Author's Notes: My, I'm cruising through things now. I doubt it will continue like this, but for the moment, enjoy the next chapter. I'll leave Ise and Yi having just met and go back to mist again for a moment, with the second of the Interlude chapters. Though it might be a distraction from the main storyline, there's some very important stuff in here, and using Saki as the vehicle I will reveal a lot of the stuff that causes Ise to think the way he does, so it is important.
As an additional note, there is some very, very, dark and twisted stuff in this chapter. I caution, look at Mizukage's story very carefully, and understand that I do not share or advocate in any way his kind of views. The real world does not contain people born with tainted superpowers or anything of the kind, and this is meant to be entirely fiction.
Thanks to all reviewers and a few responses to encourage more:
Meggido: thanks for the dedication, I appreciate it, honestly.
EvilP: Yeah, I suppose the philosophy stuff has been a little heavy handed, and fair warning, there will be some more of it as things go on, but ultimately that's a lot of what this story is about. Also, I'm going to some length to emphasize this stuff very starkly simply to contrast it with the extraordinarily lovey-dovey philosophy of the actual Naruto (which I am extremely irritated with by this time) so some of it is my aggravation as an author slipping in.
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.
Interlude 2 – The Weight of the Past
Steel struck steel with that distinctive clang typical of battles everywhere. It was followed by a sliding, gnashing noise as metal ran against metal, sliding when it could not cut past.
The noise ended, broken apart beneath the nearly-silent shuffling of feet at great speed, then rang again, and again once more, repeating time after time. It was a hellish chorus, completely lacking in rhythm, for the moments of contact were utterly unpredictable, and their timing alien and otherworldly. It hurt the ears of anyone listening, and the mind ruthlessly tried and failed to make those moments conform to some sense of timing, the brain not accepting this maddening lack of pattern.
It was freakish, disturbing, a true shock to hear for the first time, but it was also hellishly impressive.
Each sound was indicative of an attack, a strike by the weapons of one ninja against another, blade to blade, poised with killing force and lethal intent. It was a strange chorus, accompanied by blurred visuals even the most trained eye had difficulty following, for the movements triggering these strikes were impossible to accept and categorize using normal expectations. This battle tore down preconceptions and broke asunder the possible in human motion. In many ways only half the battle was human, the part played by the other combatant was something very different, and far fiercer indeed.
Such was the combat between the Warlord Akai and his trainee Stomatoa Saki that Mizukage watched under the bright autumn sky.
Saki moved through the dunes a blur, never stopping, never predictable, her very nature propelling her in a way alien to humans, indeed to all mammals. Speed and strength uncanny for a ninja of her age and experience backed up her alien motion to transform her sequence of strikes into frightful snapshots of impossible angles and forces. Her weapons were strange devices strapped to the wrists, surrounding the hand in four sharp and deadly tines, turning the hand into a weapon upon all sides, but while her hands carried the stabbing and deadly metal weapons, the rest of her body was no less capable of striking with punishing force.
Akai opposed Saki holding his great waved-edged sword, a weapon fully taller than his young opponent by more than a foot. His own form dwarfed her equally so, and that blade flashed about with perfect practice and speed. Coursing through the air with the swift shifting edge of a living wave, it was able to cover every direction as he moved and to cut a man in two with a one-handed blow.
Neither held the advantage.
The Warlord was indeed able to do little more than defend, struggling to continuously block those impossible strikes, unable to predict them even with his now substantial experience with the style. The best he could do was force himself to forget all he knew of battling other men, and react only as the conditions presented themselves, for to anticipate the Stomatoa was to make a terrible mistake. He relied on the long years of training and battle to move his sword with the speed and strength necessary. Despite this, Saki repeatedly came close to landing a crippling strike, and Akai was not holding back, it took all his sword skill to keep pace with her.
Of course, it was clear to all participants and the observer that Akai was not truly fighting. His blade was not designed for such quick strikes as this, but to be used as a spinning monstrosity, cutting through all defenses, and the Warlord had not used any of his unbelievably destructive jutsus, so he was hamstrung for this battle. Regardless, it was something of a struggle for the Mizukage, watching the battle, to appear unsurprised.
Finally Saki came in low, and the Warlord, instead of blocking the strike, slammed the flat of his blade into the ground, hard enough to shock the soil for a moment, causing a single misstep. Saki reacted almost instantly, spinning into the air using her knees to launch her into a jump.
Akai could not have predicted the reaction, but he didn't need to, for he spun in a complete loop, taking the wide flat of his sword around with him, covering the whole airspace. Saki was thrown sprawling to the ground.
Lunging, the Warlord came down over the small girl, and pressed the edge of his blade to her throat. He only barely made it in time, even though he had started the move even before Saki had landed. The girl's hands were already under her, ready to spin out in one of the impossible, elbow propelled jumps she could use. "You're dead." Akai hissed.
Saki nodded, and stood up slowly. She was not even breathing hard, but evenly, and her perspiration was minimal. Instead, Akai noted her limbs were twitching, one of the eerie alien signs that she was tired, her differences from normal went beyond simply how she fought and moved.
"Consider carrying through the move unbalanced and simply slamming your opponent when you're blocked unconventionally like that, you might have been able to get inside my range and kick the sword away if you did that." Akai advised Saki. "Of course, you shouldn't do the same attack twice, even with variation, if you can help it, but that is the nature of these practice scenarios."
"Yes Warlord," Saki replied, her voice soft, but empty of feeling, clinical, and Akai knew she would indeed consider his advice, likely she would try the new approach the next time, and execute it in some unanticipated way that succeeded in not simply depriving him of one weapon, but inflicting a severe wound as well. This girl adapts with incredible speed, Akai had learned. Always improving, she has no limits built about her, and if she fails at something she simply attacks it with more and more furious effort until she inevitably succeeds. She would be dangerous regardless, but her rapid improvement is frightful in entirely another way. He looked down at her, noting again the strange blue-purple discolorations at some points on her skin. She says they are not bruises, and I've checked, but what is happening with her skin? It was a puzzle Akai intended to solve, for it was clear something was happening to Saki, something her family had resisted telling him. Perhaps Mizukage can persuade them. That was part of the reason why he'd asked his lord to observe this match, beyond simply showcasing Saki's progress. She was at a critical stage, her peak rate of improvement, and Akai wished Mizukage to observe before she leveled off.
"We are done for the day here," Akai told Saki. "But before you go, Mizukage would like to speak with you."
"Yes Warlord," the same toneless answer as before, the emptiness Akai was certain was only partly inherent. There is still a young girl somewhere in her; I must make certain it does not reemerge at the wrong time. The Mantis Shrimp is the weapon, not the human.
Akai sheathed his massive blade and departed, silently wishing Mizukage luck in probing the shielded and inscrutable confines of the Stomatoa mind.
"You are not too tired I presume?" Mizukage asked Saki, standing up and walking toward her.
"No, Mizukage," Saki answered simply. "I am accustomed to such training."
"Indeed," he looked at her darkly. "I hear you fight Akai every day."
"Yes, unless his duties forbid it, and one of the others of the Seven as well, so long as they are not all on missions," Saki's voice never changed, though hundreds of ninja in many countries would have found it impossible to believe her statement.
Mizukage took it in stride. "Seven," he scowled. The Mizukage of Mist did not have a pleasant face, it was marred by a raw lightning burn scar over his mouth and the left side of his chin, a ragged white mark appearing as a slash across his face, and his eyes held a constant, tormented agony, the eyes of a man who has seen and done things no man should. When he scowled few could meet his gaze, but Saki, whose face was harmless and young, though toned from long training, seemed to look through and past all that, weighing it as if human concerns meant nothing to her. "Seven," he repeated. "It is funny we still say that, it is not Seven anymore. Five now, since I set aside my place among them to make room for the boy Zabusa, since the Kage should not be part of such a thing. He left, and Kisame as well, two of my mistakes, held still in that number, seven, ha." He looked to Saki to see what she thought, but though the girl was paying attention, she appeared to have no reaction at all. "Come with me back to me office, I cannot spare the time here, but we will talk on the way."
"As you wish."
Akai was right, Mizukage thought, this girl is something else in every way, but does that make her flawed? Or perfect? It was a conundrum they would not solve until the test came, and then might be too late. We must try to learn what we can now, such is the fruitless task of those who lead ninja, to try and predict the future.
They walked silently for a moment, another oddity for Mizukage. Never before, upon meeting a young ninja one-on-one for the first time, had they failed to ask him something, some inevitably random thing. Saki volunteered nothing, so he began the conversation himself. "I was impressed by your display today. Rarely could anyone even twice your age match so closely against Akai."
"I have trained to use my abilities to their fullest," Saki answered. "Do not all ninja strive to maximize their skill?"
"Yes, most at least, though rarely with such…dedication as you display, and many have talents well below your own," Mizukage replied, slightly amused by her earnest honesty.
"I am what my father made me," Saki remarked, her tone not changing, but the comment revealing much.
At last, a clue, Mizukage thought, recognizing the importance of this statement. He would ask Akai about it later, but already it provided him a key insight to Saki's hidden true psyche, and he actually felt somewhat sympathetic for her. Still, no matter how horrible, I will not shrink from destroying whatever humanity you have girl. You are a weapon, and I will use you to the utmost. Such are the burdens I inherited. In response he said. "The past has a great influence on us all?"
"The past?" Saki looked up at him. "The past is something…troubling to me. I do not understand our history very well. It makes…little sense to me." Those slight pauses in Saki's speech, so very uncharacteristic of her, told Mizukage almost as much as her words.
"If you have some questions, ask me now, I bear much of the responsibility for the past here," such are my burdens, my sins, and the price I pay, he remembered, sadly, but without regret.
"The Warlord said you changed the world, Mizukage. I would understand how that happened," not truly a question, it was likely as close as Saki would come to one.
"Changed the world, heh," Mizukage chuckled, a chuckle laced with sadness and old wounds. "Akai has developed a greater flair for drama than I remembered, but yes, I suppose I did change the world in a way, at least, our world, the ninja world." He sighed. "Yes, changed the world, a little, not a much as I should have, but perhaps it was enough."
"I do not understand," Saki told him, interrupting the dark musings.
Mizukage stopped then, standing there among the dunes. He made a decision then, regarding the importance of this strange girl, whose mind seemed as impossibly different as her body. I will take the time I must for this. Other business can wait. He sat down in the sand of the dunes and motioned for Saki to sit as well, which she did, in that strange and awkward position her altered muscles forced her to adopt.
"You are aware, I assume, that you are asking about a very dark chapter of the history of this country, and other countries as well, but it began here?" He asked, assessing her certainty, her awareness of this troubling subject. "Of what happened twenty years ago, when I became Mizukage? Of the purges?"
Saki only nodded.
"Aaah," Mizukage sighed. "So I thought," his face grew terribly grim. "It is not a pleasant thing to recall, the things of that time, and most people, knowing what they do of them, fear me, and others such as Akai. We are marked because of those terrible days, and rightly so, for we are dammed because of it."
Saki said nothing.
"Akai has told you something of the world of the ninja before my time I know," Mizukage continued. "Of a world where those who bore bloodlines were the only rulers and all others were as dust beneath them."
She nodded again.
"Good, then you will understand that the situation could not continue, it would have to change in time, for it could not be sustained, but the bonds of loyalty, holding men such as Akai back from the unacceptable treason of rebellion kept the system sustained for far too long. It took a catalyst to bring it down, an opportunity that would bring all the grievances forth," Mizukage looked deep into Saki's eyes, trying to bore into her being, but finding nothing but empty vision, a blur of color. He blinked and moved on, voice low, serious. "I was that catalyst. Realize that if not me, it would have been another, somewhere, in some village, it was inevitable, the bloodlines created it, brought it out. Still, I was the cause, and the blame for what follows lies upon my soul."
"You likely know, Saki, that in this village, candidates for Kage are chosen by right of battle. That any jounin may compete to be the leader of the village when the time comes. Perhaps it is not the best system, but I believe the ninja know who is a suitable choice, and the choice of candidates is thus controlled. Yet, in the world dominated by bloodlines, only they emerged as candidates for the position of Kage, no others could hope to compete against them, and anyone who even seemed capable would be sent on suicide missions so they had no chance."
"When the old Kage died, twenty years ago, I was still a relatively young jounin, and though I was strong, I was not the strongest. I had not even considered challenging for Kage, until Akai came to me and explained that none but those who bore bloodlines were training for it. He, and others, told me that we were all doomed should another bloodline bearer become Kage, and they were right, there is nothing more true than that. It was not my idea at first, but I wondered how any of us who had no bloodline could beat them. It would take something no one else knew, a technique of great power and novelty, something no one else could match.
Somehow, Akai or someone else convinced me to derive such a technique, and I succeeded in it. I succeeded, and entered as a challenger. The bloodlines tried to forbid it of course, and it came to blows even then," Mizukage paused. "The first casualty of the purges was not even a bloodline, but an un-blooded chuunin member of one of their clans, who tried to kill me as I entered the arena. The second was the man I killed to become Mizukage."
"Know well, that though I inherited and accept the sins I bear for the purges, for what was done, it was not I who started it. Other villages claim I led a 'rebellion.' That is a flat lie," he spat. "I became Mizukage by right; it was the bloodlines that rebelled, refusing to acknowledge it, claiming I cheated. Treachery has only one solution, death, among ninja, that is the only way. They were the traitors, an en masse rebellion by almost all members of the bloodlines, and many of those who foolishly supported them. What followed has become known as the purges, for it was the bloodlines who were purged, but in the beginning they intended to destroy me and all who accepted my victory."
"The battles that followed were brutal, terrible, Mist ninja versus Mist ninja, over our own land, in our own village, with no innocents on the side. Those who fought with me faired poorly at first, for we could not rally many to our side, until Akai conceived of the seven swordsmen, and I made the devil's bargain, sparing the Hoshigake so Kisame stood with us, and his family survived. The seven best swordsmen in Mist, you have met them all, save Kisame the Great Traitor, and Yashimoto, who died when you were an infant. We rallied all those who had suffered under the bloodlines, and tore through them, sparing none who bore a bloodline beyond those families who had acknowledged my victory, and those like the Mizain who fled beyond our reach."
"It was a bloody time, and I did things for which I will not be forgiven, for the battle was won long before the purges were stopped. Such was the choice I made, mine and mine alone, to pursue the matter until as many of the bloodlines were dead as possible, genin lost and leaderless, and more, even young children and infants, all who bore the bloodline powers, all who might become ninja some day. We exterminated them, killed them all, offering no mercy and no quarter, until all had vanished from our scope. I have all that blood upon my soul, for I took those lives myself with my sword, or using others as my weapon, but still it was my choice."
"But I was not wrong!" Mizukage's voice rose now, losing its sadness, and filled with a fiery resolve. "I am dammed, but I do not regret the decision. I do not, indeed, I regret only not going far enough, allowing the purges to spread of their own accord to other countries, but not insuring their success there, not hunting down well enough those who had fled, and making bargains with those bloodlines I could not destroy. I completed it to the best of my resolve, but when all the enemies were gone we could not maintain the bloodlust, and so it was not completed. Still, even as it was the world was changed. The back of the bloodlines was broken, their strength seeped away, never to reach great heights again in the ninja villages, and indeed most have fallen in strength and numbers since. It had to be done, and though innocents died, it bettered the world, bettered the ninja, it was necessary! Bloodlines are not a blessing, they are a crutch, a weakness that bring the ninja to rest on inborn talents that rip away humanity and replace it with power not your own. It is not right that they should be, and so they must be destroyed, for those who bear the power of bloodlines cannot be considered truly human, they are something else, something tainted by powers from beyond this world. So I purged them, cut away the tumor as much as I could reach, and I pray that it will simply die back and fade now, and not reemerge, but if it does I'll cut it away again. I will bear those sins, black is my blood and dammed is my soul, but if that is required of me to serve this country and those ninja in my care, then I will do so. Do you understand?"
"Entirely," Saki whispered, and Mizukage, looking at her again for the first time in much of his terrible story, saw that yes, she did indeed understand, there was something in her that knew what a loss it was to bear a bloodline. After all, he thought, this girl bears no bloodline power, but in her the transformation has been if anything more complete and deliberate than almost any bloodline. It is good that she retains enough to understand, perhaps that is just enough.
"I am sorry to have taken so much of your time with this viscous story, but you should know just what I have done. I will not hide my sins, I have dammed myself to bring about a better future, and there is no justification for what I have done, no forgiveness, but I did it anyway, because it had to be done. I hope you never come to find yourself making the same choice, but if you do, you must make it, for we, as ninja, are the only ones who can." Mizukage stood. "Now come, we must hurry back to the village. I wonder, how fast can you run?"
"Fast," Saki replied, and the informal race was on.