Thirteen
Quiet moments are all I crave
But times with you were the best
I touch upon a star
And wished for a present that cannot exist
Nothing's left
Except the memory of a broken history
I'm all alone
This time for real
A figure sits in the shadows, the fluorescent lights sparks leaving only glimpses of the young man's face. One spark, a blue shirt is seen, another moment reveals a dark side profile of sharp chiseled features with potential to develop into an even more handsome face, and yes, the next glimpse offers a pair of brooding dark onyx eyes. He sits on a bed, square-opened posture with a contemplative mood that is complemented by the intervening fingers with wrists set upon the knees.
His mind wanders everywhere and elsewhere.
His current obsession feeds his soul.
His only wish is revenge.
His occupation thus became avenger.
His thought never strays from his objective.
The place home has no more love. Only hatred and loneliness embraces this friend of theirs, for since the house no longer shelters those he loves. It has only become a place of memento that never fails to remind his of that one day that he could no longer hope for the return to the past.
It is this desperation that veered him off the course of the righteous. The new door led him into the arms of the one who promise the power to kill the monster that haunts his living.
Uchiha Itachi.
Kakashi keeps the watch on the outside. The other two insisted him of trust forit was easier for them to work together, no offence intended. They utilized the skills from the past and got through the sewage system. The two crept along under the walking steps of guards above them, caution taken not to splash the stagnant pools in the tunnel that guides them into room of their target.
Heart beats quicken. A small regret lingers. They were close to revenge but their desire needed to be curbed tonight.
It was a hard thing to do.
Especially if a voice that rings through to the past was heard from a vent which they passed.
Orochimaru.
They resisted temptation with a pain in their hearts. Taking a deep breath, they gathered all their professionalism to move ahead with the missions.
Blood lust will have to be satisfied another day.
Two hours have passed as they were watching the movements of the guards. Plans had to change, it seems that the subject's attendance was requested of the snake, and he was escorted to yet another section of the building. This time to a bare room that resembled a cube with only a chair for the snake to sit on, they had no choice but to stay on the same ground level as them.
Now they stood waiting in the shadows of a room where the snake's eyes gleamed over his prized vessel. Cultivation of the perfect body and twisted mind was in progress, a sick feeling gathered in their pits.
Of course they known sick idiots who were their 'comrades', the ones that savored the moments of tortures ensued upon their victims, who needed to expel all their bottled up dissatisfaction in life by mutilating the subjects section by section alphabetically but of course, some had other preferences as well. Details will be spared, for they ring up undesirable thoughts and feelings within.
The snake's tail rattles. They froze.
Have they been discovered?
The bespectacled one they call Kabuto then fades away into nothingness as the snake arises from his seat; his bandages trail his footsteps around the enclosed space. Sasuke's alertness arises as their heartbeat quickens its pace.
He walks in front of the raven haired one. He stares into nothingness. His senses only speculate a presence.
Kei crouched at the other corner and wondered what would happen.
He slithers away.
Relief overwhelms.
A kunai sweeps the air suddenly! It misses her hair by mere inches.
Before composition of her state returned, the snake movements shifted. It wound its slithering form around her hand; the light movement of her hair had given away her position.
Shit!
Kei sinks a lovely sharp object into the thing that wound itself around her hand. It releases. She then revealed herself and lured the players to her.
"What is lone stranger doing in a place like this?"
Kabuto smirked and went for her. She dodges the sharp edges well enough but isn't alert enough to fight off a slithering pattern of strikes and a rookie's excitement for some exercise.
Distraction lingers.
She indulged into the play of the older ones, the other she kept at bay. Fear and anxiety mixes as the reality of seeing those eyes again sunk in, she had much unforced errors and lapses in concentration. Still, even in such an unsettled state she was fending them off reasonably well, at least well enough to garner greater interest from Kabuto, whose skills were definitely jounin-level.
Sasuke was getting frustrated from the lack of attention. There was a touch of insult as she easily ticked him away from the fighting area. He was about to launch himself in after discovering an opening when suddenly he felt a jolt into certain parts of his body.
He was paralyzed and felt himself picked up into mid-air and carried away. He attempted to shout for attention but found no utterances coming out of his mouth.
And all he could do was watch as the darkness engulfed and he slips away from the room.
A kunai struck Kei's stomach.
If only it was that easy.
The form collapse into air and the kunai fell to the ground. They searched for their play toy but found none. Save for a scroll that blew up and engulfed the space in red dust. She used it as cover to scurry out of the building at blinding speed. Those two were no fools and they would catch up pretty soon.
"After them! They've got Sasuke!" The snake yelled as his subordinate gave chase.
Minutes of running led all to meet up at assigned place. A pair of shocked onyx eyes met an old acquaintance but the reunion was short-lived as instructions flew for another plan to slow the pursuers. They all flew away from the building, with high security alert on their tail and the continuing higher skilled ones. Kei took Sasuke to run while the men moved to back her up.
The team split to break the formation that followed. On one hand, there was Kakashi and Kei who were heading towards the east and Ken towards the west and the pursuers adapted accordingly.
Kei carried the boy over one shoulder and was leading their way through the damp forest; Kakashi took the pilot position to watch their back. When the space between pursuer and pursued closed into an uncomfortable length, Kakashi halted to fend them off to buy her time to fly.
As the fighting ensued, she took the advantage given and increased speed to gain more ground from the separate group whose attention was to her. Sasuke could only observe silently the speed that she could garner from her lean form, feet barely touched any solid step and the wind that flew over them was breath-taking, almost exhilarating. Too bad the joyride was halted and it was all due to Kabuto who had them caught at an opening in the midst of the foliage that surrounds Hidden Sound.
She was surrounded by four men, Kabuto included. They called for the relinquishing of the prized bird to them.
Like as if she was going to compel that easily.
The minions flew in set directions to attack from all four corners; taking advantage of the extra luggage over her shoulder they moved into close combat in an attempt to force her to drop him.
They might have succeeded if they had chosen another method. For she was a taijutsu expert and one of the best in Black Dragons,taught by the head himself. A brand of fighting in the style of the gentle fist was seen, it was a style of fight with its history embedded in ancient tradition, once lost but now very much alive in her. A combination dance flow and sheer confidence tackled the rough edge of the minions that just threw themselves at her. Their unpolished form and strategic planning was no match against a level way above them.
Chuunin-level versus plausibly jounin level.
It wasn't too difficult to guess who got trashed out and struck at certain parts of thebody with chakra of deadly dosage.
All that stood left to deal now was the bespectacled one.
"I will assume that you are from Konoha, seeing that Kakashi is in the team with you. But you wear no forehead protector of the leaf, who are you?"
"A person without past and future."
"Name!!!"
She refused to answer. And he was getting agitated.
He readied himself to fight. She walked backwards to put down the load and prop the boy against a tree. There lies a need to adopt a more serious state of mind.
She was ready. He flew and the first thing that she noticed was that he was aiming for certain vital chakra points on her body.
A medic-nin.
Speed was her defense, putting some distances between them was essential. There are many vulnerable areas in the body prone to minute attacks, areas that don't require too much effort to hit and cause severe damage, the body is inter-linked via networks and coils that maintains homogenous efficient levels. Damage to a sub-system can affect optimum performance of the body as a whole.
He was gunning after her respiratory system, at least from the looks of things.
"How long are we keeping up the cat and mouse chase?" Kabuto smirked.
"Enough to do this." A whisper caressed his ear and a direct hit into the cerebellum area was done.
"H-how?" He said, he never saw any seal done for duplicates. He paused. His motor system was wrecked; movements were now jerky and uncertain.
He was reminded of his fight with Tsunade for they both screwed with his muscular coordination but now, the added disadvantage lay in the fact that she managed to recreate a lesion effect in his cerebellum that has rendered him unable to move in a steady fashion. Problem of movemnt coordination was seen.
Kei was about to deliver another blow when she found her hand stopped.
Kabuto had figured out how to lessen the slow jerky effect of his movement and was now smirking. He struck a kunai towards her chest, she dodged but not fast enough. His death-like grip only allowed limited twisting of the body and the side was grazed. It was only meant as a distraction and he dropped the kunai before landing a solid blow to her heart.
Blood spurted and he released to watch her fall to the ground.
That hurt, she thought.
That twisted smile never left the arrogant face as he stood in front of her. He turned his back and looked at Sasuke who was audience to his face-off.
"You know something, I never quite liked you. You and your cocky attitude."
What irony.
"Haven't you learned from basic academy to never offer your opponent your back?" A sharp edge sits nicely upon the skin above his aorta.
"Impossible! How can you still move?!!"
"I can't die that easily."
He ducked, risking a graze upon his neck and had a kunai sunk into her hand.
She allowed it to happen.
The slender metal pierced through her palm and was dripping blooding in front of his face. She flinched slightly as she dragged it out, dropped the weapon and had her bloodied hand wipe his face.
She slapped into his face the reality of her situation. He watched as the wound healed by itself within miraculous time, she warned that she was not the average shinobi he deemed her to be.
Déjà vu feeling visited Sasuke as he recalled a similar ability in his face off with Naruto.
He refused to have his abilities belittled but the psychological upper hand was hers to manipulate, she dared him again and again to come close. She challenged his belief to test his limitations against her.
Against a wall of faltered disposition, he crouched and suddenly changed tactics. A swing of his legs kicks up a sand storm of distraction, she thought nothing at first until she realized that the sand was in the direction of the helpless audience sitting under the tree.
Sasuke could only stare helplessly as the sand blew in his way; the sounds of shuriken flew through the granules for his body.
The sound of metals sinking into soft flesh was heard.
Sasuke then found a hand covering his face, shielding him from inhaling any of the sand. When the cloud cleared, the hand fell away to reveal to him a standing figure with crimson hair.
He blinked his eyes for clarity.
His eyes shot opened at the state of his dark guardian.
Shurikens were embedded into her back and sides, blood flowed freely into the ground to dye it a dirty red. But the shock lay was what greeted him when the figure removed her hand from her own face.
She was crying red.
Author's note:
Hi everyone!
I realise that I am just no good at writing action scenes and so hope you guys will forgive me. Will work harder on it for the later chapters that require it. Otherwise do let me know how the story is to you all right?
Cheers!
Arte
Syllable: Glad that you enjoyed that chapter! Hopefuly my updates are to your satsfaction! :)
