Why the Hell are they being so nice to me!? I am a p-r-i-s-o-n-e-r. Koumei looked over to the man who had just brought her a platter of sushi. It had been three days, and the Missing-nins were treating her as if she were royalty, unless she tried to run away. Which she had. Twice. And both times they had ganged up on her and she knew they could overpower her, so she just gave up and went off training every day.
She still had no clue how to use her wings, they were so long and akward. All she could manage were short glides from rooftop to rooftop, but if she flapped even once, she simply flipped backwards and fell. It was incredibly frustrating. She finished eating the sushi quickly, before leaving to go train off the day, still followed by Kaitahi. The Hidden Moon was one of the few Hidden Villages that was actually Hidden. There had been forbidden jutsus protecting it since it's creation, including everlasting night, and another one that only allowed entrance into the village on moonlit nights, making it easier to patrol.
All of the houses and buildings were basically normal-looking, except for the fact that they had never seen the light of day and appeared bleached. Koumei walked the rooftops slowly, gliding now and then, trying to get a feel for her wings and making it difficult for Kaitahi to follow at the same time. I need to train harder and get out of here. There is no way they can keep me here for a month and a half, she thought as she headed towards one of the smaller, more secluded training fields.
Before she could begin, however, she heard a hoarse croak from above, followed by black wings. It was Kuro. 'Took you long enough to find me,' she thought as he landed on her outstretched hands,
'Uhh... What happened to you?' asked Kuro, hopping onto her shoulder and examining her wings.
Kaitahi watched in confusion as they had a mental conversation. Koumei sat down and nodded to Kuro, whispering something and slumping over
Suddenly, Koumei was flying again. It had been awhile since she had been able to feel the thrill, even if she could not feel the wind on her face. Kuro passed quickly out of the Hidden Village, emerging over a large lake and heading west. There was no snow here, and the sun was shining brightly. It was a five hour flight almost to get to Konoha, but she could use Kuro to warn them about Orochimaru. And she also wanted to see if Kasei was all right. Sora too, she thought a moment later. Fly fast, Kuro.
What should have felt like five hours, though, felt only one hour as she saw the snow-covered walls surrounding Konoha. Give me control, Kuro. She suddenly felt pain errupt through her body as she took full control over the raven. But it was gone in a matter of seconds, and she could now feel the soft breeze on her face and under her wings.
She flew over to Kasei's house, and then to Genma's, finding nothing. As she passed over the rest of town, she began wondering if they had even made it back. Hospital, stupid, came Kuro's voice through her mind. She turned towards the large, square building and began going from window to window.
The first Wing-nin she found was Sora, asleep with his arm in a cast, but no horrible machines beeping around him. Koumei sighed in relief and continued on. But when she reached the second floor, she was not prepared. She found Genma and Kawa in the room sitting on either side of a bed with a great number of machines around it. In the bed was a heavily bandaged form. It was Kasei, she finally noticed.
Hovering for a moment, she landed on the closed window sill, scratching wildly ar the glass for attention. Kawa looked up first and spotted her, or Kuro, and stood quickly, opening the window.
"Kuro! Where's Koumei!? What's happened!?" she said as Koumei in Kuro's form hopped onto her shoulder, surveying Kasei before hopping onto his bedcovers, moving over to his head and looking past the breathing mask. His face was slightly quivering, perhaps from pain, and his lips were parted very slightly. His head was bandaged, causing stands of light-brown hair to fall messily over his eyes. What happened to you, Kasei?
Koumei knew she needed to relay a message to one of the Wing-nin in order to get it to the Hokage and the other villages. But she did not have enough chakra left to force a voice, so she looked around for one of the bird summons. She spotted Kawa's owl perched on the tree outside, asleep, and flew back through the window.
"Mukoshi. Wake up." she buffetted the small brown owl with a black wing, and it was alert instantly.
"Kuro. Where have you been? The others were worried," said the owl silently, swivelling it's head around to look over the raven.
"It's Koumei, speaking through Kuro. I need you to get a message to Kawa and the others. I'ts important, and I can't stay for long, so listen well." Kuro moved around to the other side of the branch, folding his wings tightly across his downy back.
"There is something dangerous going on. Orochimaru has rejoined the Akatsuki, along with another group of missing-nin called the Kirigenshi. They are planning to start a war and destroy all of the Hidden Villages, Konoha included. You have to get this to the Hokage, and get her to warn the other villages. Orochimaru has around a thousand ninja, and about fifty of them are S-ranked missing-nin."
Kuro paused for a moment, croaking quietly. "Tell them not to worry about me. I'll get out of here sooner or later. And tell kawa and Sora to continue on with training Genma and Kasei." Koumei paused again, stopping her train of thoughts, before adding "Is Kasei alright? He's going to live, right? I don't really remember what happened."
"I couldn't see inside the dome, but when it vanished he was on the ground with needles in him," said Mukoshi through her mind.
"Needles? Whose?" Koumei strived to remember the battle. But she could only remember Itachi and Kasei.
"You don't remember anything? Haku's ice needles," said the owl, cocking it's round head slightly to the side. Haku?
"He... he was my brother." thought Koumei slowly. "No.... Orochimaru wouldn't. He must have erased my memories... I was wondering why there was no red. I remember there was always red. Was this part of the experiment?" Kuro closed his eyes for a moment as Koumei felt a tug from her real position, back at the Hidden Moon.
"I'll kill him. I swear. He shouldn't tamper with peoples minds, or bodies. I can't even fly anymore. I have to go, but I'll see if I can get out. Please tell Kawa," thought Koumei as she slipped back into the Moon Village, jerkeng back into conciousness. Although there was no snow, it was still winter and it was cold out. Luckily though, her new outfit had long sleeves and long pants, but her hands were still frozen.
"What the Hell was that about? I was getting bored after you passed out for around five or six hours," said Kaitahi standing up about three feet off and emphasizing the last words.
"I'll kill Orochimaru." said Koumei simply, standing and moving away. It was around five o clock in the sfternoon. I might as well use all of my 'spare time' learning how to control these wings. Then I can get out of this Village and finish training the other Wing-nin so I can kill Orochimaru without fear of dying myself.
"Hah. Day three: becomes bent on killing Orochimaru-sama." said Kaitahi mockingly. In a flash, a katana was held at the Sound-nins throat, but she was able to bring up a long, silver flute, blocking the blow and still smiling.
"Whatcha gonna do now? Kill me too? Hah!" Kaitahi began laughing as Koumei pulled back the sword, noticing that there were still the ranks of ninja hiding in the surrounding trees. She sheathed the sword and turned away, preparing for vigorous training. She was going to learn to fly.