Well, well, well, look who is back after Shisui pulled her back in the fandom.
Not a happy chapter here.
Warning: PTSD, mental breakdown, also I don't really know how PTSD really works and while I did read tons of stuff about it, I'm not that confident about it, also my grammar might suck too.
A few more characters are introduced but not all of them will be relevant to the story.
Also, it possible that I wrote 'Shisui' at some point but it's not because Nagisa remembered his name - it's just so I don't need to repeatedly write 'my Uchiha' or 'my little ray of sunshine'.
Anyway, I think that's all.
Have fun, it's only the beginning. :)
Chapter 14: Let's play hide and seek with knives
Another branch snapped under her feet and her attempt at steadying herself on the next made her lose precious seconds. She tried to compensate by pumping more chakra in her legs, gritting her teeth.
Her racing heart pounded into her ears, deafening her to the rest of the world for a tiny second. The all too familiar drop in her gut, as if her chest became empty but heavy at the same time, would have frozen her but the fierce burn of adrenaline kept it at bay.
Keep moving, don't falter. Her leather-clad fingers curled around her arm, pressing on the wound.
It made her wonder though, if something grew in her chest and left no space for her lungs and her heart or if her heart grew so big it left no room for her lungs. She was panting, hard.
Her legs carried her minutes away from the center of the island with an urgency only a prey knowing it was hunted could muster.
Nagisa knew they were still behind her, giving chase with the sadistic glee of a predator, and she knew she didn't stand a chance to outrun them but she kept going, pushing through the pain with that stubborn determination that accompanied her for nine years now.
She would need a pretty good distraction to slip away and hide. It was only the fourth day. She needed to hold on for another two days.
She couldn't falter now. If they catch me-
Nagisa violently cleared her head. Now was not the time to think about that.
Still, the thought persisted, if they catch me-
If they caught her, she would have no choice but to attack but three against one… As reckless as she could be, the girl wasn't foolish enough to believe she could win.
If they caught her, it would prove Tsukito right and she would rather die than let that happen.
From time to time, bloody red strands that escaped from her braid flew back in her face, grimly reminding her that no matter how, she would never be able to hide in plain sight. The color clashed too much with the forest.
Fucking Uzumaki. Why did they have such strange hair color-
Something whistled past her ear. Her already tensed muscles grew tenser.
The first chakra signature entered her radius of 'too close, get the fuck away from me'. Another one appeared a second later and she found herself tailed by two shinobi.
Nagisa finally realized with growing urgency that they were gaining ground. Quickly.
Shit-
She actively dodged the second flying object - probably a very sharp tool of death - and took off in a random direction. A sigh quivered from her lips, reminded of how much her body ached and her chest burned.
To think that bastard Tsukito would play dirty-
The hair on her arms rose as if sensing danger. Nagisa's eyes widened. Small tendrils of fear curled around her throat as she crouched.
She barely missed the blade aiming for her head.
How the hell-?
Her heartbeat quickened. She drew in a sharp breath. It was-
It was the day of the invasion all over again. And just like that, she panicked.
He reached her too fast. She didn't even sense him! He was-
-Too close. Another one.
The number of shinobi running after her rose to three.
The fear that twisted her gut and threatened to turn into full, uncontrollable panic sprung her back into action.
She jumped away. The smoke bomb exploded a second later. There was a surprised gasp. She ignored it.
Survive.
It was the only thing on her mind. Everything else was cloudy. Behind her, it wasn't proctors but Yohei men and they were after her life. She was numb to the intense terror she suddenly felt. She headed further into the forest, branches and thorns wiping at her face. She didn't even try to zigzag anymore.
Survive. Do everything you can to survive. Don't die.
She set her gaze ahead, never turning back. Move forward, always forward, forward,forawardforwardforwafor-
Her heart pounded fiercely against her ribcage. She needed to create some distance-
Chakra came from her right. Nagisa barely reached the next branch in her panic. The girl let go of the few papers she was holding, sending a sharp impulse of chakra toward the notes.
The branch under her feet broke. She was sent tumbling down the tree. The breath of the explosion pushed her away mid-air, giving her enough momentum to twist, falling back first toward the ground.
The landing took her breath away. Nagisa's entire body twitched harshly, vision turning white as pain exploded in her back. Her fingers dug into the mud, grounding herself and pushed herself back on her feet before the fog in her head cleared.
This proved to be a mistake. The world spun and she tasted bile in the back of her throat.
Move.
It was the only thing that mattered. One foot after the other. It was all-
"Wait, Uzumaki-san!"
The scream warned her but too late. In her panic, she forgot to coat her feet with chakra -Stupid, stupidstupidstupid. It should have been second nature by now- and slipped into the roaring stream.
The morning of her graduation test has been unusually calm. The whole family was gathered in the small living room to eat together. Something that happened once in the blue moon. Yukio was thrilled to see his father first thing in the morning and couldn't keep his mouth shut. The girl, not so much.
Thankfully, no word was exchanged except a patronizing hand on her shoulder, telling her to 'make him proud'.
Her mother had unsheathed tears in her eyes and a kind of sorrow Nagisa couldn't face for too long. There were hugs that wove souls together and strengthened bonds, there were hugs with gentle arms that lift the weariness off the soul and there were her mother's hugs. Filled with love and a kind of desperation that bespoke of her yearning to turn back the time, to shield her just a little longer.
Her arms were strong and tightly curled around her daughter's shoulders as she breathed in her scent.
Yukio's kisses were soft and wet, he giggled at her affronted face after he successfully licked her cheek. His affection was pure and innocent. He didn't understand what was happening, just that she would be away for a week and he would miss her.
She left the house with a heavy house, clutching the leather gloves Miru gifted her and jacked woven with two storage seals Mito made and broke into a jog.
Which brought her to the other side of the island, on that beach with black sand and rocks. The sea lotuses were barely open when she reached her destination but there were already several kids waiting.
"Is it where the graduation exam takes place?" Nagisa approached a group of kids, trying to get a conversation going.
When she was met with a very curt 'yes' and several derisive glances, she decided she wouldn't try her hand at socialization again.
She felt awkward and out of place in the middle of the kids, wishing to not be alone but also unwilling to speak with them. It wasn't like she knew how to start a conversation anyway.
"Line up," A shinobi in red armor told them, voice strong and slightly annoyed.
They did as directed without many words. Some kids were whispering excitedly, snickering with their friends but Nagisa was feeling far too nervous for that. They were around thirty children taking the exam, some had red hair but none were closely related to her - and thank God Kishi wasn't present.
Yakihiro told her to expect a survival kind of exam, it usually was this quality the proctors were searching for: kids reliable enough to survive if left alone. The taijutsu in itself was deemed less important as they would train with a team for the next three years before being considered as a full-fledged shinobi.
She joined the line, feeling like eyes were lingering on her.
She failed to find who was watching her before the proctor spoke again. "The exam will take place on the island in front of you. The ones who failed to join it in time will be disqualified. The rest will be explained there."
There were gasps, there were scoffs. One boy on her left turned pale as his shoulders dropped.
Nagisa relaxed. An easy task first.
"Begin."
And just like that, they took off.
It was around halfway that for some reason, the boy started to lose his footing. He put too much chakra which propelled him forward with an explosion. The tension on the water broke and one of Nagisa's legs sank into the water. She barely managed to coat the rest of her body in chakra to stay afloat.
One of the boy's friends came to his rescue, throwing an arm over his shoulders to help him stabilize. She clicked her tongue, frowning.
While that display of friendship was cute, the fact that he couldn't water walk wasn't. She was wet and not particularly happy about it. Plus, the boy looked weak. His body was too thin, he lacked the healthy layer of fat kids should have, just like he lacked muscles. His body language spoke of his nervousness and with his darting eyes, he looked like a rabbit. Twitchy and afraid.
His face was nice though with harmonious proportions and slanted-up eyes, he could almost pass as cute. He still was too thin.
"You should give up already." She told them with no heat behind her words as she ran past them. "You won't make it."
His friend, black hair and blue eyes, snarled after her. "Who are you to tell him that, bastard? You're no proctor so shut your mouth. Ryota is an excellent shinobi."
"I can't." The boy provided not unkindly, he looked shy. "I need the money for my family."
Nagisa snorted, throwing him a pitying look. She didn't need to know his sod story, everyone had one in this world. "I don't care and neither will your enemies."
With a burst of chakra, she ditched them.
There was no good reason to become a shinobi and she found the ones throwing their futures away because it "looked cool" to be the worst. Once disillusioned, they wouldn't have a drive anymore and would die pitifully.
His reasoning, while noble and true - shinobis were the ones earning the highest pay -, would destroy him in the end and with his inability to walk on water, he was just a cannon folder at its finest. It was better for him to take the exam once he was ready. Hopefully, he would realize it wasn't for him before that.
She reached the island soon after. The boy was disqualified. His friend wasn't and he was pissed at her.
"For the first part of the exam, your fighting skills will be tested. You will fight three times. Should your strength be deemed not enough, you will be disqualified."
The corner of her mouth twitched. A strange kind of tingling ignited her blood. Nagisa never fought against anyone else but her sensei - the small brawls she would partake in didn't count- and she was a bit excited to test herself.
Perhaps it was an Uzumaki thing, to enjoy fighting so much, to love and express love fiercely.
Her first two opponents weren't much. One had an interesting weapon, a harpoon, and it was a pain to come closer but he lacked speed and couldn't do much without it. The other was a more standard fighter, he knew a few ninjutsus and had a decent taijutsu posture but Nagisa hit harder.
The third one, however, was going to be a real pain to deal with.
"Nagisa." The older boy by three years with brown hair and brown eyes nodded his greeting, his fingers twitched toward his kunai holster.
The girl frowned, falling into a stance. "Tsukito, I didn't know you took the exam too."
"And thank god for that," He smiled wryly. "I couldn't have you balk out."
From the corner of her eyes, she saw the proctor throwing the stone signaling the beginning of their battle and grabbed two kunais. "Because of you? I would never."
The stone described a perfect parable. Time seemed to slow down as the rock fell and the moment it touched the ground-
They moved.
She threw her first kunai, going low to gut him. He deflected and met her headfirst. Nagisa was pleased with the agonizing screech their weapons made upon contact. She was going in full strength.
She dropped into a crouch as he kicked high and rolled away as his foot went straight down. The power behind his attack sent a bit of sand in her face. She grimaced inwardly, spitting the grains.
Both hands on the ground, she punted him in the side but didn't pack enough strength to unbalance him. He grabbed her ankle and jerked her forward, raising his kunai high up to stab her throat. Her kunai went to her other hand and she deflected at the last second, throwing sand in his face with her other hand before her knuckles kissed his face with a satisfying crack.
They jumped away.
Tsukito's spit, Nagisa remarked with a wicked satisfaction, had a nice red shine as he spewed his tooth.
Frankly, the girl had initially nothing against him and she couldn't care less what he was doing as long as it didn't affect her. It all came from him.
The thing with Tsukito was that he was her cousin, it was an open secret at that point. The kid was the spitting image of his father minus the hair color. Her uncle Kaï, the sixth sibling, was a known womanizer and he had several kids on the island. And, to his father's dismay, he never claimed any of them. So none of her cousins were affiliated with the clan despite sharing the Uzumaki bloodline.
It was clear that her cousin took it the hard way. He first tried to do everything to get noticed by his father and when it failed, he turned his anger toward the main family, resenting them for not welcoming him into the clan and throwing jealous fits every time he came across Mito, Yukio or her.
Nagisa was pretty sure taking the exam was another one of his attempts at catching his father's attention.
"Yielding yet?" She asked. The wry twist in her brows made it all more unbearable to the boy.
Tsukito wove signs and- oh, crap, he knows elemental ninjutsu, "It's just the beginning."
Her fingers brushed against the collar of her jacket with a dot of chakra in the tips, a kunai with an explosive tag popped in her hand. She threw it just in time to deflect the wave of water rushing at her.
She crossed her arms in front of her face, coating her feet with chakra to keep her balance. She felt a pulse in his chakra and took a step back. Drops of water suspended in the air clothed her surroundings in mist. Nagisa swore as she was still caught in his ninjutsu. It was very irritating to be surrounded by the gas state of water, it muffled everything sound or chakra related – especially when suffused with another's hostile chakra.
Why the hell was everyone well versed in elemental ninjutsu and she wasn't. She didn't even know the most basic ones!
Tsukito came from the right, or so she thought, but the sudden punch in her left side begged to differ. He followed with an uppercut that caught her nicely under the jaw and finished with a knee to the guts.
Nagisa rolled away with a high-pitched gasp, wheezing. A hand came to her lips, wiping the blood away without taking her eyes off him.
That hurt, a lot. But she wouldn't let it show. She had her pride.
"You're not as strong as you think you are, Nagisa." Tsukito taunted, a mean glint in the eyes. She heard the kunai slit air. "You don't deserve all those praises."
"Big words for an unclaimed." Her lips split open in a bloody smile, her kunai clashed against his own mid-air, both tags fluttering. She shunshined away, far enough to not get caught in the explosion because her tag would make a big kaboom.
And big kaboom, it did. It startled people so much that, as they were running back to trade more blows, a proctor jumped in between them. "If you don't cease this fight, you will be disqualified."
That certainly stole the wind in her sails, so much that her foot caught on a misplaced rock. Her entire body lurched forward, flying in near parallel to the floor and she slammed face-first into the sand, the grains scratching her cheeks.
Tsukito, on the other hand, was seething. Watching her from above the shinobi's shoulders - the boy was tall, dammit. She knew deep inside that she wouldn't be able to relax until the end of the exam.
His eyes screamed bloody revenge.
It appeared that Yakihiro-sensei was right as the second part of the exam was a hide and seek from hell, in which the shinobis were the seekers and the children were the hiders. The game would last for the rest of the week, six full days.
The first two days were spent in a relatively calm manner. She didn't really sleep, trading a full night for a few naps here and there within the temporary security perimeter she created, and it was taking its toll on her. There was a sluggish quality to her movement but she prevailed. Hunting small animals, stirring clear of both any chakra approaching her and the big cats which had established their domiciles here.
The days had passed by so easily that when the third day greeted her, she wasn't prepared to be docked in the face by it.
She stumbled upon the encampment of a kid better at stealth than her - but really, it wasn't something to pat your back for - and she would have left him alone had he not stopped her. Well, stopped, small word, more like straight-up attacked her before calming down when he realized that she wasn't a seeker.
"Who the fuck are you?" He gruffed and Nagisa immediately knew they wouldn't be friends. He had that mean glare that put her on edge. Something like… anticipation?
A hand on her kunai holster, knees slightly bent, she answered: "Nagisa. You?"
He blinked, once, twice and she saw his eyes running up and down her form, watching, analyzing her. She broke into goosebumps and shifted in a way that it would shield her from his eyes. She was uncomfortable and her guts twisted like something bad was going to happen.
"Nagisa... You're Uzumaki Nagisa?" He sounded incredulous before he knitted his brows together, sending her another long look.
Now, Nagisa was starting to get offended. It was true that she was small, puberty had yet to catch her and she was nine, bordering ten years old. No nine years old was buffed or big. Most of her strength came from her chakra control and only a tiny part was due to her muscles. She would reach her peak once she reached her adult form.
"Yes."
"You're the girl Yakihiro-san has been forced to train?" She squinted her eyes. Something wasn't adding up. Why was he bringing Sensei up? Usually, people didn't like her because she was the Uzumaki Nagisa that too many people gossiped about, they found her weird and, well, she didn't like them much either. Most were snotty brats buffed with hormones who only thought of two things: boobs and fights. They didn't get the appeal of fuinjutsu yet. "You're not much."
She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. Now she understood what sensei meant.
"Nagisa," Sensei turned toward her, an unsettlingly grim expression plastered on his face, "whatever they say, don't react."
Don't react. And let them slander me? Nagisa forcefully relaxed her grip on her kunai, lovingly stroking its leather handle. And let them think I'm a weak girl who doesn't have her place among them? I think the fuck not.
"Are you saying that Yakihiro-sensei is a bad teacher?" She quipped back, making a poor job at pretending to be unaffected. She took a more aggressive posture.
He laughed, mean and cruel, like a villain facing their nemesis. "I thought his lessons would, at least, have given you insight as to how to process words correctly." He shifted on his feet, cocking a brow and eyeing her with contempt. "Apparently I was wrong, your mental capacities are akin to an insect. My condolences for your existence."
Red hues on brown cheeks, Nagisa took a step forward. Her core was burning red, molten in anger. The unstoppable urge of hurting was creeping in her marrow. Soon, it would enter her bloodstream and spread through her entire being.
Oh, it's on.
She couldn't stop now, she was seething.
"If that's not what you mean, then you must be belittling Yakihiro-sensei's judgment." He narrowed his eyes, as if sensing the trap she was trying to spring.
"I never said that!" He was getting agitated. His eyes darted somewhere behind her and if Nagisa wasn't so blinded by her anger, she would have realized the trap.
But like a hormonal child who only thought of two things: fuinjutsu and fighting, she lacked the awareness of her older counterparts.
"Do you think sensei would have lost his time with a lost cause? Born from the main family or not, sensei would have told my grandfather to get lost long ago if he hadn't sense potential. So which one is it? Or perhaps-"
Blinded with emotions, she took another step only to freeze as her foot pulled on the taut string. Her eyes widened.
Sturdy string snagged a tight grip around her body, pinning her arms to her sides, looping around her several times. A stack of bamboo fell from a tree and she was hurled upside down with the highest high-pitched cry ever screamed.
What the fuck, she thought. "What the fuck?" She repeated it because it expressed all of her feelings.
Dangling like a moron, she watched several figures appearing, children that she never saw before and-
"Tsukito." That damn cousin of hers was looking too smug and arrogant and it clashed with his face - he still had baby fat. "Now that's cheating."
He looked like the leader of a gang, and by gang, she meant stupid and hormonal children. "Is it? There is strength in numbers, not that you could ever understand. You don't have friends."
And he knew where to stab her to hurt the most. Bastard. "No, I have friends, not stooges wagging their tails at every order of their master, they are my equals."
Mito wasn't her equal, she was far above. Miru was her companion, however.
He stepped closer, crouching before her and his breath fanned over her face. Nagisa gagged. She frowned at the sentence he whispered: "Isn't it what makes a shinobi good?"
Ah, so he really took the exams for his father.
The worst was that she wanted to disagree but couldn't. He wasn't wrong, a good shinobi was a shinobi who followed the orders - and that certainly left a bitter taste in her mouth.
"Anyway, how many friends do you have? Five? Six?" Nagisa inwardly grimaced, she didn't have that many. "Do you think it's enough to counterbalance the number of people with a grudge against you?"
He threw a hand back, pointing at the five kids guarding Tsukito's back and oh, will you look at that, there was the friend of Ryota.
Nagisa eyed them all, took notes of their features - mostly plain faces with a mole here or there, with hair, skin and eyes colors typical for Uzushio: red, brown or black hair with tanned or black skin and green, blue or brown eyes - and searched every nook and cranny of her memories because-
"Who the hell are they? I don't know any of them."
Why would they have a grudge against her when she didn't even know them? She can't have bothered that many people when she mostly minded her business. Yes, she may have been curt to one of their friends but it wasn't in bad faith.
The kid would die during his first battle if he couldn't water walk. They were surrounded by water, dammit.
One kid turned red and spluttered that they met a few years ago and well, good for them but it happened a few years ago and what happened a few years ago should stay in the past and-
"You're Kishi's friend." It hit her like a kunai in the gut, that face was indeed familiar and now she knew why. He was the one constantly following Kishi like a duckling and his mother. "The one who bullied Miru."
How old was he now? Thirteen? Fourteen? Old enough to have built some muscles, at least, which meant that he would be a pain to deal with.
"You deserved that beating and you should free me so I can beat you some mor-"
She groaned and spitted as his knuckles met her stomach, swinging helplessly backward with the strength. Blood was getting to her head, despite her best effort to keep it circulating with chakra, and her grip on her kunai was slacking, fingers numb. It made her attempts at cutting the strings all the more pathetic.
"Is that your plan? Trapping me to beat me?" She bared her teeth in a semblance of a snarl while she wiggled around to catch a cord with her kunai. If only she knew some elemental ninjuts-
Wait. She was in a forest with a ton of branches, she could easily swap herself and-
Dammit, she was sooo stupid. The timing wasn't right but she could have avoided that damn punch.
"Oh no, we won't stoop down to your level-" Spiritually, Nagisa rolled her eyes. If she stooped down to mud level, they were swimming in shit, "-instead."
He didn't finish his sentence, flinging an explosive tag further away.
Nagisa always thought that one could accomplish some crazy feats when it came to adrenaline and life or death situations. The natural limiters in your brain were released and other fun stuff happened which can be summarized by: when you thought it was over, you could pull off some crazy stunts.
And that was why Nagisa was able to deduce in a matter of seconds that Tsukito was trying to get her disqualified. Trapping her before using an explosion to catch the seekers' attention.
The explosion went off as Nagisa curled her fingers, swapping herself with a branch further away.
They all scattered.
And it all brought her to her current predicament.
Nagisa barely registered the coldness that the current grabbed her. She lost all sense of orientation. Up, down, right or left meant nothing. She was thrown around in the water, its iciness all but tearing her breath away from her.
She kicked her feet, pushing in some direction and slammed into something hard and unforgiving. She lost her breath entirely and a new kind of terror settled. A panicked terror. Yet, in a stroke of rationality, she realized that the bubbles were showing her the way to the surface.
She broke the surface, harshly sucking in a breath before something caught her ankle and she was brought back under the surface.
Her heart and her stomach dropped into her heels.
She didn't see much, there was hair and brownish skin. Her reaction was pure adrenaline: she kicked hard in what looked like some kind of face, hollowed and with too many teeth, until it finally freed her.
It took her a few seconds to realize what happened and what was lurking in the water.
What the fuck, what the fuck,whatthefuckwhat-
She swam hard to the surface, opened wide and terrified eyes only to watch her impending doom coming closer and closer.
A waterfall.
"Kid!" screamed one proctor and she could feel him gathering chakra and perhaps he could have saved her but her knees smacked into something and she was sent headfirst toward the fall.
The drop was harsh and the feeling of being suspended into the air, eery. And then Nagisa slammed back into the water, the pressure pushing her against the rocks and the sand at the bottom, large rocks scraping her and sending her tumbling away and away until her lungs were screaming for air, until she couldn't take it anymore, until white spots appeared in her vision and pain exploded in her head.
She blindly swam back up, stupidly exhaling and choked on the water when she barely made it up but she still managed to take some precious oxygen in.
Nagisa let herself being dragged away, fighting to stay at the surface, until she reached calmer water. By the time she felt the rocky ground under her feet, she was so out of it that it took her a few seconds to notice and a few more to react.
She kicked her feet and dragged herself across the ground until she was laying on the shore. She clawed at the mud, scratching her fingers and coating them in red until only her feet were connected to the water.
And then, with the replaying memories of the attack giving her the energy of desperation and fear, she dragged herself away. Further in the wood. Firmly clutching a seal.
She disappeared from the sensors' radars.
How did she find the cave? Well, she didn't really know either. Her feet brought her back near the waterfall and she just... found it, in front of her, behind the curtain of water. Laid on her back and passed out.
How she didn't die during her nap due to hypothermia or blood loss just confirmed the laughably powerful vitality of the Uzumaki - and, Nagisa begrudgingly admitted after checking her wounds, she may have slightly exaggerated the severity of her injuries.
Hunger and nausea were fiercely fighting to rule over her stomach. Her body hurt and tingled and lightings of pains numbed a very specific part of her arm. As if it was broken. It was likely broken.
She was exhausted. Trickles of sweat ran down the side of her neck. The corners of her lips twitched down for a second before coming back full force. The only thing Nagisa could do was laugh.
It was a high, hysterical sound that started with short, isolated chuckles and eventually dissolved into a full-on cackle. She curled on herself, shivering violently as the roar of the curtain of water hiding her muted her hysteria. Her face in her hands, laughing until there were tears in her eyes, until they ran down her bruised cheeks, until it turned into sobs.
She should have known. She should have known this would happen. She thought she could handle the fear and moved past all the nightmares the attack and Maria's experiences gave her. She thought she was getting better with every punch Sensei threw at her, after she stopped freezing at the sight of a kunai too close to her face and blood.
The flashbacks were coming so strongly that Nagisa was losing her grip on reality. The time. The place. It all blended in front of her eyes. The blood on her hand stopped belonging to herself instead it was her first blood. The water crashing near the entrance was the roar of a water dragon hunting her down. The hungry empty void in her chest, where a wound she tried so hard to ignore still lived, was assimilated to the numbness of her shock reaction.
The laughter cut off ragged, and Nagisa stumbled back until her back was pressed to the wall.
Screams and songs of metal clashing. The storm bell ringing. The smell of smoke and blood, of death. A bright sky that illuminated the alcove enough and a man holding a knife to Miru's throat who looked terrified and panicked-
The blade nicked her cheek; Nagisa panicked and took a bigger leap back. It was enough for the shinobi to drop his blade and weave signs. She jumped off the roof just as a water dragon closed his jaws where she had been a second earlier. With a roll, she ran out of the alley, barely missing the kunai sent her way.
Two kunais whistled near her ears, one for her, the other to stop the first-
"Sensei!" She screamed, because she needed his help and now, but she never received an answer-
Yakihiro-sensei appeared behind the man, swiftly pulling out his kunai. The body tilted back, gravity bringing him down on his back. She let go of the weapon, the kunai sticking proudly between his ribs. The sickening sound of his body against the ground was something she would never forget.
His blood has been warm and sticky on her hands.
The panic was coming back, her heart was racing, her breath coming erratically out. Her mind was whirling out of control, spinning like a ragdoll in a whirlpool. It felt like she was falling. What did she need to do? She was completely losing herself, drowning in her fear, biting on her lips hard and sucking in her blood and-
A memory split her brain in two and she choked on her gasp, spit and snot running down her chin.
The setting changed. She was in a sterile bedroom with white walls and barely enough furniture to be called a room. Her fingers weren't as rough or bloody. The hair in her face was black like when she wasn't Nagisa but-
"Maria." The voice was as familiar as it was foreign. Her heart stuttered, missing a few beats as elation and dread lifted her stomach in equal measure. "What happened?"
She remembered hyperventilating, searching blindly for safety after a terrible nightmare about being chased and-
She was shaking fiercely and when she searched for him- she was only met with a blurry image of him, black eyes and black curly hair but no specificity. Her little ray of sunshine hidden behind clouds.
She wished she could wipe her eyes to see him again. She needed him and-
"Can I touch you?" He had asked and she remembered shaking her head, leaning backward in her fear. Not touching, no skin contact, no warmth. No more stimuli, her brain was overloading. "Okay, I understand."
Her Uchiha had been understanding, he stayed with her, talking about anything and everything and when she refused to calm down, he told her: "Count backward from ten."
Once she had calmed down, she recalled her shame and the shine in his eyes. They were asking 'What happened to you?'
Nagisa clung to that memory fiercely, eyes closed so hard she was seeing things. "Ten," she said aloud, hugging her legs to her chest, "nine, eight, seven..."
She swallowed. Her throat was burning her. "Six," she whispered, "five, four, three, two, one..."
Ten seconds. She could survive those ten seconds. And then, she would concentrate on the ten next, again and again until she was back to pretending that everything was okay.
Ten, nine, eight...
She hadn't been found until the end of the week of hell, hunting during the night and carefully avoiding the big cats. She would hawl her prey to her cave and remain hidden, metaphorically licking her mental wounds until they stopped oozing.
Upon the forest floor laid the remains of the trees of yesteryear, fallen in storms long forgotten and shaped by the wind and the paws of the felines. They had the appearance of driftwood, twisting in patterns that reminded Nagisa of seaside waves.
She tilted her head upward as she walked through the last line of trees, reaching the beach while feeling her hair tumbled further down her back.
Good riddance. She disliked that forest, staying in it any longer would have given her nausea.
"You're alive." Nagisa's eyes snapped down to the man speaking to her. The proctor's eyes were bulging and his stoic facade faded for a second. His shoulders sagged with relief as he gave her a once over. "And surprisingly in good health."
"I am," Nagisa lied with a smile. It widened as she spied Tsukito's sour expression and, from the look of it, he had been caught.
"Good," the man nodded, once for her and another time for himself, and after throwing her an interesting look, he continued: "Once our sensors couldn't find you, we thought the worst."
She smiled thinly in answer. "I see. Good thing I am alive then." She wasn't sure her grandfather would have taken the news kindly should she have died during their watch.
"You were the last one. Only eight of you succeeded in the task. " It proved that the shinobis went easy on them, eight was still a particularly high number for such a task. That or they actually sucked at tracking.
"Line up." Another man clapped his hands twice to gather their attention. "Now that everyone is here, let's wrap it up. The eight winners and anyone caught during and after the fourth day, step forward."
Around fifteen children moved in almost perfect synchronization. "Congratulations, you've passed the exam. Our Leader will summon you in his office to personally deliver your armor." A pause for dramatic effect. "Please, do not shame yourself in front of him. You're free to go."
Someone broke into sobs but it was drowned in the cheers of the survivors. Two friends hugged each other and several smiled at her, eyes shining. It took her a ton of strength to fake a smile at them.
They were going to be her comrades. She needed to have a cordial relationship with them.
"What about the specialization?" One asked, a girl with brown hair and gills - a Daiba. Nagisa raised a brow. Now, that wasn't something you would see every day. The Daiba was a civilian clan of pearl divers and they usually couldn't care less about becoming shinobis.
Most importantly, she took on the challenge to become a fuinjutsu master. Good, Nagisa nodded to herself, that girl has good tastes. She hoped they could strike a comradeship, perhaps she could even introduce her to Mito. God knows Mito needed friends too.
"Ah yes, seven of you prepared a seal, that's right. You will be judged during the afternoon, after your measurements are taken. Good luck."
Just like Mito expected, Nagisa's seal impressed the jury enough that they actually used honorifics and meant it.
"I can spot several problems with your seal, and I doubt your seal can hide completely an adult's presence but I can also see the use and the appeal of your seal, which I assumed was designed to suit your needs. More importantly, that 'Unforgiving Blue Sun' seal is genius. To be inspired by the Yuki's clan elemental release and creating a seal accordingly are more than what is expected of a graduation seal." The only woman among the five older men crossed her fingers, sending her a look over them. "But a question remains: does your seal work?"
Her smile was coy. "Well, I haven't been caught, have I?"
Nagisa passed the graduation with flying colors.
To be continued...?