"It was the meanest moment of eternity."
~ Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
...
Naruto is mid strike, back to back with Sasuke who seems to be enjoying himself as he chars puppets. Chiyo was a couple of paces away from them with her tessen out, she was holding her own well. Asakimi is proving just how awesome she is by countering the horde of puppets while fighting the Akatsuki nin head on. It seems like it's going pretty well, all things considered, then Yang Kurama growls something unpleasant in the back of his mind.
I can't hear my Yin half. I think your sister has done something.
"Something wrong?" Sasuke questions as he deflects the puppet Naruto let slip past his guard in his slightly distracted state. He doesn't miss the startled worried look that crosses his face. Naruto bites his lip. Mitomi knew the risk of shutting off her connection to the seal like that…why had she done it?
He thought she was with Kakashi-sensei, they'd been in the back together when the blast sounded. Naruto assumed they were dealing with their own problems which was why they hadn't found them yet. But now… had something happened to them?
Had something happened to his sister?
"I don't know…" and he doesn't like not knowing the answer to that question. A puppet flies at him and he can't focus on the uncertainty, right now he needs to survive and win. It was the only way he was going to get Gaara back, to make sure Mitomi was okay.
…
Mitomi slips back into consciousness when she feels someone try to intrude on her mindscape. She growls, low and feral in the back of her throat, a warning. She doesn't open her eyes. A false airy chuckle follows. "Oh! The little dollie is awake! Look Leader-sama I caught one of the nine-tails hosts."
"We can begin the ceremony on both of them soon then. What is taking Sasori and Deidara so long?" Monotone, cold and unfeeling, a voice that sounds like it's being spoken through an old radio. Mitomi forces her eyes open despite how her body screams and protests.
A hologram.
"Me don't know! I got the girlie I thought you would be happy!" Fake. False. Nothing but a lie! Mitomi wants to scream.
Stop acting!
Stop being a pawn!
"It will take longer without them. Keep the girl away from the ichibi host, she's an Uzumaki." The hologram vanishes, Mitomi's heart is pounding urgently in her chest, she can feel it in her ears. She eyes Gaara's unconscious form a few feet from her. The fall and rise of his chest is the only reassurance of his life status.
They still had time.
Obito crouches in front of her, his lie still in place. "Are you going to be a good girl Mitomi-chan?" She snarls and spits at his mask.
"That depends, are you going to be a good big brother Obito-nee? Are you really going to let them hurt me?" Surely he knew how much her mother had loved him. Kushina never did anything to him, he never wanted to kill her. She had simply just gotten in the way, it was never intentional. It was only Minato.. because he'd been too late. He was always too late.
Obito grabs her face, thumb and index finger applying rough pressure to her cheeks. His entire aura darkens. It's suffocating to the point that it is almost nauseating.
"Obito is dead. I am Madara." He tells her, and she has the nerve to scoff. His grip tightens. She winces. But she still presses forward, biting out in bitter words.
"Uchiha Madara is a lie. The Obito that my mother considered her little brother may be dead, but that doesn't change the fact that you still used to be him." He dislocates her jaw, Mitomi cries tears welling up in the corner of her eyes.
"Be quiet. I have heard enough." He walks over to check Gaara's still unconscious form.
Mitomi doesn't remove the barrier she put up in the seal. If they tried to extract Kurama from her… well it would be the equivalent of setting off a bomb. So she hoped they liked explosions. She wasn't going to let them get their hands on him. Not this time.
Not when she knew what was at stake.
She closed her eyes. It was time to think. To plan and prepare for what she could. Obito broke both of her legs so it wasn't like she'd be running anytime soon. Mitomi conserves her chakra instead of healing the injuries. For one her paranoid nature came in hand, she didn't have to be touching Gaara to interact with his seal.
Mitomi is the last princess of Uzu, she could bullshit the rules of fuinjutsu better than anyone alive.
One of them would get out of here alive if it was the last thing she did.
…
Kakashi is not having a very good day. Really it was turning out to be one of his least favorite by far. He really thought he'd dealt with Iwa nin enough in his life at this point. Living through the third war had been enough for him. To make matters worse, he's been separated from his kids, and someone snatched Mitomi out from under him. The Akatsuki were really starting to piss him off.
Lightning crackles up his arm, sharingan eye dripping blood, it was time to finish this. He needs to find his kids. Tenzo would be upset with him if he let anything happen to his student.
The missing Iwa nin never even stood a chance.
...
Asakimi rips her former master's heart from the cavity of his puppet. She crushes the container without a second thought. Her little cousin is missing and probably making horrible life choices. The Uza woman sneers at the remnants of their battle, how disrespectful her former master had become. Ungrateful of his craft and skills, arrogant.
As they wrap up the battle a raging silver haired jounin appears. Asakimi, the only other jounin amongst them greets him with a lazy finger wave. She frowns when she notices the lack of her little cousin. Not likely that in the slightest. Chiyo asseases his injuries, and he is for sure injured, burns and blood. The Uzumi girl heals some of his injuries before holding out her arm pink eyes set.
"Bite me. You are the worst injured out of all of us. I hope your opponent looks worse." Chiyo tells him plainly. Asakimi watches a series of emotions flicker through his eyes.
"Well he's dead."
"Good. Naruto-kun, has your houseguest said anything about his other half?" Chiyo asks looking away from the silver haired jounin to give him some semblance of privacy. Asakimi checks the boys for any indication of poisoning. She doesn't think they ever took a direct hit.
It would be a problem if they did. She's not a poison master like her sister, hopefully that Haruno girl has made an antidote.
Asakimi's frowns when Naruto doesn't have a chipper response. He looks worried, he opens his mouth and then closes it floundering for words.
"Mitomi was taken by the masked man who helped take Gaara, she believed he could control the tailed beast so it is very likely that she has done something to prevent it from happening." Kakashi tells them. Asakime bites her lip as she deems both the Uchiha and her blonde cousin free of poison. Chiyo very noticeably doesn't make eye contact with any of them.
She knows what Kakashi is talking about then.
Sasuke suddenly turns volatile, re-branding his katana. Asakimi turns sharply preparing for an attack. Instead what she finds is a man with long dark hair and onyx eyes accompanied by a blue skinned fish like giant who appeared to be missing an arm. Neither have identification headbands, but the Konoha nin seem to know them. Chiyo's hands shake, Asakimi takes a threatening step towards them.
Her mother had been a pack creature before her death, Asakimi had inherited that trait from the woman if nothing else. They may be from different villages but she would defend her pack. Especially if her team deemed these two as a threat.
"The man is Uchiha Obito, although he was masquerading as Madara for a time." The onyx eyed man speaks, looking completely unbothered by the hostile nature coming from the clearing. Asakimi notices the way Kakashi pales at the name, the way Sasuke hitches his breath, the confusion from Naruto.
But most noticeably the look of absolute exhaustion coming from Chiyo. The sweat dripping down her face, skin rapidly paling, the whole body trembling. Asakimi curses. Stupid girl! Kakashi catches her as she drops. Asakimi is next to them both in an instance leaving the boys shellshocked behind her.
Blood coating his hand from where they touch her side. A festering wound, she must have known she didn't have long. Her eyes gloss over. Asakimi gently checks her pulse. Nothing.
"She's gone."
XOXOX
...In which I am a horrible person.
I am sorry.
Thank you for reading!
~LaRae
