"I guess by now I should know enough about loss to realize that you never really stop missing someone-you just learn to live around the huge gaping hole of their absence."
~ Alyson Noel, Evermore
...
Mitomi pukes when the land in Suna, it's fine, she's fine. She waves Sakura off as she wipes her mouth. Chiyo kindly had a bucket for her when they landed. Procured out of thin air. The younger girl was jealous of her cousin's ability to just have random shit."Go to Kankuro, he needs you more. It is just vertigo." Sakura nods and Temari takes her to the hospital, where she assumes Kankura will be with the poison squad.
Cool Sakura would probably like Akari.
"That was quite a jump." Chiyo mutters. Mitomi fights another wave of nausea. It's fine, she'd be fine. Mitomi takes a look around the room slowly, they're in the Kazekage's office. Which likely means Rasa took the kunai from Gaara.
It was a good thing he died from the attack… Mitomi would have skinned him alive if not. There was a very specific reason she had given the kunai directly to Gaara. She must look a mess, a Suna jounin clears his throat. Mitomi carefully turns to find Baki... head only vaguely spinning now. "Do you need to see a medic?" He questions.
"No, can you catch me up on everything that happened? The other half of our team will be here soon. We want to set out for Gaara as soon as possible." Mitomi runs a small healing jutsu on herself to wipe out the rest of her vertigo. Chiyo raises a brow.
Apparently that was surprising. But considering that most of their families could just heal themselves with their bloodlines surplus chakra and vitality… it was probably a strange sight to see an Uzumaki use iryo-ninjutsu.
"Do you want to wait for the rest of your team?" Baki questions, his tone strange. Konoha was prided of it's teamwork. Mitomi shakes her head.
"No… as soon as they get here we are heading out. We can't waste anymore time. The Akatsuki have the power to remove the Ichibi from Gaara… and if they do that it will kill him." And she didn't know how likely the Suna Elder would be to give her life for him here and now. Mitomi wasn't willing to risk her friend's life over it either.
Baki draws in a breath, and begins his explanation, then confirms her worst fears. The two who attacked them were their own missing nin in Sasori and a mysterious man in an orange mask. Mitomi drew in a sharp breath.
Fuck.
By the time Naruto arrives with Kakashi and Sasuke which is only a couple minutes passed, Asakimi has joined them in the office with a menacing puppet strapped upon her back. Wine colored eyes screaming murder. Along with the Elder Chiyo who looked like she wanted to kill Kakashi. Mitomi risks causing an incident by pulling the old woman down with an inky tendril. Nope not playing this game.
She makes sure nothing happens to the old bat.
"Chiyo-baa-sama please refrain from attacking members of my team. Asa-ito are you planning on coming with us? Kakashi, Baki has already gotten me up to speed with the situation we need to head out soon." Mitomi knows that the only reason that Kakshi was also team leader was because Sasuke was most likely not going to listen to her without another jounin backing her up.
"Sakura is with the Kazekage's son?" He asks for confirmation, Mitomi nods. She lets her ink tendril fall from the woman's ankle, the old woman actually looks impressed. Cool, Mitomi was just glad she didn't look like she wanted to murder Kakashi anymore.
Asakimi looks to Baki and the older man nods. He'd deal with Akari, she wouldn't be happy her sister went after Sasori. But Baki understood why she wanted to. "Go with them, having a puppet master will be beneficial when you have to face Sasori." Mitomi grins this was gonna be so much fun, Naruto looks like he's excited about the prospect too.
Fighting side by side people who could naturally keep up with you, with your family. It was fun. Especially when you were an Uzu descendant family.
"Let's go, we're wasting daylight. Naruto, Mitomi are you both good to run." Naruto gives a Gai worthy thumbs up. That almost has Kakashi sighing. Mitomi shrugs. It is about the only effort she wants to exert.
Vertigo is gone, do not wall me off if we run into the orange one. Shukaku is still screaming.. We have some time. I have warned my other half as to who we are facing.
I make no promises. I refuse to let Obito have you and control you ever again. Fuck… I'm going to have to tell Kakashi aren't I?
But Kurama doesn't answer her, Mitomi grits her teeth. "Let's go. Sakura will follow us when she is finished healing Kankuro. She knows we'll need back up."
They leave in a sprint after that. Mitomi dreads having to talk to Kakashi. But she knows she has too.
She waits until they've found a trail and both Naruto and Sasuke are capable of leading them, the fact that Pakkun and two of her summons are present help her decide to bring it up now. Mitomi signs to him in ANBU code, we need to talk, if he is surprised she knows it he doesn't indicate it. Usually… only the person who nominated you and at your discretion squadmates knew your identity. Mitomi always kept her most identifying feature hidden during ANBU work. Kakashi slows only just a fraction, is it dire? She nods a grim expression on her face. It was dire… but she couldn't let him be ignorant any longer.
"The man with Sasori is an Uchiha. The same Uchiha who attacked me three years ago. As well as the one who was controlling the nine tails the night of our birth." It's like ripping off a bandaid, and what she says next will sting more than pulling the bandaid off itself. Mitomi pushes through it. She has too. They don't stand a chance against Obito if she's the only person who knows who he is.
"He can use the same version of Mangekyo as you Kakashi." Mitomi whispers softly, as if that will make it any better. Kakashi is a genius, he should be able to put two and two together.
If Kakashi's shoulder trembles and shakes then Mitomi doesn't comment that she sees it. Other than to offer him a tight smile. Kakashi doesn't look at her, he tilts up his headband revealing his sharingan spinning like mad.
"Are you saying that my teammate is alive?" His voice is low and dangerous. Mitomi hears the unspoken threat clear as day. She swallows.
"He's not the teammate you remember. Right now he's acting on rage… like a child throwing a tantrum. Raven believes that he is being controlled by someone else."
Uchiha Madara is a lie.
Kakashi takes a deep breath, for a singular moment Mitomi feels every single one of his emotions. "Does Tsunade know?" Mitomi nods.
"Raven and Shark fought the masked man after I did, they both confirmed it. I broke his mask during our foray. Raven saw his face, and Shark told Raven that the man was pretending to be Madara while controlling the previous Mizukage. But he looks nothing like Madara. Godaime-sama wanted to tell you, but the man slipped away and has been in the wind since." So there was no point, especially because she didn't want Kakashi to decide to go after him.
Naruto calls out "Incoming!" An exploding tag goes off splitting up their group as everyone jumps away to avoid losing a limb. Someone grabs Mitomi out of the air because she hadn't managed to jump away in time. Mitomi curses at the sky and the grip around her torso tightens. She goes limp as a shiver runs up her spine.
Fuck.
"Little red head doll you've come back to play with me! Don't worry my friends will make sure your friends don't get lonely. Now I think it's time we talk, Mitomi-chan." Mitomi is in and out of consciousness from the sheer potency of his KI. She stays completely aware long enough to shove Kurama out of her coils and shield him behind a powerful barrier within the seal.
…
Naruto's ears are ringing.. How had they missed an exploding tag? Rookie mistake. Sasuke groans to his left. "Genjutsu, I didn't even realize we were trapped in it until it was too late." He bites his lip at that, well that wasn't awesome. They both react defensively as a branch snaps, followed by a string of curses. Chiyo breaks through the slightly thick underbrush half carrying Asakimi.
Neither boy relaxes. How do they know this isn't some elaborate henge. The enemy has already proven that they are a master when it comes to genjutsu. Chiyo seems to understand their lack of trust because she sighs.
"You can't just bullshit the rules, that's not how seals work." Chiyo calls out, it's not a true code but only members of their family had heard those arguments. Naruto grins.
"Rules are for idiots ojisan." He retorts, and Sasuke relents, Chiyo walks over to join them. Asakimi choses that moment to open her eyes. Panic radiating through them.
"We need to move now!" The Suna kunoichi shouts.
A horde of puppets break through the trees mowing them down to get to them. The four of them brace themselves for an attack. Chiyo goes so far as to shove her wrist into Asakimi's mouth. Naruto engages sage mode as Sasuke draws his katana sharingan activated and spinning.
"Let's kick ass!"
XOXOX
In which Mitomi should have been paying better attention.
Thanks for reading!
~LaRae
