Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I do not own Legend of the Five Rings. No financial gain is made from this. This is for entertainment purposes only.
Sumi's lack of sense of direction was by then a running pun in Team Ro. Her natural impulsive nature and sometimes unfocused behaviour were incompatible with such a skill.
So what in her optimism was a trip of a few hours, it became running in circles in the bamboo forest. She had been sure she remembered how to find the tiger shrine...
"I-I think we are lost," Yūgao mumbled.
They had been trekking in silence. Yūgao hated to admit it, but she had been enjoying walking around the fresh leaves, the smell of wet grass, but most importantly, the silver rays of the moon and its impossibly perfect shape. It had almost made her forget that they were breaking several capital rules.
Sumi sighed, bothered. "We must not be far off."
"I-I think we already took that path before," Yūgao said.
Sumi glared at her over her shoulder, but took the other way as Yūgao proposed.
After a while, the only sound that of the crickets and their ragged breaths, they found a clearing and Sumi's heart sped. She remembered this place; a long time ago she had camped here in the company of the fifth pride. For a moment, she was eleven years old again; innocent and scared, carried away by a dream she felt she had forgotten along the way.
"We must not be off," she said and Yūgao half-smiled.
That was good, right? Like that Sumi would get what she looked for and they would be back in Konoha before daybreak.
"Sumi-san, that's the direction we came from," Yūgao said in a small voice.
Sumi stomped her foot as she stormed in the opposite direction and Yūgao stifled a giggle. Both girls had not made acquaintance despite being in the same team for almost six months already. Sumi had arrived barely before Yūgao and was also older in age, but it was her close relation with their team leader than had intimidated Yūgao from the beginning. Sumi tended to pay less attention to her fellow colleagues in Team Ro and preferred to spend her time with Kakashi-senpai. It had been a disappointment for Yūgao, for she had been happy to learn at first that there would be another girl in her team.
Suddenly, Sumi started to run and Yūgao had to sprint to follow. They were off path and to the untrained eye, it looked like any other part of the bamboo jungle. But when Sumi kneeled, Yūgao noticed the old stones under the moss, the shapes of a statue long gone.
"What is that?" Yūgao asked confused. "Is that what we were looking for?"
"More or less," Sumi answered, in a futile attempt to put pieces back together.
Yūgao also ended up sitting down, checking a flat stone. She dusted it off with her fingers and blew on it. There was something... she took off her water flask and poured a few drops. "There is something written here..."
"I know. I checked it. It is too old to read the characters," Sumi complained, more focused on reconstructing the tiger's shape. Was this a paw or a tail?
Yūgao shrugged but something seemed off. She tugged a loose strand of purple hair behind her ear and in a low voice, she tried something. She felt stupid for it, for it was a crazy theory, so she whispered 'Kai' so Sumi would not hear her.
In a blink, she dispelled the illusion that condemned the statue to look like a useless relic and they saw with amazement how the stones in their hands became pure gold and they were surrounded by the precious material that shone majestic under the moon's reflection.
"What the..." Sumi's eyes were wide as she started to laugh. "What is this? What did you do?"
Yūgao felt guilty. "I am sorry. I don't know."
"Wait," Sumi started to gather pieces quickly, moving them around as she fit them like a puzzle. She finished looking at Yūgao and the piece in her hands. Yūgao put it in the hole and they read the characters that had become clear as quill strokes.
'Two tigers cannot share one forest'
"What does that mean?" Yūgao asked.
Sumi bit her thumb's nail. "I have no idea."
"Are we looking for a treasure?" Yūgao asked, eyeing the quantity of gold at their reach.
Sumi shook her head. "No, I am looking for a friend. And he could be in danger, so let's go," she said standing up and walking away.
"Where?"
Sumi pointed at the ground. "Wherever these footprints take us."
Yūgao looked closer. "Are these lion paw marks?"
Sumi smirked. "No, tiger's."
The trail started at the statue's remains and went deeper into the forest and as they advanced, the sounds abandoned them, building a tense quietness around them.
"Maybe we should wait tomorrow morning to continue," Yūgao reasoned.
"No, I need to get there fast."
And they did not argue anymore. A few meters later a wooden wall ended the track. It extended in the tree's cups and they could not see where it ended. What was a wall doing in the middle of the forest? How was even such an enormous structure standing straight? The girls checked its sides and behind but there was nothing.
"Maybe it was part of a building?" Yūgao proposed. "Kai!" she tried.
But nothing happened.
"Wait, it's not a wall..." Sumi's hand caressed the rough wood. Its dark mahogany color was rich in reds and oranges. Her fingers found a line, a crack in the middle, all along its length. "It is a door."
She tried to peak through the gap, but she could only see darkness. If she tried from the other side, she saw the same.
"Look," Yūgao suddenly exclaimed.
She was pointing at a high point, where they could glimpse a spot of white. They looked at each other, confirming the inevitable, and they gathered chakra in their feet to climb the door. The trek was long and Yūgao stole glances down from now and then.
"It is a seal," she said when they finally stared at the fragile paper. "What do you think it- Wait! What did you do?!"
But before she could finish screaming at Sumi, who had just peeled off the seal with a swift movement of her arm, the surface under them started to tremble violently, opening with a roar. Both girls ran down as fast as they could and Sumi grabbed Yūgao's wrist to jump down, landing with an ungraceful roll to the ground, the grass and leaves cushioning their fall.
Panting, they shared a brief look. "Now what?" Yūgao asked, trying to stand up but wincing in pain. Her ankle had taken badly the fall.
"Are you okay?" Sumi said as she helped her up.
Yūgao tested her leg and nodded, but she walked with a slight limp. Sumi peaked through the door. Nothing special, forest and bamboo. She tried a tentative step in and when she did not set any trap, she went in.
Yūgao followed. "Where are we going?"
"I don't know. My friend should be somewhere here." How was she supposed to find Haruki? She tried to remember a clue in her dream, but found none.
"That way," Yūgao said confident, and Sumi raised an eyebrow. "I can feel a source of chakra that way."
Sumi then realized she knew little about Yūgao. She was probably the sensory ninja of their team, but lately she had just been following Kakashi's orders without much thought into it.
"I see something," Yūgao said during their hike. She pointed a finger to a clearing, and Sumi remembered it from her nightmare. And like on it, there was something lying down...
"Wait!"
A hand grabbed her elbow and pulled her to the shadows behind a big bamboo shot. Sumi started to complain, but Yūgao raised a finger to her lips in sign of silence. Sumi wanted to scream, to tell her that there was no time, that they were too late, but then she felt the ominous presence that made her blood freeze in her veins and a cold sweat run down her back.
Both girls, trembling, hiding behind the vegetation saw the dark shadow pass by, covering the moon's light with its big shape. They held their breath and only when it was far enough did Yūgao let go of Sumi. Despite her previous resistance, it seemed her feet were no longer responding and she had to take several deep breaths before to go out in the open.
The sight broke her heart and she fell over the prostrate form of Haruki. Blood smeared on her cheek and it mixed with her tears. She remembered the little cub, the happiness of seeing him come back, the battles together, the comfort his fur provided when she had no roof over her head, the games they played, the years together...
She heard a low growl, his chest reverberating and making the sound pass through her body with a satisfying vibration. She looked up and saw Yūgao placing her glowing hands on Haruki.
"What are you doing?" Sumi asked.
Yūgao did not look at her, focused. "I will heal him enough to move, then we should find cover."
Sumi rose, scanning their surroundings. "Agree."
And with great joy, she saw Haruki try to stand up after a few minutes, and then manage, and she hugged him tightly, and he hugged her back, passing a heavy paw over her shoulder. And then, she hugged Yūgao and the girl smiled and hugged her back. And for a second, they forgot their problems, where they were, the repercussions they were sure their actions would have, the danger lurking and the tiredness.
Then Yūgao felt to her knees. Sumi tried to check for wounds, but Yūgao just smiled and told her, "I think I used most of my chakra healing your friend."
Sumi nodded. "Let's go get cover and rest."
She passed Yūgao's arm over her shoulders so she could help her walk and led them to a spot where to set camp. Haruki laid down, still breathing heavily from his wounds, and Sumi set Yūgao against him before to make a small fire and join her.
"You did not tell me your friend was a tiger?" Yūgao said dryly but with a smile.
"You didn't ask," Sumi answered, closing her eyes. It had been such a tiring day...
"Why did you let me come with you?" Yūgao suddenly asked.
Sumi opened an eye, then closed it again. "I guess I did not want to do this alone." Pause. "Thank you."
Yūgao smiled. "I see now why you and Kakashi are friends. You do both protect your friends."
Sumi chuckled. "I guess he would like to hear that."
Yūgao switched softly on her spot. She had never sat against a tiger - hell, it was the first time she saw a real one - and she was scared to trouble him. "You two are childhood friends, right?"
Sumi glanced at her, raising an eyebrow. "Am I under interrogation, Yūgao-san?" The girls laughed. But then Sumi sobered, "We are. He is partially the reason I am here, why I choose the shinobi path."
"To be with him?"
Sumi hit playfully her arm. "Don't make weird stories, Uzuki. He was an Academy student when I met him. I decided to become one too when I saw what being a ninja meant."
Yūgao stared at the moon. "And what is that?" she whispered.
"For me, it is protecting those I love," Sumi answered, peaking at Haruki and then back at Yūgao. "And you? Why did you join ANBU?"
Yūgao shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I want to improve my techniques and it looked like a good place to learn. I got to meet a lot of interesting people here, like Kakashi-senpai, you..."
Sumi blushed. She did not feel her name fit in the same category than Kakashi's. But she nodded. "When we are back, maybe we can train together a bit. I must say I slept through my medical nin courses."
Yūgao laughed. "I can see that," she teased.
Sumi smirked. "Be careful or Haruki and I will dump your sorry ass here."
"You won't be able to find your way back to Konoha."
They cracked up.
"At least it would give me time to plan how to face Kakashi's fury when we go back. I am sure he will sulk about this," Sumi commented.
Yūgao snickered. "He does sulk. I remember that time, when we were on a mission and I got bitten by a wasp. And it was so painful that I screamed and blew our cover. I had never been bitten before and then..."
And both girls spoke all those conversations they had not for the last six months. And between laughs and giggles the pain and fatigue were forgotten, muted by the calm snoring of Haruki.
And when the moon retired to let the Sun reign, they started to trek back, knowing each other a bit better, filling their silences with animated exchanges.
"Why do you think he came here, Haruki?" Yūgao asked as she led them back to the giant door.
"I think it's as the sentence in the rock said. 'Two tigers cannot share one forest'. I think he came here to fight the other tigers in the forest. Tigers they are solitary animals. Sometimes they don't handle well others in their territory," Sumi explained. Then she scratched her head and laughed, "But those are just my suppositions."
Yūgao smiled and pointed at the door. It was still open! They ran to it, happy to be out of this strange forest and impatient to reach Konoha - maybe they had not noticed their night adventure yet.
"Yūgao?" Sumi called, her eyes big and her hand shaking.
"Yes?"
Sumi pointed at the ground, where enormous tiger paws disappeared into the forest and direction to Kusagakure. And with horror, they understood that the seal in the door was not to keep intruders away, but to not let something out.
"Two tigers cannot share one forest," Sumi whispered. "People are in danger."