Published: 12/27/2018
When Minato had finished storming his castle and the two teams reunited in victory, high-fiving over the absolute annihilation of the enemy stronghold, no one was quite willing to tell him how completely and fantastically I'd self-destructed on the Iwa contingent. But Minato was neither stupid nor unobservant. He had had me flagged for psychological distress before the mission even began, and it was not at all difficult to see that something had happened. Eventually the tokujou who had first tried to help me managed to convey that I'd had a bloody and traumatic encounter with the enemy. After that, it was only a matter of croaking a few key words at him—specifically "capture," "interrogation," and "red"—before he put two and two together and realized I'd had a disastrous flashback.
"I thought you'd been cleared on that incident," he said after he'd taken me aside and away from the ears of the others.
"I was," I replied wearily, pulling a hand through my hair. There was no point in denying anything any longer, not when it was this blatantly clear. I'd fractured something in my mental health, and trying to walk it off had only made it worse—much worse. It was bad enough now to aggravate injuries that had previously been under control. "It was fine when I was in Earth Country with Akihiko… Something else is wrong."
Minato let out a long breath. It was a good thing the mission proper was over now. No commander needed the stress of a cracking subordinate while a vital war-ending assignment was underway.
"Suzu, you're not fit for duty right now."
I nodded tiredly in agreement.
"No arguments with bench orders, then?"
"No arguments. I'm sorry I didn't listen to you earlier."
Sharply, Minato nodded once. Then he sighed and put a hand on the back of my head. Blessedly, the reaching gesture did not trigger any more hysterical memories of Hatsuta.
"We'll get you sorted out when we return to the village," he murmured, bending forward to touch his forehead to mine. "I'm sorry, Suzu. Team 7 hasn't been good for you. It's my fault."
"No, it's mine," I said, and my eyes began to water again. "It's my fault, niichan. All of it. I'm sorry."
Minato drew back. "Why would you say that?" he murmured, using his thumbs to wipe the tears from corners of my eyes. "How could everything that's happened be your fault?"
I nearly spilled it all right then and there. The secret was eating me alive. But this was neither the time nor the place drop a bombshell like that one.
"Will you let me tell you when we go back to the village?" I hiccuped.
"Yes, that sounds perfect. We'll have a good talk."
I gripped his sleeve.
"Won't you hate me when I tell you?" I whispered, wild with a different kind of fear now. The thought of Minato hating me was almost as terrible as the memory of Yoshiya's body pressed against my back.
"Suzu, I could never hate you," Minato said, crouching down to eye level. "No matter what you tell me. I promise."
I threw my arms around his neck and pressed my face against his hair. He hugged me back, and I was almost able to pretend that things were like they had been before the reassignment. But though his words rang reassuringly in my ears, I thought in my heart of hearts that my brother didn't know what kind of promise he was really making.
Instead of rushing straight back to the village we camped overnight to monitor the area. It had been a grand slaughter on both sides thanks to Minato and me, so there was very little chance any Iwa-nin were going to pop out of the rubble and start salvaging, but it did not hurt to make sure.
Except maybe it did hurt. Early the next morning, after Minato had set out with a few of the others to look over the base, a thick fog rolled in. It filled the air with a heavy wetness, and as I stood an eerie silence fell. Only Rin, Kakashi, and three of the Ordnance Corps members were still present, but soon their faces were swallowed up by the mist as well.
I didn't like that at all. I bit my lip and listened carefully, but the haze was like a cloud of white noise. I could hardly even hear the sound of myself in it, let alone the chakra of any of my comrades. This was no natural fog; something was wrong.
And then, as if in confirmation, Rin let out a startled shriek.
What followed was a proper cacophony. The shrill chirping of Chidori, Kakashi's signature move, screamed through the air, and a clamor of popping chakra signatures replied, rising above the static. Then the telltale sounds of battle rang out: clashing steel, shouting, grunts and cries and thuds.
I flipped a knife into my hand and sank back towards the tree line, clamping down on my presence with chakra-concealing and sound-dampening techniques. This was undoubtedly a jutsu, and if it was a technique that gave its user a sensory view of its area of effect, it was best to make like a tree. The mist obviously obscured the visual field, so if I held still and suppressed my chakra signature hard enough, I could probably pass myself off as inanimate. Too bad I hadn't had the chance to learn the chakra manipulations for concealing body heat. I'd been taken from I&E before Oyuki had had the chance to teach me.
The moment of uncertainty lasted for a long time, but I had learned my lesson, and I wasn't going to move an inch until I had more information. Holding as still as possible, I watched hawkishly for any sign of movement.
In a moment my need was satisfied because Kakashi flew out with such a huge burst of chakra that the fog around us was blasted away. He spun around wildly, both eyes open, and yelled, "Rin!"
"Where is Rin?" he demanded when he caught sight of me plastered against the bark. "Is she with you?!"
"Wh—" I took an involuntary step back. "No, she's not—"
Kakashi abruptly ducked, dodging a rain of kunai. I used own knife to deflect the ones that flew in my direction, and Kakashi spun around and slammed his lightning-filled hand into his attacker's chest. There was an awful, acrid burning smell; then the enemy collapsed. I froze when I caught sight of his head.
Lying on the ground at Kakashi's feet was a man in a mask—a Kiri ANBU mask.
"Hang on, hang on, there's something east, past the river." I ground my teeth and massaged my temples, concentrating so hard and circulating so much chakra near my ears that my head felt fit to burst. "Heaven help me, it's like nothing—no, there's definitely a noise—"
"Don't you have anything helpful to say?" Kakashi hissed.
"A sight more helpful than anything you have," I snapped back, out of patience. "If you don't want to rely on my abilities, use your own sense."
"Olfactory doesn't have the natural range of auditory," Kakashi replied coldly.
"Then if you want me to cover for your damn deficiency, you'd best shut up for once in your life and let me listen."
I was not sure which shocked Kakashi more: that someone had dared to call him deficient in anything, or the fact that that someone had been me. Regardless, the desired effect was achieved. The teen was dumbstruck, and I had a precious few moments of true silence.
"There!" I gasped, whirling towards four o'clock as a faint chime sounded across the distance. "That was her. They're moving fast—we have to hurry—"
So much time had passed already. It had taken far too long to locate her. Had they transferred the bijuu already? Could we still stop them?
After checking our allies one more time—two of the OrdCorps chuunin had taken knocks to the head, but the other one was still conscious and had agreed to stay and keep watch for them—Kakashi and I took off to chase after Rin and her captors. If Kakashi thought anything of how suspiciously I was panicking, he did not show it; instead he ran until his nose was able to pick up the chakra trail. Then we kicked into high gear and leapt so far through the trees it felt almost as if we were flying.
Once Kakashi had a hold on Rin's signature it was a frightfully easy matter to find her and extract her from enemy clutches. They had come to a stop in a secluded clearing, but it was laughably easy to approach. After a brief discussion, Kakashi produced a kage bunshin, had it henge flawlessly into Minato for shock value, and then crashed into their camp and began wreaking havoc alongside it. Having glimpsed one of my only real competencies—that is, stealth—I was assigned to sneak around the back and pull Rin with me into the trees. After breaking open a package of smelling salts she was awake and we were running away. They sent a token chase force after us, but that was all it was: a token.
Yes, it frightfully easy—because it was a trap. Both Rin and I knew it. As we began our frantic flight, she opened her mouth and spoke word for word the lines from the Earth girl's memories: They performed some kind of ritual… There's something inside me… I can't go back.
But the snare had already been sprung; it was too late to turn back now. Kakashi rejoined us a few moments later, panting heavily, and for a few moments all we could do was put our minds into the run. But after we had been sprinting for a solid minute or so, two of our Mist pursuers leapt forward to attack. My teammates and I went careening from the treetops, past the forest's edge and into the rocky wasteland. Kakashi immediately unleashed a hail of kunai to cover our landing, but as soon as our feet touched the ground the earth beneath us exploded in a cloud of dusty smoke screen. Ten more ninja came flying at us from all sides. And then, from behind them, there emerged ten more.
It was an ambush of absurd numbers. I wondered in that moment if Madara Uchiha, the puppetmaster behind all of these events, had actually intended to return Rin to Konoha at all. Had he really cared to let the Sanbi loose in the Leaf Village? Or had Rin been destined to die from the beginning? It must not have mattered to him either way. So long as he was able to break Obito, he would have what he wanted.
The sky was darkening now. My heart surged with panic as Kakashi tumbled, swore, and leapt into the fray with another barrage of thrown weapons. If we were surrounded now—if the battle began now—that meant that soon Rin would die. She would see the enemy, consider their numbers against our skill, and choose the best tactic. Because that was a ninja's way: to die rather than be captured.
A sword came fast for my head. I dodged without thinking, and as my assailant approached, I found myself turning my backbend into an attack. Flipping onto one hand, I smashed my heel into his chin to distract him and laid a seal on his shin with my other. He was only briefly stunned, so in the next moment he had seized me by the ankle and chucked me into air like a rag doll. Swallowing a terrified gasp, I stretched out my hand, twisted my chakra, and saw my steel threads materialize again.
What a view, that bird's eye view of that Bloody Mist ANBU. I have not forgotten it. The glint of the fading light on the wires, which at that moment had not yet been pulled taut, had framed his figure like a picture. He had been dressed in black and his vest had been steel gray, just like our ANBU's were. But unlike our ANBU he'd had arm warmers instead of gauntlets. Different also had been his mask. Unlike the Leaf, the Bloody Mist's masks were uniform; his was exactly the same as his fellow's. It was absurd, but I remember thinking in that moment that it was a shame. It had made him seem generic and disposable. Of course, anonymity was a great hallmark of any village's ANBU, but if they had let them paint their own masks, at least then they could have been individuals in their anonymity.
But the bird's eye view eventually ended. The wires straightened; a pulse of wind chakra cut his calf clean off; the ANBU crumpled into a heap. As I landed on him, making sure to slam my foot into the back of his neck to break it, I felt as if I were a stranger in my own body, and I experienced a moment of silent awe. I had never killed a man so smoothly—so gracefully, so cleanly—in my life. I had never killed anyone before I had gone on this mission. Had I always been able to snuff out life so efficiently? Did people really die just like that?
But then that moment ended too. In the next I fighting yet another death match, except this time I wasn't having a psychotic break and my enemies were elite assassins. I took a few more of them down, but unsurprisingly, I fared much worse against them than I had against the Iwa-nin. In a moment three different hands clutching three different knives were set to collide with my skull. Gasping for breath, I futilely tried to drop into a crouch, but I knew that I would not make it in time.
Just then, though, Kakashi reappeared from within the crowd of enemies, and I was saved by the screech of yet another Chidori. He shot through the group like bullet, as fast as the lightning sparking in his hand; my attackers fell to the ground, cut through by his jutsu.
For a second I was so relieved that I forgot myself. As Kakashi swung around to make another pass at the mob of Kiri ninja, I let out a great sigh, grateful beyond measure that he would not abandon a teammate to die no matter how much he despised her. Despite everything—despite the name calling, the bullying, the endless caustic comments—he was still my ally. This time I was not fighting alone.
But a choir of handbells brought me out of that. I heard the music of her chakra before I saw the blur of her figure. It was dark and her shirt was black, so if I hadn't heard her chakra ringing I would have certainly mistaken her for an enemy. But I did hear it, and I knew right then and there that Rin had jumped at her teammate's jutsu to kill herself.
For a split second my mind was carried away in a memory of hot, dusty air. We had been baking in the sun. It had been so boring. But then Susumu had begun to talk to us about shunshins, and he'd said—what had he said? He'd said, "There are several ways to mold chakra for a shunshin. Because the Body Flicker technique is a jutsu that requires chakra distribution through several different points of the body, not just in one location, most people simply saturate the hara and then wait for the chakra to spill through to their limbs without directing it. But the resulting shunshin is sloppy, loud, and inefficient. It's also much slower because it wastes time at two crucial points: one, in the time you take to mold the unnecessary extra chakra, and two, in the time you have to wait for your circulation system to move the chakra on its own. Conversely, molding an exact amount of chakra and moving it precisely to the limbs, closing all unnecessary tenketsu, allows you to make distances in speeds you wouldn't otherwise—and much more quietly besides."
In half a breath I had gathered the necessary chakra, and in the next half I was rocketing forward at a speed I had not known myself capable of. The flicker was so fast it made it difficult to see, but somehow I got my hands around one of Rin's arms, so I seized it and yanked her with me.
She jerked to the side just as Kakashi's hand burst through her back.
What happened next took place in a blur of mere seconds. Rin choked out Kakashi's name; Kakashi stood frozen in shock; then they both collapsed. As they collapsed, a note of chakra burst out from by my thigh, and then there was a flash of yellow.
Minato Namikaze streaked out of the air and into our midst. He took a sweeping glance of the area and was greeted by the sight of smoke, enemy ANBU, and his students lying bloody on the ground. Without missing a beat, my cousin hooked an arm around my neck before seizing Rin and Kakashi both by the sleeves. The moment he had his hands on them I heard another twang of chakra, and suddenly we were sitting in the grass of our campsite. Our OrdCorps squadmates were staring over their shoulders at us in shock.
For a moment I sat half-collapsed on my behind, dumbfounded. In a fluid motion, Minato reached around my torso and snapped my kunai holster open.
"Even after all this time, you still carry it," he murmured, pulling hs three-pronged kunai out by its handle ring and regarding the peeling seal on its handle with a shake of the head.
"I—" I worked my jaw. Then I swiveled my head towards Rin in terror. "I—did I get her? Oh my g—is she… niichan, did I—?"
Minato took one look at my face, dropped my kunai in the grass, and pulled Rin out of the tangle of limbs. His eyes immediately fixed on the gushing wound in our team medic's chest.
"Oh no." I heard my voice crack. "Oh, no. Rin."
For a moment, Minato's expression was blank as he gazed down at his student's tearstained face. Blood was leaking from her mouth, dribbling over her chin and all down her neck. He was frozen on his hands and knees. But then his lips moved.
"She's alive."
I looked at him in shock. "What?"
"She's breathing, barely," Minato said, lifting one hand to hold over over her mouth. The other he used to begin rummaging forcefully through his pack. "She's alive."
"I—but how? She—she jumped in front of Kakashi… she took a Chidori… she took a one-hit-kill technique to the chest!"
"Not directly to the chest," he replied, motioning me over. "Look. Her shoulder took most of the damage. Her thoracic cavity has been breached and her lungs are collapsing, but the blow missed her heart."
Then the shunshin—my wild, blind grab—it had worked? I was so shocked that I could only kneel there gaping, so Minato gently pushed me aside. Then he began tearing his pack apart with renewed purpose, gaze sharpening with determination.
"But she won't last long like this," he murmured, eyes narrow, as he withdrew a scroll from the bag. From that he summoned a smaller scroll and a calligraphy set. "Only emergency surgery from an iryou-nin on par with Tsunade-sama could fix this."
The OrdCorps team made noises of dismay. My stomach plummeted.
"Then…" I asked, voice quivering, "...then it's too late?"
Minato looked up and pinned me with a defiant stare.
"Not if I have anything to say about it."
Minato's long life as a shinobi had ensured that it would be difficult to ever classify a move of his as frantic, but a certain uncomposed urgency did color his demeanor as he began pulling out different seals from his scroll. He seemed to have a stock of everything: storage seals, barrier seals, locking seals, exploding seals, gas-releasing seals… everything, it seemed, but something to save Rin. I watched without breathing, burning with the awareness that every second spent searching was a second against Rin's survival. The two OrdCorps chuunin, who were looking on in silent fascination, held just as still as I did.
Eventually Minato's hands closed around a black scroll. I recognized it immediately: it was a scroll for storing corpses, known colloquially as a body-bag seal. We had used countless in Death Valley.
My brother stilled, staring at it with parted lips, and I thought for one awful second that he had given up. But then he grabbed for a clean scroll and took his brush to it, eyes wide. In a moment a seal began to blossom under his hands. It was a multi-mechanism seal, full of complex links and components; so complex, in fact, that my fuuinjutsu knowledge soon failed me, and I lost track of what he was trying to do.
I had never seen him write a seal so intensely. Sealing with Minato had always been a relaxed affair; conducted in the bright, cozy sitting room of the House, lessons had been light and low-pressure. Now, though, the weight of his focus was so immense as to be unbearable. When a bead of sweat threatened to drop from his nose and onto his work, he jerked his head to the side and sent it flying off into the grass without even pausing in his work. His concentration was so great and so complete that it reminded me in a strange, shivering way of the cold touch of killing intent.
As soon as he was done, a blast of controlled wind chakra dried the ink instantly. Minato gave it a single once-over, eyes scanning furiously, before he took a deep breath and placed it on Rin's stomach. The air around Rin began to resonate with the sound of Minato's chakra, mellow and warm, before the melody of it resolved on a strangely minor note. Then the pitch stretched and decrescendoed until it became a nearly-inaudible hum. Rin seemed to freeze entirely. Her chest stopped heaving and the blood ceased leaking down her side.
A moment passed; she was perfectly still. Minato, who had been clutching the black body-bag seal to his chest in quiet anticipation, sat back on his heels and exhaled approximately a quarter of his lifespan.
"What did… what did you do?" one of the chuunin asked.
Minato, still a little breathless, held up the black scroll. "I made one of these," he explained, "and altered it for use on living beings. It's an ambiently sustained, closed-circuit time-space stasis seal that operates on the cellular level to freeze biological function. I combined it with a set of medical seals often used to sustain coma patients. It can siphon chakra from the activation mechanism to prevent disruption due to physical movement of the body, too."
The OrdCorps duo regarded him dumbly. I spent several second parsing this string of hyphenated words.
Then I asked slowly, "Do you mean to say you've invented a seal that stops time?"
A/N: Kakashi and Suzu still fight in this chapter, but this time it's way less ridiculous, and I am so glad. In fact I am heaving great sighs of relief because this arc is FINALLY OVER. It was like pulling teeth, I swear, I hated it so much.
But now we can get to fun stuff. I'm looking forward to redoing the Sakuya arc, and after we finish the Kyuubi Attack, I'm going to have a field day with Souhei and his particular friends. To say nothing of what comes after! Once we get to the ANBU Politics arc I can start launching things for Myriad World, which I've been sitting on for over two years. We will also finally meet Akihiko again for the first time post his induction to ANBU, which was in almost five (!) years ago. (That's right, the last time we saw him properly was in 2014. I can't wait to throw all of his side story chapters at you. He's been living an interesting life.)
Thank you all for sticking with me while I battled the cringe of my seventeen-year-old self's writing! Drop a review and let me know how I handled rewriting this awful, awful part of the draft.
Cheers,
Eiruiel
