Years alive, 3; days in the wild 13
Maruchi could guess why the air hung heavily with trepidation. To be exposed on the water for so long was basically asking for an ambush.
Though it would take a while for Kiri to realize that their whole squadron of seventy shinobi were dead, when they did, they'd be out for blood.
Strapping the last bag onto her shoulder, Maruchi approached the ninja in charge of this mission.
Making an audible step towards the blonde, the brunette tapped him on the shoulder.
"Minato-san."
Despite her obvious approach the male still jolted. She couldn't blame him really, to have this much pressure for the lives of so many.
But she was responsible too.
No matter the hard stares and untrustworthy glances she was going to see none of them perished on this mission.
"Yes Maruchi?" Minato replied tersely, shuffling the map back into a seal and turning his full attention towards her.
Rubbing a hand over her snake mask, the girl shuffled slightly, adjusting the heavy load on her back. So, what if it was heavy, Gai was carrying more.
"Do you want me to use a Genjutsu?"
Blue eyes blinked at the sudden question. Minato looked shocked, as if he wasn't expecting that she'd offer up her services.
Maruchi suppressed a snort, she was in too deep to not to give her all. No matter the looks, the scorn, she wanted Gai and Kakashi, heck even Minato to return safely, without any trouble.
If that meant putting her life on the line then so be it, though Karashi would be sad—no Maruchi was going to do this.
"Why?" Minato's sharp voice brought the girl back to the present.
Blinking, a soft smile spread across her face, though hidden by the mask, Maruchi knew the blonde could sense it.
"Why not?"
It was a teasing remark, said so elegantly and smoothly, that one would think it un-honest, fake even.
Minato could see the real emotion though, the desire to protect her new comrades, those that, though distrust her, gave her a place to stay and belong when she was wondering aimlessly.
For the first time in days the blonde smiled. It lit up his tired, narrow, eyes and sent a glow about his features.
"Ok, as long as it doesn't drain your chakra reserves too much."
Nodding, Maruchi bowed. "Of course, Minato-san."
Shaking his head, the blonde turned his attention to something else.
"We're heading out at dawn, they'll expect a mad dash at night, not when the light could reveal us."
"Hmm, ok I'll be ready by then."
"Good."
Just like that, the survival of thirty men and woman rested on an eleven-year-old shoulders.
She didn't mind.
She just wanted them safe.
I just want to be safe…
"You can never be safe."
I'm never safe.
WE'RE NEVER SAFE!
Years alive, 1
Maruchi could never forget this day. The day she found her first companions.
She was scrounging around the ruins of a town that had been demolished by a ninja fight.
Sanshin and a few other men of the caravan where there as well, looking for survivors and bodies.
Surrounded by the ruins of an old home, Maruchi believed this had been the lord or lady's house, if the tattered silks and carpet were anything to go by at least.
Reaching out a pale hand, the brunette unclasped the lid of the chest she found. It wouldn't budge. Brows furrowing the girl realized that the chest was sealed.
Maruchi was by no means a sealing master but she had read about Fuinjutsu.
Form what she gathered from her abysmal knowledge pool, there were layers to seals and the fundamental thing to activating it was with chakra.
Of course, Maruchi didn't want to activate the seal, she wanted to deactivate it. The seal looked pretty complex, with its inked lines and circuitry.
One would have to carefully unravel the seal, like a pair of tangled earphones… but that's only if they wanted to keep the seal intact to reuse again.
Maruchi just wanted the stupid thing open.
Normally pushing chakra into a seal would do little but strengthen it… still, that was only if they had normal chakra. The brunette resisted the urge to smirk, she could melt the circuit and release it, though if she overheated it, it could explode, not something she really wanted.
Pressing her palms onto the sealed lock, the girl summoned her chakra. It crawled out of her chest and up her arms, pricking just underneath her skin and emerging out of her hands.
It was coloured a pale orange, swirls of lilac at the edges.
Her hands ached as the chests heavy rim pressed into her palm.
Hefting it up, it gave a rusty groan and crackle as the seal fizzled and broke. The lid fell back and revealed hidden contents.
Scrolls, it had multiple scrolls.
Not just any scrolls.
Maruchi gripped the sides of the chest, her eyes wide in surprise.
Ninja scrolls.
Summoning ninja scrolls.
About thirty or so just stuffed into a chest, how the hell a Lord of a small village had managed to gather so many?
She didn't know, but…
Narrowing golden eyes, the girl swore she would find out.
Years alive 3; days in the wild, 56
She saw it, the ninja with solid fire wrapped around his kunai, heading straight for his uncovered back.
"MINATO MOVE!"
Maruchi didn't know who screamed that, all she felt was the white noise, the rawness of her throat, the smoke that clogged her senses.
So close, yet so far, so close to home, yet just at its borders.
She was so close to completing her promise, to doing right by herself, right by them. Gai had a father waiting for him, Kakashi had Minato to look after, and the blonde himself had a beautiful girlfriend who was eagerly awaiting his return.
She didn't know when she suddenly appeared behind the blonde, didn't feel when the projectile pierced her heart.
The world just went black for a second. Flashes of cold rooms and dinners. Everything so, bitter.
The way her body couldn't feel.
Monster,
She didn't need to breath.
Snake child,
How they all tried to make her feel.
Lizard freak.
She felt nothing except a broken heart.
DEMON!
The squelch of her flesh reached her ears, burning flesh on the tip of her tounge. But she couldn't feel it, it was like she was a million miles away, from this situation, from this pain.
"MARUCHI!"
The hand that stabbed her tried to wrench out of her, considering her dead.
But she wasn't, she as very much alive.
Her ribs constricted around the offending appendage. Her spiritual energy swelled out of her skin, spilling down on the ninjas arm and melting his flesh off.
The screams barely felt like they were there, she barely felt like she was there. Her ribs expanded, sharpening to the point it tore the ninjas dissolving arm off.
She didn't know when her hands had kept the man in place, writhing in agony as her chakra spread up his arm to the rest of his body, for how dare he attack her friend, who had spent countless nights watching her back as they split up. Who had smiled at her so genuinely.
Who acted and looked so much like Sanshin and seemed to embody her father's spirit.
"Mon-monster…" the man gurgled as if hoping his last words would have an impact on her. They didn't, not at all.
Gripping the man's forearms tighter, Maruchi's blood began pumping again, her heart regenerating to full capacity.
"If I'm such a monster…" Gold eyes slit, so disinterested yet full of hatred as they stared down into a horrified pair. "I wonder what that makes you?"
She then ripped him in half, body so mushy and rotten that it felt like tearing paper. It was oddly satisfying to the girl; she felt a grin threaten to take over her face.
Yes! This is what she wanted, for all those years of torment, she could finally take revenge, she knew things now, she could, she—she could, could…
Her knees buckled, chakra no longer pouring out of her skin and the pain of dying and living all over again catching up to her.
Golden eyes dilated as they surveyed her gory hands, her blood-stained outfit.
"Maruchi?"
She caught a flash of blonde and blue, that was all she needed though.
Otousan?
Maruchi promptly blacked out.
Minato had no idea what happened. His little group of ten ninja were just making it past the last stretch, were almost to Konoha they could taste it on the breeze.
The Jonin had decided it best to split up into groups of ten or so, only communicating through codes sent by their summons.
That way they could be discreet while also packing power if required.
On the team that Minato was leading he had his apprentice and the new ally (Gai was placed on another team considering there couldn't be too many assets on one team), there were eight other shinobi in the team, each with different strengths.
Maruchi was her name, no last name and only holding identification papers of her father, who was a previous shinobi of Konoha.
He had been very weary of her presence. He saw the death she could cause, Minato still got shudders at the screams the fifty or so shinobi had emitted as they fell, she had done so without even lifting a finger.
Her battle prowess was exceptional as well, from what he could deduce, someone must have put her through hellish training (That on the level of the Maito's) to get that kind of speed and stamina.
Minato kept his distance and had reluctantly accepted the girl's company into the team, she was a non-hostile asset, one the blonde was planning on exploiting until her story proved real or not.
Still as she began fitting herself into the folds of their squadron, she had proven herself time and time again. The girl didn't mind when restriction for food and shelter were put on her. She didn't complain when they sent her out to scout at ungodly hours of the morning.
Heck! Maruchi even offered to use a wide scale Genjutsu for the duration of their run across the ocean.
She was definitely different, pure in her intentions and true to her word.
Maruchi had developed a sort of loyalty to Gai from the time spent together, she seemed also willing to extend that loyalty to Kakashi and even Minato himself.
He had found her weird, yet enduring in a way.
Still Minato would have been very happy with just leaving the brunette to her own devices.
But through time, his eventual weariness turned into a kind of fondness. It stemmed from long nights of watching the stars, to asking questions about one another.
He discovered that underneath that disinterested posture and cloudy gaze that Maruchi was quite passionate and ambitious. She had an aspiration to learn all she could in the world, soak and gain as much knowledge as she dared.
He liked her, she was different and not apathetic, like he had assumed before, (just because Maruchi didn't show a reaction towards all the death she committed didn't mean she felt nothing for it) she actually held a nindo quite like his own.
Protect our precious people to our last breath.
And protect she did.
Minato couldn't turn around quick enough. He couldn't face four shinobi at his front and one from behind. The Kirinin came when he was taking a breather from killing the four from before, clearly wanting vengeance on his prone form.
He was unprepared and while he never wanted to die, he would have preferred it to seeing Maruchi be impaled.
The smooth crunch of ribs being crushed was a familiar sight, he just wasn't familiar with it being between Maruchi's own chest.
Her heart was completely shredded.
Minato had cried out her name. It was unprofessional but the blonde didn't care. Maruchi was a child, no matter the situation, and he felt obligated to protect her over himself.
She apparently felt the same way.
The blonde was seeing red creep into the corners of his vision, he was prepared to slaughter the man that killed his comrade with a type of vengeance he wasn't proud of.
That is until the girl had risen from the dead. He felt the potent spike of her chakra, but he didn't just feel it, he saw it manifest out of her pours, out of her blood.
With an arm in her chest, she was alive.
And she just ripped apart that shinobi with her bare hands, like paper.
Maruchi's back was facing him, then her knees buckled, her kimono getting stained even further in blood.
Reaching out a hesitant hand towards the brunette, he called out. "Maruchi?"
Twisting, Minato caught the sight of two golden eyes, before she promptly blacked out.
After that the blonde wasted no time in heading over the Konoha border, a brunette clutched in his arms.
Kakashi had remained by his Sensei's side through the duration of the run, the rest following behind in confused, yet horrified awe.
Maruchi shouldn't be breathing, and yet.
Glancing down he saw the pale unmarred flesh of her chest, the blood staining her cloths and a slight singe, the only thing that showed she had been impaled.
Grip tightening, Minato looked ahead.
He was an idiot.
Because he felt so responsible for her.
That he really did care because she wore her heart, no matter how absent and fluffy, on her sleeve.
Knuckles turning white, the blonde ground his teeth.
Such an idiot.
Years alive 3; Days on Konoha outskirts, 1
Everything hurt the moment she opened her eyes. Not the physical kind of pain, but the pain brought from a few to many late nights and a serious hang over (Not that she ever had one, the long nights though…).
Her head ached and her eyes watered as she blinked them open.
Where was she?
Flashes of memory. The screams, the rawness of her throat, the desire to protect, an arm through her chest—
Halting those thoughts, Maruchi's hands instantly went over her heart. Her intact, beating, heart.
Gasping the girl flung herself up and off the white bed she was situated in. Her knees buckling as she placed two feet on the ground, leaning heavily on the wall.
What? How?
She didn't know what was going on. She had died. She knew no one could survive a blow like that, but then again, she had been conscious while her heart was destroyed.
How was she even alive?
Images of rubbery flesh, so mushy in her hands, bones so brittle like sticks, how she had ripped open a man while he was alive—
Bile rose up her throat. She gagged reflexively, the bitter taste in her mouth making her eyes sting.
She wanted to hurl, it was so disgusting, so vile, she had done that?
Maruchi wasn't a psychopath, she didn't like killing people, she only did so to protect her friends (A horrid necessity in this world). That massacre was the largest group she had ever killed and even then, it had been without any real pain.
But… Two horrified eyes, the unnatural anger (hate), the pleasure she felt when she had, had—
Maruchi vomited, it was nothing but saliva and bile that spilled onto the white floor where she collapsed. For the next few minutes, the girl dry heaved, on the ground, until her gut ached.
"Maru-sama? Your awake that's—"
The boyish voice cut off with a startled yell. "Maruchi-sama!"
The clatter of footsteps did nothing to stop the girls shuddering, her panicked breaths, choked heaves.
Warm arms picked up Maruchi with surprising ease. The change in height made her head feel dizzy, her stomach lurched, and she turned her head away from her helper to vomit more bile, it dripped down her chin staining her simple white dress.
Placed gently onto the bed, the girl curled into herself, breathing erratically.
Palms rubbed her back gently, a smooth voice whispering comforting words. The hands moved to cup her face, wiping her chin of saliva.
Eventually her breathing evened out, heaves becoming nothing more that painful twitches in her gut.
Still shuddering, Maruchi reached an arm out in a silent offer, eyes still closed tightly.
There was no hesitance in his comfort and Gai dutifully grabbed her hand, squeezing her pale skin with rough bandaged fingers.
"…thank you…" it was barely whispered but the boy heard any way.
There was a pause before the grip on her hand tightened. "Any time."
Maruchi couldn't help but smile at her friends' sincere tone. She had missed him in the two weeks they were separated.
Peeling open a golden eye she looked up into two inky black ones. "Mind getting Minato-san?"
Gai expression faltered. "Ah… Minato-san is currently busy; I was sent to keep an eye on you. Sorry Maru-sama, you'll just have to survive my company until then,"
Sighing, the girl snuggled into her sheets. "Oh, how difficult… I can barely stand more than ten seconds of your company…"
She murmured, smirking slightly at Gai's protestant huff.
Maruchi's grip weakened slightly in the boy's hand as she fell into a light doze.
There was a long sigh before the girl felt fingers brush her wavy bang from her face.
Humming under her breath she leaned into the warm fingers.
"Get some sleep Maruchi, I'll be here when you wake up."
Maruchi was inclined to believe him.
But she was startled.
That was the first time Gai said her name, one without the honorific.
It was nice, made him feel more like a friend.
My first friend away from home.
Gai would like that title.
Maruchi knew she did.