glanced up at Sakura, who was staring at him as if she had just seen a ghost. A strained smile crossed his face, and he quickly pulled her into a hug, which she returned almost immediately.
"We've been looking for you all this time. Kakashi-sensei hasn't given up on finding you. None of us gave up." Sakura cried as she hugged Jin, struggling to keep her voice down.
"...they're all okay?" Jin asked softly, hardly able to believe what Sakura was telling him. He'd seen their bodies, but...Sakura was here. Which meant that there was a bigger chance that they really were alive. He wasn't sure he could believe it until he saw them with his own eyes, but...he was hopeful.
"Yes! Everyone is waiting for you to return...we didn't even know if you were still alive, but...no one wanted to give up, especially not Kakashi-sensei…" Sakura replied, wiping at her tears as she tried to compose herself.
Jin let out a soft sigh, patting her back gently before letting her go. "I'm glad." He whispered, glancing down at the unconscious Aiko. "We need to deal with her, and then get out of here."
"What should we do with her…?" Sakura asked with a frown as she followed his gaze. She already knew the answer, but she didn't quite want to be the one to say it.
"We'll have to kill her. It's too dangerous to leave her alive." Jin said after a moment. It was no problem for him, but he understood that Sakura likely had qualms about killing people who weren't even in a position to defend themselves.
"Please don't." A soft, childlike voice spoke up from behind Jin.
Jin spun around, his eyes widening just slightly when a little girl, only about seven or eight, came into view, heavily resembling Aiko.
"If you let her live, I won't tell anyone what happened." The little girl said quietly. "The koi in the pond in the garden wanted me to tell you to go talk to him before you both leave. He has something for you."
"How can we trust you?" Jin asked, stepping in front of Sakura protectively, completely unaware of what she was capable of now.
"I don't want to be a part of this, but I don't have a choice. This is all I can do." The little girl replied, sounding surprisingly wise for someone so young. "I hate what keeps happening. I hate Azusa, and I hate all the violence and death that I keep seeing…"
"We'll let her live." Sakura didn't hesitate as she stepped around Jin and approached the little girl. "But if you don't want to be here, then why don't you come with us?"
"I have to stay. My place is with my sister…" The little girl shook her head and frowned. "Go. Before someone comes looking for her."
Jin hesitated for a moment, unsure of whether or not he should keep the two girls alive, but...he went with Sakura's decision and turned. "Come on." He said, hurrying back into the passage.
Sakura followed him, glancing back several times, as if she didn't want to leave the little girl behind. Eventually she stopped looking back, instead focusing on Jin, studying him. He seemed remarkably alright, considering that he'd been held prisoner for three years, but she supposed that the dim, flickering light wasn't enough to fully assess his injuries.
She could tell he was injured without even examining him. She noticed the way his breath hitched in his throat every time he took a breath, likely caused by broken ribs. She noticed the way he favored one side over the other, indicative of a fractured or still healing broken leg, the lack of blood telling her that it likely wasn't a wound that had broken the skin.
"Jin, are you alright?" Sakura asked finally. "We should stop for a moment, so I can heal the worst of your injuries."
Before she had even finished her sentence, Jin was shaking his head. "It's okay. We don't have the time to spend on that right now. I'll be alright for now. It's nothing serious." He patted her head.
The pair stopped once they reached the door at the top of the steps that led back into the main palace, Jin resting his ear against the door to listen for anyone passing by.
"Wait." Sakura grabbed his wrist, frowning. "There were two guards when I was brought past here."
"They'll have gone down to one by now." Jin whispered. "After midnight, they change shifts, and less guards are posted." He knew that only because of his first several weeks spent there, trying to escape and observing the movements of the guards.
Sakura nodded slightly, frowning a little. "Then if we move quick enough, we should be able to get to him before he makes a sound. But...we should still account for there being two, just in case."
Jin nodded, reaching for the door. He slowly opened it, taking care not to let it creak. Just as he had said, there was only one guard.
Both Sakura and Jin struck, fast as lightning. Jin grabbed both of the guard's wrists, while Sakura drove her fist into his throat none too kindly, hitting his pressure point just a moment later and rendering him unconscious.
"Help me drag him back in here." Jin said, catching the guard's body, so that it wouldn't make a sound as he hit the ground.
Sakura grabbed the guard by his feet, and followed Jin back down the stairs into the dungeon.
Once they had reached the bottom, they dragged him into one of the nearby cells, shutting him in and clicking the lock shut. He wouldn't wake up until they were long gone.
Jin turned and led her back up the stairs, frowning. "Stick close to me." He said softly, glancing in either direction before slowly making his way towards the doors that would lead out to the gardens, trying to take the most direct path without alerting anyone to their presence.
Every so often, they nearly ran into someone and had to either incapacitate them or wait until they passed by. Thankfully, they were lucky enough that they never ran into Rikichi or one of his higher ranking henchmen.
Eventually, the pair made it out to the gardens, which were deserted at this time of night, not even guarded. After all, who would try to mount a raid on such a well located and protected palace?
Jin hesitated as they approached the lavish pond in the center of the gardens, wary of what the little girl had told them. What if this was a trap? It would be so easy to surround them and capture or kill them again.
"So, you have finally come." A deep voice spoke from the depths of the pond, old and wise and intensely hardened. "Come closer, child of ice, and child of the cherry blossom."
Sakura cast Jin a nervous glance, clearly startled. How did whoever was speaking know of them both? As far as Sakura could remember, she had never met a talking fish before, unless she counted Hoshigaki Kisame.
Jin nodded and stepped forward with her, peering into the depths of the massive pond.
Peering up at them was an enormous koi, approximately twenty-five feet long, not including its long, flowing tail, which reminded Jin of a butterfly. Its scales were a mix of beautiful oranges and white, splotched occasionally with black spots.
"You wanted to speak with us?" Jin asked softly, frowning as he gazed into the koi's wizened eyes.
"I have been waiting to meet you for centuries." The koi began, meeting Jin's eyes. "I have been holding something for you for almost an eternity, and now my master tells me it is time to give you a tool that will help you in your journey."
"Who's your master?" Sakura asked softly, frowning.
"Yuki Ikki."
Ikki stood in front of the pond, frowning at the overgrown koi gently. Already, the koi had reached almost three feet long, and while Ikki was proud that his love and care had made his koi flourish, he was sad that he wouldn't be able to see just how big he would become.
"Chou, I need to ask a favor of you." Ikki began softly. "My time here is running short, and I know I won't be able to see Sayuri or Hisashi or Emi again, but...I want to guarantee that when my family needs me the most, I'll be there, whether it's for one of my siblings, or for their descendants."
"But Ikki-sama…" Chou began, his long whiskers twitching anxiously. He was a young koi, not yet confident in himself, despite being the unchallenged ruler of the pond.
"Please don't protest, Chou. I don't want this anymore than you do, but...sacrifices must be made. Kotaro made a sacrifice for love. The rest of my siblings made a sacrifice for Sayuri's unborn child, and their safety." Ikki smiled at the koi as he slowly removed his tanto blade from its sheath. "And so I will sacrifice my life, so that perhaps one day we can all meet again, and that perhaps one day my family can live in peace."
"But...how do you know this will work?" Chou swam closer to the edge of the pond, reaching up to try to nuzzle against Ikki's out of reach hand.
"Just a feeling I have." Ikki smiled as he placed the razor-sharp blade of his tanto against his wrist, where the bones met. Without even a trace of pain in his expression, he drew the blade back and slammed it down against his wrist, cutting right through it.
He pulled his bleeding arm to his chest to staunch the bleeding and picked up his severed hand, holding it out to Chou. "I know it's a lot to ask of you, but you're the only one that can ensure that I'll be able to come back when I'm needed."
The koi hesitated, whiskers quivering with sadness. Then he reached up and swallowed Ikki's severed hand, where it would reside until the time was right for Ikki to return. "I'll miss you, master."
"I'm not your master, Chou. I'm your friend." Ikki smiled, putting his tanto away after wiping the blood on his pant leg. "I'll miss you, too." He reached down and gently pet Chou, suddenly certain that it would be an eternity before he saw his friend again.
Ikki straightened up and turned away, glancing back just in time to see Chou disappear into the depths of the pond. A sad smile crossed his face as he slowly began to walk back to the palace, semi-aware of the fact that he would never reach it.
