Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any portion thereof, and make no claims on its copyright. However, all original characters and events are my own property.
Author's Notes: Well, new chapter posted at last. I'd like to apologize for taking so long, but the holidays have kept me away from the computer, so I haven't been able to work on this for a while. Hopefully that will change now. Anyway, here's the next chapter, continuing from the last. It's a good chapter I think, perhaps the best so far.
Thanks to all reviewers, and some answers:
Rock lee shroom: well, Ise's spear doesn't appear like anything special, but I would point out that though no character in Naruto has been seen to use one, spears were a traditional ninja weapon, and they were known for building some tricks into them.
Seravy: well, I suppose its not revealing anything to say that Kisame does indeed have a further role to play in this fic (as does his nemesis Akai) and I plan on revealing more about past events in Mist that may have shaped the whole Naruto world. I appreciate that you like the OCs, since this fic is only going to have brief encounters with the actual characters from the series.
Chapter 4- Burning FreedomYi awoke to darkness, and a cold, clammy, damp feeling. Her body ached with mild urgency, a sign she had slept in a bad position, but nothing serious. Yet the pain afflicting her body was nothing compared to the confusion afflicting her mind. In the darkness, with no signals to tell her where she was or how much time had passed Yi's mind blurred backwards into memory, calling up horrid visions of her father's words. For long moments in this dark world without time, the young ninja swam in memory and horror swept over her. The brutal words of her father, cold and merciless, crashed through her mind again and again. "You will be banished…banished…banished," a cruel echo within Yi's mind.
Tears streamed down her face until in desperation Yi slammed her hands down. They contacted hard stone with a painful jolt, and brought her back to sensation. "Calm down, calm down," she repeated to herself, a desperate mantra to build some focus in this empty region. She needed that focus, needed it to draw her thoughts away from the holes she could feel in her mind, the pieces of her memory that had been swept away, and the others that had been blocked from her, no longer her own, but someone else's property. "Come on Yi, you're a ninja, you can handle this. Focus, focus."
Slowly her breathing receded from the raggedness of panic to a more measured nervousness. She forced her mind to focus only on the present, a skill she had been taught in training, to maintain absolute awareness of the things around her. "Alright," Yi determined. "Step one: where am I?"
There was no light; the darkness surrounding her was absolute. She could feel stone all around her, walls behind her and beneath her knees. With this determined Yi was able to figure out her location. I am in a deprivation cell. The thought horrified her, but was also comforting. Her environment could not have been worse, no rooms within the compound were less accommodating than these, but at least she knew where she was. They were used for specialized types of training, a room surrounded on all sides by solid stone, the only entry a stone panel that slid into place from a hidden mechanism. There was only one way out of such cells, to find the false stone panel that hid the mechanism's lever. "I'll never find it in the dark," Yi sighed despondently. "I'm stuck here until my father hauls me out and sends me away."
With that thought Yi sank down to the stone floor, curling herself up against the wall, bringing her knees into her chest. For a long moment she sat there and cried, letting all vestiges of ninja control go. "It's not fair, not fair at all," She muttered incoherently into her knees. "I've done nothing wrong, and he sends me away, takes away my memory. Why father? Wasn't I good enough, didn't I work hard for you? Why are you doing this to me?"
Though she asked herself these questions as if they were a mystery, Yi already knew the answers, and as they welled up out of the darkness into the back of her mind her mood changed. I wasn't a good little tool, not a drone like you wanted father. Yi sneered, not voicing these thoughts, but reveling in her anger. You don't see me as your daughter; I'm just another tool to you, just a little carrier of the Mizuho who turned out to not be what you wanted. You don't love me, you never did. Yi's fists clenched, and she slammed them into the floor again in anger, holding them against the stone despite the pain. "Damn you!" she cried. "Damn you father! I won't take this! I don't accept this betrayal!" Yi's anger snapped like whipcord, and crystallized into something far more than emotion, something far more lasting and dangerous. "I hate you!" she screamed the words at the top of her lungs, rage boiling out of her.
Then there was light.
"W-w-what?" Yi gasped as the room was suddenly illuminated by a dim orange glow. Suddenly alert she tracked its source, only to realize it was coming from beneath her.
Looking down Yi discovered that her hands were burning.
Soft flames danced across her palms and fingers, glowing red and orange and yellow as they slowly released warmth and light.
Startled it took Yi a moment to realize what was happening. Mizuho. The stone is always covered in moisture here, and it reached my hands as I touched it, then I made it burn. She held up her hands in astonishment. But how? I made no seals, I didn't even think about molding chakra, it just happened. That's impossible.
Always before, when wielding the power of her bloodline Yi had used the curled hand seals to unlock the power, to mold her energy and ignite flame within the bounds of water itself. This time something different had happened, something she could not at first understand. Then awareness dawned on her, glowing like flame, and the young wielded of Mizuho smiled in glee. Anger.
With viscous happiness Yi called the image of her father into her mind, even as she looked into the flame on burning in her palms. Flare high and hot now, she commanded them.
The burning water roared, and flame soared high above Yi's face, scraping against the stone ceiling at its crest. As they flared she felt an onslaught of tremendous heat, and though it could not harm her, she knew the fire was terribly intense.
Swirling Yi brought the image of anger into her mind, focusing her power even as she made no seals.
As she willed it the water clinging to the stone walls burst into flame for an instant, and Yi laughed.
The flames flickered and died.
"What?" She was surprised again, for she had not wanted them to die. She ran her hands along the floor again, and then commanded them to re-ignite, channeling her still burning anger at her father.
Flames flared high for an instant, and then were gone.
"Curse it!" Yi spat. Still, she knew she needed light, so she curled her hands into the seal. "Mizuho," she whispered.
The water on her hands once again began to burn.
"It seems this new thing is not as easy as I thought," Yi sighed. Though she was hesitant, there was a realization dawning deep within her. I can command the Mizuho by force of will, somehow. Does my father know of this? Yi searched her memory desperately, seeking back to all the uses of Mizuho she had ever seen in the compound. Slowly she realized that though her father and the other Mizain could command burning water without using seals, none could ignite it that way. This secret is mine alone. A dark gleam of pride swelled within her for a long moment, and then was suddenly quenched.
"Father will take it from me," Yi spoke with grave sadness. "He will see this change, and he will find the knowledge. This will be my power only until he sees me when they open this cell." That her father would discover this new ability Yi was absolutely certain, Mizain Yuki had an uncanny knowledge of the powers and limits of all those who shared his blood. He was sure to detect a change in his daughter, especially one so drastic as this. "No!" she hissed with rage. "You will not have this, it is my power, I won't give it to you, not after this betrayal!"
He will take it anyway, the voice of reason told Yi softly. She knew that to be true, yet every part of her demanded that her father not learn of this, that she keep it from him as repayment for his betrayal by banishing her. Desperately she searched for a way.
Sitting there in a darkness lit only by the lurid flames of burning liquid, Yi looked about her prison and then conceived of a way. It was a desperate thing to do, likely foolish, but she no longer had anything to lose. "You have banished me father," She repeated. "But I will not be sent into exile by you and my relatives. I will escape!" She resolved with a burning swell of emotions.
Considering the option seriously, even as her emotions ebbed away, Yi discovered there was nothing wrong with the idea. She need not leave anything behind, she had not been changed from the ninja field gear she wore earlier that day, and surely her father would have sent her away with nothing else. She had no food or money, but that was not a problem for a ninja. Yi knew ways to the world beyond the hidden compound, even if she had rarely visited that world. They will not search hard for me, but will let me go, I know the woods as well as any of us; they could not search out all my hiding places. Yes, I will do this.
Resolved now, Yi found one major obstacle to overcome. I have to get out of this room. Where's the lever?
Guided by the light from her hands it took only moments to find the hidden panel. Yi put one hand on it, and then paused. My father would not have relied only on this to hold me. He would anticipate me finding light. She knew there must be a guard.
Thinking quickly Yi formulated a simple plan, one that relied on surprise, but she suspected she would have the surprise she needed.
With her left hand on the lever Yi reached down to the floor with her right, soaking it as deeply as she could in the dampness of the floor, getting water droplets all over her skin and making them burn.
She pulled the lever, and as the stone panel slid out of the way Yi flicked her right hand forward.
The fire of Mizuho is not a normal flame. Many ninja, seeing it for the first time believe it is simply flames made to burn atop water, as ignited oil may, but this is not Mizuho. The power is terrible for the reason that it makes water itself burn, water that retains all of its fluid nature even as it becomes terrifying flame. So when Yi flicked her hand toward the opposite wall beyond the panel she did not throw a ball of fire, but flicked drops of water that scattered outward and continued to burn.
"What?" A confused voice gasped, and as she lunged out from the deprivation cell Yi saw a head turn in the dim hallway to the opposite side of the hall. The ninja guarding her was distracted for a single moment. By the time he turned back to see Yi it was to late.
Linking her hands together Yi turned her body sideways, bringing her arms up as she did so. Her right elbow slammed upward, taking the other ninja, a boy she recognized as one of her many cousins, in the jaw. His head snapped back with a terrible crack, and then the back of his skull slammed hard into the wall. The noise it made was frightfully nauseating, and Yi felt her stomach clench instinctively. She watched carefully as her cousin slid down the wall, moaning softly. Quickly she reached in with two fingers to make sure he was still living. I don't want to hurt anyone, even if my father betrayed me, these ones did not, and they are my family.
Luckily her cousin did not appear seriously harmed beyond being unconscious.
Yi wasted no more time, but hurried silently down the hallway. She knew where she was now, and how to leave the compound.
Only one question remained. Where to flee to? Yi knew many hiding places throughout the forest, places the other Mizain rarely went, were she could easily avoid their notice. Which one to choose? A moment of indecision passed over her, and then Yi realized the perfect place. I need to practice with new ability. The lake.
"Lady Yi!" the sharp cry traveled a short distance through the lushness of rainforest vegetation, and then fell dead. There were no echoes in this land.
"Lady Yi!" Shiro tried again, screaming at the top of his lungs, but there came no answer. "It is hopeless," he muttered into his hands as he sat down on a gnarled stump. "She has gone."
In the rainforest the darkness of night is nearly absolute beneath the verdant canopy, so tracking is all but impossible. Sound is useless, for the forest is never silent, likewise scent was nearly impossible to use amid the endless mixture of tropical odors. To track someone here one needed a trail and an idea of the quarry's destination. Shiro had neither. "And still, I am far closer than any of the Mizain will be," he sighed emptily.
Shiro was technically part of the Mizain clan, but assuredly he was of the lesser part, the part that lacked Mizuho. His father's sister had married one of the true Mizain, and his family had lived with them in Mist. When the Mizain had fled during the purges, his father, severely injured the day before, had fled with them, taking his wife and children. Shiro had been born four years later, a child in a strange world where he had no true place. He was not a part of Mizain Yuki's grand vision, and as such was suitable only for menial tasks in the eyes of those who wielded Mizuho. For this he owed the family nothing, not even obedience, he did not need their protection, the outside world would welcome him well enough, indeed they might even have honored him for revealing the Mizuho's hiding place.
Yet Shiro would not betray them, Mizain Yuki had been very careful when allowing any of the un-blooded clan members to become ninja. He had measured them closely, and had chosen only those who would be loyal. Shiro had sworn oaths to the Mizain clan, and he would keep them. He valued his own honor, even if the rest of them did not value him.
But he would have given up anything to help Yi.
She had been his friend since they were both very young, one of several children in the compound close in age. Though she was a year his junior, Shiro had always been close to the youthful Mizain. She took a delight in life he found fascinating, for he found everything around him dull and empty. When she was around he felt more alive, and Yi spurred him to greater risks and endeavors. Her progress had pulled him along enough to become a ninja.
Now she had been banished. Shiro had wept in the darkness after hearing the pronouncement, not allowing anyone to see. A ninja could not cry, could not be clouded by emotion, and so he hid his tears, but he felt wrenched even so. Having looked into the future with Yi banished Shiro had seen nothing, and he knew now that there was no purpose to his life, perhaps had never been. I was only living through her; there is no reason for me to exist with her gone.
So he had sat in the darkness and done nothing, willing away his volition so that he could continue life as Mizain Yuki's servant, he didn't need most of himself to perform that task, and had resolved to let go of it instead of dwell on regrets. An unpleasant decision, perhaps, but with nothing to look forward to Shiro could not afford to look back. He would simply fade himself away, a shadow within the mist evaporating as the sun rose past him.
Then Yi had escaped. It had been unexpected, after her breakdown before her father, and with the mental jutsu added. No one could believe she had gathered the resolve to escape, to ambush the cousin guarding her and flee into the night with nothing but her ninja gear. That a Mizain should flee to the outside world had escaped everyone's mind, including that of Yuki, they had stayed hidden for so long.
Defiance such as this must be reckoned with. Yuki had special intentions for how to release Yi. He wished to direct her in a way so she found the Mist seekers as far from him as possible. Her blind running into the darkness would not be allowed, he would banish her on his terms only.
So the Mizain had mobilized to find their wayward daughter, but most had muttered that it was a waste. Yi had a lead of over an hour on any of them, and it was night in the rainforest. Tracking was all but impossible, and she could have fled in any direction. These were the excuses given, but there was also the silent one, which none would admit. She knows the forest better than us. The other ninja did not wish to say this of a fourteen-year-old girl, but it was in many cases true. Yi had wandered far in her brief hours of freedom, while others stayed close to the compound. She knew places in the woods where they would never find her.
Except Shiro knew them all as well. He had traveled with Yi often, on her excursions, the voice of reason and doubt. She always reprimanded him for saying they should go back, that they must travel no farther, but she had let him come, her silent minder. So he knew, he could not track her easily at night, but he had enough knowledge to guess places Yi might be. Yuki had sent out all the ninja, Shiro included, and so he searched. Half of him wished he could find Yi, wanted to bring her back to stay a part of his life, to give him a reason to exist, and the other half hoped he'd find nothing, that she would escape freely.
For now he was wandering east, looking for any place Yi might be hidden. He had passed a few of her haunts already, and found nothing. He was moving toward the edge of the forest now, to the savannah that followed. Most of the searchers had headed the other way, deeper into the woodland, toward the Rain Country some ways distant, assuming Yi would run in that direction. Shiro was certain she had traveled this way, though he was not certain why. Suddenly he stopped. He had reached a small opening, a place where a great tree had fallen not long ago, and could see the stars. Gazing at them Shiro realized it was long into the night. "I have been searching for three hours, and Yi has been gone for four." Dawn was coming, only a few hours distant, and Shiro decided his search was done. He was tired, and he would turn back here. There had been no success so far; it was unlikely he would succeed should he go long.
So he turned, his head swiveling from east to west, as he prepared to head back.
A flicker caught his eye.
A firefly? Shiro wondered, looking, but he did not see any of the insects.
The flicker came again, a dot of bright red at his vision. What? Shiro focused his gaze through the trees, trying to see as far as possible.
There, at the edge of his vision, where everything blurred together, the ninja saw a steady stream of color, appearing and then fading again, red and orange flashes.
Fire.
Lady Yi! He realized with such suddenness it drove the image from his body. What was in that direction? He searched his memory. The pond! They had not been there for a long time, but Shiro remembered it, a small pond surrounded by four great trees, their roots all covered with moss so that it filtered the water to be crystal clear and cold. They had tried swimming there once, and the cold water left them bedridden for days. Yi had seldom journeyed there in the past few years, and so Shiro wondered what she was doing now. Should she not have kept running? He wondered.
He knew that he must find out. His duty demanded it. He would approach Yi and demand that she return with him to the village. He felt a cold feeling in his gut as he made the decision, and a part of him hated himself for it, but there was no choice. What kind of a ninja would I be if I added one betrayal to another? I can only do my duty now.
Shiro moved silently through the vegetation, which grew thick here, so he could not get a good glimpse of Yi until the vines and brush cleared in the shadow of the great trees.
What he saw made him fall to his knees in astonishment.
Mizain Yi stood atop the still waters of the crystalline pond, and fire raged all about her. Long red and blue hair swept back and upward, carried by currents of heat to envelop her like a great cloak, her eyes burned solid red, all white gone from them, as heat glossed over everything before her. Yi raised a hand and a tower of burning, molten; water surged out from beneath her to rise to the height of the aged treetops.
In the past year Shiro had realized Yi was becoming beautiful, with a lithe figure and sharply lined, high boned face that gave her a strange, enticing grace even with her youth, but as she stood before him on the lake like that she appeared to Shiro as a goddess must, one with the elements and in command with them. Yet deep within him a voice he refused to acknowledge whispered something else; like a goddess, or a demon.
"Lady Yi!" He cried out from the shore of the pond, rising to his feet again and pulling down the black mask that covered his mouth.
Yi's composure was racked in shock, and her tower of burning water collapsed down to the surface of the pond with a splash, thankfully ceasing to burn before it blanketed everything nearby in wetness. "Shiro?" She asked in astonishment. "What are you doing here?"
Shiro grimaced, but spoke the truth, pain lacing his voice. "Your father has ordered you brought back to the compound. You cannot run off until his plans are completed."
"Demons take my father!" Yi shouted in his face, and fire rippled over the entire surface of the pond as she spoke. "He's betrayed me, sent me away. Well, he can't banish me. I'll escape!" She screamed the last to words with a child's spitefulness, but there was a deeper anger behind it, and it frightened Shiro.
"I am sorry to hear that Lady Yi," Shiro replied, his voice soft and sad, for he was truly sorry. Reaching behind his right shoulder he pulled out the short sword he habitually wore. It was indeed a ninja weapon, but one few Mizain wore, given their other powers, but Shiro bore the sword to signify he was truly a ninja, if one of a different kind than the other Mizain. "If you will not come back, then I must force you. Those are your father's orders."
Yi's face broke out in shock, and she shook her head rapidly. "No Shiro, don't, I'm not going back." Her face contorted. "Do you hear me, I'm not going back!" She spun around, and the flames rose high all about her, crawling up the dew on the tree trunks, only to wink away at the flick of her will. "You see Shiro, I'm not the same as before, my powers have awakened somehow, it's different, and this is mine. I won't let you take it from me. I'm not going back Shiro, you can't make me."
Shiro took the sword in both hands, his fingers solidly gripping the hilt, but his wrists loose, yet ready to clench hard when the moment came. His face turned to stone, even as tears poured out of his eyes, a stream of sorrow. "I have no choice, I must obey my lord, even against you, Lady Yi. Now, come back with me." He stepped forward, to the edge of the pond.
Yi raised a hand in from of him, her palm upward, a universal sign he should stop. "Don't come any closer Shiro, you know you can't beat me, not over water."
"I must still try," He took another step forward, and then another, stepping out onto the surface of the pond just as Yi was.
"Stop Shiro!" Yi pleaded.
He took another step forward.
Yi's hand clenched into a fist, and her red eyes burned within.
Shiro leapt upwards just in time, as a torrent of flame exploded from the water beneath him. His sword came up over his head, as he prepared to strike on his descent. "Your flames will not reach above the water." He told her.
"I'm not going back!" Yi screamed. Her hands came together suddenly, flashing through seals, even as all the surface of the pond burst into livid flames tall as a man.
Then Yi's right hand shot forward again, palm extended. "Crashing Spray no Jutsu!"
Water surged upward, a blinding torrent of power with the force of a waterfall. Yet the power was not what was shocking in the jutsu. The water was burning. Mizuho embraced the blast.
Shiro, not believing Yi would strike him in such a way, could not dodge, and could only hold back the scream of pain as it slammed into him.
The black garb of his night suit burst into flame instantly, and then was gone, nothing but ashes over his chest. Flames washed over Shiro, ravaging the surfaced of his skin even as explosive trauma threw him far backward through the air.
But the Mizuho is not so merciful as that. It was not a blast of fire, to slam into its target and wash over with burning fury, a single instant of destruction. Mizuho endowed, the crashing spray was still water, and it clung to Shiro's body, continuing to scourge his flesh all through his flight, until he slammed into the ground many meters distant and the his body rubbed away all the water as it skidded to a painful stop.
Yi stood stock still while it all happened.
Shiro's sword, spinning free through the air, struck a tree with an audible thunk.
Yi blinked. Then she screamed.
She screamed in anguish and pain and despair. She launched violent outbursts upwards until her throat went raw with pain. She saw what she had done in the maddening fires of her anger and was appalled. For the first time Yi glimpsed the true nature of her power, the thing that had been given life within her, and she felt its full weight descend upon her. Her discovery of the evening reversed itself from wondrous to horrifying within her mind, as she realized what she had awakened to become, an agent of death.
"What have I done?" She begged the sky. "What have I done?"
The only one she would have trusted to answer her had been destroyed by her powers. Yi turned and ran blindly to the east, knowing only that she had to get away; she had to get away now. There was absolutely no turning back from this act.
"She was here father," Mizain Yuki's oldest son spoke. "The marks of Mizuho use are clear on the ground, plants burned in patches."
"I see," Yuki replied. "Any sign of where she went?"
"No, bu-"
"Brother!" A voice, Yuki's sister, called. "I found the boy Shiro! He is terribly burned!"
"So it seemed he found her here then, and attempted to bring her back," Yuki reasoned. "I seems her strength enabled her to defeat him easily."
"Father, they were friends!" Yuki's son interjected.
"Friendship means little when desires conflict among ninja, son, remember this," Yuki replied solemnly. "Yi's desire to escape was apparently great, and this boy paid for trying to stop her. A pity he fell here, he proved more loyal than I would have expected."
"Brother, the boy is not dead!" Yuki's sister shouted.
"What?" Yuki turned in surprise. "He lives? After such a strike?"
"His body clings to life by the barest thread, my Lord," His sister answered. "The Mizuho is not always quick to kill, but he will die within hours, not even the strongest ninja medicine could save him. Should I end his torment?" It was a call for mercy, and there was no pleasantness in the voice.
Yuki considered for but a moment. This boy lacks Mizuho, but he has proven loyal to me, and he knows Yi well. Yuki looked at the scene of devastation around him, tracing the lines of where water had burned. My daughter has shown more power here than I believed she possessed. This boy's life has ended, but he might still be useful to me. "No," he told his sister. "Bring him."
"What? But he will die in hours at most, why prolong his torment?"
"He may still be useful to us," Yuki replied. "Now, do not question my orders, bring him."
"Yes my lord."