Chapter Twenty-Seven
Jin frowned at the enormous koi's words and glanced around nervously. "He's dead." He stated bluntly.
"Just because you can't see past what's right in front of you, does not mean that I'm the same." The koi snapped, whiskers twitching. "I know you've met him already."
It took Jin a moment to remember the years long past, and the day he had once asked for help. He'd been so young and so scared, and Yuki Ikki had been the one to answer his call for aid.
"What did he want to give us?" Sakura asked softly, glancing back at the palace periodically to make sure they hadn't yet been spotted.
The koi didn't speak for a moment, a strange noise coming from its mouth. And then a moment later, it spat something up, much to everyone's disgust.
It was a perfectly preserved human hand; still dripping blood as if it had been frozen in time within the enormous koi's stomach. It would be an understatement to say that Jin and Sakura were grossed out by the sight laid out before them.
Jin stayed silent for a moment while Sakura retched beside him, before he looked up at the koi. "I'm usually not the one to say this line, but I feel like it needs to be said." He paused, glancing back down at the hand. "Dude, what the fuck."
It would have been almost a comedic situation, had the circumstances not been so dire. The koi didn't seem to find his question, or rather, statement, very amusing, judging by the way his whiskers twitched in the water.
"That's what I was thinking when my master cut off his own hand and fed it to me." The koi finally said.
Jin awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "Well, I really don't know what you want me to do with a severed hand. I can't bring your master back without a sacrifice willing to give up their body. This is really too much for me to handle in my current mental state, I think. Sakura can you take over for a moment?"
Without another word, Jin walked away from the pond, out of earshot and rubbing his temples the entire time, as if a headache were forming.
Sakura watched him go for a moment before turning back to the koi with a frown. "He's not okay, is he?" She already knew the answer, and had suspected that this would be the case whenever they ended up rescuing him.
"The crueler members of the Yuki clan rather enjoy torture, so I would think not." The koi replied, his gaze resting on Jin's back for a moment before it shifted back to Sakura. "You are lucky that you were not here long enough to suffer at Rikichi's hands, cherry child. Worry not, there will be time for him to recover before the storm breaks."
Jin returned a few moments later, looking a little more composed. "Okay, what do you want us to do?" he asked the koi, frowning.
"I want you to bring him back." The koi replied, glancing at a smaller koi that had swam up to the surface.
"I'll sacrifice myself so that Yuki-sama can live again." The smaller koi said, his voice high and steady. "It's a worthy death, and I cannot do much else to help you on your journey."
Jin crossed his arms and began to pace. "How do you know it will work? It worked with Kotaro, but not with...with someone else." He was certain he knew how this worked, but he wanted confirmation that his theory was correct.
"I believe it is your blood that gives them life again, but I don't know the exact workings. You would do better to ask Amaterasu or Tsukuyomi. They are the reason you are able to bring your ancestors back." The large koi replied, his gaze resting on Ikki's severed hand. "I would recommend resurrecting him soon so that you can reattach his hand before it's too late."
"Pardon?" Sakura asked quietly. "It's not just going to automatically reattach when he's brought back?"
"Unfortunately, it's not that simple. He died after he cut it off. He'll be brought back in the condition he was in when he died. Which means, no hand." The koi replied with a twitch of his whiskers.
"Yeah, and I think he's probably gonna stay without a hand." Jin said, rubbing his temples again. He was getting a migraine. "Neither of us are medic nin."
"That's not true. I am." Sakura said, glancing at Jin with a frown. "I can do it."
"What? Since when?" Jin asked, absolutely baffled by this sudden development.
"What do you think I've been doing for the last three years, while you've been here?" Sakura sounded a bit peeved now, her irritation growing visible.
Jin stared at her for a moment, suddenly seeing Tsunade's famous temper in Sakura. He was suddenly afraid. "Ah. I understand now." He cleared his throat awkwardly, realizing that she must have been mentored by Tsunade. That, at least, meant that they were all in good hands, supposing that Sakura didn't let her temper get the best of her, as her mentor often did.
"Are you two done now? You have a willing sacrifice, and a small window of safety in which to do as I ask. You'll need him for what's next." The splashed them with his enormous tail, soaking the pair in cold water in an already freezing environment.
"That was unnecessary." Jin grumbled, but went over to the edge of the pond, lifting up the smaller koi and bringing it over to the hand. "One more question; how do you know that he won't just turn into a fish, since we're using a non-human sacrifice?"
"I don't." The koi replied, sounding almost amused. "It would serve him right for feeding me his severed hand, and then abandoning me."
"Great. That does not reassure me in the slightest." Jin shook his head and sighed. He returned to the edge of the pond and stuck his hand into the icy water, searching for a sharp rock, with which to cut his finger with.
Once he found one, he made his way back over to the hand and the smaller koi, already forming the hand seals. After that was done, he drew the sharp edge of the rock over his finger and held it out over the koi and hand, letting his blood drip in an unsteady stream across both.
The moment that his blood touched both hand and koi, there was a strange puff of smoke that clouded their vision. It cleared after a moment, revealing a fairly tall man lying sprawled across the ground haphazardly.
Sakura leapt into action the moment that she saw blood spilling from his stump of a wrist, dropping to her knees by his side. Hands already glowing green with healing chakra, she grabbed his severed hand and set to work reattaching it, her previous disgust immediately replaced by cool professionalism.
Jin kept watch while she worked, making sure that they hadn't yet been spotted by their enemies within the palace. So far, they were fine, but he was very aware that time was running out quickly, every passing moment bringing them closer to being discovered.
"Who are you?" A soft voice asked, and when Jin turned, he realized that Ikki's violet eyes had opened and were slowly shifting between himself and Sakura.
"Shiraishi Jin." He introduced himself. "And that's Haruno Sakura. Your scaly friend helped us bring you back."
A pained smile crossed Ikki's face as he sat up, hardly seeming to notice that Sakura was still patching up his hand. "They made it...they made it to safety." And then the tears came as he covered his face with his good hand.
"There's no time to cry right now. There is something more that must be done before you can all make your escape." The enormous koi said from the pond, though he was clearly overjoyed that it had worked.
Ikki wiped his face and glanced back at the pond, a bright smile crossing his face the moment he saw the koi. "I'm so glad to see you're still okay, Chou."
"Will you stop moving, already?!" Sakura snapped suddenly as Ikki tried to pull his hand away from her for the third time, sounding every bit as intimidating as Tsunade did with her particularly difficult patients. "I can't reconnect the rest of the severed muscles if you don't sit still."
The moment Ikki met her gaze, he went very still. "Sorry. I didn't realize you were still fixing my hand…" He trailed off for a moment to clear his throat, his gaze shifting away from the pink kunoichi. "I can't really feel pain, or much of anything really, physically speaking of course. I had a bad accident as a child that left me like this…"
Sakura furrowed her brow as she finished reattaching his hand, not letting it go just yet. "Damaged nervous system? Or maybe just damaged pain receptors…?" She paused, clearly deep in thought as she wondered what the problem could be and if it was something she could repair. "Do you just not feel much, or are you sometimes out of nowhere overwhelmed by sudden pain?"
"Hm...I guess sometimes I'm overwhelmed by pain?" Ikki replied, tilting his head. Long bangs he normally kept pinned back swished in front of his face, and he pushed them out of his eyes.
"There's no time for this!" Chou, the koi, snapped, growing irritated with the lack of attention spans the three shinobi had.
Jin sighed and glanced at the koi, frowning. "You said there was something else you needed us to do?" He asked, splashing water on his face to clear away the blood that he'd gotten all over his face when he had bit Koichi.
Chou scrutinized Jin for a moment before speaking. "There are two more prisoners that are being kept inside the palace, but of which will be helpful if you are able to rescue them. If you are unable to rescue them, it is possible that they will be used against you."
"Where are they? I never heard anyone else being brought down until tonight, when Sakura arrived." Jin asked, glancing back to make sure that Sakura and Ikki were paying attention.
"Look back at the palace. Do you see the lights on in the room to the very left on the top floor?" Chou waited until Jin found the right room before continuing on. "There, you will find another member of the Shiraishi clan, and a Katagiri that goes by the name Yoshihisa."
At the moment that Chou mentioned Yoshihisa, all three shinobi froze and stared at the koi in disbelief. Jin had heard Kotaro ask for Yoshihisa just before he'd been abducted.
Sakura had worked with Kotaro on occasion over the last few years, and she'd heard much about him from him. But she had never expected that he would end up being brought back in the same manner that he had been.
Jin took a deep breath and smoothed out his ragged clothes, the chains around his ankles jangling. "We should hurry then."
Ikki exchanged a glance with Sakura, frowning as he slowly got to his feet. "You should stay put." He said.
Sakura nodded in agreement, glancing at Ikki to make sure he wasn't suffering from any extra side effects from being revived so suddenly in such a strange way. "You're injured, and if you get hurt anymore, Kakashi-sensei won't be happy with us."
Jin frowned and crossed his arms. "I'm sure he'll be fine," he gestured towards Ikki, "but you don't have any weapons. I don't doubt your skills, but I think I should go along as well."
The expression on Sakura's face was far more than irritated, but all she did was clench her fist and raise it up at him. "This is my weapon, and I can assure you that I'll be just fine. So stop being an idiot, and stay put."
"Ah, let's get going...Sakura, was it?" Ikki said, slow shifting so that he was between the two. "No need to argue. We don't have a lot of time, anyway." He smiled nervously at the pair. "No need to worry about her. Something tells me that if we run into trouble, she'll be the one to win whatever fight ends up breaking out."
Jin wanted to protest, but since both were already in agreement, he just turned and went to sit by the pond to wait. "If you're not back in a half hour, I'm coming to find you."
"We'll be back way before that." Ikki promised as he turned to leave with Sakura, waving at him. "Don't worry about it. We'll be back in a flash."
Sakura stared at Jin for a moment, making sure he knew that if he moved from his spot, he would be in deep shit. Then she turned and began to make her way towards the palace again, using the taller plants as cover, in case anyone was looking out their window at this time of night.
Ikki followed close behind her, a short tanto blade made of ice forming in his left hand. He kept a close eye on their surroundings, not sure if his skills would hold up in a fight just now. Much as he didn't want to admit it, he felt weak and tired. He supposed it was probably a side effect of his revival, and would fade over time.
"Sakura." He said quietly as they made their way to the spot under the window where they would begin to climb the ivy that covered the outer walls of the palace. "I've been away for quite some time. I never found out what happened to my siblings after my death. Do you know what happened to them?"
"I...know what happened to your little brother." Sakura replied with a frown, remembering the story that Takigawa Yui had told them three years ago. "But I don't know what happened to your sisters. It...seems that only one of them was there when your brother died. Kotaro-san was asking too, but Hisashi-san hasn't told him anything about it. I think he feels ashamed that he couldn't do more."
Ikki froze, his hand clutching the ivy more tightly than necessary. He slowly looked over at her, his violet eyes wide. "You've talked to them?" His voice was hardly more than a whisper. "They're alive? Have you talked to Sayuri or Emi? Are they safe?"
"I'm sorry, but they're not with us. I don't know what happened, but...Jin-san hasn't been around to do what he did for you. Kotaro-san and Hisashi-san both tried, but it didn't work, or maybe we just don't have what we need to bring them back, and...it requires a sacrifice to bring someone back like that. It's difficult to use a technique like that in good conscience, Ikki-san." Sakura explained carefully. "We'll be going back to Konoha as soon as we're out of the Land of Water, though, so you'll be able to see Hisashi-san and Kotaro-san, at least."
"I see…" Ikki said softly, beginning to climb up the ivy once his initial shock wore off. "Then will you at least tell me what happened to Hisashi?"
"He...sacrificed himself to kill Azusa, and saved your little sister and your nephews." Sakura replied as she followed him up the ivy.
"Azusa?" Ikki asked quietly, and Sakura noted the sadness that tinged his voice.
"Yoshihisa's little sister. She...turned into a tyrant after Yoshihisa's death, and began hunting your siblings the moment she found out they were there." Sakura replied, shivering. She'd met Azusa once on the battlefield, and the experience had left a permanent imprint on her, both in a literal and figurative sense. "I sincerely hope that you never have to meet her."
"I see. Thank you for telling me, Sakura. I do appreciate it." Ikki glanced down at her and smiled faintly. "There's a lot I don't understand still, but...the rest can come later. Although...I had hoped that our descendants might escape our dark fate, but...it seems as if Jin has suffered just as much as the rest of us."
Sakura frowned a little, unsure of how to answer him. "He's suffered a lot." Was all she ended up saying, not quite knowing how to explain everything that had happened over the last three years and far before that. "But that's the risk we take as shinobi. We suffer and put ourselves through hell so that others don't have to. And despite all the pain he's suffered, he's still so kind. Despite everything the world has thrown at him, he's never given up." She paused for a moment as they passed an open window, unsure if anyone was within earshot. "I don't think he realizes it, but he has so many friends to support him."
Ikki smiled, but said nothing more as they finally reached the window that Chou had pointed out to them. He shifted just enough so that he could peek in through the window, immediately jerking back when he realized that there were more than just the Shiraishi and Yoshihisa. Their backs were facing him, and he was not able to recognize either of them. He stayed quiet, listening as well as he could to the muffled conversation, not quite understanding what was going on.
"How can you sit there and defend that woman?! She's a Yuki! You were killed because of them!" An angry red haired woman snarled, sounding crazed and nearly rabid with her hatred.
There was a series of thumps, and a pained shriek, presumably from the black haired girl that had her back to the window. A pained sob escaped her, sounding closer than she had before, and Ikki thought he recognized the voice.
"What the hell is wrong with you, Azusa?!" The red haired man, presumably Yoshihisa, shouted. "She didn't do anything to me, and she didn't do anything to you, either!"
Sakura grabbed at Ikki's pant leg to get his attention. "We have to get in there!" She whispered, trying to climb past him. "She's going to kill that woman!"
Ikki shook his head. "What's your plan? We can't just go in there without a plan!" He said, trying to stop her.
"My plan is to put my fist through her face!" Sakura snarled. She'd seen the carnage that Azusa created, and didn't want anyone else to suffer that.
There was another loud thump and a cracking sound as someone crashed against the window. From their vantage points, Sakura and Ikki just glimpsed red hair and the patterning of an ornate ceremonial robe.
"I'm disappointed in you, brother. I expect you to reflect on your actions and change your tune before I come back tomorrow morning." Azusa snarled.
A moment later, the door slammed shut, and the two shinobi waiting outside the window, saw the red haired man slip down to the ground, leaving a trail of blood along the cracked glass.
Ikki grabbed Sakura's wrist when she tried to go through the window, making her wait a moment to make sure that Azusa was really gone before letting go.
Sakura flipped herself up onto the windowsill, quickly putting her finger to her lips when the black haired woman in the room spotted her, the panic in her expression making it clear that she planned to scream. She made a fist, breaking through the glass as quietly as she could manage.
Then she slipped inside, careful to step over the red-haired man. "We're here to help." She whispered, crouching next to the red-haired man to see if he was alright.
"Who are you?" The woman asked, her violet eyes wide with fear. Her gaze flickered away from Sakura when Ikki landed softly on the windowsill, and a different emotion crossed her face; relief. "Ikki-nii!"
Ikki stared at the woman for a moment, his eyes wide with shock. A moment later, he leapt over Sakura and the red-haired man, wrapping his arms tightly around the black-haired woman. "Sayuri…are you alright?"
"I'm okay." Sayuri replied, rubbing at her damp eyes with one hand while she hugged her older brother. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Ikki replied hoarsely, unable to hide his smile. "We're going to get you out of here. Just sit still for a moment." He reluctantly let her go, and went to Sakura's side, frowning now. "Is he alright?"
Sakura frowned, nodding slightly. "Yes. I think he just fainted from fright." She replied, examining the minor scratch on the back of his head, which had been caused when he had been shoved against the window.
As they spoke, the red-haired man slowly opened his gentle amber eyes. He sat up slowly, startling Sakura.
"Are you alright?" She asked, hands glowing green with chakra as she carefully healed the cut.
"Yes, I think I'll be fine…" He responded, slowly glancing over at Sayuri to make sure that she hadn't been hurt.
Sakura nodded slightly, relieved. "Are you Yoshihisa?" She smiled faintly when he nodded, patting his shoulder. "We can take you to see Kotaro-san, if you want to come with us."
Yoshihisa grabbed Sakura's hands suddenly with both of his own, eyes shining with barely contained hope. "You've seen Kotaro? Please, take me to him! Please!" His voice began as a whisper, but eventually grew louder with his desperation.
"Shh...we'll take you. Just stay quiet. We don't want Azusa to come back." Sakura said gently, helping him up. She glanced at Ikki and nodded at his unspoken question. "I'll help him. We'll be right behind you."
Ikki nodded slightly, gently lifting his sister up and leaping out the window with her. They vanished from sight, and Sakura didn't hear them land.
Sakura smiled at Yoshihisa and pulled him over to the window. He wasn't very much taller than her, and thought that he must weigh about the same as she did. It wouldn't be too difficult to carry him down; he didn't look in any shape to leap down by himself.
She glanced out the window, relieved to see that Ikki and Sayuri had landed just fine, and that they hadn't yet been noticed. She waited until they made it back to the pond and Jin before leaping up onto the windowsill.
Yoshihisa climbed up onto the windowsill after her, looking nervous about how high up they were. "Can't we just sneak through the palace…?"
Sakura shook her head and turned so that he could climb onto her back. "It'll take too long, and it's too risky. Hop on." She replied, relieved when he didn't protest anymore.
Once Yoshihisa was securely holding onto her, Sakura leapt out of the window, briefly startled by the chilling wind that blew tiny snowflakes into her hair and face.
They landed silently, and Sakura let Yoshihisa climb down, making sure that he hadn't been too shaken up. Then she led Yoshihisa over to the pond, where the others were gathered.
Jin was relieved when everyone returned safely, his attention fixing on Chou once he had assured himself that they were all okay. "You can't take us to Konoha. It's not safe. There's too many people that can't be trusted there."
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, frowning at the conversation that had started in her absence. "Konoha is the only safe place in this war."
"The Hyuuga clan has sworn loyalty to Aki, and so have several other smaller clans in Konoha." Jin explained, his expression grave. "It's not safe for us there."
"Where else can we go?" Sakura asked, growing anxious.
Jin glanced back at Chou. "Take us to Terumi Mei. I don't know where she is, but I know she's alive. She can help us."
"I don't think so." A cold, angry voice said. Jin immediately recognized Azusa's voice and stiffened as he turned to face her.
Beside Azusa, Rikichi stood, along with a few Mist shinobi that had joined their cause in the midst of the coup that had sent Terumi Mei into hiding. They were still several yards away; not quite close enough to engage them in combat without taking out half the garden.
Ikki pushed Sayuri behind him and stepped forward to stand next to Jin and Sakura, protecting both Sayuri and Yoshihisa.
"Sayuri-hime, Yoshihisa-sama, please get closer to the edge of the pond. I know this is going to sound crazy, but you're going to need to jump into Chou-sama's mouth." Jin said, his gaze never leaving Azusa or her companions.
Judging by the way their enemies had arranged themselves, Rikichi was no longer in charge. Azusa stood at the front and center, wakizashi held offensively before her. Her amber eyes blazed with a crazed fury that put Jin to shame when he had seen Kisame for the first time since Raizo's untimely death.
"Shiraishi Jin, I order you to stop." Azusa commanded, but they both knew that she no longer had any power over him.
Jin shook his head, backing up with Ikki and Sakura; Yoshihisa and Sayuri had already done as they were told, and had disappeared into the enormous koi's mouth.
Azusa's gaze flickered towards Sakura as she decided her next move, and then she shifted into a new stance, drawing her wakizashi back in the same way that one would draw a spear back just before launching it.
The moment she flung her weapon with incredible force and accuracy, Jin knew what was going to happen.
Jin had already seen his friends killed before him, had seen their bodies, and even though he now knew that none of it had been real, he knew that he could not bear to see it happen again.
He was moving before even he realized what he was doing. Jin shoved Sakura out of the way, making sure that she was out of danger.
Azusa's wakizashi struck Jin with such force that he was flung backwards towards the pond.
Blood sprayed across the snow and Jin's companions as the wakizashi buried itself into Jin's stomach, painting the scene red.
A/N: Thank you all for reading! I really hope you've all been enjoying the last few chapters! They've been fun to write, and hopefully I'll have the next chapter out pretty quickly. Thanks for the reviews you guys have been leaving! It's been really nice to see that people are still reading this after all the time it went without an update, and I've been especially happy to see reviews from people that were reading from the beginning! I'm really happy to know that you guys are still around and enjoying Remnants! That's all I've got to say, but I hope you'll all be ready for the next update! Stay safe, everyone!
