2. Treason
They tracked her for nine hours by following the blood in the snow and its thick scent in the air. Now the Nara princess, his future wife, was half-sprawled in front of them like a marionette with its strings cut. Chouza pulled a blanket from his scroll and laid it over her legs.
A small thing, she suddenly was. Nothing like the woman who sat beside him in their engagement party, back held up straight like a rod and eyes never deigning to at least spare him a glance. He remembered how he briefly marveled at how slender her neck was and then how he found her pretty, but not pretty enough to be so troublesome.
Betrayals were no strangers in their line of work. But seeing her reduced to a trembling doll before him made him irritable. He was reminded again that his bride-to-be was naught but a child still.
He removed the senbon he was nibbling from his mouth and pocketed it. He glanced at Minato who looked just as lost in his own world as his female partner, eyes overlooking the snow storm outside their cave. As if feeling his eyes on him, the other man turned, the blue haze of pain swirling away to focus.
At least one of them was still able to remove their emotions.
His eyes fell on his betrothed again. Her lower lip was cut, old blood stained her mouth and chin; her hair unbound around her pale face. Her eyes were wide and unfocused – signs that she was concussed as well. Inoichi was crouched next to her, healing her injuries with the meagre medical training he had. It was a good thing that the bleeding has stopped and that no major organs were hit.
Her other teammate deliberately did not kill her.
The council will demand her to be mind-walked.
Inoichi will be the one to do it.
Minato walked passed him and knelt before his teammate.
''Yoshino.'' The younger man called her softly. ''I have to go and find him, okay?''
The troublesome woman tried to get up, only to be gently pushed down by her teammate. She begged her teammate wordlessly – eyes wide and pleading like a doe's. Her pale and cracked lips - so unlike to the bright red color she wore in their engagement - trembled as she shook her head. She opened her mouth and closed it before she seemed to give in, a shuddering sob escaping her.
''Please rest, Yoshino. I'll... Just rest, okay?'' The tears finally started as the Yellow Flash tried his best to console his teammate.
Foolishly, he didn't think her capable. Not when the only thing she seemed to do was glare or look at him as if he was some cockroach at her feet. Now, he knew he should've looked away because now he would remember the sight for the rest of his life. He could only hope that he wouldn't remember it too often.
''I'm sorry this happened, Yoshino.'' Minato whispered, pressing his forehead protector against her naked head. Hers looked like it had been lost somewhere for some time now. The Yellow Flash reached out and after a beat of hesitation, tucked some limp strands of hair away from her forehead. She closed her eyes, turning away and curling to herself. Inoichi, finally satisfied with what he could do for now, gently pulled the blanket to cover her more.
'I'm leaving her to you,' Minato nodded at him on his way out.
''This is bad.'' Inoichi murmured to him, sneaking a grave glance to his betrothed and then to Minato who had gone to cut the loose end.
Treason coming from one of Jiraiya of the Sannin's students...
Of course it was.
''Troublesome,'' he sighed and looked for a corner to write a quick mission report to the Hokage, keeping the girl in sight and just at the corner of his eyes.
Minato came back two and a half hours later with a slight limp in his left leg and a body scroll in his two hands.
It was for this reason that Shikaku took the rare initiative to be the one to carry Nara Yoshino as they travelled back home through Minato's Reverse Summoning Jutsu. He was secretly grateful too that she did not reject him at first touch (because that would be troublesome to his pride) and that at least she wasn't crying yet.
He didn't think he was ready to remember that either.