Metsuki's mind drifted aimlessly through the darkness, projecting memories through her mind or just letting her simply drift through nothingness. Right now, though, she was recalling her life, feeling the numb pain of what she had felt before return to her.
She remembered her training as a child, her father would train her from sunrise to sunset, teaching her jutsus, developing her bloodline. When he taught her a new jutsu, he would force her to learn it, not letting her stop training until she mastered it. She was not allowed to eat or sleep during the time she trained. She recalled whenever she gave up, he would beat her into submission, forcing her to keep trying, to keep training.
Sometimes he would test her, bring in people for her to fight, or send her on difficult missions. If she failed he would step in at the last possible moment before she was slaughtered. Sometimes she would be tortured, and he would allow it to a certain extent. Although he let her experience extreme pain, he did not want to lose her as her bloodline was a powerful weapon. As a test, he had even ordered her to engage in one-on-one combat with her mother, the last person aside from her who posessed her bloodline.
After killing her own mother, her father had sealed her soul into the necklace which she always carried with her. It was a blessing and a curse, a double-edged sword. If she hurt those around her, it returned the pain a hundred fold, but if she lived for those people, it strengthened her. It also granted her another trait in which it was if her mother's body had merged with her own, increasing her amount of chakra but distorting her TenKetsu. This was how the necklace controlled her. The soul of her mother within it could control her half of the inner coil system, causing her great pain and suffering, and potential death if left unattended.
She remembered training for years and years, living off of scraps, and her father saying that he did not want to lose her. He was also very dedicated, every birthday he would give her a wonderful gift, and she was also the only one who got a say in his decisions. But as she grew older and more mature, she realized he only did this because he needed her to weild as a weapon.
Something had also happened in the last few years of her life. Her father had lessened the training sessions, leaving her mostly in the care of Shoku, as he sent out the members of the Akatsuki out in ones or twos. He thirsted for power, he naturally needed it to live, and he had been sending them out to find sorces from which he could leech from. Itachi was also highly prized to him, as his Sharingan was useful in gathering things such as jutsus.
She remembered how he would experiment for days on end, trying to find a way to extract advanced bloodlines. He had even experimented on her, his own daughter, trying to extract her powers. It had almost killed her, but he always stopped at the last possible second, it was how he lived.
In the last few months, her father had even called together the members of the Akatsuki, concentrating them to one spot. They had planned on analyzing another of the Hidden Villages, the Hidden Grass, as it had been reported by one of their members who resided near there that a certain bloodline ran strongly through one of the clans. It had been rumoured to be an offshoot of Metsuki's own bloodeline, and her father had viewed it as a threat and as a source of potential power.
The darkness swallowed her up with these last thoughts, but this time it was different, more sharp and clear. She heard noises which she hadn't picked out before, voices. No just one voice, speaking her name. Neji?
She opened her eyes slightly under the black cloth, noticing the red outlines of a few machines around her. Her arm had an I.V. imbedded in it and she turned her head to avoid looking at it. As she turned her head, she found herself staring at the blue form of a person, two people, sitting at the edge of her bed, one awake and the other slumped over. It was Neji and Iyasu. Man, Iyasu looks wasted, she thought, pushing herself up.
"Damn, Iyasu, what are you, stoned or something?" The form which had been staring off into space jerked back to reality, grinning back at her.
"Look who decided to cut short her beauty sleep. Feeling better, Metsuki?"
"I'm fine, dunno why I'm here though..." she coughed once.
Neji slowly lifted his head, rubbing his eyes before staring up at her. "You're awake!'
"No shit," she replied, feeling more awake now. "I never knew."
"What happened anyways? How long was I asleep?"
Iyasu handed her two clipboards and she scanned them, grimacing. "A spinal ta- Hey! What the fuck? What the hell did they do to me? Holy shit..."
She pulled back the covers and lifted up the edge of her shirt, peering down at her stomach where a long scar, larger than all the others and more recent, ran across it. "They removed part of my stomach...?"
She dropped her shirt, letting it fall back over her as she scanned the clipboard again. "Heart surgery!?" she said, sticking her face into her shirt before pulling out and rubbing her chest.
"Damn, why didn't you guys tell me? You should have woken me up so I could have at least fought back... Hey, I thought I dropped you off at your village before we headed back..."
"You did, but I had to come back 'cause you were dying."
Metsuki paused for a moment, clutching her stomach protectively. "Why are you so pale, Iyasu?"
There was silence for a moment.
"I had to put part of my soul into your body. It took a long time and it was painful, but it saved you."
"You what? How?" asked Neji, turning to face the Stream-nin.
"Long story," he muttered, rubbing his temples.
Iyasu stood, suddenly silent, and left the room without a word. His brown hair fell into his face, hiding his eyes in shadows.
Neji turned back to Metsuki as she raised a questioning eyebrow. He shrugged, before remembering what he had planned on asking her.
"Umm... Metsuki," he said, looking away for a moment.
"What?"
"I was wondering if, maybe if you get better soon... there's a festival coming up and..."
"Wow! A festival? With lots of food and lights and fun stuff like that? Can I go?"
Neji stopped, suprised by her sudden enthusiasm.
"I've never been to a festival before, can you take me?"
Neji almost smiled. "Sure."
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Metsuki browsed through one of the many stores in Konoha, looking for a nice kimono to wear for the festival. Most of them had already been bought, leaving only the plain ones. But plain wasn't nessecarily ugly. In fact, the one she planned on getting was a completely black one made from light fabric and had a red strip to tie around the waist. On the back it had the kanji for moon in dark red writing.
She tried it on in one of the change rooms, looking herself over in the long mirror. It fir perfectlly, curving delicately around her body and stopping just before her feet, at her ankles. It was incredibly comfortable as well, and along with her dark hair, it suited her perfectly. On top of that, it was one of the few she could afford with the money received from the mission to the Hidden Snow.
She folded it neatly and brought it up to the counter, paying for it and leaving the crowded store, back to her small apartment. The fesival was tomorrow, and the whole town was buzzing with excitement.
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Neji stood in the Hokage's office along with a number of other ninja, gennins, chuunins, jounins and otherwise. They had been called here an hour before the festival and awaited orders from the Godaime. Apperently, members of the missing-nin organization, the Akatsuki, had recently been spotted in Konoha.
"We also obtained information concerning Metsuki. She is somehow connected with the Akatsuki, whether she is with them or if they are after her we do not know, but I wanted to warn you of this beforehand. If you see any unusual behavior on her part, please do not hesitate to report it. If things get out of hand, do not hesitate to take action. Dismissed."
Neji walked off slowly, wondering how Metsuki of all people could be connected with an organization of missing-nin. Looking up at the low sun, he sped up. The festival was about to start.
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"Let's get some sushi! I'm so hungry," complained Metsuki, dragging Neji behind her. It was two hours into the festival, and Neji was exaughsted from darting all over the place. There was a full moon hanging above, surrounded by dimly shimmering stars.
Metsuki had already spent the remainder of her money, and now even Neji was running low. They came out of the sushi bar with two orders of sushi and sat down at one of the last empty tables. The streets around them were crowded, packed full of people. Strings of lights hung overhead, illuminating the whole town.
Metsuki finished her sushi quickly, before finishing Neji's as well, seeing as he had only eaten half. There were a series of explosions as another round of fireworks were launched into the air.
Metsuki looked up in awe as the red colours of the fireworks painted themselves sharply in her mind. She heard the people around her calling out in suprise as more fireworks were sent up. Suddenly, Neji grabbed her shoulder and forced her under the table.
"What?" she said, almost hitting her head on the bottom of the table. Looking around, she saw others also hiding, running away. Something had gone wrong.
"Those aren't fireworks, look," said Neji, pointing towards the streets. As people ran the opposite direction, balls of fire reigned towards the earth, creating small craters where they hit the ground.
The Leaf-nin who were participating in the festival however, remained behind, some drawing weapons or heading to the source of the odd fireballs. There was another explosion, this time closer, and a new batch of fire fell from the sky.
"We have to go help, something is happening..." Neji crawled back out from under the table followed by Metsuki. After casting around for a moment, he dashed off along with the other leaf-nin. Metsuki looked up at the sky, suddenly afraid. She knew what was happening, she had seen it before.
She followed the now steady flow of shinobi dashing towards the source and drawing a kunai from her small weapons pouch under her black and red kimono. It was coming from one of the town squares located near the center of the village. As she arrived nearby, trying to push past the assembled ninja, the sounds of explosions suddenly stopped.
Finally pushing past the first few rows of Leaf-nin, she managed to catch a glimpse of what had caused the fires. In the middle of the square, panting wildly on the burnt ground, was a giant black bat. There was silence.
A few heads turned towards her, she saw Neji and Sasuke a few feet off and on the other side of the square was Iyasu. They think it's mine? Can't they tell? I should...
"It's not mine!" she said, backing up a few steps. More heads turned to face her as the bat vanished in a puff of smoke. She took a few more steps back, trying to escape the square. The people around her moved away, surrounding her and drawing their weapons. What the hell are these assholes doing? They don't know... do they? Damnit father, I never did anything wrong, so why did you start it now?
She turned away, trying to run, but was stopped by a solid wall of blue figures, spacing out and moving forward slightly. They were closing in, too close for comfort, and Metsuki moved her fingers up to her bandana. If I fight back, they will see it as a threat, but it's in defense. I never did anything... what the hell is going on?
Suddenly, there was a combined rattle as a thousand weapons were hurled towards her. The last thing she saw was the form of the Godaime yelling something to a group of Anbu before another odd thing happened. About one second before the barrage of weapons reached her, a dome of fire exploded from the ground around her, completely encasing her. It had no warmth, and it burned an odd, greenish colour, but it easily knocked away the weapons before dying down and vanishing completely.
She looked up, and saw nine shapes surrounding her, each wearing red and black robes, each holding their hands in a seal, each with a deep gash running throught their head protectors. They surrounded her in a cricle, pushing back the Leaf-nin and even killing the closest few.
Damnit, he started it again... but what about... "Neji, Iyasu, Sasuke! Run! Call your Summons! You don't stand a chance!"
But before she could finish, the nine forms around her moved into action, each biting their thumbs and yelling, "Kuchhiyose no Jutsu!"
This was it, history would repeat itself. Metsuki stood from the ground, she would not allow this to happen again.