Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters. I do own Kumi, though.
Warning: child abuse and bullying (mostly mentions of it), some dark themes, too much fluffiness sometimes (each chapter less and less frequently, sorry!), DRAMA!, angst everywhere, unbeta'ed (frankly even unrevised most the time. Sorry, guys, I'm lazy.), my incapability to end a chapter in a happy note (I guess you're aware of this by now), a real rollercoaster of emotions.
Author's note:
I'M ALIVE! Yes! I AM ALIVE AND KICKING!
Now, excuses' corner:
First of all, I hadn't even noticed so much time passed since I last posted a chapter. This year has been utter madness, I swear. Too many PMs asking about when I was going to post another chapter started popping up and SURPRISE, I hadn't posted since January. Wow. Yep. You asked - like a million times, BUT - I delivered. HERE IS THE GODDAMN FREAKING CHAPTER. Oh, yeah, baby.
I already know some of you are to going to hate me to death. I know. Everybody was all IS THIS THE FATED MISSION, THE EVERYTHING-WENT-SOUTH MISSION? and I admit to giggling at your impatience, guys.
Also, I love to hear about your opinion, your favorite parts and your theories (even though how close some of you get make me uncomfortable as hell lol). Get the reviews coming, sweethearts. They make my day when I have no idea what I should write. This was one of the hardest chapters to write, I admit. Hope it came out ok. It's not perfect, so GO EASY ON ME.
No, seriously. Life has been ups and downs for me emotionally speaking. Still taking med for bipolar disorder, it's kind funky this thing.
On a side note, can you guys believe that someone literally said, word for word, that my 'story had crash and burn all over it, I just managed to stave off its death a few chapters by putting something aweson [Kumi's ANBU team] into the plot'? Like, dude, why so salty? I write this story when I have time, for fun. And some people happen to enjoy it (I think). I won't miss you too, sweetie. So, yeah, bu-bye to you too.
For those who read the author's rant every chapter, thanks! hahahahaha
On with the chapter!
(THE REVIEWS! I JUST CAN'T! OH MY SWEET LORD JESUS! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE SUPPORT! YOU GUYS ROCK!)
(You are reaaaaally gonna wanna kill me by the end of this chapter, BUT remember that you need me for the next one :)
All Things Are Difficult Before They Are Easy
By Amaryllis D. Namikaze
Chapter XXI:
The Success
"Life asked Death, 'Why do people love me but hate you?' Death responded, 'Because you are a beautiful lie and I am a painful truth."
— Author unknown
"If life must not be taken too seriously, then so neither must death."
— Samuel Butler
Being on a mission made me feel numb all over. It was as if my body only responded to direct commands and instincts until the purpose of the mission had been completed. This fact made the act of running non-stop for almost an entire day seem easy. I wasn't built for stamina-based and power fights, but missions could make me run like the devil was on my tail without stopping for a breather for at least fifteen hours.
Konoha's base near Kusagakure's borders was one of the most guarded. Earth Country wasn't exactly our greatest friend - or even ally - so we made sure to keep eyes on it at all times, which explained why a team assigned with temporary border-duty had been able to find clues to Uchiha Kizouku's disappearance despite his team's demise.
Taking into account the fact that our missions mostly involved being inside our own territory or barely crossing borders, all of us - especially Sakumo-sensei - were familiar with our surroundings, Still, I couldn't help calling out a warning when we approached our desired location.
"Fifty meters," I murmured into my ear-piece. We always ran ten meters away from each other - it gave us space to spare if one fell into a trap and couldn't manage to get out by himself.
"Get closer. Let's arrive together," sensei ordered.
"Yes, captain."
We blurred into the front of the base, where a couple of kunoichi were standing guard. Dawn had yet to come upon us and the lack of light made everything seem more sinister. The women drew their weapons in a second, positioning themselves in a defensive stance.
"Identify yourselves," the one on the right demanded. She was the older one, with a short bob-cut hair and dark eyes.
"ANBU-captain Wolf. This is the First Response Team. Hokage-sama sent us to deal with the Uchiha's mission."
In another situation, they would've asked us to show any type of documents that could prove it - even if they were ninja-identification cards that only covered our ANBU numbers - but nobody else was supposed to know about Mikoto's little brother's kidnapping except for us, this base and Hokage-sama.
The woman on the left, whose cedar-colored hair covered her right eye, put her kunai away, straightening up.
"Come with us. We'll fill you in."
Aburame Shibi turned out to be one of the members of the team that found Uchiha Kizoku's teammates. The other three were Chūnins I had never worked with but vaguely recognized.
"Their burning corpses were found about here," the leader of their team said, pointing at a place in the map laid out in front of us. "We tried to put out the fire, see if we could save one of them, but their burns were beyond our abilities. We didn't need a medic-nin this far in the woods. None of us were sick or in need of immediate medical care."
Ren gave the poor guy a few pats on the back. It was obvious he felt guilty for not being able to help.
"Thanks. Anyway. Nana here," he pointed his thumb to the woman with the bob-cut hair, "Remembered that Uchiha Kizoku was a student of Ueno Takahiko, the only one we managed to identify."
Apparently-named Nana bit her lower lip, "Takahiko was my Genin teammate. I'd never mistake his stupid forehead with another."
As I was the closest to her, it was my turn to put a hand on her shoulder. She turned grateful eyes towards me, full of bitten-back tears.
"We are not sure how deep into Earth territory they could've taken Uchiha Kizoku. It's been almost a couple of days since the actual kidnapping, they could be anywhere by now," Shibi-san started explaining.
His covered eyes and dull voice made him seem unkind, but I knew better. There's no way a guy who used to be in the same team as Uzumaki Kushina would escape the beating of his life if he proved to be uncaring. I didn't like the girl, but one couldn't deny her fierce love for life.
"We do suspect, however, they're still close by."
"Why?" Chitarō questioned, entering his strategist mode. I could see the gears in his head turning, already analyzing all outcomes and possible solutions.
"A spy of ours was shown a hideout of theirs before he was sent to another mission. He didn't stay long, but he did say there were prisoners inside. His identity would be compromised if he stayed much longer, so that's all we know."
Sakumo-sensei made a humming sound, thoughtful.
"That's enough. We're thankful for your assistance," he said in a obviously dismissive tone.
The thing with a First Response Team is: we don't actually belong in the ANBU organization. We were like temporary members. We were in a limbo - not full-fledged ANBU members, not in the regular system. Shinobis in the regular system took orders from us, but ANBU members weren't obligated to obey us unless it was a crisis.
The three shinobi I did not know, Shibi-san and Nana nodded their understanding and went out of the tent. The woman with the cedar-colored hair had stayed outside to keep guard duty. Another team was on the base, but we hadn't made contact with them as there was no necessity to explain our purpose here.
"What do you think, Lion?" Sakumo-sensei asked. In the beginning, this question was meant to see what Chitarō could cook up and, if it was deemed acceptable enough, his solution would be the one used. Nowadays, sensei fully trusted Chita to come up with our strategy.
I couldn't see his face behind the lion-painted mask, but I knew him enough to be sure of his furrowed brows.
"Well, we have two options and it all depends on what you'd prefer, sensei. We can either blow this hideout to pieces and fuck the consequences or go undercover, check if Uchiha Kizoku is even there and get him out should that be the case."
Nobody had to ask which plan we were going to follow. The repercussions of blowing up an Earth Country's hideout would be tremendous considering the currently delicate state of our relationship with them.
"Ok," Ren said, cracking his neck as if warming up despite our day-long dash through the woods. "Which way am I getting in this time? Surrendering? Accidentally captured? Sneaking in? That's my favorite."
Ren was our go-to guy in undercover situations. He was the Genjutsu specialist who was capable of entering people's minds. It seemed like an obvious choice. Some of his techniques didn't need hand-seals, overcoming the problem of having your hands tied in case you were made a prisoner.
This time, however, I had a new idea.
"Hm, guys," I said, hesitantly. "I kind of have another plan...?"
"Shoot," Chita replied, intrigued. I wasn't one to suggest strategies. I could make them in a solo fight, of course, but team leading wasn't my favorite thing in the world.
"Suzaku-sensei created an invisibility seal a couple of years ago. He was, uh, bored, apparently. Anyway, he taught me how to draw the seal a couple of weeks ago. I haven't used it in a real-fight situation and maybe we should just forget the fact that I spoke up in first place," I ended up saying.
Sakumo-sensei was shaking his head slowly, "No, no. It sounds like the beginning of a good plan. What does this seal entail, exactly?"
"Well, it's a body-altering seal. Remember this technique I complained to you about? Air-drawing? Only a Fūinjutsu master can activate body-altering seals. Even if I wrote it on Ren's arm, for example, it would be of no use, because he can't air-draw and his chakra pathways would mess with the purpose of the seal, which is to make you invisible."
My face was getting redder and redder as I droned on. It was an involuntary reaction no matter how many times I spent with the person towards whom I was speaking. Babbling made me blush ridiculously fast.
"Why can't you write it on my clothes, then?" Ren questioned, confused.
"It would only work on the fabric it was written on, not on your body."
"Still, I don't like the idea of sending you there," Chita commented. "Hokage-sama has just disbanded this team because we can't have you going on crazy-risky missions and now we are sending you straight into the enemy's arms? Sounds like we can't obey simple orders."
I frowned, "We are a team. We are still together. When we go back to Konoha, that opinion will matter, but not here, not now. We should decide on the best course of action like Wolf taught us to do instead of worrying over irrelevant things."
Chita put his hands as a peace offer.
"Alright, alright. I've never seen you so agitated over a mission. Let's do it your way."
He looked toward our teacher and captain to check if this was ok. Sakumo-sensei nodded in agreement.
"Let's follow Deer's idea."
We spent another ten minutes rounding our plan up.
A ball of anxiety was growing bigger with each minute past. Why had I suggested this? This plan involved me entering the enemy's hideout and maybe actual-to-God dying. I mean, every mission could lead to my ultimate death and I was a shinobi and why was I panicking again?
Deep breaths. Deep breaths.
I was numb. Missions made me go numb.
I closed my eyes for a few seconds, inhaling deeply.
My mind went blank.
The only thing I was supposed to do was get Uchiha Kizoku back. Iwa-nins didn't matter. My possible demise didn't matter. Mikoto's feelings riding on the results of this mission didn't matter. I would enter the hideout and get out. That was all that mattered.
(Please, God, let this end well.
Let me able to look at Mikoto's face without feeling guilty.)
Suzaku-sensei was brilliant. Well, when he stopped drinking tea and taking his goddamn long naps, anyway. His invisibility seal worked like a charm. It was the weirdest feeling ever to be able to touch your own body, but not see it. Scents could still be detected, of course - though I doubted there was a ninja with a sense of smell as good as an Inuzuka's at this hideout.
Most ninjas couldn't sense chakra. I was admittedly good at pinpointing chakra signatures and hiding my own, which would come handy just in case there was a sensor. As the only one able to air-draw and use body-altering seals, everything made me the perfect candidate for this infiltration mission.
Even if my best friends' surly silence made their opinion clear. Still, we were supposed to follow sensei's orders and he agreed with my plan.
According to our spy's hand-drawn map, the hideout was ten kilometers or so into Earth Country's border. The rest of my teammates couldn't risk going less than two kilometers behind me, just in case an Iwa-nin spotted them and I was caught in the crossfire.
In a way, I was on my own.
The notion made me a little bit nervous. As I ran, making sure to keep my landings from tree to tree as silent as possible, I tried to breathe calmly. Even though I wasn't used to being left alone during missions - as a First Response Team rarely entered situations that required one of us being on our own - I was trying to keep my head in the game. I couldn't panic. I had to stay in this state of mind that I usually entered during missions.
If I started thinking about my old life and how all of this senseless killing in the Naruto world made me queasy, I'd freeze. I would crouch down and maybe cry. It would be stronger than me - this urge to cry. My eyes would fill up and I was a total crybaby and what else could I do but panic...- wait. I was fine.
I was fine.
No one could see me.
No one could feel me.
I was a shadow. A ghost.
This line of thinking made my heart rate slow down. I could breathe again without feeling as if I was choking on my desperation. I was no longer automatically jumping from branch to branch. I had purpose. I had a mission - and I would see it through.
Expanding my chakra field without letting go of my chakra signature was one of the hardest techniques you could do as a sensor. I had to make my signature as undetectable as possible while trying to expand my range of sensing - two completely opposing actions, at first. I couldn't do it perfectly yet. Minato did it better, even though my control over my chakra was more refined. It was a matter of concentration and, like it or not, he was better at that than I was.
I refrained from clicking my tongue in disapproval when I accidentally landed too harshly on a branch. It was mental hell trying to expand my sensor field, to keep my chakra signature hidden, to keep a steady flow on the invisibility seal and to run as silent as a panther at the same time. It sounded like utter madness and - had I been in my first life's body, one without chakra - I wouldn't have been able to do it. There was this thing with chakra - that went completely over my head, mind you; I couldn't stand medical ninjutsu - which made this world's bodies different. We were more resilient and able to do multiple tasks at once without feeling the strain for awhile.
It was crazy, really.
Suddenly, I could feel it. It was barely there - maybe hidden by poorly made seals? Iwa-nins weren't know for their Fūinjutsu, that's for sure - but I could sense it. The hideout and its denizens. Each person had their own signature, of course, but when similarly built people were put together, it was easier to feel them as a whole. Ninjas from Earth Country had this dry presence - not unlike a signature from a Suna-nin, but it lingered, in a way. People from Wind Country, well, most of them, had wind-type chakra and this type of signature was fickle - it came and went. Iwa-nin, whose chakra was mostly classified as earth, had this cloudy presence; not a wet or stormy feeling exactly, but like someone was throwing dirt over you and obscuring your surroundings.
"I can sense them," I whispered in my earpiece.
"Proceed with caution," sensei advised.
From now on, I wasn't supposed to talk anymore unless it was life or death. I would be too close to risky getting my cover detected. You sure had be an Inuzuka to have a sense of smell as great as theirs, but any well-trained shinobi could amplify their hearing with chakra.
I stopped on my tracks, balancing myself on an upper branch. I could barely see the outline of a hideout. Not only was it amongst stones and thick trees, it was hidden by a seal that made sensing it hard. I could recognize it, though Konoha didn't make much use of it. Our hideouts were usually underground. It was a chakra-negating seal. It made a mass of chakra signatures disappear as a whole, leaving no trace behind. It should take three average shinobi to activate it, as it took as lot from the energy pool inside our body.
A chakra-negating seal was an ambitious project. You had to be a capable shinobi to draw it competently enough. Activating it was the easiest part, to be honest. I could see why Iwa-nins hadn't been able to do it a hundred percent perfectly. It was safer to bet on an underground hideout, which could be built by anyone.
How should I go into the hideout? We had ran a few possibilities back in our border, but nothing definitive. I was supposed to decide on the course of action from now, based on everything I assimilated in the next hours.
I could try and find an entrance.
No. Too risky. I would run around in circles. An enemy could be a better sensor than I was and spot me. I could be smelt should they have a shinobi with sense of smell as good as an Inuzuka, though I doubter. I could be heard, if I slipped. I could be seen running around if I didn't manage to maintain a steady flow on the invisibility seal.
Nope. Not going to find an obvious entrance.
I would have to body-flicker directly inside. The question was: where? Where could I possibly go without risking someone seeing me? I didn't have to picture where I was going, the surroundings and whatnot - this was not Harry Potter, as laughable as it sounded. Body-flickering was instinctual. A basic chūnin-level ability. Rarely was it as refined as Uchiha Shisui's.
I could feel the space where I was going to land. Even now, I couldn't explain it. Some ideas went completely over my head. Sometimes the Naruto world sounded too magical to be real.
Focus, Kumi, I told myself. Now was not the time to be impressed by this world's possibilities. Now was not the time to be happy at my - my - new body.
I closed my eyes. After passing through the chakra-negating seal, navigating inside was easy. It wasn't a large hideout. There was an upper floor, where most earth-type signatures were located. Downwards, I could feel fickleness... nature?... and... a flame?
I opened my eyes. They were possibly keeping prisoners. Earth was the most steady nation in regards to chakra types - theirs rarely strayed from the usual earth type. The chances of these other signatures being prisoners were higher than they being an ally of theirs.
Fickleness was a wind-type shinobi. Nature could be someone from Grass Country - they had earth-type chakra, usually, but it wasn't as hardy as an Iwa-nin's. They were raised differently, which made their signature different.
None of these could possibly be Kizoku's.
But the flame-y one could. The thing with chakra signatures: you probably wouldn't be able to remember someone's signature unless you spent every single day with them. There were so many type and ways out there, one couldn't possibly remember them all.
I couldn't be blamed for not knowing Kizoku's signature. I would have to bet on it and get inside.
I got hold of my chakra. I wouldn't be able to do everything at once, this much I knew. I would have to let go of the seal for a few crucial seconds and focus on hiding my chakra signature. I would have to pray that wherever this fire-type signature took me, there'd be no enemy around.
I took a deep breath and body-flickered away.
Here goes nothing, folks.
The first detail that hit me like a brick on the face: the putrid smell. The second detail: I wasn't invisible anymore. And, lastly, I wasn't, in fact, alone.
I was in a cell around four meters wide and six meters long. There was no light except from a candle flickering away somewhere in the dark corridor. Everything was silent and depressing.
There was a man. There was a boy. Both of them were in the cell. One of them was dead.
I would never get over the stench of a dead body.
The man looked up through his oily, dark bangs. His eyes were clearer than I expected than to be, almost familiar even, which creeped me out. He was as thin as an skeleton, but painfully alive. I could only imagine what he had gone through while here.
"Who are you?" he whispered. I realized all of my ANBU training was non-existent in face of this. I was so shocked by these living - living? - conditions that I had forgotten to re-activate my invisibility seal fast enough.
Thank God I unconsciously kept hold of my chakra signature. It looked like there were no Iwa-nins around. For now, anyway.
I wasn't about to go giving my name to a stranger, even if said stranger was a prisoner who probably hadn't seen the light of the day in a few years. Still, his familiar eyes made me uncomfortable.
"Who are you?" was my reply.
There was a twinkle in his brown orbs that almost made me smile. Then he glanced at the body behind me and it died.
I turned around, even though I didn't want to. Uchiha Kizoku's body wasn't childlike anymore. He was a child soldier, which wasn't the same. He was as tall as me, though my own height helped. It was a fact. Even so, he looked ridiculously tiny and frail and pale against the dark cobblestones.
His dark hair was matted with blood. His face was dirty and full of gashes. It wasn't a pretty picture. Then again, death never was.
"Poor lad," the man murmured. "When they brought him here, he was barely breathing. I couldn't do much except sit beside him through his last moments."
I managed to keep breathing.
The man with the familiar eyes looked back at my face. He was analyzing my expression, I could tell, and observing my garment with a knowing look.
"Konoha ANBU, huh? Never thought I'd see one of you again."
I frowned, "Who are you?"
He told me the most unlikely of answers.
"Nara Shintō. Pleasure to meet ya, kid. Wish it was in better circumstances."
Nara. This guy was a Nara. Oh, my God. No wonder his eyes looked so familiar. My best friend was Nara, they had the same eyes, even the same shape. Who was Nara Shintō? Was he close to Chitarō, Shikaku or even Suzaku-sensei?
"Your face tells me you know a Nara. Closely, at that," he said with a hint of smugness at his own guess.
It took me a few seconds to gather my bearings. I knew that Iwa had taken prisoners after the Second War. I just thought they weren't alive anymore. What use could a slowly dying Nara have? If they weren't going to use his brain, why were they keeping him?
"So?"
"I...- my, my best friend," I stammered. "My best friend is a Nara. A-and my teacher."
He looked interested.
"Your Genin team instructor? Naras aren't usually assigned to these. We are busy in the research department or outlining strategies."
"No. My Fūinjutsu teacher. Suzaku-sensei."
All of sudden, the man - Shintō - gripped my wrist. His body was half-starved to death, it was obvious, but he hadn't acted like it when I arrived. His eyes were too clear to be immersed in madness and loneliness. Now, however, he looked truly desperate.
"You know Suzaku? How is he? Is he fine? Is he healthy?"
"Y-yes," I said, trying to take a step back, uncomfortable with his closeness. Ex-Konoha-nin or not, I didn't do well with strangers. "Yes, he's fine. He taught me everything he knows, which is a lot. He, he likes tea a-and... I don't know, napping? Could you please let go of my hand?"
He did.
"Sorry. I was surprised. Nara Suzaku is my youngest son. I haven't seen him ever since this scum over our head captured me."
I was silent for a moment.
"How did you survive? Why did they let you alive?" I couldn't help it. I was curious.
Shintō observed me for a moment, pondering. Finally, he said, "Who knows what goes on their head? Konoha rides itself of its prisoners as soon as they have no use for us. Cruel? Yes, but much, much merciful than keeping them alive, like they kept me. You picked a good day to visit, kid, I'm not swinging back and forth muttering non-sense."
Despite everything, his joke made my lips curls up. It wasn't the joke in itself that made me laugh, it had more to do with the fact that he could joke inside this dreadful place. It took a different kind of strength to survive this type of hell.
"I suppose you came to get the kid? If he is what his clothes say, these idiots over us won't take long to come back. I feel as if they've let him rot for awhile already."
I winced at his choice of words. Even though Kizoku's body wasn't freshly killed, his eyes would still be useful for a little longer. Uchiha were prized for these eyes, after all.
I got a scroll already written on. I hadn't expected so much time and freedom to create a coffin-seal, so I had prepped it in advance. Putting Kizoku's body inside was awkwardly easy. He disappeared without a sound into the seal.
I turned around.
I couldn't take Shintō with me. I couldn't body-flicker through so many walls with someone in tow. To be honest, my body-flicker technique wasn't the greatest, just enough to get me by.
I couldn't risk not getting Kizoku's body and eyes to Konoha on the off chance of saving this man.
I could not.
(I should.)
Shintō took one look at my face and scoffed.
"I don't expect you to get me away from this hell, kid. To each their own battles, I guess. And I wouldn't ask you to compromise your missions on my behalf. Frankly, these kid's eyes are my important than my possible survival."
It sounded harsh. It was true. This was a cruel world.
The man looked up at the ceiling, as if he could stare right through it.
"If I were you, I'd go. They sound awfully quiet up there - they are usually making a racket - but who knows when they'll want this kid back? You better get your ass out of here."
It was one of the hardest things I had ever done, but I smiled at him. Through all the guilt, I curled up my lips and gave him a smile. Who knew when else this man would see another one.
"Be safe, kid," he said. I realized I hadn't told him my name. It was better that way. If an Iwa-nin sensed any lingering chakra, as improbable as this possibility was, they might torture him for information.
I took one last look at his painfully familiar eyes and body-flickered away.
I ran five kilometers before turning my earpiece back on and trying to contact my teammates. The sound of huffed breathing immediately assaulted my ears.
"Wolf? Hawk, Lion?" I called.
"Deer, do not come the same way you went," sensei's voice said urgently. "Go around, make a turn. Do you hear me?"
I paused. I wasn't one to ignore orders, so I said, "I understand. Mission complete on my side."
"Good," and that was it.
I could hear the clang of metal against metal and labored breathing, but not much more. Hawk and Lion hadn't even answered my call.
I paused on a tree branch for the briefest moment. Kizoku's body was safely hidden in my pouch. I was as invisible as a ghost. My teammates were a in a situation, whatever it was.
I could help.
I should follow my orders.
Fuck it, I thought, feeling unusually rebellious.
There was this feeling growing in my chest that wouldn't go away until I saw my best friends and teacher again. I had left a Nara behind - my teacher's father at that. I was bringing my best girl friend's little brother in a coffin seal to our home.
I wasn't a robot. They taught us how not to act upon our feeling during the Academy. They didn't taught us how not to feel.
I went back the exact way I came.
It took the longest fifteen minutes of my life to find my teammates' signatures. Despite my seemingly reckless decision, I was still hiding myself - energy and physically - while expanding my sensor field. I wouldn't charge ahead like a bull. What help would I be, then?
Sensei was farther away. When I arrived in a clearing, he wasn't there. I could feel him two kilometers away to the north. Chitarō fighting three guys at once caught my attention first. Ren looked fine against his couple of guys, smiling and being a little shit through the entire fight.
I jumped toward my friend, barely breathing in my earpiece a short "On your left", before throwing a kunai right into one of the enemies' throat. Said enemy choked, falling back dead almost instantly.
"Nice," Chitarō complimented. He wasn't annoyed at me for disobeying our teacher and captain, I could tell. He was laidback and would gracefully accept the back up when it was obviously needed.
"Thanks," I replied, deactivating my invisibility seal. Had it been a solo fight, I would've tried to keep it on. As Chita could accidentally run through me with his very, very sharp blade, I'd rather not risk it.
Dodging a kick to my face, I stared at our enemies' forehead protectors. Iwa-nins. Well, that explained why the hideout was so quiet. They had left to deal with intruders to their territory. Lucky me, then. One of the was possibly a sensor and would've felt my presence when I went inside.
My teammates had served as a diversion.
As I had already killed one guy, there was one for each of us. Chitarō was distancing himself from me, knowing that I preferred space to use my jutsus. I used this opportunity to activate my invisibility seal for a moment, as there was no risk of getting impaled anymore.
"Fuck," the Iwa-nin cursed. Well, at least I knew he wasn't the sensor, if he couldn't even being to imagine where I was.
I put the tips of my fingers to the back of his head and, before he could even register what was this pressure on his nape, my "Raiton: Raihan no Jutsu (Lightning Blades)" had knocked him down for life. He fell over like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Sensei burst through a couple of bushes on my far right. He took one look at me and clicked his tongue.
"I told you not to come here. We had it under control," he reprehended.
"Well, I wasn't about to leave another one of ours behind," I replied before I could rein in it.
I had one second to look at his puzzled face before the sound of choking caught my attention. I turned around to the sight of my nightmares.
"REN!"
I don't know what I did next. The guy who had attacked Ren was on the ground, dead, but I wasn't sure who had done it. It could've been me, or Chita, or sensei. We were by Ren's side in a flash.
"Ren," I murmured, staring incomprehensibly at the kunai sticking out of his chest. It was lodged too deeply, we couldn't risk taking it out without him bleeding to death.
He coughed a couple of times and said, trying to keep a positive attitude, "Hey, Kumi-chan. Nice to see your cute face back."
"Idiot," I whispered. "Stop talking."
Chitarō was gripping his pants so hard I was afraid it might rip. Sakumo-sensei was trying a basic healing iryo-ninjutsu around the wound without success.
This couldn't possibly be happening.
How shitty could this day get?
How wrong could this mission go?
Ren opened his mouth to speak, but only managed on the second try. His face was contorted in pain.
"What stupid death for a shinobi, huh? Stabbed to death, once, by one single kunai. Don't let," he wheezed and tried again, "Don't let them put that on my grave, ok? I want to die gloriously fighting an army with no option of escape after having saved an entire village."
"You are not dying," Chitarō choked beside me, already swimming in his own tears. My face was strangely dry for a crybaby.
Ren laughed - a painful, wet sound.
"Hey, who's the emotional one now? It's ok. I..." a pause full of coughing. "I'll be fine. And you guys should too. I'm kinda selfish, though, cry a lot for me before you start being fine, ok? I'll be watching."
He tried to laugh again, but gave up, as it only made his wound worse. Typical Ren.
"Kumi-chan, you should cry on Shikaku's shoulder. You're cute when you cry. Maybe he'll realize... that... too. Even I..."
He couldn't go on. Ren was dying. Ren was dying and making stupid jokes as he died.
"Ren," I said in disbelief.
This really was happening. He really, really was laying over my lap bleeding to death. And we couldn't do anything. Was this it? Was life such a short, fickle fact of the universe?
I had killed enemies. I had killed friends of other people, but never had I seen someone I love so dearly die. Natsumi-san had died because of her weakness. Mom had fallen prey to cancer. Daddy had been killed in the last war. Mother had passed away.
These were facts. Distant facts.
I hadn't been present when they died. Had heard of it, sure.
I hadn't held them in my arms and heard their last words. Heard how painful it was to just breathe.
"I'm not feeling-" he managed to choke out, before his eyes rolled to the back of his head.
It felt as if the world stopped breathing with me.
Sensei sat stone-faced by my side. Chitarō was sobbing into his fists.
I had retrieved Uchiha Kizoku's body.
I left my teacher's father behind.
I lost my best friend.
The mission was a success. Whether I wanted it or not, that's what would be written on the report. There was one loss, but it was completed successfully.
My chest was making this hollow sound, my heart was banging against my ribs in a cruel rhythm, my head was full and empty and I might be just have been about to throw up.
When we went back home, there were two bodies towed along and a sea of heartache to drown in.