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Butterfly and Moth
Chapter 7 – To the Land of Grass
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When the first sun rays touched the mountains around Tobirama and Akari, the two were already awake, and had been for a few hours. Tobirama had eventually figured that the night felt too long, and that Akari didn't plan to give the night's watch over to him. It was thought he didn't appreciate. So when he finally noticed, he informed her that he would stay awake, and that she should rest as well.
Akari had tried, but the animals in the woods around them were awake as well, and did not seem to care to hide their presence from them. Bushes rustled, branches cracked. And Akari felt too tense to sleep. The cold didn't help.
She was almost relieved when Tobirama finally got up and readied himself to continue their journey east with the first rays of sunlight.
He took the time to stretch thoroughly, never speaking a word, before offering his back again.
Accepting to be carried felt even harder for Akari this time around. The day before, her mind had been somewhat clouded by the fall and injury, and the fact that the Iwa shinobi chased them had filled her body with adrenaline.
But Akari had spent the night sitting, reflecting, and was now more aware than ever that she did not like being carried across the country by Tobirama Senju. It all felt surreal. And it felt wrong.
She put weight on her foot again to test the waters. Instantaneously, a sharp pain spread through her legs all the way up to her back. The foot was wrapped in bandages, but she could still tell that it was all swollen. And it hurt even more than the day before.
Tobirama was getting impatient again, so she quietly climbed on his back.
This time, there was the awareness that their bodies touched, that they were both intimately close. Being carried by Hashirama when shed' been injured had never made her feel uncomfortable or triggered the same kind of awareness.
His hair tickled her cheek and she had to turn her head away from his to not feel the urge to jump off in protest.
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Tobirama was quiet, and only spoke when he asked her to scan the area with her Byakugan. Maybe it was for the best. There really wasn't anything for them to talk about, and neither was it the right place and time for chatting.
They were not out of danger yet, despite being quite sure that there was no one tracking them anymore. They were still in enemy territory. So they both kept their eyes and ears open. No one could see them.
Akari could feel his warmth through the fabric of their clothes. But at least that meant that half her body was not helplessly exposed to the harsh mountain winds. Most of her body was chilled to the bone from last night.
But while her body longed for more warmth, more contact, her brain had different thoughts. She felt like a burden, a burden that was much bigger than the eight stone Tobirama had to carry on his back. It was a feeling she despised, yet there was not much she was able to do except for wrapping her arms around his neck and letting him carry her.
They stayed away from roads and travelers. To their relief, the Iwa shinobi seemed completely gone. It was only them and the nature around them.
But Tobirama and Akari were both no people to put their guard down. Whenever a town lay ahead of them, they would take a little detour to make sure they'd stay away from trouble. Tobirama would peek at signposts every now and then to get a better idea of where exactly their journey had taken them. Other than that, they even stayed away from roads and trails.
They slowly made it out of the mountains. Everything seemed to become smaller around them. The trees, hills and even the clouds in the sky. But the area also became more open, with less woods to hide.
They walked over a wide field, away from the road, always eastbound. A few hills left and right were the only cover they had. Tobirama continued to never say a word. And Akari only ever spoke to give him information on towns and people nearby. But Akari's eyes couldn't see everything. And she couldn't keep her Byakugan active forever.
So eventually, a group of four shinobi spotted them as they came around a small hill, and walked directly into the two Konoha shinobi. They stopped in front of Tobirama and Akari, blocking their way.
"Who are you?" one demanded to know. "You are not Iwa shinobi."
Akari slowly slid down Tobirama's back and stood next to him. She could tell that he was ready to fight them from the way his muscles tensed.
One of them seemed to recognise Tobirama. His eyes were glued on the Senju as he started to whisper to his two teammates.
Tobirama Senju was not a man to let his opponents have the first strike, so he threw his kunai at them before the Iwa shinobi even had the opportunity to decide what to do.
One blink, and he appeared next to them, thrusting a second blade into the throat of the one closest.
Akari watched the fight that started right in front of her, unsure whether he expected her to participate or not. Something told her he didn't. And she could clearly see that he managed just fine without her, so Akari decided to stay back and observe.
The three Iwa shinobi could not be high ranking, she judged. Their moves were too slow, their jutsu too predictable. And soon, another of them fell.
She carefully noted each of their movements, her Byakugan active just in case. So it came as no surprise to her when one of the remaining two turned, away from Tobirama and towards her. The shinobi decided it was smarter to attack her instead of the Senju.
Akari was prepared. When he leaped at her, she took a step back to dodge. Chakra flowed to her hand as she was aiming for the chakra point on his heart.
Out of nowhere, Tobirama appeared in front of her, driving a kunai into the man's neck. It all happened so fast that Akari, just like the Iwa shinobi, had no time to react. And her palm connected with Tobirama's shoulder instead.
He gasped, more out of surprise than actual pain. They both stared at each other for just a second, confused at the other's actions.
The moment was enough for the last Iwa shinobi to launch one final and desperate attack. He threw himself at them, in a way that was again too predictable, too easy to dodge.
But when Akari now stepped backwards to dodge, Tobirama moved forward to attack.
They collided.
Tobirama was about to snarl an insult at her, but then pushed her out of the way instead to grab the Iwa shinobi's arm. Bones cracked. His hand moved to the shinobi's neck next. More bones broke. The body dropped to the ground, dead.
He turned around to Akari, a big frown on his face. She'd fallen, and was sitting on the ground, one hand wrapped around her ankle.
"I'm sorry," he said, knowing he might have pushed her aside too harshly, with more force than had been needed.
She shook her head. Her eyes found his shoulder. "No, I'm sorry."
"Are you hurt?"
She pushed herself up and brushed some dirt off her clothes. "No more than before. What about you?"
He kneaded his shoulder with one hand, hoping to relax the sore muscle. "Getting chakra pumped into your muscle is not the best feeling, I'll have to admit that."
Akari had to smile. His answer had been much more amicable than she'd expected, and the little pout on his lips only added to it. She'd expected to be blamed for accidentally punching him, and bumping right into him right after. Or even for failing to spot the shinobi in the first place. But there was no hint of blame in his voice.
"I guess we need to work on our coordination a bit," she said, more to make light of the situation than to actually start a strategic meeting between them.
But Tobirama nodded. "I'm the one doing the fighting, so you should just keep yourself safe the next time."
"I did keep myself safe in case you didn't realise that. So maybe next time, you could just trust me that I am capable of defending myself." She didn't want to sound snarky or start a fight, so she made sure to speak with a smile.
He looked down at her foot, then at her again. His look only became more serious. "Your safety is why I'm here." He leaned over one of the bodies and started searching them for anything valuable. He took weapons and money. The food he eyed but then left for safety reasons. "Besides, I don't trust. I get things done."
Akari didn't help him search the bodies. His words bothered her too much. "So you are telling me I have to be the one putting my trust in you to save me? That does not sound like a good team dynamic. Do you also not trust Hiruzen and the others?" She still tried to sound nice and joking, despite feeling somewhat offended again.
"We are not a team."
Akari pressed her lips together as she did her best to recover the calmness in her. He saw her as a mission, a client. And that she couldn't tolerate.
"I'll get rid of the bodies," he informed her as he heaped up the first corpse onto his back.
She took a deep breath as she watched him drop the corpse into a nearby river that hid behind a small patch of trees. It was a good distance away and close to a road, but it was true they couldn't just let the dead bodies lie around in a field. Akari waited until he came back to pick up the second body, telling herself that it didn't matter what he thought of her. All that mattered was that they made it home.
Tobirama was back to acting like nothing had ever happened, either oblivious or indifferent towards the small frown that remained on her lips.
When he picked up the last body, she followed him to the water. He washed some of the blood off his hands and she did the same. The water was ice cold, but at least it felt refreshing on the skin.
Their clothes stayed a mess. Tobirama wore black beneath his blue armor, which hid all the dirt and blood stains well, but Akari had always liked bright colours. A stranger only had to glance at them in passing to get a good idea of what they'd been involved in.
Akari kept checking their surroundings with the Byakugan while they kneeled at the riverbank. She wasn't going to let anyone else slip her attention. The surroundings were quiet again, despite them now being close to a road.
When she was done inspecting their surroundings, her eyes fell on Tobirama. Her Byakugan she decided to keep activated as long as they were close to the road.
He noticed her staring at him, and asked, "Is something the matter?"
Akari looked away. There was something she'd been meaning to ask him all day long. After the conversation they had the night before. And now the question seemed even more relevant to her.
"Did you feel forced to come after me? I'm sure Hashirama-sensei asked you. But you should have turned around when you ran out of Hiraishin seals. Giving Iwa a pair of Byakugan certainly isn't an optimal outcome. Yet better than risking your life for it as well. So did you feel forced? Because of my father?"
He shook his hands in an attempt to dry them. "I did feel forced, yes," he admitted. "By your father? Partially. But also by my brother, Riku, Inori, your clan, and basically all of Konoha."
"You shouldn't have," she quietly said. "I am grateful. But you shouldn't have felt forced to risk your life like that. And I'm sorry for that."
He didn't say a word and stood up instead. "I'm here now. No use thinking about what I should and shouldn't have done."
Akari wanted to say more, but something moved behind her. She focused her eyes on it, and saw two men approach, walking right into their direction.
Tobirama was immediately alarmed. He stepped away from the water and grabbed the kunai he'd just cleaned.
"Wait a minute," she said, grabbing his wrist to stop him from running off. "They are only civilians. At least they don't look like shinobi."
"We can't let them see us," he returned, pulling away from her. "Any hint as to our location is a risk we cannot take."
"Let's just hide then," she tried again, her voice now no more than a whisper as the men kept getting closer.
He studied her face, like he was debating with himself whether to value her opinion or not. The area around them was fairly open despite the few trees that seemed to grow along the river. Soon, they would make eye contact.
Tobirama picked her up and with a quick jump, they were on top of one of the bigger trees, far up. He stood next to her, pressing his body towards the tree trunk with her in between. His hands he kept left and right of her, almost like he was trying to make sure she wouldn't fall. Or move at all.
Akari turned her head away from his chest. Her first impulse was to tell him off. But his body was still tense, much more than her own, and his eyes focused on the two men who walked down the road beneath them. He barely seemed to realise she was there. Close to him. His attention he gave fully to the chatting strangers.
He only started to relax again when the men were long gone, and their voices could not be heard anymore.
Akari still leaned against the tree trunk as much as possible. She glanced at the man next to her, but immediately turned away again as she realized he was still too close for comfort.
"What's wrong?" he asked, having caught the slight blush on her face. It was a bodily reaction he could not make any sense of.
"Nothing. It's just… you smell very sweaty."
He removed the hands from her sides and straightened himself, smelling his shoulder. His lower lip almost formed into another pout. "I've been trying to get you back to Konoha for two days now, what do you expect?" he snarled at her. "That I brought spare clothes?"
Akari didn't expect anything. She knew she hardly smelled better. She simply didn't want a man who was almost a stranger to her so close. It irritated her.
She flinched when he suddenly picked her up again and landed on the ground with her. She had to listen to another comment about him hoping he did not smell too bad for her to let herself get carried across the country before they continued their journey to the Land of Grass.
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Akari kept her Byakugan active for most of the time. She didn't want to miss enemy shinobi again, not now that they moved closer and closer towards the borders to the Land of Grass.
And finally, after hours of more walking and running, they reached an immense ravine that split the land in two. Akari checked the area ahead of them before they stepped up to the cliffside.
The ravine marked the border between Land of Earth and Land of Grass, and they thus expected guard posts stationed along it. But Akari and Tobirama were far off the official roads. There was only silent nature nearby.
"How are we supposed to cross this?" she asked, trying to estimate the width. It was such an immense crack in the earth that it barely looked natural anymore. This was more than just a ravine. It was a tear in the world, like a higher being had tried to pull the lands apart with some supernatural force.
Shinobi could jump far, and also hold onto walls using chakra once they made contact, yet she wasn't exactly sure whether she would risk this one. Especially not if Tobirama planned on crossing with her on his back.
"There is only one bridge connecting the Land of Stone to the Land of Grass, and it's heavily guarded. So I'm afraid we'll have to cross here."
Akari swallowed. "Yes, but how?"
He slowly stepped up to the edge. She unconsciously held onto him tighter as her eyes failed to spot the ground.
"Get down for a moment," he said, backing off the edge again before letting go of her. He went back to the edge alone, his last Hiraishin kunai in one hand. He spun it, and the kunai whizzed through the air. For a moment, Akari feared that not even the blade could make it all the way across and would be lost somewhere in between Earth and Grass. But the blade reached the other side effortless and got stuck in a tree.
"Ready?" He waited for her to nod before taking her onto his back again.
In all the years Akari had been Hashirama's student, she'd seen the Hiraishin used several times, but she'd not once experienced it herself.
She felt Tobirama's chakra slowly engulf her. It was a subtle sensation, cool on the skin. The Hiraishin would teleport whatever Tobirama cloaked in his chakra, Akari was aware. And then, it was a single blink and she found herself on the other side of the ravine.
Akari blinked again, and again, wondering how she could have completely missed the moment. They softly landed next to the Hiraishin kunai.
"We are officially on allied grounds again," Tobirama casually said while grabbing the kunai. To him, this had been nothing special.
Akari knew she was supposed to feel relieved, but she was too flabbergasted by the fact that a jutsu such as the Hiraishin existed. It almost felt like part of reality had been cut away. Time and space had been disrupted. She couldn't help but wonder how a person came up with such an ability.
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It didn't take long until they reached wide green plains, filled with rice fields. The Land of Grass was much more open than the Land of Stone. There were less mountains, less woods to hide in.
Akari asked whether she should keep scouting with her Byakugan, but Tobirama told her it wasn't necessary. The Land of Grass was Konoha's ally, their main provider of rice and other goods. Here, they could relax for a bit. Or at least so they thought.
They continued to go inlands to get some distance between themselves and the Land of Earth. But eventually, Tobirama stopped at the side of the road.
A tree trunk had been made into a small bench and there were some signposts nearby pointing towards the next towns. That's where Tobirama let her down and explained he had to quickly relieve himself.
He handed her the water bottle before turning away from her to unbutton his trousers.
Akari started screaming, and instantly dropped the bottle to cover her eyes with both hands.
"Go somewhere private!" she scolded.
He groaned. He could tell what her problem was, but he couldn't really comprehend it. Not far away was a grove, so he decided to go there instead to spare himself the complains.
Akari threw the water bottle back at him, telling him to fill it up again at the stream that ran through there.
"You know, I told you that there was no need to check the area with the Byakugan anymore," he said, knowing she had discovered the stream earlier when searching for danger.
"Are you not rather safe than sorry?"
"I am, but you look more like a speaking corpse than an actual living being. Take a break."
He left the Hiraishin kunai with her and walked off.
Akari stretched and sat down on the bench. Her eyes did feel heavy but rubbing them barely helped. Somehow, she felt a lot more exhausted than she had anticipated. The sun would set soon, and she had kept her Byakugan active for most of the day. It was the first time she felt she could at least partially relax now that they were in the Land of Grass.
Having a moment away from Tobirama felt relieving. She appreciated all that he was doing for her. The man had risked his own life for her and that she felt grateful for. But the man had also basically been glued to her for more than 24 hours now. It was good to have a moment of privacy.
In the distance, the rhythmic padding of hoofbeats was audible. It came closer quickly, sending Akari's senses into high alert again. She knew those were likely no enemies, yet she couldn't help ducking behind her tree trunk bench to avoid being spotted.
The Byakugan showed her the riders. They were samurai, a big group of ten. They posed no harm and seemed to be riding past her. Still Akari decided to lay low.
A sudden hunch overcame her as she lay there, tense, waiting for the riders to pass. She felt watched. She could feel no one's presence nearby, could see no one, yet something prompted her to search the area once more, just like she had done all day long already. Just to be safe.
She looked around, avoiding only the direction in which Tobirama had left. But the area around them was fairly open, the field of vision great even without the Byakugan. It was all clear. The little forest Tobirama had vanished in was the only place to hide.
She could not find anything suspicious.
Something made Akari check the ground, the earth they had walked on. And suddenly there it was, a chakra system, hidden in the earth.
Akari swallowed. There was only one explanation why a live person would be hiding underground. It had to be an Iwa shinobi. And if there was one, there had to be more.
She jumped up, but then remembered to remain calm. If this person was watching her somehow, she did not want to alert them. Her hand slowly reached for the Hiraishin dagger, before she turned towards the forest and started walking towards it, towards Tobirama. Slow and collected.
Her eyes now searched for Tobirama. She quickly found him, him and someone else. She couldn't tell who the second person was. All she could see was a second chakra system close to Tobirama. Something told her this stranger was not a friend. But somehow, Tobirama seemed completely unaware of their presence, despite this person standing right next to him.
She broke into a run. Each step sent a sharp pain through her whole body.
"Tobirama!" she yelled as loud as possible. He turned to her, but was still too far away for them to see each other without a Byakugan. Trees blocked their view.
"Watch out!" she cried past them. But all it did was for the stranger to decide it was now or never. He raised his hand, ready to strike. From the motion of his hand, she could tell he was likely holding a blade. But she couldn't see it. And neither could Tobirama.
Akari stopped as she realised that she wouldn't make it in time, that this stranger would stab Tobirama any second.
Her mind raced over all the jutsu she could possibly use to get him to move or to avert the attack. But it would all take too long. She was too far.
So she screamed out the one word she prayed would teleport Tobirama right out of the immediate danger:
"Help!"
In less than a second, Tobirama appeared next to her. His eyes fell on Akari, then quickly scanned the area around them.
"What happened?" he asked when he could not detect any immediate danger.
"You didn't notice?" she blurted out, but there was a drop of relief in her, somewhere in between the ocean of worries that swamped her.
Her eyes showed her that both shinobi she had spotted approached. She grabbed a kunai, and Tobirama too was ready to fight, despite still being confused as to what exactly she was seeing that he wasn't.
A shinobi became visible right in front of them. Most of his body was wrapped in bandages, all except for eyes and nose. Yet Tobirama and Akari immediately recognised him. They recognised his ability. And their hearts skipped a beat at the sight of the Iwa shinobi.
"Not good," Tobirama said to Akari as he positioned himself in front of her. His eyes stayed on the Iwa shinobi. "This is the Tsuchikage's advisor. The Non-Person Muu. I can't believe we are running into him here."
The second shinobi Akari had spotted appeared next to Muu. "I apologise, sensei. I didn't think I'd be in range for her to sense me."
"Don't blame yourself, Onoki. This situation is not our fault to begin with," the man spoke calmly. He seemed unimpressed to be standing in front of Tobirama Senju. "At least the both of us managed to obtain a Sharingan."
"What are you talking about?" Akari asked, stepping next to Tobirama again.
Even though his mouth was covered, they could still tell he was smirking at them. "I could tell you all I know on our way back to Iwagakure. You realise we mean you no harm, at least not if you join us willingly, Lady Akari?"
She wanted to say more, ask again about the Sharingan, but Tobirama held her back.
"Don't listen to him," he said to her in a low voice. He then turned to Muu, and in a loud and confident voice said, "This is the Land of Grass, an ally of the Land of Fire. What is your reason for setting foot on this land?"
"Oh, actually we wanted to ask you the same. We saw you cross our border to the Land of Grass."
"Don't act all oblivious. You abducted one of our shinobi. The Hokage will not be pleased to hear of your actions here."
"You invaded the Land of Stone first. We were simply defending ourselves. And made sure we got a compensation for the damage you Konoha shinobi caused there. So, Lady Akari, would you like to join us? We might even forgive Tobirama Senju for invading our country and killing our shinobi."
Akari's eyes searched Tobirama's. She surely wasn't the type of person to just surrender. But she could tell that Tobirama was nervous. More than nervous even. Muu was one of the most feared shinobi in all of the Five Elemental Nations. Some even called him the strongest shinobi alive, at least if one did not count those who were Jinchuuriki.
And Akari surely wasn't going to get Tobirama killed because of her.
The Senju pressed his Hiraishin kunai into her hands again. He didn't look at her. His eyes were glued onto Muu. "We'll have to run somehow. We cannot fight both of them."
"I'll take that as a no," Muu said and went invisible again.
Onoki left the fight by levitating up above the trees, out of reach.
"Left!" Akari yelled, then pulled Tobirama away from an attack. He was close to her, so quickly she whispered, "How are we supposed to run? They can fly."
"I don't know yet," he admitted.
"Then let me fight him," Akari said.
"What?" It was the first time he turned to her again, with a look on his face suggesting she was crazy. "You cannot fight this guy. He is dangerous. Too dangerous."
"I have the one perfect counter to his invisibility. Do you have a better plan? It's not like we can just run from them, and neither can you just fight someone you don't see."
Onoki circled around them in the air. The trees gave them cover on the one hand, but also gave him cover in return. Him and Muu both threw shuriken from different angles at the same time. Akari threw Tobirama's kunai to safety, yelling at him to use the Hiraishin.
A moment later, they were at a different location, behind Muu. Akari had planned on this. She broke free from Tobirama's grasp and charged at the chakra system in front of her.
But Muu was not only invisible. He was fast too, and Akari quickly had to realise she would not be able to hit him.
Muu became senseable for Tobirama once he chose to use a jutsu. It was an earth one, aiming to catch Akari. They still tried to take her alive.
Tobirama saw his opportunity to go for an attack, but while Akari managed to dodge Muu's stone cage that emerged from the ground, the jutsu drove her straight into another one created by Onoki.
It showed that student and teacher were completely in sync with one another.
Instead of attacking, Tobirama used a defensive jutsu to cover Akari. "Break the stone!" he yelled at her, knowing he did not have the time to free her himself. The stone Iwa shinobi could create was awfully hard.
Without Akari, Tobirama had no idea again where Muu was. He tried to listen for steps, or even the slightest bit of sound, but there was none. So Tobirama preemptively threw a fire jutsu into one direction and quickly turned around, figuring that Muu would have dodged into that direction.
He spit a wave of water next, and when he spotted an invisible obstacle that the water had to find its way around, he quickly turned the water to ice, hoping to catch him that way. But Muu was already gone again.
Spikes shot out of the ground beneath Tobirama, and he too had to retreat to dodge. Behind him, a tree had caught fire from the jutsu he had used.
Akari finally managed to break through the stone wall that kept her captive and hurried towards Tobirama. He saw how she stopped halfway to duck away from an attack he could not see.
Tobirama clenched his teeth, utterly unhappy with the whole situation. But he did have an idea. A long shot, but they had to try.
He threw his kunai, as far away as possible, then jumped to Akari to grab her hand. She complained, feeling too restricted in her movements with him holding onto her. But a second later, they were in a different part of the forest yet again.
"Set the trees on fire," he told her.
"What?" Akari looked around, trying to make sense of where they were again.
"Do it!" he yelled, already spitting fire jutsu around. More and more trees caught fire, and more and more smoke arose around them. Tobirama could see even less with all the smoke, but that didn't matter. He had Akari who saw just fine.
"They are coming!" she informed him. Tobirama gave her the kunai, and Akari made sure to throw it into the opposite direction of their enemies.
Tobirama grabbed her hand again. His chakra engulfed her once more before teleporting.
They set more trees on fire, and repeated the whole thing each time Muu and Onoki were coming close. The distances they travelled were fairly small each time and the trees around them gave them at least a bit of cover to not be spotted immediately. Yet Tobirama knew his chakra reserves were not infinite.
But finally, Akari saw something.
"Someone's coming," she informed Tobirama, stopping what she was doing.
"Iwa?
"No, samurai."
Tobirama nodded, almost like he had expected this to happen. "Where?"
She threw the kunai, and one last time they ended up somewhere else, out of the forest in the open.
"This way!" She pointed down the field.
Tobirama signaled her to jump on his back, and without hesitating, she did. Together they raced towards the group of samurai that was approaching.
Muu and Onoki were right behind them. They caught up just as Tobirama and Akari reached the armored warriors.
Dust whirled through the air as the samurai pulled their horses to a halt.
"State your business," the one leading them demanded. His armor was shining, not a scratch could be found. It was embroidered with golden threads and the helmet held a small figurine of an ape with four tails. With a short nod, he sent two of his men towards the fire.
"We are shinobi from the Land of Fire," Tobirama quickly explained. "These two following us are from Iwagakure. They are after us, attacking us on land of our allies."
The samurai almost looked like a statue himself the way he was sitting on his horse, barely moving at all. But his eyes did switch to Muu and Onoki.
"You two, show me your permit to enter our lands," he told the Iwa shinobi.
Muu remained calm, but took a step backwards. He bowed to the man, then simply turned around and left. Onoki hesitated, confused at the sudden surrender, but silently followed his teacher.
Akari sighed in relief. Her heart was still beating fast from adrenalin.
The samurai's face was still made of stone. "And you two, we ask that you go back to your country as well. We don't want to get involved in whatever is going on between Fire and Earth."
"We were on our way," Tobirama said, sounding neither polite nor impolite.
Akari bowed and thanked the man, and bowed again. She then offered to help extinguish the forest fire they had caused. Tobirama reluctantly helped, not really thinking they had the time for this. But with a water jutsu from both Tobirama and Akari, the fire was gone faster than it had broken out.
The samurai thank them by telling them of a village not too far away that was ruled by a shinobi clan. If they were looking for shelter for the upcoming night, he recommended going there. Akari thanked him again and bowed, and the samurai and his people continued their journey.
She then looked at Tobirama, stared almost, until he threw a sharp glance back at her.
"He saved us," she said. "Do you not appreciate what he did?"
He frowned. "I do."
"You didn't even thank them."
His frown deepened. "I would have, but then you thanked them enough for both of us."
Akari couldn't agree. After all, they were samurai, they honoured respect and politeness. One couldn't thank them enough. But she didn't tell him her opinion. She couldn't lecture the Hokage's advisor, the man who came to save her, who was many years older than her.
Relief that they had survived yet another encounter with Iwa shinobi took over. That and the worry they might attack again now that the samurai were gone. So Tobirama and her agreed it was best to make it to the shinobi village quickly.
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A/N:
I had this chapter finished for like 2 weeks now EXCEPT for the fighting scenes. I feel especially the last one could have been super epic, but unfortunately, epic fighting scenes and me don't like each other. Oh well, good thing that -spoiler- there might not be too many of those in the next few chapters :)
Also, don't think I mentioned this in this fic yet, but I gave Tobirama Ice Release. I don't really like having the combined nature transformation be hereditary, so in my fics they can be acquired by mastering two elements and then simply... combining them. Thought ice would fit him pretty well honestly. But then again, I suck at writing fighting scenes so... we won't get to see a lot of ice jutsu anyway haha. But there IS a bit of background story to the ice relase in the next chapters.
Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this one!